Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-12
THE CINCINNATI, HORROR.

1E
nr.at Loss of Life In a Burning Printing
Neutrality-suspicious. Girls and One Man
Lean to Death from the Fifth Story
zen Female Employees, Imprisoned by
The Flames, are SuH9cated-Four other
Persons Badly Injured.
CINCINNATI, O., May 22.-At 1880 yes
terday afternoon fire was discovered in Sui
liyan's five-story printing establishment on
West Sixth street. A quarter of an hour
later fifteen persons had either been dashed
10 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
IImes.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 ia 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 II
covering their faces, which were blackenei
and distorted in death. The ten girls were
lying upon benches, tables and other things,
and some on the fool. Their clothing was
not burned, but the skin on the backs of
their hands wa scorched. The girls lay
where they had fallen in their wild and
helpless despair.
1t has been ascertained that the fire
started from a can of benZine Oh the second
floor, near the elevator shaft. A boy on
that floor says he heard a report, and
that instantly the fire leaped to the
elevator shaft and darted NJ. The shaft
reaches to the top of the building, and
from the third story to the fifth it
was encircled by a wooden stairway, which
was the only means of access to those
floors. The elevator shaft, to add to its
combustibility, was encased with a thin
wooden lattice-work. The second floor,
where the fire started, was the press-room;
the third, the composins-room; the fourth,
a storage and waste-room, and the fifth was
the folding-room.
AS soon as the fire started John Sullivan,
q 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
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 roof, ad.
joining this one, and knowing the girls
were imprisoned on the floor below they
procured a 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. kinsley
and Shrnalor loyyorod hor Sofo1u fn tho
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 su1focated 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 leadforemost 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
tried to catch them and break the force of
the fall. lie 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 we'll
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 floors, and this accounts for their es-
cape. All agree that the spread of the
flames was almost instantaneous
; MI. Sullivan estimates his loss at Sc, 900
to $4,000, with ample insurance. Thelo los
. to the building is slight.
l The scenes at Habig's undertaking estab-
lishment, where the bodies were taken and
, where friends and relatives came to identify
r 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:
= = Anna Bell. city; Dollie and
; hlZzle Handle twin %sistersl, Cogington, XIV:
Fannie Jones, city; Delta, Katie and Mary
port, Ky; Lizzie Meyer 80 Annie iiist McIn tyre.
this city. CIV WYNN oil Oh
WogSpEp-win Bishop, will probably die;
j, JOSIE Hawks, leg broken; Emma Pinchback.
ly cut. 'nep'fu' neao pad
7 MI. N. CALDWELL, the Fire-eScape III
spector, says that when he inspected the
building more than a year ago it was not
occupied as a factory above the second
> floor, and hence he could not require a fire
escape attached to the building. He had
never been notified Of the change in the
manner OK occupancy Of the building, and
> consequently there had been no fire escapes
ordered.
Mrs. leaben, who lost three daughters,
appeahed at the morgue to identify them.
Lei features were strained with grief. but
r With some CLEAN of hope, she passed body
after body until a sharp cry and the words:
NJ God! here is Mary showed that hone
! mad fied. In a moment her bewfldered ewes
| found Katie and then Della, and the moor
Womars grief was so touching that a snec-
: tator kindly led her to the office, where her
t dIsconsolate meanings could be heard far
into the street.
cyclones and Waterspouts Near Winnipep.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, May GA heavy
cyclone passed over the northwestern ont.
8 Skirts OF the city yesterday afternoon. trav.
i nIlhr 0~&-~-