The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-02-10


ing all his belongings in a trunk he tossed
the trunk through the window into the
yard and followed it himself. He lost
nothing except an overcoat which he left
with the office in the hotel.
Justin NJ. Noonan of Jersey City
Heights was one of the guests of the Hotel
ROYAL last night, and tells a thrilling story
Of his escape:
81 was detained in New York quite
late" he said, land decided TO stay over
night at the hotel. l registered about
y 80 and was assigned to room No. 81 on
the fourth floor. Ny windows overlooked
Sixth-aye. About o'clock this morning
I was awakened by smoke in the room. A
burst of flame poured in from tn corridor
and l slammed the door shut in hurry.
/ next opened the window and yelled for
help. Somebody IN the street called back,
wait a minute and we'll put up ladder
81 waited until l saw the bed just left
all ablaze then / climbed out ofthe window
and hung to the ledge with my hands. l
balanced myself carefully and dropped.
BY sheer good fortune l was able to reach
the ledge of the window below and held
on with my hands. | could hear the
crowd cheering, but did pot get excited at
all. Once more dropped from the third
story to the second story window ledge,
and as pulled myself together / felt the
ladder which the firemen were putting up.
/ slid down the ladder and reached the
street whore collapsed. The strain was
too great for me. Somebody carried me to
Malcomb's real estate office in Fortieth-
ST., and from there was taken to NIichael's
drug store corner Sixth-ave. and Fortieth-
st. There was lot of injured people in
the drug store and five or six bodies of
dead people. l escaped unhurt with the
exception of a cut on my left arm, but the
shock was desperate. / sent home Tor nv
clothes and was taken there in a coach"
Mr.. Noonan is brother of Assistant
District Attorney Noonan OF Hudson
county and is an artist.
There was not even rope or fire escape
in the room on the second floor in which
Felix Kraemer, salesman for Steinway d
Sons OF New York, occupied. ana had it
not been for Mr. Kraemer's experience at
hotel fires and @ number OF others he
probably would be numbered among the
victims.
Had I not had a strong umbrella I
should have either been burned or killed
byjumping," said he. Il have been burned
out at hotels three times now. / was
burned out at hotel at Warrensburg,
Mo-, and also at Ellsworth, kas., and l
learned something about how to act when
at fire on these two occasions.
At the fire at Warrenburg a
guest escaped by using an open
umbrella TO ease his flight from an upper
story window. l never forgot the way
in which he escaped, and since that time
1 have always been provided with a strong
umbrella for an emergency like that
which presented itself this morning. As
soon as | reached the window on the
third floor l opened my strong umbrella
and carefully put the shawl strap over it
so as to prevent il from turning inside out.
Then made leap. did not go sailing
gracefully out into the air and land lightly
on the ground beneath but l landed
without any broken limbs and am
all right now. The umbrella par
tally turned inside out just
before I reached the ground and / got
something of jar, but l should think
myself lucky il had escaped with
broken leg, for never before saw fire
burn so fercelv as the one which
consumed the hotel. 1 ran into the office
as soon as / reached the ground. was
the first person to get out of that hotel
and / cannot imagine how any OF the
other guests got out alive. l saw Mr..
alltl TIC ClSEk III lL6 OluCe. TOT
Gods sake l said, why don't you turn
in fire alarm went to the Gedney
house, registered, secured a suit of clothes
which did not fit me and returned
TO the fire. Even at that time the fire de-
partment had not arrived and men, women
and children were at the windows scream
ing for some one TO save them. l saw two
or three people jump from windows. 1t
was ten minutes after l returned to the
fire before a ladder was raised to
anv of the windows"
The guest who probably had the most
narrow and at the same time the most
marvellous escape was NJ. l.. Harman,
travelling salesman for st. Louis whole
sale grocery house. He registered at the
hotel on Saturday evening with his wife.
II had a room on the sixth floor" said
Mr.. Harman, land was aroused from
sleep by a loud roaring noise and by the
sound of a whistle, which think was from
one of the engines on the elevated road.
1opened my door and discovered that the
stairway leading to the lower floors was
in blaze. The hallway was filled with
smoke and as it poured into my room as
long as the door was open 1 quickly closed
it knowing that there was no escape that
way. went to the window and opened
suffocated in the room had | not taken
two towels which 1 soaked with water.
These we used to keep the smoke
out OF our lungs by holding them
over our mouths and nostrils. / tried to
find fire escape near our window, but
there was none, and thought at one time
that We should never get out OF the room
alive. 1t was certain death to jump six
stories, and as it was either that or burn to
death l said to my wife: Hattie, am CO.
ing to shoot you and then kill myself
II concluded that it would be better to
die that way than burn to death. ard as l
always sleep with q revolver under my
pillow / hurried to the bed to get it. By
this time the flames were coming
up through the cracks in the door.
Just as l was about to shoot my
wife the floor fell with crash and we
went down probably two stories. The
flooring stopped opposite a window, and
my wife jumped out and landed on a
portico beneath. a rope was hanging
out of this window and with this assistance
managed to get down another story, but
here / slipped and foil to the portico be-
side my wife. L picked her up, but was
unable to carry her. and as / was almost
suffocated and the fall had injured me.
/ was endeavoring to reach ladder to try
to carry her down to the street, when two
firemen took her from me. How reached
the street do not know"
SCENES OF HORROR.