The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-12-04
AN AWFUL HOLOCAUST.
TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE AT A MINNIE
APOLIs FIRE.

| Ground-scores of Employees Imprisoned
| ON the Seventh Floor Seven Mangfed
Bodies Recovered and Others Supposed
to Have Perished.
Minneapolis telegram
About an hour before midnight fire
broke out in the third floor of the Tribune.
newspaper building in this city and the
building is a total loss with loss of life
| OF fifteen or twenty and possibly more.
The fire. which started on the third floor
| at about 1870, made such rapid Roadway
| that i'm very few moments the sixty five
| men working on the seventh floor found
| that escape was being cut off and made a
| dash i'm a body for the stairway. Forty
| made the run safely and got out. The
| rest made a frantic effort TO get through
| the binding smoke. Five OF these we're
cut off at the fourth floor and jumped to-
| the pavement Three of them were badly
hurt and the other two killed, being man
| gled frightfully.
The fire broke out in the third floor and
soon the upper stories were cut o from
| the street. The building was on the COR
ner and the only ad joining buildings were
| only one story in height so that no means
| of escape was afforded in that direction.
| The flames cut of the escape of the Pion-
eer Press force on the sixth floor as well as
| the Tribune folks on the seventh and
eighth. Reporter Barnes of the Pioneer
| Press had a narrow escape from the build
| ing and left behind him Milton Pickett
the assistant city editor and one of the old
est men in the service of the paper. Pick
| EFT was lost in the burning building.
But the Tribune force suffered most
| They were located higher in the building
and had less warning of their danger.
| John Olsen the president of a Dakota
college, was in the composing rooms at
the time the flames broke out looking af
ter an advertisement TO be inserted in the
morning paper. He jumped from one of
| the windows TO escape the flames and met
with an even more horrible death from
| shattered limbs and body.
James Y. Igoe. the night operator OF the
| Associated Press, met with a sad death as
| the result Of his faithfulness to his employ
| ers. He was at work on the seventh floor
| when the report OF the fire was first re-
ceived, and Immediately opened his key,
stating the fact TO the head Office at Chi
| cago and asking for minutes time to
| investigate. Soon he returned to
his instrument, apparently thinking he
was safe, and told the sending operator to
continue In moment he said he would
have to skip" and found too late that
escape was cut off. He jumped from the
| seventh story window, and was so badly
| injured that he died before reaching the
| hospital. He leaves a family. An old
man named Pierce, a printer, was also
| killed.
The following is a complete list of the
dead and injured so far as has been ascer-
| tanned:
| MILTON PICKETT. assistant city editor
| OF the Pioneer Press, dead.
| JAMES F. lGOE, Associated Press oper-
| ator. dead.
| EDWARD OLESON president Of the Uni
| versity OF South Dakota at Vermillion. dead.
| JERRY JENKINSON a printer, dead.
| ROBERT MCCUTCHEON, printer dead.
w. H. MlLLMAN, commercial editor of the
| Tribune, dead.
| WALTER f. MILES, operator and agent of
the Associated Press, dead.
WILLIAM LowN. printer; burned on hands
| and face.
f. c. ANDREWS, printer; badly burned on
| hands and face.
GEORGE f. woRDEN. printer; burned on
| hands and face
FRANK GERBER. deaf-mute printers hands
| and face burned.
ADAM WEINsHEINER, printer; hurt about
| the hips.
CHARLES ALT WILLIAMS, managing editor
| Of the Tribune, badly burned about the head
| and face.
| w. II. WILLIAMS. foreman OF the composing
| room, badly burned about the face and
/ hands.
| :. II. JONES, Pioneer Press reporter, hands
| and face slightly burned.
FRANK HOOVER, printer; burned about the
| neck.
From twenty to twenty five persons in adj
| dition TO those whose names are given
above have persisted. The fire was
so sudden, the means OF escape so crimi-
| nally inadequate, the panic so great, the
| advance of the flames so rapid, that many
of the men on the upper floors must have
| persisted, but their number cannot be
| known until the work of excavation has
| ended, if indeed the exact record of fatal
| tiles can be learned even then; for in q
heat so intense as that which destroyed
] the great building it is probable that the
| bones Of some OF the victims were con-
sumed as completely as the woodwork of
the ill-fated structure. The body of
man, caught IN the ruins, is in plain sight
| Of the crowd on Fourth street.
| Charles A. Smith, the elevator man,
did very creditable work. After the fire
| broke out he made five trips the last
| when the shaft was actually on fire. and
saved a number of people. Smith says he
smelled fire for three-quarters of an hour
before he could find its location Smith
| is sure that more people were burned than
have Teen reported He says that about
five minutes before the fire was discovered
he carried two ladies to the sixth floor
They asked for the editorial rooms Of the
| Iioneer Press. He did not take
! them back in the elevator and
he is sure they could not have gone down
the stairway Smith also says that
a tall young man with n black mustache
shot him-elf on the seventh floor ear the
composing room door. He seemed dazed
by the heat ana smoke and deliberately
drew a revolver and fired into his own
head, falling dead. Just before ne fired
the shot he exclaimed: my God! My
wifen' and then the bullet did its work.
Assistant Foreman Kinney also saw the
man shoot himself to escape the torture of
the fire.
Smith is badly burned as the result of
his bravery in running the elevator at the
risk OF his life. He saved at least twenty
five persons.
A. Frank Regensdorf, a stenographer
employed at st. Paul, is reported missing.
He left home Saturday evening to visit
friends in this city, and it is feared that
he is one of the unfortunate victims. Of the
Tribune fire.
The following is n revised estimate of
the losses and insurance:
| losses. Insurance.