Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-05-13

OAAy OliS exit l. ne DdZaar was IN 1uu
swing when suddenly, about four
o'clock the cry of fire rose in the guar
| ter where the Acknowledgment was
being exhibited One of the survivors
tells the correspondent of his ex-
perience:
THE place was crammed full of peo-
pie, and the heat was sitting. Being
very uncomfortable, my friends and L
determined to leave, but somehow we
could not make much Roadway through
the throng toward the door. l Jagged
little behind, as was offered nose
gay by a stakeholder, when, on sud-
den, the shout of fire was raised. In
stantly all was commotion.
I'VE tried to keep cool, but the rush
from behind forced us forward and we
were separated. Then / tried to work
my way back, but l was carried off my
feet and carried backward and for
ward in the swaying crowd. 1 lost my
| hat; then my coat was torn off, and
! then my waistcoat. All this happened
in few seconds.
Immediately the full extent of the
calamity dawned upon us all. The
flames spread with startling rapidity
through the whole building which
rumbled like a living furnace, but the
uproar of the confiagration could not
drown the groans and cries of the agon-
lied crowd.
Gradually found myself pushed
back against the wall of the building,
and finally succeeded in scrambling
through an opening made by some of
those near me. Two seconds later /
would have been victim, for hardly
had L struggled through the hole be-
fore 1 heard dreadful crash as the
blazing roof fell in.
II cannot describe the struggle for
life which ensued. No words can de-
pict the horror of the scene. 1t seems
as look back upon it, like a hideous
nightmare. The whole thing was over
in IL minutes and nothing remained
but the charred and blackened ruins
of the bazaar"
The dead were piled in heaps, and
especially near the exit, where the
charred remains where five deep. In
some places only the trunks remained
with no vestige of clothing.
The fremen arrived at six and COM
pany of infantry followed to clear the
ruins and search for corpses. The
news spread like wildfre. All the
cabinet ministers now in Paris went
Immediately to the scene. Hundreds
of equipages streamed along the
Champs DElysees, their occupants all
anxious and tear-stained, inquiring for
their relatives. There were many
heartrending scenes of grief and des-
pair. One lady rushed about frantic
ally calling her daughter by name.
Some one told her the girl was safe,
whereupOn she jumped, danced,
screamed, then rushed to the coach
man to tell him to drive home and fell
in a dead swoon.
Another lady went insane. A third
imagined in her frenzy that she recog-
nized her daughters dress, and hyster-
ically called upon her husband to tell
the police to prevent the child from
going to the bazaar.
Cabinet ministers, ambassadors, no.
blemen and members of the highest
social and financial circles were side by
side with the lowliest and the poorest,
anxiously inquiring for their missing
relatives. About so were saved by
Pere Ambrose and Pere Bailli, who
helped them over the wall with a lad
der to the printing room of the news
paper La Croix.
The staff of the Hotel du Palais lent
valuable service and saved $50 persons
through barred window overlooking
the bazaar, where, while the hotel en-
ployes were tearing away the bars,
they saw three persons burned to death.
Policemen, their hands covered with
gloves, have been deputed by the pre-
feet of police to pick out the portions
of remains and to wrap them in pieces
of cloth, to be transferred in ambu-
lances to the Palais de L'Industrie.
The remains present a horrible spec
tacle of limbs burned and twisted. On
all sides can be seen stretchers piled
with mutilated corpses, skulls split open
and brains exuding. just behind a
heap of corpses hes alone the body of
a woman. The face is downward, the
head burned the brain exposed, and
from the empty socket of the right eye,
the brains are slowly oozing. The
arms and legs are burned off.
A little further off is the body of an
other woman, nude, the entrails pro-
truding and the head missing. 1t is a
CHASTITY sight.
The building was constructed about
six months ago. At the time it was re-
marked that it would burn like match
wood. The interior was divided into
streets u la Old Paris, constructed of
prettily painted canvas.
The duchesse D'Aleucon, sister of
the Austrian empress, is among the
injured, the list of whom includes tie
duchesse Dues, the comtesse Sa-
vigny and Mile de la BouIaye.
In the streets adjacent to the bazaar
were long lines of sumptuous equi2-
ages.
Most of these returned empty; their
owners were dead. They were used
by the survivors to return to their
homes.
The search in the debris will continue
all night.
1t appears that the fire originated
on the left side of the bazaar. The iIlu-
minating apparatus of the kinetomato-
graph exploded and set fire to the Tux
lsh curtains and hangings. In "a few
moments the flames spread along the
whole side of the bazaar. The public
threw themselves instinctively to The
right side of the building which backed
on the high wall of an adjoining edi-
fee. The bazaar altogether had eight
doors, three in front and one on the
left side. In the rear were four like
French windows. which were specially
reserved for the employees. The crowds
near the main entrance were able to
escape but those a. the other end. not
KNOWING of the doors r.aSaY.yal for +ba