St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-01-12
Shocking Hotel Catastrophe.
A Milwaukee Hotel Burned
and Fifty or Sixty Lives Lost.

The Newhall house, a six-stOry brick
building in Milwaukee, Wis, was
burned on Wednesday forenoon. The
fire was discovered at four o'clock in
the morning. In less than half an
hour the whole building, long designat-
ed as a death trap, was enveloped in
flames. Scenes of the utmost terror
prevailed. The inmates jumped by
dozens from the upper stories to the
stone sidewalks with lifeless bodies.
The shrieks of the unfortunates filed
the air. The people below were una
BILE to render any aid. Quite a number
of the terrified guests and employees of
the hotel appeared at the windows,
and, seeing the distance to the ground,
fell back to perish in the flames. The
employees of the hotel, which accom-
mOdated three hundred guests, num-
bered eighty-siX and mostly lodged in
the sixth story. Their exit by way of
the roof was cut off by fire, and two
standpipes with fire ladders were not
available, for the same reason. A very
few were saved by jumping on canvas.
About a week ago the secretary of
the local board of underwriters was ap-
piled to to make rate on the building
that the local agencies might take the
risks. The building was considered IA
death trap, and the risks were refused.
The Tom Thumb company and the
Madison Square company are all safe
as far as learned.
The scenes ut the morgue, where
thirty-two bodies were lying in a
CHASTITY heap on the floor in a small
room, were heartrending beyond de-
scriptiOn. A strong police force was
necessary to keep the anxious inquir-
ers in line. Nineteen bodies were
identified. Eight bodies were beyond
recognition.
The fire department called for assist
ance from the soldiers home, but Gen.
Sharp refused to send their steamer, at
which the Indignation was great.
The tiremen made superhuman eff
forts. Eleven waiter girls were brought
safely across frail ladders, stretched
over an alley from the sixth story OF
the hotel to the roof of an adjoining
bank building. About IA dozen unfor-
tunates attempted to jump, but were
rebounded by telegraph wires, a per
feet mass of which surrounded the two
| fronts of the building.
Comparatively few guests were III
the hotel. The hotel register is burned
and no exact loss of life can be deter
mined, but it will reach fifty or sixty
dead, and twenty or thirty wounded
So far twenty-three bodies have been
placed in the morgue, and nine more
are at places near the ruins. Identiti-
cation is slow. Among those known
to have been in the hotel were the Tom
Thumb party.
Mrs. John Gilbert, of the Minnie
| Palmer troupe, who was married only
two days ago, was burned to death III
sight of the multitude.
| Tom Thumb escaped by the front en-
trance, and his wife was saved by fire.
men through the fire escape, as were
also w. II. Thompson, Messrs. Herbert
and Dunlap, w. q. Lavelle and Others
of the Madison Square company, who
arrived at midnight. They were only
partially dressed.
The total value of the Newhall
house, with furniture, was 1877 900,
and the total loss of the fire is said to
be S500,000.
| VIM. L. Cramer of the Evening
/ Wisconsin was saved through the he
roic efforts of Charles Crossing, a Sen
/ tinel typo. Chief Clerk Tice, who had
ii narrow escape, says 10 bOarders
and 90 employees were i'll the hotel
SO far fifty-SiX are unaccOunted for.