Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-10-23
The Red Demon Visits the I.lon,
House While Its Victims We're
Slumbering.
Many Sickening Sights are Behe,d 90
the Unfortunates Who Try
TO Escape.
1t is Estimated That at least Twentv
five People Succumbed TO
the Flames.

g
tied Syrac Use for many years was diseov.
cred in the Leland hotel at 1890 O CLOCK
this morning. 1t is now 2 O'Clock and
the fire is still burning fercely al.
though the entire fire department
consisting of nine engines are WORKING
hard to save further loss of life and limb
An eyewitness of the fire says it is posi-
tive that at least twenty-five persons lost
their lives and that many more are in.
Jured. One woman was being lowered
from the window by the aid of a rope.
She had reached apoint opposite the third
story, when the rope became ignited from
the burning sill, the rope parted and the
woman fell to the pavement-her brains
dashed out and her body hattene2 into a
shapeless mass
Frank Carey, of Glen Falls, N. Y has
been identified as one of those burned TO
death. Many people, crazed with fright
lost their lives by Jumping from the win
dows. One man says he saw six people
jump from different windows on
Fayette street side of the building within
the space of four minutes, and the sight
sickened him with its horrors SO he was
compelled to leave the spot. The build
ing was provided with both iron Gre-escapes
on tho outside and ropes on the inside,
which were the means of saving many
lives. Burnet Forbes, stock broker of
this city, escaped into the street almost
entirel naked. He was slightly injured
about the hands. One woman was found
with babe in her arms crouchei
in the stairway, where she had been over
come by the smoke. She was removed by
the fremen, but has not yet regained con-
sciousness, and it is impossible to say what
her name or experience was.
The fire is said to have started in the
kitchen. The building will be total
loss. Ut was built two years ago at cost
of sl50000 1t is six stories high
and contained four hundred rooms.
1t is impossible to learn how many guests
were in the hotel at the time the fire broke
out. The total loss will not fall short of
half a million of dollars,
Among those injured is Cora Tanner,
the actress. who is severely burned about
the head and feet. She is playing an
engagement THE Grand opera house aud
had room in the hotel. Every physician in
Syracuse is on the ground. Most of those
killed were on the fourth and fifth floors.
Three a. m-The hotel is still burning.
Vague reports are ahoat that the list of
KILLED will number fifty persons,
but this fact cannot be substan-
tiated, and it is believed that the number
will be less than twenty-five, the first esti
mate The guard lines stretched across
the streets are inadequate to
keep back x the surging crowds
of people that are packed
in the streets leading to the hotel, and the
police are stationed all around the build
ing. The scenes and incidents connect
ed with the rescue of the inmates are heart
rending in the extreme. The cries of the
women standing in the upper windows and
of the excited crowd below were deafenlng,
and added to this the constant roar of the
many fire engines, created a babel OF con-
fusion and panicky excitement around the
hotel.
At 10 a. m. a man and woman were
seen locked in each others arms III
window on the fifth floor at the northeast
side of the building, below them was a
perfect sea of flames. No possibility
of escape but a window which was open to
them, and that seemed inevitable death
No assistance could reach them. The
woman seemed to be anxious
to jump, but her husband was
earnestly entreating her to desist. The
crowd below waited with bated breath.
The woman made one last effort to Jump
but was restrained by her husband
and the cry of the crowd signaled the
awful end that must have befallen them,
as they fell backward into the room into
mass of flames. At q window
on the fourth floor almost d.
rectly under this, woman was
surrounded on all sides from the interior
of the room by the fierce flames. She
| seemed irresolute as to whether to
jump to the pavement or to face the
| fery foe that was fast encroachlng
on her liberty and life. She stepped up
on the sill of the window and placed her
hands above her head. The peo-
pie in the street below shuddered
and turned their faces to shut
out the horrible sight that must meet
their gaze should the woman jump to the
ground. The woman did not jump, but
seemed to be withheld oy
/ a fear of feeling thal
escape would come from another source.
She stepped down from the sill into the
room but remained at the window but an