Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-13
FOUR LIVES ARE LOST
In the Burning of a Lodging House
Fire Trap in Chicago.
HOW LODGERs MET THEIR DEATH.
1t is Not Known How Many Inmates the
House Contained.
PERHAPS OTHER BODIES WILL BE FOUND

CHICAGO, October 12.-Shortly after 2
o'clock this morning Putnam's European
Hotel at 1853 and 165 East Adams street was
burned, and four persons lost their lives.
MRS. MINNIE ROBINSON, killed by jump
ing from window.
TOM DOWLER, barber, burned to a crisp.
H. K. SANS, formerly Pinkerton attache,
burned to death.
Gated. ...
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
The house is lighted by gas and the proprie-
tor insists that there was no lamp in the
hall. The fire originated in and was con-
fined to the top floor. The loss is about
So, OOO
Tom Dowler left his room and entered the
flaming hall to meet his death. One of the
windows opened directly on the fire escape,
and his roommate made his escape easily.
Presence of mind would have saved his life
as we'll as that of 81. K. Sans, who had a
room directly across the hall. Mr.. Robin
SON descended the fire escape, carrying his
infant His wife did not follow him from
their room along the hall to the room in
front of which was the fire escape. The
dense smoke and flames made her lose CON-
mand OF her senses.
THE BUILDING RESEMBLES A FIRE TRAP.
The halls are narrow and crooked, and the
narrow stairway is in the center of the
structure. A very little fire was sufficient
to make enough smoke to render the halls
impossible.
upper floor was ablaze. So rapidly had the
fire spread that the marshal thought a
a second alarm was necessary. With
the increased forces, the fire was
quickly put out. The smoke was
still dense, and the members of
the engine company had great difficulty in
searching the rooms on the upper floors.
Two 6remen managed to force their way
into some of these rooms. In each OF three
they found the dead body OF a man. The
first was that of white man. He was at
once taken to the morgue on Monroe street.
Hardly had the patrol wagon left with this
body when the firemen came down the stair
way carrying the body of negro. His
body was partly burned, but it was evident
that death was Que to strangulation. He
was carried to the sidewalk and laid out for
a moment for Identification.
Ed. Peyton, the victim, had been gen.
eral utility man about the hotel. A short
time after Peyton's body was carried out
the tremen found another body in the
building. 1t was that OF white man and
was burned almost beyond recognition.
The hotel was one of those houses where
NO REGISTER WAS KEPT,
and no questions asked. On this account it
was next to impossible to find out how
many people were in the hotel, or to tell
who they were. Mrs. Putnam, the land
lady, did not know, nor was she able to tell
the names or occupations of any of her
roomers. There were 80 bed chambe in
the hotel, and as near as Mrs Putnam could
remember, they were nearly all occupied.
When the men and women who had
sought escape by way of the iron ladder on
the front of the building reached the frst
floor they found that the FIRE escape ended
there. A man who had reached the end
first hung there, while above him, shrieking
and struggling as best thev could, hung a
number or frightened women. Several came
near falling of, but the prompt arrival OF
the fire laddies soon relieved them.
Mrs Robinson died at the county hospital
at 4:10 Sunday morning. Strange to relate
the woman made the tragic descent to the
stone sidewalk without receiving any broken
bones or displacement of either of her limbs.
She was burned almost to a crisp over
nearly her entire body.