Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-04-13
CHICAGO'S BIG FIRE
The Most Extensive Conflagra.
 tiOn in Years.
IT STARTED IN A DIME MUSEUM.
Nearly Two Million Dollars Worth of
 Property Destroyed.

Narrow Escape of an Audience-The Freaks Saved by the Firemen-It Took Forty Engines and Nearly Three Hundred Men to Subdue the Flames-Several Per sons Seriously Injured.
 CHICAGO, April 13.-One of the fiercest and most disastrous fires the Chicago De- partment has fought in many years swept through West Madison street last evening.
 The big Smythe Building which ex- ! tends from Ilion halfway to Halstead street, was destroyed and with it the con- 1 tents of John NJ. Smythe 6 Co.'S furni- ture house, the largest retail establish ment in the world.
 All that is left of Kohl & Middleton's | West Side dime museum is heap of brick and charred timbers.
 On the north side of Madison street, from Union street to the Haymarket the atre block, five buildings were destroyed. | Three of them tumbled down before the maelstrom of fire, and at one time the roof and portion of the front of the the atre building was burning so fiercely that everybody thought it would share | the fate of its neighbors, but the firemen managed to save the structure, but in 8 very damaged condition.
 The total loss is estimated at between $1.500,000 and g, ,000,000 John Smyth 6 Co., will lose nearly $600,000.
 Only Few Persons Injured.
 An extraordinary feature of the con- | hagration 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 flying piece of mortar, and two or three spectators who got under the danger lines were hurt, but none of them so seriously that they were unable to go home unaided. The fire originated in the wagon sheds of John M. Smith & | Co.,, directly in the rear of the museum.
 Panic Stricken in the Museum.
 Five hundred persons were in the lower part of the museum when the flames burst out in the rear of the stage. Some one in the audience saw the smoke creep ing 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 audi ence was composed of women and chil- dren, and they occupied the seats in the front.
 The flames caught hold of the light, inflammable scenery and soon made short work of it. Smoke filled the hall while the people were struggling to get out, and tongues of flame leaped from one side of the narrow stage to the other. Many of the women tainted or were over come by the smoke and had to be carried out.
 In less than 60 seconds the hall was emptied, but the audience got out none too soon, for the flames had already taken hold of the front seats.
 Running for Their Lives.
 By this time Smythe & Co.'S big build ing clear down to Union street was ablaze. The flames ran through the in- fiammable stock like & whirlwind, burst ing through the roof and 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 a wall paper house, was the next to catch fire. The three-story structure next door, the lower floor of which was occupied by Barr Bros. as hat store, was slowly crumbling under the influence of the heat. The other buildings, including the comparatively new one of six stories, which was known as La Barges Recess, clear to the east line of the Haymarket, were on fire. Men and women were tum- bling through their open doors and run ming for their lives. Some of them bare ly escaped.
 The excitement among the freaks, who were on exhibition on the third floor, was pitiful. Mime. Carver, who weighs 900 pounds, hobbled down from the platform and seizing her midget son dragged her self to the rear windc w, and was about to throw the child out when she was re- strained by Manager Belmont.
 A. D. Lafayette, the father of the big. headed boy, who was so top heavy that he could not navigate alone, rushed to the assistance of his son, and, while lead ing him out, found the Albino almost blind by reason of her weak eyes, groping about in the smoke. With the big-headed boy under his arm, he seized the Albino and dragged rather than led her to the stairway and to the street.
 Incidents of the Fire. , While the fire was at its worst 8 side walk at the corner of Union street and Meridian Court collapsed and precipitated 40 people into an excavation beneath : Mrs. Bessie Higgins was probably fat ally ! injured.
 When the fire broke out Dr. J. Der geron was attending Mrs. Sarah Macks 1T fiat in one of the buildings subsequent ly burned. When the fire got too close Dr. Bergeron seized the suffering woman . and wrapping her in blankets descended three flights of stairs with his burden anG carried her to @ refuge near by. In lest than 15 minutes 8 fine girl was born amid the crash of falling walls and the hoarse shouts of the firemen. Botl mother and child are doing we'll.
 It took 45 engines and nearly 300 fire men to bring the conhagration under