The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1894-05-25
VOL. xxv.--NEWsERIEs.
YALMAcES cHURcH COVE.
rxs Third Tabanacie Built for Him Burne

The Rev. DIR. L. De Witt Talmage's
church, the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and
\ the Hotel Regent, which was the finest
Hotel in the East outside of New York
lcity, were completely destroyed by
H fire and the Summerfield Methodist
n Church and no less than twenty resi-
K dences were damaged to greater or
h less extent. 1t was one of the greatest
I fires that Brooklyn has ever seen, en-
n falling as it did loss estimated q.
sbout million and quarter dollars
4 II extended over the two blocks bound,
cd by Greene, Clinton, Lnfayettet
Washington, and Waverly avenues.
The Fire Department WAS incompetent
II to handle it, and it was SO slow in re-
i sponding to the alarm that not only
the whole of the church, where the fire
started, was in flames, but they had
\ spread to the hotel, which adjoined it,
! before the first engine was on the scene.
Then, too, the pressure of water was
n insufficient.
\ & Guests of the hotel had to flee for
\ their lives. Some of them came down
the fire escapes, and one woman was
carried down. DR.. Talmagc himself
had an extremely narrow escape from
\ death, and so did several of the officers
\ of the church. Less than ten minutes
\ before the fire was discovered there
\ had been 5000 persons in the church
/ Had the discovery been made while
they were there, there would in all
probability have been stampede and
. fearful loss of life.
I + The DR.. had just finished his sermon
Z L. 4
missed. Al! but about 500 persons had
\ gone out. DR.. Talmage was perform
ing what he calls his international
handshake, it being feature of the
Sunday service. The 500 were partic-
] ipating in it. DR.. Talmage was shaking
! hands with Jew who had attended
!. the service when a stranger from the
crowd stepped up to Sexton Dey and
said:
"There Is smoke coming out of that
} organ. think the church must be on
\ fire."
/ The organ was in the rear of the
church. 1t reached almost to the cell
| ing. The keyboard was down below
| the platform where DR.. Taimage
preached. 1t was there Organist Brown
WAC. i hC W tuC lIttIlOI vi
7 the organ was from room back of the
\ auditorium. A ladder led up to a
scuttle, through which all the interior
could be seen. Dey climbed this lad
der, pushed up the scuttle and looked
in. He says he saw little jets of flame
creeping up from around the big square
pipes. They looked very small, and
he started to leap up and stamp them
out, when Of sudden great volume
of black smoke burst up in his face.
The whole organ seemed in an instant
to be filled with smoke. Dey choked
and pitched over backward, falling
down the ladder. He was unhurt. He
scrambled to his feet and dashed out
into the auditorium screaming fire.
But there was no need of the warming
The same moment the smoke burst out
inside the organ it burst out outside.
A hot wave struck Organist Brown in
the face and he fell back of his chair.
The roof of the Tabernacle was the
first part of the building to fall in.
That happened about half an hour
after the fire was discovered, so some
idea of the fierceness of the flames may
be imagined. The roof went in with
mighty crush. 1t carried with it to
the ground the iron beams that had
held the various floors. The walls
stood, and from the centre of the fiery
mass there shot up flame fully 200
feet high. With the fame there went
up cloud of sparks aud cinders that,
when it spread out, seemed half mile
across, and volume of gray-black
10 10 l. AZ &l,k
ed each spark into an electric light.
The wind caught the mass in
moment, and whirled it westward over
Washington avenue. The people on
the roof of the houses there were en-
veloped in it, and in some cases their
clothing was set on fire. The sparks
hit them in their faces, too, aud burned
them. But they could not retreat if
they would save their homes, for as
yet the Fire Department had not found
time to aid them.
The Tabernacle loss is about $780,
600 exclusive Of the organ which cost
J3,Oou.
DIR. Talma2c was seen at hi, home
while the fire was raging. II" "eiI.
e "Well, after all, Gods mercy exceeds
Che disaster.
Tf the fire had occurred half an
hour sooner six thousand people would
have been stampeded and many lives
iost. God moves in mysterious way
his wonders to perform
The Recent Hotel, adjoining the
rnpernacIe, was cntlrGIy desti Dyed
with all it's furnishings, cntailing loes
of about $500, 900.
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