Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-02-09
ARSON SUSPECTED.
Rumor that Hotel Royal was
Set on Fire.
THE THREAT OF A SCRUB WOMAN.


A Vow that she Would Burn the House
Slow Progress at the Ruins-But Twelve
Corpses So far Recovered-Fifty- Iii Ght
Missing, Many of Them with shady"
Reputations-A List of Thirty Injured
Human Foot in Sight - = Million
Dollar fire at Memphis.
New YORK, Feb. 9 1t was stated yes.
terday that one of the scrub women of the
Hotel Royal may have been the cause II
the holocaust Sunday morning. In other
words, that the fire was not accidental but
incendiary. The story is that TWO weeks
ago she made q deliberate attempt 20 burn
up her fellow servants at midnight and
nearly succeeded She disappeared after
wards with the threat that she would yet
"burn them all This matter. it is
stated, is TO be investigated by the police.
The fire the scrub woman started was in
fat house just across Sixth avenue, on the
top floor of which sixteen of the servants
of the Hotel Royal slept The woman,
whose name was Margaret. came home
one night drunk and threatened to set fire
to the place.
= .. The Woman Has Disappeared.
Her fellow servants took her candle
away and thought The danger was over,
but Margaret went down 10 the floor be
low, obtained another candle and going
back to her own room deliberately set her
bed on fire. When the Others ran out and
the firemen came, policeman, finding the
woman drunN on the sidewalk chased her
away with his club. 1t was said yester-
day by the other girls who roomed in the
fiat house that Margaret had been dis
missed the following day by the hotel
proprietor and had not since been seen
about the place When she went away
She vowed she you'd burn down the hotel
A person living near the Hotel Royal said
that he saw flames coming from the hot 4
at ESQ a. m, twenty minutes before the
alarm sounded.
Slow Work Recovering Bodies.
1t has been definitely aScertained that
there were 152 persons in the hotel when
the fire broke out The search for bodies
was resumed yesterday morning at Z
O'Clock, 125 Italians being engaged in the
CHASTITY work. which was very slow. The
firemen at 9 o'clock found the body of
woman in a room on the fifth floor of the
portion Of tie building still standing on
Fortieth street. \ few, minutes later the
body Of man was found beneath a pile
of debris under the site Of the dining-room
Seven bodies had been found Since $50.
But there are 81 missing and how many OF
these lie under the de5ris>
Relics of the Lost Ones.
BY noon nine bodies had been taken out
and they were all taken to the morgue
Numerous al -icles picked up from the de-
bris were sent to the Thrtieth street
station. Among them was package of
letters marked Lena Cohen hand bag
marked with the initial X" and "a silver
thimble marked M A. D." The work of
tearing down the walls of the hotel is car
ried on with considerable danger to those
engaged in it. Some OF the workmen have
had very narrow escapes from death OF
the bodies that are found, and it is be
lieved that dozen more will be, more
than half will never be identified. Three
fourths of the guests at the hotel may
have slept there under names not their
own
Was an ASK No Questions" Hotel.
On account Of q lack IF scrutiny of APP
plicants for rooms the hotel was favorite
resort for n certain class Of patrons, ana
on Saturday night this class Of transient
custom was very large. Of the l27 rooms
in the hotel onls :hirty-six We're occupied
ny regular b0ardars. The hotel register
has been found, but large part Of the
names on IL are fictitious IT Is not not
considered worth publishing.