Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-08
ESCAPED DOWN ROPES.


 i Ambulance bells rang furiously, doctors with bandage', came hocking to the scene and then by ones, by twos, white-robed figures could be seen coming down ropes, others climbing from dizzy window lodges to copings, while sometimes despsiring cry would herald the leap which ended in death.
 One woman, as she leaped, struck po- iceman, who WAS carrying another woman down 8 ladder, and all came to the ground. | The woman who was being carried sus- tained no severe injuries, nor did the po- liceman. The other woman struck on her head and did not stir. As fast as the in | jured people came down the ladders or ropes they were bundled into ambulances. Many were taken to a drug store. NO RECORD OF THE SAVED KEPT. No record was kept of them and it was almost impossible to say how msnys had | thus been ssTsd. Those who escaped with | out injury, for the greater part, avoided | observation and it will be impossible to | tell just how many guests escaped and how | many were killed except by finding the | bodies of the latter. Many of the guests | are not desirous of having their friends | know that they were in the hotel. They will probably, therefore, not be forward to say they are safe. On Saturday nights particularly the Hotel Royal is full of such transient guests.
 Ar. Mears estimates that there were 133 | guests in the,,hotel. To those who saw how the building blazed up from the bottom it | seemed incredible that many should have escaped with their lives.
 COLLAPSE OF THE BUILDING.
 At 4 o'clock the Sixth avenue wall for sixty feet from Fortieth street fell outward with a crash and roar and forty-five min utes later more than half the Fortieth street front wall collapsed. The whole building collapsed at 4:30 and a great pill lar of flame shot up in the air, accomps- nied by noise like @ tremendous e1plo- sion. All that was left standing was a strip of wall sbsut ten feet wide. Soon after o'clock Chief Bonner declared that the flames were under control and the work of search for the dead begun.
 The streets for blocks were covered thickly with ice from the torrents of water.
 SERVANT GIRLS MISSING.
 There were about thirty servant girls employed in the hotel, and their sleeping rooms were on the upper floors. Several of these young women have not yet re- ported. One of the guests used large umbrella as & parachute and descended safely from the third story.
 Up to midnight there had been but four persons taken from the fire to hospitals for treatment
 T. H. Harding, of this city, is searching for F. A. Clark, proprietor of the Clark hotel, Boston. He describes his friend as five feet, ten inches in height, brown side whiskers and thick, full beard. Many other missing people are being inquired for by friends,
 The terrible catastrophe was the fruitful topic of conversation all over the city last evening, from the fact that several resi- dents of this city were reported to have been killed in the conflagration. Rumors were rife, and the names of several we'll known residents were associated with the terrible loss of life at the Hotel Royal. Among the number was that of Professor w. K. Townsend, and the rumor of his suddenly and untimely demise caused no end of comment about the set at rest by the announcement that Pro- lessor Townsend was still in Florida and consequently could not have been ct the eCcuo oi tuo SouhoSfstiou. batci it nas | rumored that the Townsend who was re- ported as missing was A. A. Townsend, the coal dealer of IA Church street, but at the time of going to press no confirmation of this report had been received.
 Mrs. Townsend seemingly placed no ere dence in the rumor, although naturally very much worried in consequence ef it. To COURIER reporter last evening she said: The last heard of Mir. Townsend was on Saturday, when received a postal from him dated at Baltimore, where he was attending the convention of the American Fraternal Circle, in which he said that he would not be at home until Monday noon. have only heard the ru- nor of his death short time since. I cannot believe it true, and am of the opin- ion that he may have escaped all right, and thinking that probably I would not hear of the catastrophe until Monday morning, and consequently would not be worried, has not telegraphed to me
 Among the guests registered at the hotel were & Mir. and Mrs. Mckee of this city, but inquiry among all the families of that name residing in this city failed to find any of them absent from home.