Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-10-17
1t is Estimated That About Twenty
Five Persons Lost Their
Lives.
Many Jumped From the Fourth and
Fifth Stories and We're
Crushed.
Some Stood at Windows Till the Fire
Reached Them, Rather Than
Jump to Death.
Twenty-Five Lives Lost,

SYRACUSE, N. Y, Oct 15.-The Leland
hotel, the finest in this city, was totally
destroyed by fire tonight and it is re-
ported that twenty-five lives We're lost.
Frank Garry of Glens Falls, N. Y, has
been identified as one of those that we're
burned to death. Many people, crazed
with fright, lost their lives by jumping
from windows. The building was pro-
vided with both fire escapes on the out
side and ropes on the inside, which were
the means of saving many lives. Burnet
Forbes, a stock broker of this city, es-
capped into the street almost entirely ma
ked. He was slightly injured about the
hands. The FIRE started in the Litche..
The building will be a total loss. 1t was
built two years ago at a cost of $150,000;
was six stories high and contained 400
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 million dol
lars the building being partially covered
by insurance. It is impossible to learn
what the private and individual losses
will be.
Among those injured is Cora Tanner,
the actress, who was severely burned
about the head and feet. Every phvsi-
clan in Syracuse is on the ground Most
of those killed were on the fourth and
fifth floors.
3a. m.-The hotel is still burning
Vague rumors are ahoat that the list of
killed will number fifty persons, but this
cannot be substantiated, and it is be-
lieved the number will be less than
twenty five, the first estimate. The en-
tire fire department, consisting of nine
engines, is working hard to save further
loss of life and limb. An eye witness of
the fire says it is positive that at least
twenty-five persons have lost their lives
and many more have been more or less
injured. One woman was being lowered
from'a window by aid of rope. She had
reached point opposite the third story
when the rope became ignited from a
burning sill, parted, and the woman fell
to the pavement. Her brains we're
dashed out and her body aattened into
sion and excitement that the identity of
those killed and injured is entirely un-
known. Undertakers' ambulances are
flying in all directions, and the streets in
the neighborhood of the ill.fated hotel
are thronged with excited crowds of peo-
pie.
CRIES OF WOMEN
standing in the upper windows and of
the excited crowd below were deafening
and, added to this the constant roar of
many fire engines, created Babel of
confusion and panicky excitement in and
around the hotel. At 1:l2 a. nj. man
and woman we're seen locked in each 9TH
er's arms in window on the fifth floor
at the northeast corner of the building.
Below them was perfect sea of flame.
There was no possibility of escape ex-
cept by the window that was open to
them, and that seemed inevitable death.
No assistance could reach them. The
woman seemed anxious to jump, but
her husband was earnestly entreat-
ing her to desist. The crowd
below waited with bated breath. The
woman made one last effort to jump, was
restrained by her husband, and the cry,
Of the crowd signalled the awful fate
that must have befallen them as they,
fell backward into mass of flames. At
the window on the fourth floor, almost,
directly under this, woman appeared at
a window. She was surrounded
from the interior of the room by fierce
flames. She seemed irresolute astto
whether to jump to the pavement or faoel
the fiery foe that was fast encroaching on
her liberty and life. She stepped upon
the sill of the window and placed her
hands above her head. The people in
the street below shuddered and turned
their faces to shut ont 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
by either fear or feeling that escape
would come from some other source.
She stepped down from the sill into the
room, but remained at the window but
an instant when the whole room became
enveloped in flames and the woman sank
back from view.