The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-28
A CINCINNATI HORROR.
Friehtful Loss OF Life at . Cincinnati Fire
A Young Hero Among the Victims
NArnas nf the Dead.

A Young Hero Among the Victims
Names of the Dead.
CINCINNATI, o., May e2-This city has
had its share of shocking disasters, but
never has one happened where such q
pitiful loss of life occurred as that of yes
terdsy, and where, with so little occasion,
in less than fifteen minutes sixteen or sew
enteen persons have perished. At half
past one o'clock }. 4. Green, city editor OF
the TiHleS-Stdr, upon going up the stairway
to his Office, saw dense clouds of smoke is
suing from the windows of the building
Nos. 19 and 81 West Sixth street, and i'm
mediately telephoned to the fire depart
ment. AE alarm brought the engines Il
most instantly, and as the firemeA could
reach the building from the front and rear.
ii was not fifteen minutes before the
lire was under control. 1t was at first
thought that only five women who had
jumped from the ffth-stOry windows had
been killed, but when the fire had been
subdued so that firemen could enter ten
dead bodies lying on the fifth floor and one
on the fourth were found. One man. after
saving :he lives of two women by letting
them down by rope held on tie roof. was
nimself killed by the burning of the same
rope
BEFORE HE REACHED THE GROUND.
This was Mr. Sullivan. cousin of the pro-
prietor of the printing works. Mary Been
tum, aged seventeen, leaped from the fifth
story, and Charles Br0am made an effort to
catch her, but the force was too great. and
she was dashed on the pavement at his feet
4 shapelesS corpse. Chief Engineer Wes-
ley, the first to reach the fifth or top floor,
found ten dead bodies lying with their
hands TO their faces. blackened in DEATH
They lay upon benches, tables and other
things, and some on the floor. Their cloth
ing was not burned, but the skin oil the
backs of their hands was scorched. at
was terrible sght-the worst | ever saw
in my experience" said the Chief after his
visit The girls lay where they had fallen
in wild and helpless despair" 1t has now
been fairly ascertained that the fire started
from can of benzine on the second floor
near the elevator. A boy OH that floor saws
he heard a report and instantly fire leaped
to the elevator shaft and dartcd up it. The
shaft reaches TO the top of the building and
from the third story 20 the fifth was reached
y,
means of access to those floors The eleva-
tor shaft, to add to its combustibility, was
encased in thin wooden lattice work. The
second floor where the fire started was the
press room; the third the COMPOSING room;
the fourth storage and waste room, and
the fifth the folding room. As soon as the
Gre started John Sullivan, young man,
cousin of the proprietor, ran up the stair
way to the fifth floor to give warning to the
girls. Instantly almost he found that he
was too late to get them down the stairway
and that his own retreat was cut off. What
he did for the frightened girls could only be
told by the glimpses that could be seen of
him. at the smoking window whence four of
the girls had already leaped to their death.
J. Il. kinSley's son and his foreman had
zone to the roof of their building adjoining
IN the west and knowing that the
GIRLS wEEE IMPRISONED
III the floor below, they procured a rope and |
owered it to the window where Sullivan |
vas. He instantly grasped it and fasten- |
ng one of the girls To- it, helped her out of |
he window, and KinSley and Shrader |
Uwered her safely to the sidewalk. The |
ope was brought up, and Sullivan again
quickly fastened on another girl and sent
ler down safely. The rope came a third
lme, and as the other girls by this time
we're all suffocatei, or were afraid TO ven
ure, Sullivan fastened the rope to his own
,Ody and was being lowered, when, as he
vas half way down, the flames shot out of
window and he fell headfOremOSt to the
idewalk in the presence of Mortified
rOwd OF people who had witnessed his
eroism. When the girls were jumping
rom the window large cOlOred man heroic
lily tried to catch them and so break the
orce of the fall. lie nearly lost his
wn life in the attempt. Within
ell minutes after the fire began the
arol wagons We're called into use to carry
way the wounded and killed. As well rs
an be aScertained there were about fifty
ccupants of the building, of whom twenty
+ twenty-five were girls in the fifth story.
NE hovS were on th" second and third
oors and this accounts for their escape.
he scenes at Habig's undertaking estab-
shment, where the dead bodies were taken
nd where friends and relatives came to
Ientify them, were of the most painful
Iaracter.
NAMES OF THE DEAD AND INJURED.
The fatal list as now made up is: Anna
'ell. aged fOrty-eight, wife of David p.
'cll, 26 Locust street; DOllie and Lizzie
landel twin sisters, twenty years, 713 Scott ,
rect, Covington; Fannie Jones, twenty :
vO years, Liberty and Freeman streets; :
leila, Katie and Mary Leaban, sisters, aged
sixteen and fourteen, respect :
-ely. 200 Sixth street; Katie Lowrey, ,
yenty years, Newport; Lizzie Meier, six
,en years, 245 Broadway; Annie Mcintyre,
yenty years, 30 East Sixth street: Fannie
Orton, thirty-fOur years; Katie and Mary
utnam, sisters, aged twenty-five and nine-
zen, respectively; John Sullivan, twenty
yO years, 395 Broadway; Lille Wynn,
venty years. SIS East Fifth street. The i'll n
ired are: viii Bishop, printer, twenty a
lree years 203 Fifth street, Covington, r
-IIshed and burned, will probably die; Josie il
awkes. broken leg: Emma Pinchback, q
ovington, Union Square, will probably o
e; Mamie Sheppard. head badly cut; a
arris StrOut. Already preparations are in L
rOgreSS for the relief of the families of the :
ctims, most of whom were the support of {
1peudeut parents. I,