The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1889-04-11
IN ASHES.
THE WHITLOCK HOUSE DESTROY.
ED BY FIRE.


Saturday the wind ragged high,
and swept the dust before it at a fear
full rate. "This would be bad day
for . FIRE." said Engineer W. E.
Granting, and he went to the en-
CINE house and emptied the CRATE
Of ashes, put in fresh coal and
steamed up, and everything was in
good trim.
About 123 o'clock a small blaze
was observed to creep out beneath
the shingles OF the cupola Of the
Whitlock House. The flames in
creased and would shoot out like
serpents' tongues and licked the
shingles until the flames were com
municated to the other parts of the
roof. Some one passing saw the
fire as it began to spread. The
black smoke began to ascend, and
the cry of fire was given, and soon
the alarm bell was ringing.
It was the dinner hour but the
guests of the Whitlock House had
not dined, but most of our citizens
were at their homes for that pur-
pose. But in response to the fire
alarm, they hurried to the square
to learn the cause. The intelli-
gence went from lip to lip, that
''The Whitlock House is on fire p'
The Hook and Ladder Company
went speeding on its way to the fire
followed by the colored company
with the hand engine. The steam
fire engine had ten pounds of steam
to begin with, owing to MIR. Gram
ling's forethought in the morning,
and soon the steam was rising high
er as the engine was being swiftly
pulled in the direction of the Whit
lock. In crossing the railroad
track, the fire CRATE was jostled from
its position and fell to the ground.
This caused delay. Mr.. Granting
grabbed the hot CRATE with his hands,
adjusted it to its place, and notwith-
standing the painful burns he re-
ceived, he stood to his post. The
engine was carried block below
the fire to the only cistern on that
side of town, and soon had line of
hose run to the fire.
By this time the roof of the front
part of the Whitlock was enveloped
in flames. The guests were panic
stricken and we're leaving the build
ing as fast as they could. Our citi-
zens saw at once that the massive
three story building was doomed,
as the wind blowing southeast lash
ed the flames into maddening fury
and sent its forked flames over the
building, while burning shingles and
Goals were caught up in the air and
carried mile away.
Our citizens went to work man
fully to save the furniture of the
Whitlock and the trunks and valua-
bles of the guests.
Mr.. Milledge WhitIock, who with
a number of persons had been pour
ing bucket after bucket of water on
the cupalo from the 500 gallon tank
in the yard, soon saw that his labor
was hopeless, and in despair he and
his co-workers abandoned their flu
tile work. The fire engine by this
time began to pour stream OF wa
ter on the burning building, but
!, their heroic fight was with desper-
ate enemy too powerful for them to
cope with, and they had to aban-
don the building to it's fate
and turn their attention to saving
Mr.. Irvine Smiths house on the
east side. For awhile it looked as
if their efforts would be successful
but as the east end of the Whitlock
house was then in seething mass Of
fire, the intensity of the heat ignited
the buildings in the rear and cut off
approach to the Smith house on
that side, and it caught on fire. The
Hook and Ladder and Fire Compa-
ny boys climbed on top of the Smith
house and tried to subdue the kin
ding flames from that standpoint,
but with only one stream of water it
was impossible.
At this iuncture, too, came the