The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-02-06
VAST CRIME OR JOKE?
THE CRIMINAL A BASTARD OR THE
JOKER A FOOL.
several Men Seriously Burned by Pouring
Coal oil Down the Chimney of a Shan.y
Saved from d Horrible Death by
Ready Helf-Ecasted a BABY.

ST. LOUIS, Mo, Feb ca terrible at
tempt upon human life was perpetrated
Thursday night Shortly after IL O'Clock
fire in shanty near the railroad tracks was
discovered. The glare of light attracted the
attention Of all the railroad men who hap
pened TO be out. They ran toward the
pace, and as they did so they heard shrieks,
groans, and cries, telling that human beings
were held there in the fiery cage unable to
escape. There was a rush to the door
and it was forced in, when two men
staggered out. Other men were dragged
out unconscious. The victims as they came
out were seized by rough but friendly hands
and rolled about on the ground in the snow.
The faces of the victims were biackened and
long strips of flesh peeled off, presenting a
horrid sight. The unfortunates were taken
to the relay depot, where they were at
tended to
There We're seven men taken out of the
building. During the brief intervals that
they forgot their burns and pains they told
how the fire originated They had strollel
in one by one to the shanty Il. order to
warm up, and were sitting around the stove
talking, when suddenly the stove seemed
to burst open and the flames went all about
the room, enveloping the men before they
could turn toward the door They could only
beat about with their hands and struggle
with a h other in an endtavor to get to the
exit They grappled with each other, and
thus impeded their escapr, ard it see msd an
eternity before they heard the cries Of tho,e
who came to their rescue They remembered
very distinctly that they smellel eoal oil As
the flames burst around them
The fire was the result of either prac-
teal sjoke or a deliberate attack ufon the
lives the mca to settle an old grudge. TIL
strange manner in with the hre started
can only be accounted for OF the groani
that some wretch poured oil down the chin
ney to the stove 1t is said the man who
lid the deed il known, as ne had gT'udgr
against one of tie men and declared Tut re
Gently that be would get even if it took
years to do it. Near the back Of the shanty
ON the ground was founl a lin can which
had evidently contained coal oil
The names of thu unfortunate men are;
Morris McGlynn, James Donohue. William
Gilkie, Pat Boyle, Scott Sanderson, Joseph
McGee, Fred Erickson, They are all
fearfully burned, but whether OF not any of
them are necessarily fatally injured can not
be known as yet.
Scott SandeTson one OF the injured men,
was seen Friday morning and said that
early in the evening, when his men went
INTO the shanty for supper, they expected
trouble, for an opposing an unfriendly gang
of men had been there before them and had
fastened the windows and door of the
building Sanderson and his friends
however. soon gained an entrance.
As soon as they entered the
door of the shanty it was clos
by some one from without and securely fas-
tened, and almost Immediately afterward
powder began to be thrown down the chin
ney. This however, did not result seri-
ou-ly, and the men within filed the stove
with oily waste in order to make the chin
ney Ia common stoyepipe so hot that thrss
above could not approach it. Those with
out then resorted to pouring oil down the
chimney, and immediately the room was
filled with flames