Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-01-19

realize their danger and they were
the ones who perished. The attendants
lost all their personal effects and
many narrowly escaped with their lives,
one of them having tied oed clothes
together to escape. There were no facii-
ties for putting out the fire, the State not
having made any appropriation. The build
ing was a new one, and cost about $4,000
1t is a total wreck. The following per,
ished:
HENRY BROWN, Rock Island.
H. BELDEN, Galesburg
GEORGE BENNETT, Morris.
JOSEPH COLBERT, Chicago.
ORLANDO ELLIS, Porticas.
wv. GALLOWAY, Macon.
THOS. HICKEY, Springfield.
MATTHEW H0GUE, Chebanz.
T. HACHNER. Stevenson county.
THOS. HEREBY, Chicago
JOHN JOHNSON, Vermilion.
MICHAEL. JORDAN, Chicago.
J. NATHAN, Chicago.
A. RUNYARD, Winnebargo county.
c. STROTZ, Chicago.
j. W. TYLER. Chicago.
T. WEYM0UT, Putnam county.
ThOs. Hereby was a son of State Senator
Hereby.
The building was a twoStory stone and
brick with no wood about it except the
floors and stairways. 1t was not completed
ill last August. 1t was used as an in6rm-
ary with forty-fVe insane inmates, twenty
three on the first floor and twenty-five on
the second. Attendants Brown, Rose and
wife were sleepivg on the second floor, and
attendants Reid, Williams and Fireman
LaBarge slept on the frst floor. The
building was heated by hot air furnaces.
1t was u degrees below zero when the
watchman, named Cabb,
Discovered smoke
issuing from the floor Immediately above
the furnace lie woke the attendants. The
smoke at once became drawn through air
Rues and along the halls and stairways to
all parts of the building. The FIRE spread
so rapidly that all efforts to save the building
in the absence of fire alarm to summon
help, and for want of facilities to quench
the flames, were found to be in vain. At
tendsnt W. A. Reid began dragging and
carrying out the patients.
Many Patients
clad in their night clothing only, rushed
from the bitter cold air back into the build
ing. Reid, at the risk of his own life,
struggled on until twenty-one of his twenty
three patients were rescued, when he be
came exhausted and was carried away. On
the second floor Attendants Rose and wife
hesld the alarm and escaped down the
stairway Just as it fell. Attendant Brown,
sleeping on the same floor was awakened
BY the smoke and attempted to save a
patient in an adjoining room and
failed, and sliding down BY means
of sheet from his window
Jumped to the ground. Superintendent
K. S. Dewey reached the scene, snC with
ladders climbed to the second-story window,
smashed the windows, and was able to
rescue some patients thereby. Almost all
the vstiepts refused to cooperate in the
efforts being made to save them, and we're
only rescued by being dragged from the
flames and forcibly prevented from return
ing.
A Marvellous Escape
was that of an inmate who fell with the
second floor. strcck the burning debris
above the furnace and bounded through
! the window TO the ground nninjured.
The remains of the bodies of twelve
patients have been taken from the ruins
burned to fragments, only to be identified
hv the location in which they we're found.
| The dead thus identified, with their ages and
residence, were recorded at the coroner in,
quest this afternoon.
Superintendent Dewey testified he had
| asked heLegislature two years-tor -, 800
| 10 protect the detached wards from tre.
| That 81 900 was allowed, all of which was
! usedin mains and hydrsnts; that the amount
was Insufficient to answer the purpose. He
| suggested that on the floors above, the hot
air furnaces be changed, it being shown In
| the evidence that it was but four inches
from tho outside, and ten inches
I from TIE inside furnace to the pine joists
/ He gave two reasons for The great number
of deaths. First the patients were almost
/ sufFcateo By the smoke before they could
be reached, and second the inability or un
I willingness of insane patients to try anC
help themselves. The remains OF th'
bodies with one exception, did not aggregate
each but little more than
A Handful
of charred ashes. The entire remains o
ten of the victims were spread on smal
table two feet square. Friends are arriyIni
in search Of relatives. The scene on thei
arrival and view Of the remains is nece:
sarily very heartrending. kilograms ar
pooring in from ali parts Of the Stat
from parties asking as to the satet
Of their friends. among the l,5O
inmates Of the hospital The CoroneE
iury adjourned until tomorrow afternoon
, The fact that there is no general ire alari
between the various buildings OF the hoi
pital or any system of water works to pr
tect life and property there, accounts larg
" for the very large loss Of life.
Incidents.
INV. Belden, aged so. Of Galesbur
one Of the victims. snd the only Que who
remains preserved even the semblance OF