The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-02-28
ANOTHER HOLOCAUST.
Sleeping Victims in Hartford Sent to Q IIor
rlble Death.

Sleeping Victims in Hartford Sent to Q Hor
rIble Death.
Hartford, Conn, Feb. 1S. - Just before
dawn this morning hotel with Its sleeping
people was shattered by force not yet as
certained, and. straightway. in the darkness
and ruin, men aud women and children were
being crushed and maimed and burned by
flames. 1t was at the hour when the twilight
OF the coming day had worn away the night
bit and while the city slept, that the still
buildings were shaken as IL by earthquake,
and the silent streets were startled by q
sullen booming, as though OF q monster ex-
plosion. Upon the moment persons in the
section OF the city near the capitol and the
union depot were further lstarled by the
sound OF crashing walls and falling ttmbers,
and the screams of women, and by mems
hoarse shouts fIom the vicinity OF High
and Allyn streets, which had been the site OF
the Park Central hotel, but which had prac-
tically disappeared Those who hurried to
the spot found upon the site OF the hotel
huge pile of stone and brick and splinCered
tTabers, from which white clouds of steam
rose up in the morning twilight, streaked
and blackened by wreaths of smoke that
rapidly grew dark and blacker and m ore
dense Then tongues of fame leaped here
and there from out the ruin, and grew bolder
and stronger until the ruin was roaring
heap-a CRATE where solid masonry held the
fuel in. The stupefied beholders had then
began to move, and the clangor Of fire bells
bore down upon the scene, while from un-
tod sources came throng that stayed not
idly, curious by. There were
CRIES AND MoANs,
and then wild screams from out the ruin that
made mems faces blanch and their trims grow
strong with helpful Impulse The streams
of water played upon the flames was carried
up in steam that smothered all vision Of the
ruin, but the daylight grew apace, and soon
the helpers at the scene of ruin could see
back beyond the ruin the yawning floors of
an annex to the building which had
housed the help of the hostelry and
which had been spared portion
of the tier of rooms at the rear of
The main building had remained standing,
but the partitions had been torn away, and
| the rooms were opened to the air. The floors
of many of them, partly giving away, had
! tumbled out the occupants and furniture
upon the confused heap below. The explo-
sion had demolished the staircase of this
annex, but the frightened employees were
taken out by the aeriel ladder, two or three
xcited ones, however, jumping and receiv-
! ing slight injuries With that unexplained
rGpiditv with Which news Of disaster flies
through a town, the tidings that men and
women, and children too, were being
CRUSHED OR BURNED
seemed soon to have reused the whole city
to the scene. The police pressed back the
throngs, not more curious than willing to
LeIp; the firemen from every vantage ground
were pouring floods of water upon the ruins.
The flames bai been mastered and sunk
down from sight within the ruins, where yet
the water Missed and scared among the hot
tones and brick that rapidly cooled and
burst and cracked with sullen sounds. Men
of the hook and ladder trucks were tmpa-
ttent, waiting only until the ruins had so
cooled as to render safe their efforts in the
wreck, and 80, as soon as possible, willing
hands set about the herculean task of
removing the immense mass of masonry and
he crowds waited and watched with breath
ess suspense.
The lower floor of the spacious wool ware
louse of H. G. Judd Root was made tem-
po:ary morgue. Here Coroner Sperry. Med
cal Examiner Fuller and Assistant
SLAMS, were in attendance and here
5he bodies were taken as fast as
recovered, and opportunity was given for
Identification by friends. Those not identi-
ied were taken in charge by the city and
5eDderly cared for in q room of the old city
nall The injured were promptly sent to
;he hospital. The recovery Of bodies was
slow, owing to the immense accumulation
of 1nh hY1t ot rIu I1op irfo IN
Or two bodies were found during the after
ooon. When claimed by friends they were
delivered to undertakers.
The magnitude of the calamity cannot be
realized, and, in fact, It's extent is not yet
Known. The register of the hotel
1as not been found, and Perry,
;he night clerk, is buried in
he ruins But from the best esti-
mates that can be procured from the land
ord and others it is probable thatthere were
lot far from fifty people in the hotel proper.
If these perhaps five may have escaped un-
niu1e amid the confusion of the early
morning hours, leaving forty five to be ac-
counted for Ten are in the hospital, and at
l H. m sixteen dead bodies have been taken
from the ruins, leaving nineteen still miss
ing. But there may be several more than
his Andrew F. Whi'ing, actuRry of the
Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance COM
oany and wife; Rev DR.. Lavalette Perrin,
agent of the Memorial Hall association, and
wife, and Edward Perry, the night clerk, are
known to be still in the ruins.
THE CAusE OF THE DISASTER
. was undoubtedly the explosion of the boiler
/ In the basement This boiler, of sixteen
: horse power, was built by the Pitkins of this
.ity in 1882. It was not insured by the
H4rtford Steam Boiler and Inspection com
pany, but was inspected by an officer OF that
!. company last August and was then pro-
. uounced all right No engineer was on duty
at the time of the explosion, the custom be
ing for the night engineer to bank his fires a
midnight and go to bed. He does not sleeI
! in the hotel. This engineer, Alexander
, Thuer, was arrested this afternoon on al
l Indictment charging mansaughter. IL ii
3 :onjectured that Gaines, the coIored porter
may have started the pumps, throwing cole
water into an overheated boiler But this Il
only conjecture, and Gaines is dead. Th'
force of the explosion was terrific. Peopl'
? in all parts of the city were awakened by tn
= shock Huge stones were shattered and irol
7 pipes bent and twisted. Windows Ia aGjoin
ing buildings and across the street were de
molished and panes of glass two blocks ava!
! were crscked. At the new railroad depot,
!, block away, huge pane of plate glass wa
. cracked and many states were dislodge'
. from the newly completed roof. Night em
9 ployes in the railroad station and offices fie'
? : to the streets In terror.
: Advices from the Indian Territory sa,
: that the journal Or diary of Belle Starr, tn
q noted female bandit of the territory, ha
9 been obtained from the Starr ranch. Bell
! intended to publish it as an autobiography
. The matter contained therein is replete wit