Morning journal and courier., 1893-07-11
NEWS BY TELEGRAPH. From All Quarters. FORTY LIVES WERE LOST Scenes of Horror at the
 Worlds Fair Fire. MEN SWALLOWED UP IN FLAMES. Other Jump to Death to Escape Such a Fate. aOT WORTH WHAT IS PAID FOR 1T. Senator oherman's Views
 on the Silver Question.
MEN SWALLOWED UP IN FLAMES.
NOT WORTH WHAT IS PAID FOR 1T.
MANY FIREMEN KILLED.

! MANY FlREMEN klLLED.
 1t Is Believed That Forty Men Lost Their Lives In the Flames In Chi- 1 cago-Firemen n Fig ht Fire One Hum 1 dred and Fifty Feet From the GrOund-Flames Burst All About | Them and some of Them Fall Into the Soothing Volcano-Others Rath- 1 CT Than Meet Such a Fate Jumped 1 to the Ground Where They Were l Dashed to Death-Helpless Specta- l SlOrs Wrung Their Hands in Horror ! and Many Women Fainted-Seenes [ of Indescrlbable and Frightful ] Horror.
 CHICAGO, July 10-The cold storage | warehouse at the worlds fair grounds was | burned this afternoon, and nearly forty persons fell victims to the fire which for | time threatened the destruction of the en- tire White city.
 The building contained skating rink and the exhibits of the Hercules Iron Works and Ice and Refrigerating Machine manufacturers. It was 25O feet long by 1 150 feet wide, aud was constructed entirely of wood covered over with staff. The l main body of the building was five stories high. In the center of this rose the smoke stack in the shape of oupols, to the top of which was almost two hundred feet The base of this cupols was about thirty feet square. About eighty feet from the base of this cupola there was a balcony, from which another square tower rose cul- m'nating in the mouth of the smokestsck. In the interior of this tower and around the smokestsck were the wooden beams and framework on which the staff covering was laid It was at that point of the cupola that at 1:15 p. m. the fire was discovered. It Is supposed that the framework around the mouth of the chimney caught from g de- fective fue. At first it appeared to be an insignificant affair, but knowing the in- fammable nature of the structure Fire Marshal Murphy, who had charge of the fire department on the grounds, gent in @ call for all companies to turn out. With about forty of his men he climbed the stationary ladders inside the tower to the balcony and from there ropes were lowered to hanl up the hose. Only one hose, that of chemical engine, had bsen hauled up when a gust of wind caused the flames to break out in an alarming manner about ten fest from the tonsf the cupols. Meantime the fire had eaten It's way down through the network of timbers in side the structure and, unconscious ot their danger, the fremen were standing, as it were, on the shell of burning vol cano. -.>
 Not one of the thirty thousand inter- ested spectators who had gathered from all parts of the grounds had any intims- tion of the peril in which the fremen were then standing. The fire had been burning scarcely twenty minutes and the fremen were pull ing and hauling at the ropes when sud- denly the flames burst out around the base of the cupola with great fury. So sudden was the outbreak and so terrible ! was the spectacle that for the moment the crowd stood trapsfxed with horror. Strong msn wrung their hands in @ hys- l terical manner and scores of women ! tainted. All alike were powerless to aid ] the men imprisoned the balcony one l hundred and fifty feet from the ground.
 
 were burned away in an instant.
 | The hose from the chemical engine with stood the heat, however, and John Davis | caught hold of it and slid down ninety feet l to the main roof of the warehouse, where he tainted His face and hands were ter ribly burned by the flames which envel- | oped his body as he came down. He was taken to the hospital and the physioians say he will recover. Two of his fellows attempted to follow him, but before they
 were half way down the hose gave way and they dropped into the seething mass of fire and were lost. As the hose parted and the men sank out of sight in the fire
 the multitude below uttered groan of
 horror. Another of the imprisoned men
 started down the rope on the north side
 and had almost reached the roof when 1t
 gave way and he fell, striking on his head,
 and was instantly killed.
 There now remained, according to the
 counts of various spectators, from twenty five to thirty men on the tower. They
 were hopelessly beyond the reach of help.
 The longest ladder fell short of reaching
 him by full thirty feet Death of the most
 awful kind was fast approaching. At this
 moment Captain Fitzpatrlck's tall form and
 white helmet appeared in front of the men
 huddled together on the balcony. He ap-
 peared to be addressing his comrades, but
 what he said will probably never be known,
 for he alone of all the men around him at that moment escaped alive, and his injur- les are such that 1t is doubt fIl If hs will
 ever regain consciousness.
 As Captain Fitzpatrick ceased to speak 1 one of the men crept around the balcony
 of the burning building to the east and re-
 turned moment later with rope that
 had been left there in the excitement. It
 was hastily fastened to the railing around , l the balcony and then thrown to the roof
 Captain Fitzpatrick pointed to it. The
 foremost man seized it and started to slide
 down, but before he was half way down
 the flames rolled up and he was swallowed
 in the mouth of the volcano. Another
 tried it and met similar fate.
 1, The fremen appeared to realize tht
 awfulness of their position, and some oi
 them moved back and forth along the edg'
 of the balcony ss if in search of som'
 means of escape. Suddenly, one of thu
 unfortunates, either crazed by heat ant
 fear or preferring to be crushed by tn
 fall to 8 terrible death than by flame Id sprang from the balcony. Four of hi
 companions followed ,and each was crushed
 to death on the hard roof below.
 The rope was burned off about half wa
 down and it hung apparently useles
 against a portion of the wall. Seeing hi
 men jumping to their doom the captain
 seized the rope and started down. A lad
 der had been raised, but was almost twent