The climax. [volume] (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1887-1897, 1889-12-04


che night service, did very creditable
work. He was q new man, having only
been in the place since the first of the
week. After the fire started he made
five trips, the last when the shaft was
actually ON fire, and saved number of
people. Smith says he smelled fire for
three-quarters of an hour before he could
find its location. After looking on all
the floors he finally felt the heat on the
third floor, and was about to break in the
door of the fateful room when the tran
som burst and the flames sprang up. He
is confident that the fire originated in
+. A. Harmon's Office, and worked
through the partitions before breaking
into the hallway, but this seems well
nigh impossible. Smith is certain that
more people were burned than have been
reported. He says that about five min
utes before the fire was discovered he
carried a heavy, dark-cOmplexiOned lady
to the sixth floor. She asked for the
editorial rooms of The Pioneer Press.
He did not take her back in the elevator,
and he is sure she could not have gone
down the stairway.
Smith also says that a tall young man
with a black mustache shot himself on
the seventh floor hear the composing
room door. Smith was up on his last
trip and called to the young man to
come into the elevator, but he seemed
dazed by the heat and smoke and DELHI
ately drew a revolver and fired into his
own head, falling, as Smith suppOses,
quite dead. Just before he fired the shot
he exclaimed: my GOdl My wife and
-" then the bullet did its work
The adjoining buildings were saved by
the exertiOns of the firemen, but The
Tribune building is a smOldering mass of
ruins. The Tribune loses its entire files.
Hitchcock, the court stenographer, loses
the evidence in all the cases taken for a
number of years in the District court.
The Tribune job printing company is
among the heaviest sufferers, as It loses a
number of valuable presses, its full COM
plement of type and its bindery. In the
bindery were destroyed all the court cal
endars that were to be distributed Tues
day next, which will cause trouble in
setting cases for the December term.
The loss can be roughly estimated at
least at $4,000; insurance, $4,000.
Hart & Brewer and Cross & Carlton lose
valuable law libraries. The real estate
offices lose nothing but their furniture
Booth, the legal bank man, loses be
tween $4,000 and $4,000, covered by
insurance.
Chief Stetson charges that the loss of
life is due to the absence Of proper fire
escapes.
There was some apparently unaccOunt-
able delay in turning in the alarm for
the fire department on Saturday evening
and they arrived on the ground it seemed
to be long time before they got to
work. This was a general cause of COM
ment by the spectators.
In an interview Chief Stetson talked
as follows on the subject:
I'm the first place, there was some
objectionable delay in sending in the
alarm. had no knowledge that there
was a fire until it had made such head
way that it could not be checked. The
man who pulled the alarm box was so
excited that he did not do it properly,
and sent in a call for police instead of
fire. This he did three times, as the
records at police headquarters will show.
Finally the proper alarm came in and !
arrived on the ground shortly after. ]
took IN the situation at once, and after
sending in a general alarm gave my at
tentiOn to rescuing those poor fellows
away up in the composing room.
''Of what importance is a building
when some twenty human lives are at
stake? l gave my personal attention to
the manipulation of the ladders and left
the supervision of the steamers TO my as
sistants, calling out to the men to do all
they could to rescue those on the seventh
floor. / ordered the ladder run up. The
boys worked with will. We planted
the ladder opposite a window where
and began to run it up. The telegraph
wires were in the way, and we lost pre-
CiOus time trying to avoid them. Then
our ropes got entangled in the wires.
When we did finally get the ladder W
to its proper place the heat had driven
the printers further over toward the
corner of the building, so we had to take
it down, move it further down the street
and run it up again, encOuntering the
same difficulty as before in the interfer-
ence of the wires. But we reached the
men at last, and saved all who had moi
yet jumped to the ground.
Meantime the steamers had begun
their work. Unfortunately steamer No
10 blew out her air chamber and caused
short delay. But we soon got the
streams flowing and doing good work.
fire department, and accuse them OF
negligence of duty and hardness of action
but would like TO ask the critics what
they would do under the same circum.
stances. In my opinion the department
did all that could be done under the cir.
cumstances. l charge the loss of life tC
the owners of the building, who failed tc
provide proper fire escapes"
Mr.. Blethen, proprietor of The Tn.
bune, said that his loss would be about
$3.50, 900; insurance 1926, 200.
The paper was issued as usual yester.
day, The st. Paul Globe giving the use
of its presses.
The Minneapolis typographical Union
No. AZ met yesterday afternoon in Labor
temple to take action on the calamity OF
Saturday night. A committee on resO
buttons was appointed, and pending theil
report, the recording secretary began
collecting evidence regarding the repeat
ed efforts of the men to have fire escapes
placed on the building, and to placs
fuch evidence at the disposition Of the
sOrOner.
THE AGoNY OVER.