The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-10-28

L
| mediately beyond him, also bolt upri@n'
and clutching his waist, was the skeleton
| of a woman. Startled. they had risen
from their couch, the smoke and nanes
| had rushed in upon them, aud before they
| had realized their awful danger, they were
| overpowered and met the most horflDle Oh
deaths.
WHERE THE FIRE DIDN'T BURN.
In a portion of hotel where flames did
| not destroy the woodwork the bodies OF
| two more were found. One man was
| completely dressed aud the other was in
| his night clothes. They were suffocated
| by smoke. La one of the ruined rooms at
| the end of "A narrow hall under broken
window where one man WAS found dead,
| is a white freak on he wall untouched by
| fire, untarn shed by smoke. kept thus by
| the appraised arm of this victim, where an
arm rested against the wall when in a last
struggle he reached upward for help in his
awful agony. IL the corner of Il room
where the upper parts of the walls are
burned away is an uuburned spot upon the
fl Jor and on both the corner walls.
In that place against the wall Sat a
wife, dead, her arms about the waist o.
her dead husband who sat before her on
the floor, his feet and arms burned off, his
eyes burned out and her hands burned Oft
In another room is long unburned spot,
tn shape OF man, where one was found
dressed and dead, with his feet badly
burned.
DESPoILED OF HUMAcJ sEMBLANCE.
The bodies were taken TO the morgue
this morning in boxes or cauvasSed sacks.
Most of the bodies were wrapped IN stained
ana dirty bed clothing from the storerooms
of the burned hotel. Some of them were
SO badly burned that only the wrappings
held the body and trunk from falling
asunder. As the rigor of death had long
before set in it was almost impossible TO
straighte out the distorted limbs of some
OF the dead.
One corpse, that of a man whose head
was burned entirely off, was bowed up al
most MS if tied IN a knot He had died OF
his hand and knees, with his face buried
in the bed clothes. The bodies of two of
the little girls were naked and were dis
torted into shapes hardly human. Their
little hands and feet were entirely con-
sumed and only the ends of charred bones
of legs and arms remained.
The arrangement OF the halls OF the
hotel made such a labyrinth that in the
day time one unfamiliar with the place
would nave had difficulty ia finding his
way about without several attempts aud
as the halls were filled with smoke there
Aas little chance for any of them TO grope
their way out before suffocating. Some of
the dodgers were sound asleep and were
overuaken in bed, while others rushed into
the halls and were suffocated and burned.
Thirteen bodies have been identified.
THE DEAD
Mrs. OTTERMAN. of California, aged 60.
ANDREW OTTEEMAN, her SOL, aged Is.
MRS. j. w. HUFFMAN, wife of a we'll
known farmer of Fail City, Wash.
Mrs. j. ii. HANCOCK, of Rolfe, Iowa.
and her three children, two girls aged
and 2 years, aud boy aged f.
JOHN T. ANDERSON, aged IS
+. BALLMAN.
&. GRAIN. "A laborer.
ANGUS MCDONALD.
C. " ILSON.
NJ. MCSoRLEY.
The financial loss is less than $4,000
well insured. The building belonged To
j. NJ. Coleman, who loses 5000. The
other losers sre c. q. Sanborn, grocer;
VIM. L. Butler, proprietor of the hotel;
the Hill Syrup company, and the Cali
fornia Commission company.