New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-12-25
CHICAGO COLISEUM BURNED.
1T WAS THE BUILDING IN WHICH BRYAN
WAS NOMINATED.
THE FIRE CAUSED BY ELECTRIC LIGHT WIRES
SEVERAL LIVES SUPPOSED TO BE LOST
THE STRUCTURE A COMPLETE RUIN
IN TWENTY MINUTES

Chicago. Dec. 24.-Fire tonight destroyed the
Coliseum Building. at SiXty-third-st anu o'0'''
1sland-aye. in whi,h the Democratic Na''o'a.
C-o~,.a,,+io, which nominated Bryan was held
,os+ ,.ear The fire was one of the quickest ever
coon IL, Chicago From the time 1t was s'a' 'eu
nv the crossing Of two electric light wires u'i
the Coliseum was pile of twisted IRON anu Ao'
brjcks not over twenty minutes edPse''
TO- bnuding had been rented for the Manu-
facturers' Exposition and was H'ieo ,io.n e''a
20 end with booths all Of which we're oes'ro'eu
with ali their contents ,,.oro
= is sunnosed that number OF people "ere
lost IN the flames and. although no pouieS ia
hasn recovered, several persons are h'ssi"s a.
era believed to have perished' i"0 49,
80 IN the Midway exhibit. who were IN 'he
building lust before it collapsed, nave "o'
since seen. Two men, seen IN the centre Oh INC
building by fremen curing 'iie nv
supposed to be lost
IT,.ard Gevser Of Wilmington, DEL" anu
1sorb Rvrnes Of Hoboken. \. j.. were ue0''a
To-, ono of the booths in the balcony "heh 'Ne
g. hro,a ont. The manager Of the eNh'o'' ran
o. tho hooth and called to the men Ola' ''0
,1oco was on fire and that they shouio save
themselves They were apparently III ho hu'''
a,d the last seen of them they were SUN a.
work ,o, ,rc,ud
Nearly a dozen persons were 'hJuieu'
ene NJ J. Morley. who was lacera'eo u: OIL
r,osion of Crookes tubes and burned aoou' 'i'
head: Robert Harley. fireman. WHO wa"
,r burned by debris from the coiiapse Va "a'
o,d Miss Helen Conger. who was shocked py
- - ard severely burned about the right
arm Harry Parker and IT, A. Lyons "a ->e
York were slightly burned
ORIGIN OF THE FIRE.
sxbibtion of X-1ays, the booth being mahageo
-, Morley and William Robertson The
men were examining their Rontgen machihe
,,ben they were startled by sizzling noise De-
,ird trorn and upon turning saw part OF thelr
o,bihi, ahlaze Crossed arc-light wires Whlch
r.sro o,,er the exhibit are thought TO have causeu
the flames. .. ,ha
The two men at frst tried to smother 'he
flames but before they could secure Wated eirs ee
cloth the fire had spread throusho1t tAe ortnar 80
booth Morley, realizing that ne anu MS 80, pa on
",'id he unable TO cope with the fire. mace an
endeayor to save some OF the host .t 80 a.
the X-ray paraphernaIla. huiiiie hCi,as tuhes and
.han with Robertson. began fighting MS wa!
ont Of the building Before ne reachea an ehis his
the tubes exploded from the neat iaeeI ~ as 49,,
hands His hair also caught hre anu ile % M"S
na,are,v burned about the head Robertson was
burned about the face =, ~. .,,ua
About three hundred people were III .hI ou n.
{ne q
Us ms a. tbere was rush for safety. The alsles
were wide and, owing TO the cornpaIa'i,n,ess' ~
small number Of people there was htoie hnse a. en-.
cuItv in reaching the door. Most OF moss en- en-
Saevoring TO escape ran 10 large ooor Oh INC
asst side Of the building, which is Wioe eiiousdd d
10 admit a team Of horses ana WAGON: a Satora
~ fully two hundred people gathereo oeioae
tbia door which was found to be lockeo, anu as
fbe fire was roaring through the ouiluhs WIN
great speed, 1t seemed Ior isT h,e ',, tn escape
w I Wheeler, watchman. saw the uouole
and ran to open the door, but the cro~u vas
lacked in front Of It so closely that he had me
Greatest difficulty In doing 1t. once II swung
wide however, the crowd was in the open aI.
a few seconds During the Jam al tn,s h,t nnne
several people were Dadly crushed' pul h0"'
was seriously injured.
The rest Of the people made their way throueh
the other doors, and several who We're causht
IN the balcony were compelled 10 jump 10 the
ground from the roof The balcony Is nned
with windows that swing outward, 80 they hao
no trouble in getting upon the ROOF anu lroiii
there the leap to the ground was not great.
THE BUILDING DOOMED.
The fremen were al hand before any Of the
people we're out Of the building, and before they
made any effort to fight the flames they de-
voted their attention TO clearing the hall. BY
the time they were ready to pour water on the
fire II was useless to do anything as the fire
spread with such rapidity that there was no
chance whatever Of saving the building after
IL had once got beyond the conhnes or the
booth in which II started.
Within ten minutes after the fire began the
roof abeze, and in a very short time after
the fire appeared on the top OF the building
one Of the large arches that spanned the struct-
ure gave way with a tremendous report. and
then another and another, each one going
down with q sound like the report Of
non. The building fell very quickly as after
the first arch gave way the weight was TOO
great for the arches next TO H. and all col
lapsed 1t took only twenty minutes to make
a complete ruin Of the building.
HISTORY OF THE COI1srr-M
The Coliseum cost S250OOO and was twice as
large as the Madison Square Garden in New
York. 1t had floor space of seven acres, in
Guiding the ground and gallery floors, 40
feet long by 800 feet wide, and contained
2.5O00OO pounds Of STEEL 100000 feet of tim
Der and 100000 bricks.
on August u. 1895 The first Coliseum, then
In the course Of construction. wrecked,
failing loss Of $l2j,O0o. The cause Of the
collapse has never been known, but il
thought that the las; arch was not placed in
position correctly The building was TO have
been opened on September Of that year by the
Sarnum * Bailey circus, and the contractors
were rushing the work in order to have it COM
2eted In time. Six hundred men had been
working on the building up to half an hour
before the crash came. at 80 o'clock at night.
Fifty thousand feet of green lumber, which
was to have been used for roofing the
roof Of the building at the time and the weight
of this supposed 10 have had something TO
10 With the accident
The original Coliseum was designed by S. S.
Belnan. in the Italian Renaissance style. In the
centre OF one side a campanile 24O fee; high
ard 80 feet square After the collapse OF the first
Dulldng Mr. Beman at once drew plans for
new building and IL was constructed and opened
10 the public on June J. 1896 The details OF the
massive building snow a composition OF four
Teen enormous arches. seventy feet above the
ground at 1he aDeX, and with a span OF go feet
70 tne clear. The building was encircled the
inside by gallery thrty-fve feet wide and
thlrty-three feet above the floor TIE area
Oh!y equalled in extent by that OF the Roman
SOnseum The building was insured for S12O.
oVO. written In twcnty-six different companies.
X is almost impossible TO form any idea Of the
!oss % the exhibitors, as there were about one
hundred booths IN the place. filed with all sorts
OF goods
Whlle responding 70 the alarm Of fire from the