The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1894-01-18

3kExposition Monday night. The South
sgMSPark Commissioners will not teardown
s-ssdkhe majestic Peristyle. nor will the
Y &ouch of the wrecker defile the Music
Mail or the Casino. A vexed problem
That touched the sentiment of the
world to the quick has been solved.
To-day the Park Commissioners have
10 deal with ruins where proud build
ings stood. Twenty thousand specta-
law the east end of the Court of Honor
Danish in smoke and flame. The fire
tarted in the Casino. destroyed that
Building. then swept nOrthward along
khe Peristyle into Music Hall, and
from there across and into the Manu-
factures Building. For three hours
the flames ragged along the east end of
the Court of Honor until nothing was
left but charl cd timbers and blacKened
plaster. a shower of sparks fell upon
The ice in the lagoon until it looked
like a sea of fire: they fell upon the
adjacent buildings. threatening them
with destruction. 1t was a magnificent
Spectacle that drew ceaseless eXclama-
lions of wonder and awe from the spec
tators that crowded the grounds in the
vicinity OF the ti,e. 1t was the great
.est pyrotechnic display of the Fair.
manufactures ttOOi Satcnes.
But the work of destruction did not
end with the burning of these build
inos. Fircb ands were carried to the
roof of Manufactures Building. and the
promenade around the crown of that
renlrmOus structure was soon IN fire.
The wind was strong and the flames soon
reached the immense wooden ~ventila-
to. under the caves, and they were soon
burning fercely. The clcre-story I'M
der the roof vas quickly in a
blaze. From this and through the
great holes made in the gla.s roof fell
a continuous shower of frebrands. and
in twenty minutes there were over a
doz II small c~onilagrations in the Bel
gian, French. German and English
sections. ii"cmcn and Columbian
Guards fought {! csc fire, so success =
fully that. although the facade, and
exhibit structures were destroyed,
probably not more than a dozen cases
containing exhibits were burned. The
goods icopardized represented $780,
90: the los is Lot over 100000,
principally by water. How much
Insurance is carried will not be
learned for some lime. as many of the
policies were written in foi eign coun-
tries. There is little if any Insurance
on the Manufactures Building. and
none on the Casino. Peristyle and Mu-
sic Hall.
The fire worked clear around the in
side Of the don G. burning itself out at
3 o'clock Tuesday morning.
As in the cold Storage fire. life vas
lost in fighting il. William Mackie. of
Engine Company No. 81. fell from the
pcri-tylc and died an hour later at
Mercy Hospital. Three other men
were injured.
The fire wa discovered at $50
o'clock on the sccond floor in the north
west c0rncr Of the Casino. G.. Mason,
a guard on duty in Music Hall, saw it
and ran to a fire alarm box and tried
to turn in an alarm, but the key would
not work. Then he went to another
box. and again failed. He tried a
third with the anne result. and then Il
fourth. Then he gave it up and hunt
ed up Il telephone, and succeeded in
getting III alarm at last. BY this time
the flames had gained a strong head
way. Marshal Malley responded with
one engine. and Immediately turned in
4 Al! alarm.
y week AGO twenty engines would
have responded to this call. but owing
10 the changes that have been made in
the arrangement for fire protection at
the Fair only ten engines responded.
These found that they had more tina
they could contend with, so a special
CAL was sent in. and this IA soon fol-
lowed by a second special. 1t was too
late to attempt to save the Casino. and
the iiremen devoted most OF their at
tention to saving the Agricultural
Building and to checking the flames on
the Pcristylc.
Tramps Suspected of Arson.
1t is more than probable that the fire
was started by tramps. They have
been fairly swarming in the Fair
grounds since the first Ct the month,
especially around the Casino and Music
Hall. There is nc guard at all stationed
in the Casino nor in fact anywhere
nearer that point than Music Hall,
where Il man keeps watch. There Is
also a guard in the Convent OF La
Rabida. About t o'clock in the after
noon a dozen tramps walked into Music
Hall. where Guard G. Mason was on
duty. He ordered them to leave, but
they made an i~nsolent reply and
refused to 90. Mason succeeded In
driving them out They wen in the
direction of the Casino, and in an hour
after the fire was discovered. NO one
had any right 70 be arOund the CASINO
and there has been no fire there Tor
months, but there were a number OF
Old packing cases and a quantity OF eX-
celsior in the building, and if the fire
was not started by design it could easily
have been started by means OF a cigar
stub or the ashes of a pipe carelessly
cmptied in the inilammable stuff h u
thickly covered the floor in places.
The estimates on the value OF the
goods which were jeopardized by the
hre IL Manufactures Building vary
widely, though it is probable that s.
Uo),OoO is a conservative a%pprOxima'
ton OF what remained on the floor
when the fire broke out. The foreign