New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-04-03
DUKES COSTLY SMOKE.
THEY WERE ONLY CIGARETTES. TOO.


IN 1T, WAS DESTROYED by FIRE.
Six hundred men and girls thrown ont of
employment by fire which in the small hours
Of Sunday morning destroyed the big saven-stOry
red brick factory. East Thirty eighth-st and Sec
ond-ave., used by W. Duke Sons Il Co. for the
manufacture Of their smoking and chewing
tobacco Inside of three hours building which
had cost Sijo,ooo TO build. and stock and
chincry valued all told at Sl5OO0O more, were
burned, and now nothing remains but a crum-
bling ruin. James W. Duke. president of the
American Tobacco Company. in which w. Duke
Sons * Co. are stockholders, no sooner heard of
the disaster than he called a meeting of his
ciatcs in the firm and formulated a plan by which
his employees most of whom are young girls, will
be able TO their bread The plan of action,
readily adopted and completed provides for the
transportation OF the whole body to Baltimore
where they will find lodgmcnt in the works OF
Gail, AK K Co., who are members of the American
Tobacco Company, and the six hundred will leave
New-York to-day.
AS usual, tell how the fire originated
That indispensable adjunct to all new buildings
the elevator shaft again did its share of the
work in helping the flames. When the factory
closed early on Saturday night. the fires We're
drawn and the boilers cmptied In preparation
for the visit of the factory inspectors To-day.
| Down in the big cellar, which runs through the
| whole of the binding. stored the whslley,
| brandy, moasscs. alcohol and other ingredients
| which lend 10 the tobacco its seductive flavor.
| Tie building, numbering 107, 700 and I'll in
| S"cond-avc.. with frontaec Of forty feet, ex-
tends back through Thirty cighth-st for distance
! Of eighty feet. Thence IL takes sharp, clean
turn northward for Il distance of forty feet, thus
forming an l.. Adjoining the building on the
| t.s.... 1. a.
eral tenement houses. hllcd with families while
| on the south side of the Street. and separated
| from il by only the width of the narrow road
way. are six lvc-story fiat-houses
| II WIS lust two minutes after o'clock when
patrolman Anthony J. Miller, OF the Twenty-irst
| Precinct passing along Thirty-cighth-st.. from
First-ave and approa" hing the factory saw thin,
faint limo Of smoke rising from the third basement
| or cellar window, the 1hrty-eighth-st. side.
| lie stopped for moment and looked att"a'iVcy
at the little cloud. uncertain for a moment a. to
| whether what he saw actually the beginning
of a lire. lie had not long to remain in doubt.
rcforc lie could wholly realize the situation a
sharp tongue of flame shot out, and Miller turned
and ran II for his lite 10 Rox i6j at the street
corner Three blasts OF his whistle brought
Policemen Kc.gan and O'Irien TO his side. By
this time the FIRE, which only a moment before
|
mcnt, glowcd clear and bright on the windows Of
the roof floor. and the policemen knew that the
iuildng was doomed Their first thought was
Tor the -leepers in the tenement houses Kccgan
aud O'Brien started TO rout the tenants out Of
| their beds. and presently thcr, poured into the
| trcct half-lresscd, half-awakc. shiycrng crowd
| OF growing men and whimpcring women from the
| houses adjoining or facing the building, who
found shelter as best they could in the houses in
Sccond-avc. or Thirty -ninth-st.
Tho ircmcn already at work on the flames
Three and four alarms had been sent out in
| quick succession. but az glance Chief Bonner
had seen that the factory was doomed signal
from him stayed the hosting of the water towers
"Save the tcncments7 he said The factory is
lost"
The hames. starting at a point near the cle-
| rator shaft had leapcd TO Tn" roof clught every
ioor and cnvclored each and all in their grasp.
| he strong spirits stored down i'm the cellar did
the rest Of the work. Each story forms one great
room extending without partition or impairment
| from Sccond-ave. 10 the end of the - extension
and the flames fairly maturcd found the
easiest prey in the pine wood walls an flooring
All the efforts of the hrcmen were now directed
To the prevention of further harm From tn,
street, from the roof of IIupicl's big brewery at
tho north cnd Ol Thirty-clghth-st., from
the downtown track of the elevated ra alroad and
from tn" roofs of the houses in Thirty ninth-st.
the ircmcu sent thirty-six powerful streams Of
water. After fifty minutes Of fighting. n rum
BILE and crash and binding fash of flame sky
ward told that the roof had fallen in. Three
minutes more and the cornice crumbcd and
toppled over. As BY instinct the firemcn
turf ed and ran, not instant too soOn for
even they reached the opposite sidewalk the
| tbo nd al, III
walls cracked, parted. and slowly opening with
a Slow fanlile movement. smashed into the road
way covering the railway track and the road
way with hying bricks Five minutes more, and
tie west walls on the Thirty -cishtl-st. side fell
in and now only one wal-that which frontcd
Second nd-ave.-remaincd.
Cnly after another hours fierce work the
fire bcatcn but the wall still stood. and remained
there, tottering. and menace to life. until late
i'm the Afternoon when II was pulled down.
None Of the houses in the nciglborhood was ser
ously damaged, although Nos. 236, 23s, 24o'
ele and 2ii, eghth-st., were badly bis
tered In No. 2a4 Henry Lcdcrcr, barber. kept
6ttv canary birds, which all pcrished One man
lanes Hogan, was asleep in the building when
tho fire broke out He slept tie calm, resfuI sleep
Of the cornfcld. and as the yclls and screams OF
Jose,b Walker, his partner, had failed 10 rouse
him at midnight 80 the battcring of the police clubs
served not to disturb him now. BIT the smoke
oot into his nose and made him sneezc, and the
sncezing opened his eyes lie saw the smoke
and the fame and clad in only nightslTt
cIi,,bcd through n rear window ont into thu
| yard and 80 reached the rear tenement house Ill
The total loss, reaching 100000. is fully
covered by Insurance
FIJZABF,rH OPERA HOUSE DESTROYED.