Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1885-05-28
TERRIBLE FIRE In CINCIN-
MATT.

CINCINNATI, May 21.-This city
has had its share of shocking. dis,
asters, but never has one happens
ed where such a pitiful loss Of life
has occurred as that Of to day dur
ing a fire in a large ~fiye-story
building on West Sixth street. In
less than fifteen minutes after the
fatal blunder began sixteen or sew
enteen persons persisted. Looking
over the scene after the event, it
is plain that every life could have
been easily saved. Short as the
time was, there we're displays of
thoughtful heroism that saved two
lives /; but one of the heroes lost
his own life.
At half,past one O'clock this af-
ternoon Mr.. j. A. Green, city edi-
tor of the Tlmes-Star, upon gong
up the stairway to his office, saw
dense clouds of smoke issuing from
the rear windows of the buildings
Nos. 10 and q West Sixth street,
and Immediately telephOned to the
fire department. An alarm brought
the engines almost instantly, and
as the fremen could reach the
building from the front and rear.
it was not fifteen minutes until the
fire was so much under control
that Chief Engineer Whisley was
able to reach the fifth, or top, floor.
But he was too late to rescue the
girls employed there, and to his
horror he found ten dead bodies
lying with hands to their faces,
which were blackened and distort-
ed III death.
The chief said, in speaking of it:
1.-THE house is not burned out--in
fact, the fire was chiefly in the
fifth story. In the smoke I count
ed ten girls lying upon benches,
tables, and other things, some on
the floor. Their clothing was not
burned, but the skin on the backs
of their hands was scorched. 1t
was a terrible sight-the worst /
ever saw in my experience. The
girls lay where they had fallen in
their wild and helpless despair
1t has now been fairly ascertain
ed that the fire started from a can
of benzine on the second floor,
near the elevator shaft. A boy on
that floor says he heard a report,
and instantly the fire leaped to the
elevator shaft and darted up it.
The shaft reaches to the top Of the
building, and from the third story
to the fifth floor it was encircled
by a wooden stairway, which was
the only means Of access to those
floors. The elevator shaft, to add
to it's combustlbility, was encased
with a thin wooden lattlce-work.
The second. floor, where the fire
started, was the press>room I; the
third the composing room, the
fourth a storage and waste room
and the fifth was the foldingsrOom,
AS soon as the fire started John
Sullivan, a young man, cousin oil
the proprietor, ran up the stairway
to the fifth floor to give warning
to the girls.
THE FATAL LEAPS OF FOUR GIRLS.
Instantly, almost, he found ht
was too late to get them down the
stairway, and that his own retrea
was cut off. What he did for tn,
frightened girls could only be tolt
by the glimpses that could be seel
of him at the smoking window
whence four of the girls had al
ready leaped to their death. j. r
Kinsley's son and his foreman hat
gone to the roof of their building
adjoining this on the west, and
knowing that the girls were i'm,
prisOned or the floor below, the,
procured a rope and lowered 1t tt
the window where Sullivan was
He instantly grasped il and iasten'
ing one Of the girls to it, helped
her out Of the window, and Kings,
ley and Schroeder lowered he
safely to the sidewalk. The ropt
was brought up. and Sullivan
again quickly fastened it to anoth,
or girl, and sent her down safely.
A HERDS TERRIBLE FATE.
The rope was raised q thirt
time, and as the other girls by thi.
time were all suffocated. or were
afraid to venture, Sullivan fasten,
ed the rope to his own body, and
was being lowered when, as he
was halt way down, the flames
shot out of q window, and he fel
headforemost to the sidewalk il
the presence of a Mortified Grove
of people who had witnessed hi
heroism. When the girls were
jumping from the window, a large
cOlorod man heroically tried tt
catch,them, and so break the force
of the fall. He nearly lost his owl
l:ro I. A. ottn,,.E XN.Nl:.. -.