The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-05-29
THE CINCINNATI. HORROR.


Great Loss of Life in Burning Printing
Establishmens-Four Girls and One Man
Leap to Death from the Fifth Story
Ten Female Employees, Imprif oned by
the Flames, are Suffocated-Four other
Persons Badly Injured.
CINCINNATI, O., May 22.-At 1:S0 yes
terday afternoon fire was discovered in Sui
livan's fve-story printing establishment on
West Sixth street. A quarter of an hour
later fifteen persons had either been dashed
to pieces by leaping from the windows to
the sidewalk or were suffocated in the
building. The flames were discovered by
Mr.. j. A. Green, city editor of the
1fnaes-Star, who, on going up the stair
way to his Office, saw dense clouds of
smoke issuing from the rear windows of
the building 10 and 81 West Sixth street.
and Immediately telephoned to the fire de-
partment. An alarm brought the engines
almost instantly. and, as the firemen could
reach the building from the front and rear,
it was not fifteen minutes until the flames
were SO much under control that Chief En-
gineer Wisely was able to reach the top
floor. He was too late torescue the girls en-
ployed there, however, and to his horror
found ten dead bodies, the victims hands
covering their faces, which were blackened
and distorted in death. The ten girls were
lying upon benches, tables and other things,
and some on the floor Their clothing was
not burned, but the skin ON the backs of
their hands was scorched. The girls lay
where they had fallen in their wild and
helpless despair.
1t has been aScertained that the fire
started from can of benzine on the second
floor, near the elevator shaft. A boy on
that floor says he heard report, and
that instantly the fire leaped to the
elevator shaft and darted up. The shaft
reaches to the top of the building and
from the third story to the fifth it
was encircled by wooden stairway, which
was the only means of access to those
floors The elevator shaft to add to its
cOmbustibility, was encased with 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 was
the foldingroom.
As soon as the fire started John Sullivan,
a young cousin of the proprietor, ran up the
stairway to the fifth floor to give warning
to the girls. He found 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 to be seen
Of him through the smoking windows
whence some of the girls had already
leaped to death. j. r. Kinsley's son
and his foreman had gone to their FOOT, adj.
joining this one, and knowing the girls
were imprisoned on the floor below they
procured rope and lowered it to the win
dow where Sullivan was. He instantly
grasped it, and fastening one of the girls to
it helped her out of the window. KinsIey
and Shredder lowered her safely to the
sidewalk. The rope was brought back,
and Sullivan quickly fastened it to an
other girl and sent her down safely Again
the rope came up, but, as the other girls by
this time were all either Sutfocated or
afraid to venture, Sullivan fastened the
rope to his own body ard the two men on
The roof began to lower him. AS he was
half way down the flames shot out of the
window and he fell headforemost to the
sidewalk, in the presence Of the Mortified
crowd of people who had witnessed his
heroism.
When the girls were jumping from the
windows a large colored man heroically
GllCO W CdGVu bI0ul dllu UI6dk tuG lOIC0 Oh
the fall. He nearly lost his own life in the
attempt.
Within ten minutes after the fire began,
the patrol wagons were called into use to
carry away the wounded and dead. AS well
as can be ascertained. there were about fifty
occupants of the building, and of these
twenty or twenty-five were girls on the fifth
story. The boys were on the second and
third fnnr9 Or,rtc foY I,oir
cape. All agree that the spread of the
flames was almost instantaneous.
Mr.. Sullivan estimates his loss at Sc, 900
to $4,000, with ample insurance. The loss
to the building is slight.
The scenes at Habigs undertaking estab-
lishment, where the bodies were taken and
where friends and relatives came to identify
them, were of the most painful character
A policeman of Covington, KY, identified
his sisters, Lizzie and Dollie Handel, who
were twins. Mrs. Meier found the body of
her daughter, and had to be led away from
the terrible sight Mrs. Leaban had the
awful experience of finding her three
daughters among the dead The list of the
killed and injured as now made is as fol-
lows:
K1LLED-Mrs. Anna Bell, city; Dollie and
Lizzie Handle twin sisters, Covington, KY;
Fannie Jones, city; Delta, Katie and Mary
Leahan sisters, city; Katie Lowrey New
port, KY; Lizzie Meyer, Annie Mcintyre,
Fannie Morton, Katie and Mary Putnam isis
ters John Sullivan and Lizzie Wynn, all Of
this city,
WoUNDED-will Bishop, will probably die;
Josie Hawks, leg broken; Emma Pinchback
will probably die; Mamie Shepard, head bad
lly cut.
Mr.. N. CaIdweII, the Fire-escape III
ispector says that when he inspected the
building more than year ago it was not
occupied as factory above the second
floor, and hence he could not require fire
escape attached to the building. He had
never been notified Of the change in the
manner of occupancy of the building and
consequently there had been no fire escapes
ordered.
Mrs. Leaben, who lost three daughters
appeared at the morgue to identify them.
Her features were strained with grief, but
with some CLEAN of hope, she passed body
aftey body until a sharp cry and the words:
my God! here is Mary" showed that hope
had fed. In a moment her bewildered eyes
found Katie and then Della, and the poor
woman's grief was so touching that spec
tator kindly led her to the Office, where her
disconsolate meanings could be heard far
into the street
An Awful Tragedy.
T IL. l,