Morning journal and courier., 1894-01-09

PROBABLY CAUSED BY TRAmPs. Mors Than . Million Dollars, Werth of Goods That Were on Exhibitfon n at the Worlds Fair and That Had Not Been Removed Were Destroyed by Fire-The Peristyle, the Casino and the Music Hall Went UP in smoke-FIremen Fight the Flames at Stations Two Hundred and Fifty Feet From the Ground-Semi-Panic ReiRned Among the Rxhibitors. CHICAGO, Jan. S.-This evening the beau tiful Peristyls of the worlds Columbian
 exposition was destroyed by fire. With it
 went the Casino and the Music Hall, flank
 ing the Peristyle at either end, and before
 the destruction of the grand entrance to
 the fair had been completed the great
 manufactures building, containing.$ .$2, ,o00,- 900 worth of exhibits, packed and ready
 for shipment, was on fire in . dozen places,
 while fremen were riskipg life and limb to stay the destruction.
 Fifty thousand people watched the Are and cheered the men who, 250 feet or more from the ground were struggling to keep back the flames. The contest was wagsd for hours. The blaze played in the wood- work of the roof, gradually eating through and dropping burning brands amid the costly exhibits on the floor below. There other attachments of fremen were sta tioned to extinguish the brands as they fell and inside the building fire engines were playing streams to soak the floors and make them less combustibls. Among the exhibitors a semi-panic reigned aud frantic foreigners were using every effort to remove the goods to places of safety. William Msckey, pipemsn of En- zine No. 61, fell from a ladder on the Peri style and was internally injured. He died at the hospital. Captain Esetz, Captain Tobey and Eugene Delaney were badly in-
 At $40 policeman saw a light tongue of flame leap from a second story window of the Casino building and creep up toward the roof. The officer instantly gave the alarm and fremen rushed to the scene, but before lead of hose was carried to the burning structure tho Casino was ablaze. Before . stream was turned on the roof to c distance of thirty feet from the west end fell. The fire was carried by burning brands to the promenade around the roof of Manufacturers and Liberal Arts build ing almost in the center, @ little to the south of the clock tower. The plank walk furnished material for the fire.
 Chief Allerton, of the manufscturers' a force to the roof and endeavor to cut . section to the north, as the flames were eating up the roof in that direction There was great danger to the halt-dsmolished psyilions, booths and places of costly ex- hibits belonging to Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia and other countries who exhibited in e cluster around the clock tower. There was sn incessant shower of burning pieces of timber from the roof falling upon the oombustible material on this floor and making the task of ths fremen playing streams of water on the in- cipient fres c difficult one. The interior of the building was obscured by dense clouds of smoke, and c great black cloud could be seen ascending from the structure for miles around.
 At 12:30 6. m. the fre chief believed that none of the exhibits would be de- etroyed and that much of the roof might be saved. Chief Allerton had 6 dozsn teams and large force of men removing the packed exhibits from the north end of the building. That part of the roof afre was to an extent isolated from the staff walls of the huge structure and in every quarter engines were stationed to prevent communication of the fsmss to those DOT tions of the buildings.
 In the Manufactures building the French exhibit was the first to suffer. This tI- hibit was originally valued at $1 ,500. coo, but the larger portion of 1t is said to have been moved out. Those in charge of the exhibit approximate the French loss at more than $100, 600.
 The Germans place a value of sl, ,OOO. 900 on their exhibit. A conservative estimate places the total loss thus far at c million and hslf
 It is thought the fire was caused by trsmps sleeping in the Casino.