The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-04-17

promptly, and engines Nos. Is and 2S'
hook and ladder No. g. and two hose
carts were sent over the bridge, The pipe
was soon laid to the fire, but when the
water was turned on it was found that
the hose had been cut. This caused de-
lay of a few moments, but new line OF
hose was soon in shape and stream
playing on the car, the flames soon being
eXtinguished. The burned car belonged
to the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, and
was loaded with sand.
THE SECOND FIRE.
Just as the flames got under good head.
way big blaze was discovered in the di-
rectlon of the round-house of the Cairo
Short Line, about a mile and half to the
southeast. The crowd ran down the
track TO this fire, when 1t was found that
three box-cars and one caboose on the
Cairo Short Line tracks were enveloped
in flames. The cars were surrounded
by crowd numbering, perhaps,
two hundred people, but they
were orderly and made no
disturbance. The caboose belonged to
the Vandalia Line, while the box-cars
were one Burlington & Missouri River, a
Chicago, Burlington Quincy, and Chi
cago, Milwaukee & st. Paul, all empty.
After the cars had nearly burned to the
ground chemical engine arrived and
played a stream on the fire, but it did
little good and the iremen retired.
THIRD FIRE.
At 1910 o'clock the Waterman at the
! yards of the Cairo Short Line detected
another fire in the oil-sheds, which i'm
mediately burst forth and developed the
| building in flames. 1t was commodious
! wooden structure, rendered additionally
inhammable by the oil with which
the floor was saturated. The fire,
! fed by barrels of oil, swept
westward, aud in few moments one of a
long train of freight cars on the nearest
track caught fire. The wind, which had
been driving the flames in the direction
of the round-house and shops, grew as
the intensity of the flames increased. The
fire crept along to the main buildings
and spread to another of the cars which
separated it from the shops.
Only few moments more
elapsed before the flames leaped
to the next parallel track, and at one
O'Clock this morning there were six or
eight freight cars ablaze, and the shops
| MCIC lnCudCSu NY bllG uSSlSSSlNS ClCluCubs
An engine near the round-house Whistled
continuously for assistance. The crowd
of spectators increased from minute to
minute as the fire below faded out in the
night under the exertion of the St. Louis
fire department, and transferred the
theater of the excitement to the shops.
"Nothing can save the shops" was the
general comment, and itbecame apparent
that not only the buildings to which the
fire was tending were doomed, but also
half dozen long lines of loaded and
empty freight cars which filed the inter-
vening space.
TWO MORE BLAZEs.
A fourth fire started in the Cairo Short
| Line lumber yard, where lot of dimen-
sion timberS for car construction was
piled. There were also number Of cars
standing in close proximity, and they
commenced to blaze, attracting crowd
of spectators in that immediate locality.
| The crowd stood leisurely and saw the
property consumed without making any
effort to save it.
Another blaze shot up in the vicinity OF
the Little rolling-mill, where there was a
number of Short-Line cars and cars be-
longing to various other roads. They
burned slowly, as there was but very
little wind blowing at | 80 O'Clock this
morning, when East st. Louis was
Illuminated by four distinct aud widely
separated blaZes.
THE FIREMRN ORDERED OFF.
The St. Louis fire department was near
at hand and could have readily
extinguished the fires If the crowd
30 40
They had got the flames under con-
troll at the second fire, about thou
sand yards below the shops, and would
have extinguished it if they had not been
interfered with by the strikers. About
12:15 Assistant Chief Gross was helping
to push the burning cars from the train
with which they were connected when a
striker stepped up to him and said:
81 want to speak to you" Mr.. Gross
said he would give his attention in mo-
ment, and allowed himself to be led from
the burning cars.
The striker said he represented COM
mittee which had been instructed to in
form the fire department that they were
not wanted in East St. Louis.
The Assistant Chief explained that he
had responded TO the call of duty.
"Did you come here by the authority
Of Mayor JoyceH" asked the mouthpiece
Of the committee.
eyes"
"Take my advice. You had better
make sneak, anyway. 1t amt healthy
for you here.
Assistant Chief Gross concluded that
it was no use staying there any longer,
and he withdrew his men and prepared to
return to St. Louis. When they left, Mr..
Gross said it was useless for them to at
tempt to do anything, as the strikers
threatened their engineers, cut the hose
and had told him that they would not be
allowed to do anything.
The casualties occurring throughout
the evening to the firemen were the cases
of Denny Deering, of the Twenty-threes
Company, who fell through trestle and
was fished out with some difficulty and
sent home, and Roddy Walsh, of the
same company, who fell through the
: trestle, but was not hurt.
THE CONFEDERATION SPREADING.
At the close of this report several new
Ares have started nm among the railway