St. Landry democrat., 1890-02-15

noon. He bore messages of coincidence
from Secretary Blaine. The latter is bear
ing up bravely under his own great atfllc-
ton, and went out for walk during the
afternoon with his son. Emmons.
The President remained with Secretary
Tracy until o'clock, when he went to the
White House The bodies of Miss Tracy
and the servant (since identified as the
French nurse, Josephine MoreD were this
afternoon removed temporarily to the resi-
dence of Attorney General Miller, where
the body of Mrs. Tracy was taken this
morning.
James Welsh, the secretary's butler, told
his story of the FIRE. He said:
81 slept in the basement, and this morn
ing got up about $40. There was no
smell of fire and no appearance of anything
wrong About o'clock started to clean
up my dining room, when there was ring
at the bell, and when | answered it a
colored man said, Your house is on fire.
At once | rushed up stairs to arouse the
family, and although the smoke was very
thick / succeeded in knocking at every
door and from each room | secured re-
Spouse. Then started to 60 down stairs
fell three times, but finally got to the front
door. l went around to the rear of the
house and tried to get a ladder so as to
reach the Secretary and Mrs. Tracy's bed
room. Mrs. Tracy was then at the window,
and while the few of us who were there
appealed to her to keep still for one min
ute more she climbed out on the sill and
lowered herself until she hung by her
l. 4, $lo ctr
erybods who saw her yelled to her to hold
on for moment, and we looked around
for something to catch her so az to break
the fall which had to come. Mrs. Tracy
NAV have heard our cries, but it isn't GER
tain that she did"
"How long did Mrs. Tracy hang there?"
''Not more than few seconds. She
told me afterward that she slipped. She
fell into the alley, almost touching me in
her swift descent, and struck on her left
side. No sound save little incoherent
murmur came from her lips. I picked
her up and carried her into Mr.. Rheems'
house. 1t was the most awful occurrence
in my life"
The parlors are completely ruined, but
the fire didn't damage the dining room
to any extent.
To those who were admitted to view the
destruction of property the bedroom which
had been occupied by Secretary and Mrs.
Tracy was the principal point of interest.
1t is on the second floor, and must have
been beautiful apartment. With the
heads toward the west, two large brass beds
stand side by side, and on these Mr.. and
Mrs Tracy slept that night. The brass is
furnished, and everything around is black
ened and soaked with water. The room
is huge cinder. Pictures are charred,
mirrors cracked, silver backed hair brushes
and the hundred and one little toilet Access
series are ruined completely. The French
clock on the mantel was silent, the pendu-
lum having stopped at $40 a. III.
The two front rooms on the second floor
were occupied by Mrs. Wilmerding and
her daughter, Miss Alice. These apart
ments were wrecked. On the third floor,
in the central front, was the room occupied
last night by Miss Tracy. This was ruin
of the most thorough description. Charred
in every corner, the ceiling gone, the doors
burned out, cinders ankle deep cover the
floor and what the flames had spared was
destroyed by water. Adjoining this room
on the east was the room which was to be
Miss Tracy's permanent room, and there
was scattered all around evidence of pre-
partitions. On couple of chairs were
artists materials, paints, brushes and the
other etcetera of decorative arr.
On one side of the room was a wooden
bedstead, the only one in the house-and
on its headboard the skillful fingers of the
pretty girl. now dead, had shaped festoons
of peoples and morning glories pendant
from true lovers knots. The fire bad
been more kind here than elsewhere, and
there was still to be traced the floral form
now dirty white on the smoked ground.
The brushes were just where they had
been dropped by the artist.
The fire originated in the parlor, near
the open replace Whether it originated
from the CRATE or heating pipes is not
known, as no one could be found who
could tell whether there was fire in the
CRATE that night or not. The framework
adjoining the mantel was where the fire
started, and it no doubt burned some time
before it was discovered The furnace is
directly beneath where the fire started,
and the pipes led to the upper stories,
passing the rear of the woodwork. The
fireuen generally think that the woodwork
caught fire from the heated pipes. The
commissioners of the District of Columbia
held board session, to day and directed
Inspector Entwisle to make a thorough in
vestigation into the cause of the fire and
report.