Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1894-05-05
WITH LOSS OF LIFE

The Old st. Charles Hotel, New Orleans,
Whish Coast Ono Million Dollars, Went
Down Before tho Fury OF the Fire King
Two Persons Killed by Jumping, and
Many, 1t is Feared. We're Burned In
Tfeis Rooms.
New ORLEANS, April 2s, 1O:ll n m.
The st. Charles hotel, the largest
building IN the city, is burning. One
person burned to death SO far.
New ORLEANS, April 29 AT least
two lives were lost at the St Charles
hotel and how many more will not be
known until the ruins of the hand.
some structure are searched.
The fire was discovered at about II
o'clock in the kitchen of the hotel.
Everything was quiet around the
building at the time, all the servants
having disappeared from that part Of
the building and most of the guests hav-
ing retired for the night. The origin Of
the fire is not known. 1t had gained
good headway in the rear portion of
the structure before its presence be-
came known to the clerks in the Office.
An alarm was at once turned in, and
every one of the employees of the house
who could be found at that hour was
started through the halls to awaken
the guests. 1t is thought about 200
persons were sleeping in the hotel at
the time the fire broke out, though the
exact number of guests is not known,
and the register, with everything else
of value in the Office, is destroyed.
Some of those who occupied rooms
on the upper stories were less fortu.
nate, and the two known to have been
killed were men who jumped from
these upper windows The bodies OF
both had been severely burned before
the leap for life was made and in both
cases the clothing was nearly gone.
The bodies were SO mangled by the
fall that recognition was impossible
and there was nothing about the little
remaining clothing of either to indi.
cate the identity Of the unfortuna tes.
The fire burned its way with great
rapidity to the freight elevator in
the rear of the st. Charles hotel
and soon spread to the upper
floors, so that the third. fourth and
fifth floors on the Commerce-stree side
of the hotel We're ablaze. Most of the
guests were on the ST. Charles-stree
side, and they soon began to make
their appearance at the windows or
that side. Many of them were in theil
night clothes and in scanty attire, anc
most of them, with the aid of ladder.
brought quickly into use by the fire
men, made their escape to other hotels
near by.
How many others were left upon tn,
upper floors; how many who failed t.
reach the windows in time or, reach
ing the outer walls, with the flame
close upon them suffered a horrible
death by suffocation rather than max
the hopeless attempt to save their live
by jumping forty or fifty feet to tn
, stone pavement, can only be conjec
tured.
The hotel was gutted before the fire
, men had made the slightest headwa
in checking the flames. Indeed, it re
quired their most heroic efforts to saw
the human life imperiled in the fas
, burning wooden structure.
Nothing of the contents OF the hote
} or the baggage of the guests wa
saved, and it is doubtful if in thei
rush for their lives any of these frigh
ened people took time to gather up an
valuables they may have had nea
F; them at the time the alarm wa
sounded.
When the fire was at its greatest hea
burning embers were carried in grea
clouds across st. Charles street an
rained upon the roof of the building o
the opposite corner of st. Charles an
: Gravier streets, in which are locate
9 the offices of the Western Union Telt
! graph Co. This building could not b
I protected and was soon ablaze in
dozen places.
The st. Charles hotel was one of tn
, finest establishments of its kind in tn
south. 1t was built in 1856 at cost c
about sl,Qo0,Ooo