Oakes weekly Republican. (Oakes, Dickey County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1898, 1896-06-12
Messls IIemenway & White quite likely to
rebuild.
Loss from $4,000 to 5000.
Insurance $35OO.

At an early hour last Sunday !
morning the citizen of this city were
awakened from their Sunday morn
ing maps by the shrill call of Fire!
Fire! Fire! and the swift toll of the
fire alarm, and it was not MANY seq
onds after the first tap before an ex-
cited crowd of citizens were rnnning
toward the Hotel Argyle where a
wood shed in the rear of tho hotel
was dis covered to be in a mass of
flames The fire was first discoy-
cred about 4:45 a. IN. and as is
customary in such cases there
were number of people who
were the first ones at the blaze, but
all agree that had there been few
pals of water at hand when they
first discovered it, the building would
not have been burned.
An agent of the Standard Oil Com
pany is claimed to have first seen the
hre, and was sleeping in room over
looking the shed, heard the crack
ling of the flames and rushed down
stairs with two pitchers of water
which he dashed on the flames with
but slight effect. He then awakened
Mr.. Hunter and son.
Soon after this the cries of fire be-
came frequent and in short time the
fire engine was dragged out and talk
en- to the we'll in the rear Of the Rob
erts block; but as some difficulty was
experienced in gettingup ste am it was
several minutes before water was
forced through the hose. In the
meantime the flames had envelopeG
the shed and were slowly but gradu-
ally creeping into the hotel. The
wind was blowing nerceIy ifo,h the
south, and consequently the flames
had to work up against the wind, which
tended to hold them back and pre-
vented il spreading more rapidly.
AS soon as it was possible under
the existing circumstances the engine
was working and two large streams Of
water were playing on the flames. AL
though the uncontrolled element had
made awful headway, nevertheless
under the force of the deluge of wa
ter the flames were sullenly yielding
ard many thought that She building
would be saved, when the awful wore
came that the water supply had Civ
on out and that the engine was being
moved to the railroad we'll at the
Union depot.
To accomplish this was the work
of several minutes and when the en-
gine again resumed work tho whole
building was a lurid mass. The
thousands of tongues Of fire leaped
along from room to room, an awful
yet beautiful sight. In the mean.
time as soon as the crowd arrived
they at once began to take out the
furniture. Tho handsome uprigh
piano was taken out and saved withou
damage. as was some of the parlo
furniture. Some Of the bedroom sets
from up stairs were brought down
with the aid of ladders, but these
were all more or less damaged,
As the fire increased it was feareo
that it would be impossible to save
the Union Temple, and grave fear
were expressed as to whether the RE
PUBLICAN building would not also b
reduced to ashes. but as the soutl
wall of the hotel burned last the hea
was not SO great as was anticipated
and it escaped unscorched. How
ever the Union Temple did not es
cape easily. When water was frs
turned against tho Temple walls the
were extremely hot and had not thu
building been iron sheeted it woult
surely have fallen. The heat was s.
great that even the inside wal
were almost unapproachable.
Had not the weather been yer
damp and rainy it is doubtful if tn
Temple and bank building and other
on Union Street could have with
stood the heat and flying cinder;
Mr.. Hemenway seems to be
marked man for the fire tiend, hav
ing burned out in Woonsocket, 8. D
and again in this city on the night Q
Dec. 13, 1891. This fire also occuret
on Sunday, as did the last. The OF
igin OF the fire is complete mystery
but when everything is taken int