The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-31
4 DOZEN LIVES LOST.
Burning Of FLOATING Boarding. ouse-Cow-
ardice and Terror of the Inmates.

MOBILE, Ala, Dec. 30-News was received
here, late last night. of the burning of the
steamer Bradish johnson, used as a boarding
house at Jackson. on the Bigbee branch
of the Tombigbee river, eleven miles
above Mobile, on Wednesday night. There
is no telegraph line to that point The johnson
was lying with her nose in the bank and a gang
plank out. A. c. Yeall gave the following de-
s~cription Of the fire:
Il had just gone to bed, when / heard the cry
of fire. | got into my pants, and seized my
other effects, and rushed out into the cabin.
There had been a party of men out there playing
cards, and they saw smoke rising. When / came
into the cabin the fire seemed to be in the state
room, aft of the pantry, on the port side, and the
men who had been playing cards were standing
there at the door, looking in at the fire. They
seemed like they were daZad, and did not know
what to do. They had shouted fire. but there
they stood staring at it. Ihallooed, For Gods
sake, what are you standing there for9 Wake
the men I'D, and let us get out of here There
was an old man, an Albanian, in the room
next to mine. don't know his name. He was
asleep when 1 went to bed, for 1 heard him snor-
ing. Whether | got him awake or not, | don't
know. Hammered and pounded away with ali
my might. You see, the smoke was already filling
the cabin. and the men were running around like
mad. ] hardly knew what happened. l ran
forward through the cabin, and my eyes and
mouth got so full of smoke that l did not know
where l was going. The negroes were mostly
lodged on the lower deck. They all came run
ming forward about the same time we got there.
The vessel burned very fast, and was a solid
mass OF flames in a moment. When | had
reached the bank. l turned around and saw the
pilot-house and texas fall in with the negroes.
They fed up the bank in a mob and rushed to
the woods, where they huddled like sheep, and
could not be pursuaded to come down
to the boat. They knew that some of their num-
Der were lost in the burning boat, and they were
seemingly superstitious about it. They did not
want to go near the place; so the boat became a
mass of flames and burned for about half an
hour, when she sank. AS soon as | got ashore,
there was a report that there were men in the
water. Skiffs were manned and sent to their
rescue. They picked up Mr.. DAILY, one of the
Carson men. William Neal, an Englishman. in
one of the skiffs, had two negroes right near him,
but they sank out of sight. William Bowling.
the cook, who received slight burns on the face
and hands, found q white man lying in a state
room door. Dan Hillhouse came up, and the
two dragged the man, supposed to be McElroy,
out on the boiler deck. The man was uncon-
scious from the effects of smoke. Just then the
flames burst out on the side, and Bowling
jumped over the railing to save his life Hill
house, however, said he heard a man groaning
just inside the cabin, and he went back to rescue
this man. He never came out again, and he
was not seen alive after that; it is believed he
was sacrificed in the noble attempt to save an
other mans life.
''There is no telling just how many lost their
lives in the fire. Some say that ten others are
missing. but all that l know are the two negroes,
Lewis Adams and Benjamin Bush, who were
drowned, and two whites missing. / think two
other white men were burned with the boat, and
there must have been others, for don't think
they had a chance to be awakened and then es-
cape, for it was all I could do with the smartest
kind of running to get out alive. Had the fire
broken out one hour later, when all the men
w-N-1l 49, - = - -
escaped. AS to the origin of the fire l know
nothing. The cook says the boys told him, be-
fore he went to sleep, that the fires in the galley
were all out and everything safe"