The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1891-04-18
A FEAST OF FLAME.

6rflt VI. SmNtn -
Cos Great Furniture House and Kohl .
MidtiIrton'- West side Museum Among
the Property Destroyed-The Loss Esti-
mated at Nearly Two Million Dollars
a Panic In the Museum.
CHICAGO, April 13.-0ne of the fierc-
est and most disastrous fires the Chicago
department has fought in many years
swept through west Madison street
yesterday afternoon. The big Smythe
building that extends from Union half
way to Halstead street was destroyed,
and with it the contents of John VI.
Smythe & Co.'S furniture house. the
largest retail establishment in the
world. All that is left of Kohl < Mid
dleton's West Side dime museum is
heap of bricks and charred timbers. On
the north side of Madison street from
Union street to the Haymarket theatre
block, five buildings were destroyed.
Three of them tumbled down before
the maclstrom of fire. and at one time
the roof and portion of the front of
the theater building was burning SO
fiercely that everybody thought it
would share the fate of its ncighbors-
but the firemen managed to save the
structure. though in a seriously damaged
condition. The total loss is estimated
at between S1,5OO.OOO and s2,OOO.OO
John VI. Smythe & Co. alone will lose
nearly 100000. An extraordinary
feature of the conflagration was the
lack of fatalities.
One man, Alexander Grant, had his
leg broken and his skull fractured by
falling from the supporting beam of an
electric light in front of the museum.
A fireman was injured by a flying piece
of mortar. and two or three spectators
who got under the danger lines were
hurt, hut none of them so seriously that
they We're unable to go home unaided.
The fire originated in the wagon sheds
of John VI. Smythe & Co., directly in
the rear of the museum.
Five hundred persons were in the
lower hall of the museum when the
flames burst out in the rear of the
stage. Some one in the audience saw
the smoke creeping out through the
scenes and the alarm was given. A
rush was made for the doors. and those
who sat nearest the stage were panic
stricken. Half of the audience
was composed of women and
children, and they occupied the
seats in trent. The flames caught hold
Of the light, inflammable scenery. and
soon made short work of it Smoke
filed the hall while the people were
struggling to get out, and tongues of
o., l., of
row stage to the other Many of the
women tainted or were overcome by
the smoke and had to be carried out
BY this time Smythe & Co.'s big
building clear down to union street was
ablaZe. The flames ran through the in
flammahlc stock like whirlwind.
bursting through the roof and the front
windows and leaping clear across the
street until they touched the buildings
there.
The northwest corner of Madison
and Union streets, occupied by Alfred
Peats as wall paper house, was the
next to catch fire. The three-story
structure next door, the lower floor
of which was occupied by Barr
lbloN- siN HdI SlpIt- " dS
slowly crumbling under the influence of
the heat. The other buildings, includ-
ing the comparatively new one of six
stories which was known as LaI,arge's
Recess, clear to the east line of the
IIaymarket. were on fire. Men and
women were tumbling through the open
doors and running for their lives. Some
OF them barely escaped
Nearly 1000 persons We're assembled
in the lIaymarket thcater waiting for
the last act of the performance, but
they We're dismissed at once through
the alley way leading to Union street
in good order and without the slightest
evidence of panic. All the streets
approaching the fire were filled with
people. and So dense did the crowds get
that they beca me nearly unmanageable
and it required third of the entire po-
lice force to keep those who were near
est the building from rushing headlong
into places where their lives would not
have been worth a moments purchase.
Every engine that could he placed
within 600 feet of the fire was
called Out anu put at Work. Ilpt-
men were distributed all over the
neighborhood in the alleys and streets,
on house tops. and even in the threat
cned buildings, where they were held
in readiness to fight the fire the moment
it appeared. Fresh relays of men We're
sent down the fiery gauntlet in Madi-
son street, where. despite the heat and
the wavering walls which rocked and
tOttered above their heads, they
poured water into the burning build
ings in torrents. They stayed there
until Inspector Shay ordered them
to retreat, and as they slowly
retired the museum front went down
with terrible roar when the interior
of the building collapsed. This was
but the beginning of the disintegration.
The entire front of Smythe's town mar
ket tOttered and finally tottered and
finally toppled over into the street,
landing in an immense heap upon the
very spot from which the firemen had
cc racantIr- raafaI