St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-24
DEATH INARIvER
80 ss.E:s:s::sssss:ssss.:;a - -;
A Sunday Morning Horror On
the Mississippi Below
Memphis.
80 80 sssssss
The Elegant Passenger Steam
er Kate Adams Destroyed
by Fire.
-: - -
Over a Score Jump Into the
Icy Water and Are
Drowned.
Es::ississ 80 - z
Panic-Stricken Passengers
Rush From Their Break
fast Into the River.
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kez=z<.rEzHz1E1z zznszGeE
Others Leave Their Beds and
Make for the Shore in
Dishabille.
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Chief Clerk Bankers Attempt
to Save the Money a
Failure.
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Many Lives Saved by the Cool
ness and Bravery Of
the officers.
Others Leave Their Beds and
Make for the Shore in
Dishabille.
Chief Clerk Bankers Attempt
to Save the Money a
Failure.
Many Lives Saved by the Cool
ness and Bravery Of
the officers.


MEMPHIS, Tenn, Dec. 23.-The ele-
CANT passenger steamer, Kate Adams,
running as a semi-weekly packet be-
tween Memphis and Arkansas City,
burned this morning near Commerce,
Miss, forty miles south Of this city. She
was en route to Memphis, and had about
two hundred people aboard, including
her deck and cabin crew OF eighty, and
twenty-five cabin and sixty deck pas
BengerS, and twenty-five cOl0red paSSen-
gers. The fire, which caught in some
cotton near the forward end of the boil
ers, was discovered about 6 o'clock.
The passengers were at breakfast, and
when the alarm was given, they all
made a rush for the forward deck. AT
the time the steamer was about 300
yards from the Mississippi side of the
river, and her bow was at once headed
for the shore. Pilot Joe Barton was on
watch, and he remained heroically at
his post until she was safely landed.
Harry Best, the second clerk. who was
seated at the table when the alarm was
given, had brought all the
LADIES AND CHILDREN
forward and assisted them ashore. Capt.
Mark Il. Check, who was on the hur-
ricane deck, remained there, giving his
commands until the stage plank was
safely lowered. The fire by this time
had spread all through the cabin and he
was compelled to retreat to the rear,
and climbed over the rails and de-
scended to the cabin. Here he found
Chief Clerk w. c. Blanker, who had
made an effort to save the money and
papers of the steamer, which were in
the safe. He managed to grab the
money, but was cut off from the bow
and forced back into the cabin. AS he
was cropping his way aft, he stumbled
and fell over some chairs and lost all the
valuables he had secured, and it was
with great difficulty that he succeeded
I'm reaching the rear through the blind
ing smoke and flames which filled the
cabin. Capt. Cheek seized a life pre-
server, and, placing it on Chief Clerk
Banker. helped him overheard into the
water. He tloated down about three
miles before he was rescued by parties
who had walked ashore and followed
him down the river. Capt. Cheek as
sisted several others in
SECURING LIFE PRESERVERS,
and when it was no longer possible for
him to remain without being burned,
he, too, jumped into the river and swan
ashore. There were about twenty-five
colored cabin passengers, who were
saved along with the white passengers.
On the lower deck, however, fearful
panic seized the crew and deck pasSen-
gers. Those vino were cut off from es-
cape from the bow, were compelled to
lump overheard to save their lives.
The stern of the burning steamer had
swung out into the river, and in the
effort made to launch the yawl, it was
capsized by the crowd that filled it and
many of its occupants drowned. They
were mostly colored men, but there
were three or four women i'll the crowd.
The loss, so far as can be learned, are
Is follows: