The Portland daily press., 1891-04-13
MONKEYS ROASTED
But the Freaks Rescued From a BIay.
inc Museum.
Plutky Policeman With a Pistol
Prevented a Panic.
A Million Gone in Smoke and Flame
in Chicago.
The Worst Fire Since '7l-SeVeral
The Worst Fire Since '7l-SeveraI
Lives Lost.

CHICAGO, April 12.-Chicago this morning
suffered from one of the most destructive
conflagrations which has occurred here since
the big fire of 1871. The loss is fully a mil
lion dollars. The flames started in almost
the exact geographical centre of the city.
They began in a stable, the property of
well known furniture manufacturer and pol
itician. John M. Smythe, located In the rear
OF his big business house, a furnishing es-
tablishment. on West Madison street, near
Halstead street. The flames speedily COM
municated to the furniture establishment,
anda moment later to Kahl & Middleton's
Dime Museum. For a time looked
as though the confagration of 1871
would be repeated, as the wind had sudden
ly risen and was blowing stiff gale from the
west. The museum was soon nothing but
heap of ruins, and the walls of the Smythe
building falling one after another. Fortu-
nately they all fell into the ruins aud no
person was injured. Across the street also
the walls of the buildings soon succumbed to
the furious onslaught. The upper story of
three story building on the northwest corner
OF Madison and Union streets, caught fire
and the flames lodged around the windows
of the fifth story Of the Haymarket theatre
building, soon stretching along the Mansard
roof. Just west of the Haymarket building
was the five story building occupied by the
Peoples Clothing Company. Here the win
dows were on fire, and, despite all the efforts,
the buildings between Union street and Hay
market Block shared the fate of those across
the street and were wiped out completely.
In the Haymarket fire, which was confined
to the upper story, the whole building was
filed with smoke and water. West of the
Haymarket the damage was comparatively
small.
The first intimation the inmates OF Kohl
81 Middlet0n's Museum had of the close prox-
unity of tbs fire was when some one opened
window on the third floor. At once
a volume of smoke poured In, filling
the entire floor. A wild panic followed.
among the 400 persons in the building. Most
of them were on the first floor, watching a
variety performance, and as they fled pre-
cipitately toward the front door the fire ap-
peared at the rear windows. The emergen-
cy brought out hero in the person of Po-
liceman Patrick Sheeny. Forcing his way
through the frightened people, who were
madly retarding each other In the jam at the
exit, he stationed himself at the head of the
stairs and, drawing his revolver, declared 1t
his intention to kill the first
person who refused to obey
orders. By GOODNESS and determination,
he succeeded in quieting the panic and,
with one exception, everybody reached the
street in safety. The exception was G. Fl.
Messenger. young man. who before Officer
Shaahv rQaahad tho cfoir 1opdipn da
rush for the front of the building. Throw
ing open a window, he jumped into the
street and fell with awful force on the stone
pavement. He was unconscious when picked
up. Several persons followed him but
stopped long enough before jumping to be
corralled by Sheehy and his revolver. One
old lady in the crowd, fell when near the bot
tom of the stairs and broke her arm.
As soon as Officer Sheehy caused an abate-
ment Of the panic among the people, he went
up to the third floor where some scores Of
mokeys were Gagged. The poor brutes were
chattering and screaming with terror at the
flames on all sides. Sheehy hurriedly seized
the iron bars and forced them open wide
enough for the animals to escape. They
scampered about the room for momant,
O
were burned to death by wholesale. The
policeman groped his way In the blind
ing smoke and reached the street dazed and
nearly unconscious. The excitement among
the freaks on exhibition on the third
floor was pitiful. They were practically
unable to help themselves. Nine. Carver,
the fat woman, hobbled down from the plat
form, seizing the midget, and dragged herself
to the rear window. She was about to throw
the child out when she was restrained by the
manager who, with difficulty, escorted them
down the stairway. The father of the big
headed boy, who was so top heavy he could
of his son. While leading him out, he found
the albino, almost blind lby reason of her
weak eyes, cropping about in the smoke
With the big headed boy under his arm, he
seized the albino and dragged her to the
stairway and reached the street.
1t took 40 engines and nearly 800 firemen
to bring the fire under control. The nerve
displayed by the firemen was heighten ed by
the fact that all the time they knew that at
least 100 barrels of oil were stored in the
basement OF the Smythe establishment and
likely at any time to create terrific explo-
sion. just before the west wall of the
Smythe building fell a venturesome lad
building and stood watching the flames
from that lofty position. When the wall
toppled over with a loud crash and the
smoke cleared away he was not to be seen.
1t is feared he went down with the debris
and was lost. While the fire was at its
worst the sidewalk on the corner of Union
street and Meridian court collapsed, precipi-
tatiDg 90 people into the excavation. One
woman was probably fatally injured and one
man had his leg broken.
One man died after being taken to the
hospital.