The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-05-29
4 CINCINNATI, HORROR.

FrigAtfal Loss OF Life ut . Cincinnati Fire
A Young Hero Among the Victims
| Names Of the Dead.
CINCINNATI. O., May 22-This city has
had its share of shocking disasters, but
never has one happened where such .
pitiful loss of life occurred as that of yes
terday, and where, with so little occasion,
in less than fifteen minutes sixteen or sew
enteen persons have persisted. At half
past ore o'clock }. A. Green, city editor Of
the Times-Star. upon going up the stairway
to his office, saw dense clouds Of smoke is
suing from the windows of the building
Nos. 10 and 81 West Sixth street. and i'm
mediately telephoned to the fire depart
ment. Az alarm brought the engines ol-
most Instantly, and IS the firemen could
reach the building. from the front and rear.
it was not fifteen minutes before the
ire was under control. 1t was at first
thought that only five women who had
jumped from the fifth-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 ono
on the fourth were found. One man, after
saving the lives Of two women by letting
hem down by rope held on the roof. was
himself killed by the burning of the same
rope
EEFoIE 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 BrG2m made an effort to
catch her, but the force was too great, and
she was dashed OH the pavement at his feet
. shapeless corpse. Chief Engineer Yves
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 on the
backs Of their hands was scorched. at
was terrible sight-the worst l 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 sscertained that the fire started
from can of benzine on tho second floor
near the elevator. A boy Oh that floor says
he heard 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
by wooden stairway, which was the only
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
iro 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 no |
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 tile giinipses that could DO seen Of |
him at the smoking window whence four Of |
the girls had already leaped to their death. |
J. X. Kinsiey's son and his foreman had
gone to the roof of their building adjoining
on the west and knowing that the
GIRLS WE'RE IMPRISONED
on the floor below, they procured rope and |
lowered it to the window where Sullivan
was. He instantly grasped it and, fasten-
ing one Of the girls to it, helped her out of
the window, and Kinsley and Shrader
lowered her safely to the sidewalk The
rope was brought up. and Sullivan again
quickly.fasten on another girl and sent
her down safely. The rope came a third
time, and as the other girls by this time
were all srlfOcated, or we're afraid to VEN
ture, Sullivan fastened the rope to his own
body and was being lowered, when, as he
was half way down, the flames shot out OF
A window and he fell headfOremOst to the
sidewalk in the presence of Mortified
,rowd Of people who had witnessed his
heroism. When the girls were jumping
rom the window large colored man heroic.
lilly tried to catch them and SO break the
force of the fall. He nearly lost his
,wn life in the attempt Within
.en minutes after the fire began the
patrol wagons were called into use to carry
away the wounded and killed As well rs
IAN be ascertained there were about fifty
occupants of the building, of whom twenty
,r twenty-five were girls in the fifth story.
The bows were on the second and third
loors and this accounts for their escape.
The scenes at Habig's undertaking estab-
where the dead bodies were taken
md where friends and relatives came to ,
IDENTIFY them, were of the most painful
haracter.
NAMES OF TIE DEAD AND INJURED.
The fatal list as now made up is: Anna !
Bell. aged forty-eight, wife of David p. ,
Bell, 26 Locust street; Dollie and Lizzie
Handel twin sisters, twenty years, 713 Scott ,
treet, Covington; Fannie Jones, twenty e
wo years, Liberty and Freeman streets; I
)elia, Katie and Mary Leaban, sisters, aged c
sixteen and fourteen, respect :
vely, eos Sixth street; Katie Lowrey, d
wenty years, Newport; Lizzie Meier, six
cen years, 245 Broadway; Annie Mcintyre,
wenty years, 80 East Sixth street; Fannie
iort0n, thirty-four years; Katie and Mary ,
'utnam, sisters, aged twenty-five and nine
Zen, respectively; John Sullivan, twenty
wO years, S95 Broadway; Lille Wynn,
wenty years, SS East Fifth street. The in n
lred are: VIII Bishop, printer, twenty "A
hree years., POS Fifth street, Covmgton, RI
rushed and burned, will probably die: Josie il
hawkes.. broken leg; Emma Pinchback, a
ovington, Union Square, will probably o
lie; Mamie Sheppard, head badly cut; a
[arris Strout. Already preparations are in ii
rogresS for the relief of the families of the $,
ictims, most of whom were the support of
ependent parents. Il