Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-14

Union, 10000; American Central, 81, 500;
The State Of Des Moines, 5000.
The James O'Keefe agency has SIS. 900.
divided between the Rockford. Greenwich and
Security. J. c. Lange agency has sl5, 900.
The w. S. Cooper agency has on Deere, Wells
& Co. the following. American Of Newark,
s2.5o0; Hanover Of New York, $4,000; Ameri-
can Central, $500.
On Champion Harvester company: Phoenix,
$1,000; orient of Hartford. $500.
On Westinghouse company: American OF
Newark, $1,000; Hanover, 81 900; Phoenix,
$4,000; Firemen's Of Newark, 81 1000; Amer
lean Central. 81 600.
On Fuller, johnson G. Co.: New York
Underwriters. $4,000; Commercial Union,
50, 900; Union Assurance, $500.
Weir -Shugart company, on buildings:
Western Of Toronto, 1000; British American
Of Toronto, $1,000; Firemen's Of Newark,
$500.
stoughton Wagon company, stoughtOn,
Wis: British American, $500.
In addition to these the agencies of Day
&c Hess, D.. w. Otis and j. n. Cassidy have
written large amounts, but no report could
be obtained from them.
IMPLEMENT FIRMS INTERESTED.
The small wooden building where the fire
originated was owned by the old Weir
Shugart company and occupied by the
S~hugart-Empkie Implement company, who
transferred for Fuller, Johnson G. Co. Of
Madison, Wis; the Satley Manufacturing
company Of Springfield. ILL.,; the Wssting-
house company of Schenectady. n. Y; the
Champion Harvester company. and the ID.
June Engine company of Fremont, o.
The Combination Wire Fence company. a
large iron-clad wooden building on the vast
side OF Main street. was totally destroyed
with Its entire contents Of stock and ma
chinery. 1t was an enterprise owned and
started a year ago last month by Mr.. r. II.
Bloomer, an energetic young man, who cam
haA Ernr, vA,Iy Nr,I n al t,ac
worth about $4,000. and was owned by the
Weir-Shugart company. The loss sustained
by Mr.. Bloomer will reach something over
$4,000. On the LIST Of December he took an
invoices, and found that his stock and ma
chlnery Appropriated to that figure, and
considerable work has been done since. He
was only protected by 81, 500 insurance. He
was confined to his house by sickness yes
terday. and last night was compslled to sit
In his room at the residence of III. II. Ober-
holtzer, on Third street, and watch the de-
struction Of his property.
Just az soon as the insurance is adjusted
and the ruins become cool enough to handle
the debris the work of rebuilding will be
commenced. Mr.. Wells stated last night
that whatever the loss might be 1t would
not in The least cripple his company, but
that 1t would rebuild on a larger scale than
ever.
Mr.. Bloomer Of the fence works made the
same declaration.
TROUBLE FOR THE FIREMEN.
Considering the fact that the fire depart
ment has, within the past two weeks been
seriously crippled by the loss OF two men,
the work did was excellent. The city council
less than a month ago decided to enter upon
an era of 'retrenchment and REFORM The
announcement that the fire department was
to be lessened by the decrease Of two men
met with many protests, but 1t was done
nevertheless. AS luck would have it, the
alarm came in just at the supper hour. when
one man from each house was at his home.
There are but three men to a house when
all are on hand. with the exception of the
Upper Broadway house, where the "big ele-
phant' truck is kept, and there are four
there. Consequently there were but two
men in each company, except at the Upper
Broadway house where there were three. OF the
two men one had to hold the team and one
had to stay at the fire plug. What sort Of
Roadway could be made by the two-men
teams in laying hose, making couplings, and
throwing streams Is apparent enough. To
add to the difficulty, one of the horses ran
AWAY soon after reaching the fire, and broke
the tongue of the hose cart.
That a frowning providence should allow
the biggest fire in Council Bluffs history to
follow right on the heels of the ''retrench- |
ment and reform" movement is an unfor-
tunate thing for the movement. The loss in
fremen, however, was somewhat COM
pensated for by the quick and energetic
action of the police and marshal's depart |
ments. All the men from both departments
VINO could possibly De spared went promptly
to work and rendered valuable help.
HARD ON WIRES.
The telephone and motor companies were
considerably hampered by the fire. The
wires were burned and the motor company
was unable to run it's trains on any part of
the line for more than an hour. Then the
wires were cut near the Burlington depot
and single cars were run as far as that
point 1t was necessary to run the Omaha
trains UP Broadway and around the Pierce
street loop, but they will be run as usual
today, for the wires will be put in shape by
noon.
The telephone company lost three tele-
phones in the fire, and had enough wires
burned out to disable about a dozen more
for a day or two.
One of the fire brands set fire to the en-
trance Of the Congregational church. and
the flames were running two feet or more
high. when Sheriff Hazen CHANGED to pass.
ran to the nearest house for a pail of
water, and thus saved the structure from de-