Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1886-04-17
TERMS---S2 90 PER YEAR
STRANGLED BY SMOKE.
A Fire in a Hotel Results in Terrible
Fatality.
Four Servant Girls Suffocated Be-
fore They Can Escape from Their
Rooms-The Fire Confined to the
Laundry and Servants Quarters,

II. Louis, April ): At an early hour ihiS
morning fire broke out IN the rear portion
of the Planters House, which, while doing
but insignificant damage to the hotel build
ing, was accompanied by the loss OF four
lives and the wIecking OF the laundry de-
Partment. Ii was 4;30 O'clock when Rosie
Sloan, scrub girl in the hotel, discovered
the flames. She, with the other scrub girls
of the house, arose at , o'clock in the morn
ing and went down stairs to breakfast
They were down stairs some time, and when
they had finished the Sloan girl returned up
stairs to her room, which is located above
the linen-rOom i'll the servants quarters.
That portion of the building given up to the
servants and to the laundry department. Is
located Immediately in the rear of the rotun-
da in the center Of the hotel, and faces the
alley which runs from Chestnut to Pine
streets, between Fourth and Fifth streets
Ii is four stories in height, and the servants
sleeping rooms are on the third and fourth
floors. There are four sleeping rooms on
the third floor and eighteen on the fourth
floor the latter all being occupied by girls,
while the rooms on the third floor are the
sleeping apartments of the male help. The
laundry, linen.rOOm and drying-roOm are
also situated on the third floor. When
Rosie Sloan got back To her room after
breakfast she smelt smoke, and Immediately
ran down stairs and notified
MIKE PHELAN,
the watchman. He awOke Mr. Gerard. the
proprietor and. without stopping to dress.
the latter hurried out of bed, and the two
men went about the hotel arousing guests
and servants. The guests dressed them
selves as quickly rs possible, many of them
only hall. dressing, and a few in their night
garments rushed downstairs. They all ran
downstairs, and soon the rOtunda of the
hotel was crowded with people In
all conditions of costumes. They were
all, of course, more or less excited, but not
as badly frightened as people generally get
when fire breaks out in the hotel in which
they are stopping. The first scare over they
recovered their self possession and in few
minutes nearly everybody was as calm as if
nothing unusua. had happened.
But it was not the guests who suffered by
the fire. 1t was the unfortunate servant
girls. While the former were Fastening
through the carpeted corridors of the front
of the hotel, the help were struggling with
smoke and fire in their dingy quarters in the
rear. When the fire broke out they were
all asleep. The scrub girls were the only
ones who were up.
CARRIE ROBERTSON, 4 CHANBERMAID,
who slept on the top floor. was perhaps the
first girl to discover the fire. She was
by the smoke i'm her room, and
when she saw that the building was on fire
she leaped out of bed and threw up her
window, lit the gas in her room, and applied
a wet towel to her forehead. She then has
tily dressed herself, and going out opened
the doors of the rooms of the other girls.
and awakened them. There were twenty
five or thirty girls in the quarters and she
all she could, but the fire had al.
ready made too much progress for her to
arouse all the girls. 1t had broken through
the floor and she was unable TO get TO the
south of the flames, ten of the eighteen
rooms on the floor being cut off from her.
The girls were frightened and alarmed when
awakened and rushed about wildly. The
smoke was thick and sitting. and the poor
lnfOrtunates rushed blindly about, scarcely
where they went or what they did.
Most OF them stopped to dress themselves.
and this delay probably cost some of them
heir lives. There is fire escape at both
sides of the servants quarters leading down
mi N fbnir -
the women thought of them, but rushed
through the narrow hallway. which was al
ready filled with sitting smoke and through
the door of which the flames were already
bursting. Some of the women rushed out
onto the low roof which leads from the SER
wants. quarter to the hotel proper and 9TH
ers ran down stairs to the third floor and
through the dish-rOOm into the hotel proper.
An alarm of fire had been turned i'm from
Fifth and Market streets, and the depart
rnent arrived in short time, but too late To
rescue any lives. Those women who had
not already escaped were
sUFFoCATED TO DEATH.
The girls who lost their lives were: Mag
gle Reardon and Mary GOOgan, ironers:
Kitty Cassidy, a chambermaid, and Mary
COOney, sewer in the linen room. Maggie
ReardOn was found in her room in the south
end of the structure, on her knees, her head
tdDlflR Oil Tue Dtn. one tfldU DteTl SuUOcdte0.
Mary GOOgan was found in her room, three
iOOrs from the north end of the hall and on
the east side OF 1t. Kate Cassidy was found
near the stairway, at the north end of the
hall, stretched out on the floor, while Mary
COOney was found in the hall little further
south. Both had got out of their rooms
and endeavOred TO make their way through
the building, but Succumbed to the smoke
before shey could reach the pure air. Their
bodies were all fOuBd after the fire DEPART
ment arrived. The flames themselves were
soon eXtinguished by the department the
fire not being allowed to get outside Of the
building in which it originated. 1t started
in the linen-foem on the third floor of the
servants quarters and the damage TO the
building and contents is confined pretty
much to the third and fourth floors Of this
portion of the hotel.
Sad as was the outcome Of the fire in the
death of four unfOrtunates, there were
many ludicrOus incidents connected with
the excitement. One man tried TO throw
his wife out of the window and finally sent
her down the fire escape. One entire family
took their clothing to the Office and dressed
there, to the great edification OF all bystand-
ers. Mrs. Chas. Hester was taken down
the tre-escape by fireman, and Mr.. Hester
ran through the halls with all he could pick
up. Some of the guests had their bare feet
cut and bruised, but beyond a scare there
was no damage nor injuries. EY-G0v.
Phelps was lying i'll in his room on the par
lor floor, but was cool and calm and en-
trusted himself entirely to his attendant.