The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-02-08

and wife, Now Haven; O.. N. White and
wife, Nyack, n. Y: j. g. Williams and
wife, Albany; a. 0. Warren and wife,
Nlyack; Il. Ma5rong and wife, Baston; o"hn
city; i. Luefel and wife. CITY; Mr.. White
and wife, Chicago; Mr.. Faulker, wife and
daughter, Connecticut. 1t IL feared Q
search Of tho vast, smoking pilo Of debris
in the cellar will reveal many CHASTITY
finds. Reports at a late hour to-night are
that no less than q people are stlAl
u~nacCounted for.
Richard Meares, proprietor of the Hotel
ROYAL. said to-day he went to the clerks
deak about 1890 and ascertained that all
but four Of the 124 rooms and suites in the
house wero taken. He estimated there was
about 1870 to 40 people in the house all told
at that hour. He learned Inter, he said,
that the other four rooms were taken be-
fore one a. m. He told his experiences as
related. and also various Incidents con-
nected with the fire. Mr.. Meares says
when hi reached the street, in a half daaed
condition, he realized for the nrss time
that his wife was still in her room, and ran
frantioallv up and down the street. No one
was in sight, and overhead the flames were
leapinr from the elevator cupalo in great
sheets, Suddenly the engines began TO
dash up, and then the air was titled with
shouts and cries of distress. The inmates
Of the building had suddenly, awakened to
a sense of their danger. Heads appeared at
every window, quickly followed by
volumes Of smoke and tongues of flame:
Amid a babel of voices Meares detected
a familiar cry. He appealed to the foreman
of the hook and ladder truck. In an in
slant the top of the ladder rested upon the
the landlord scaled the ladder himself.
He found he had mistaken the window.
Int saved a life, for he tool down q half
senseless, white robed figure, and then
uln the ladder till it stood beneath his
wife's window. This time a slender young
man, a stranger. was too quiek tor nm,
beating him to the window by half a length
of the ladder. Half way down either the
yonnu man missed his footing or his
strength cave out. for he d;opped Mrs.
Meares. Half crazed, the husband says,
he does not know whether no fell or
clambered down the ladder. but he started
to find his wife. when a big pohcaman WIN
he would give considerable to ascertain,
stopped him, and demanded to know
his business. II am the proprietor
Of the hotel,' he said, ''and am
looking for my wife, At this, he says,
the officer shouted to a fellow poilcoman:
Here's the owner of the building. Don't
YOU think he had better look after his
house instead of his wife?' At this they
laughed, and despite his urgent entreaties
he was not permitted tofollow Mrs. Meares.
and it was not till an oEr later ho learned
her fate. Meares said the spectacle for
twenty minutes after he reached the street
was beyond his powers Of portrayal. Men
and women at the upper windows ciao Only
in night robes, shrieked and gesticulated
frantically, and were only prevented from
jumping BY the frenen, who shouted en-
couraoement to them. But the flames
waxed ~tiercer, and presently a una form
plunged from the fourth story and struck
the street head foremost, while blood and
brains splashed upon the bystanders. An
another and another shot downward until
three bodies lay bleeding and motionless.
Mr.. Meares said he could stand no more,
and got away from the horrible spot as
Quickly as possible. Aside from severe
burns he was not badly injured.
The guest who had the most narrow, and
at the same time the most marvellous es-
cape, was NJ. L. Hannah, travelling sales
man for a st. Louis wholesale grocery
house. He registered at the hotel Saturday
night with his wife. ''lhad a room on the
sixth %tioor,' said Hartman. and was
aroused from my sleep by a loud cracking
noise and the sound of a whistle, which !
think was from one of the engines on the
covered the stairway leading to the lower
floors in a blaze. then went to the win
dow and opened it, and there seemed to be
as much smoke on the outside
as in the hallway, for the room
soon filled. Both my wife and
I would have suffocated in the room had we
not taken two towels, which I soaked with
water. These We used to keep the smoke
out of our lungs by holding them over our
mouths and nostrils. I tried to find the
fire escape near the window, but there was
none, and I thought at one time we should
never get out of the room alive. 1t was
certain death to jump six stories. and as it
was either chat or burn to death, l said to
my wife: Matte, l am going to shoot you
and kill myself l concluded it would be
better to die that way than be burned to
death, and, as ! always sleep with a re-
volver under my pillow, [ hurried to the
bed to get it. BY this time the flames were
coming up through the cracks of the floor
and through the cracks of the door.
wife the tloor tell with a crash
and we went down probably two stories.
The flooring stopped opposite the window
and my wife jumped out and landed on the
portico beneath. A rope was hanging out
of this window and with this assistance l
managed to get down another story, but
here l slipped and fell to the portico. be-
able to carry her, and I was almost suffo-
Gated and the fall had injured me. / wss
endeavoring to reach the ladder when two
firemen took her from ms. How I reached
the sti eet [ do not know" Hartman is con-
fined to his bed at the Gedney house. His
hands and chest are severely burned and
hair and eyebrows singed. lie was told to-
day that his wife was being cared for at
one of the hospitals and that she was not
fatally injured. 1t is believed, however,
she is one of the dead.
There was not even a rope fire escape in
the room on the second floor which Felix
kreemer, Il salesman, of New York, occu-
pied, and had it not been for his experience
at hotel fires and his umbrella, he would
probably be numbered among the victims.
II have been burned out at hotels three
times now,' he said. ''At a fire ut Warrens-
burg, Mo-, a guest escaped by using an
upper story window. / never forgot if, and
since nave always been provided with Il
strong umbrella for an emergency. AS
soon as | reached the window | opened my
window quickly and carefully, put Il shawl
strap over it SO as to prevent it from turn
ing inside ont. Then l made the leap. |
did not go sailing gracefully out into tbs
air and land lightly on the ground beneath,
but | landed without any broken limbs and
EN- all right now The umbrella was par
italy turned inside ont just before | reached
the ground and / got something of a Jar.
The Latest Estimate.
New YoRF, Feb. Sat $50 a.. H.. to-day
the best estimates based ulon the
police reports, the coroner's list and
reporters investigations show: Dead, 8:
! ", ,rr IA, .S~- ~,