The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-20

aroused by the smoke and cries of fire,
and, hastily dressing, threw his satchel
out of the window and then hurried
to a fire escape. The smoke which
filled the hall Of the hotel was suffo-
eating, and those of the guests who
were obliged to make their exit by
the fire escapes were put through aw-
full tortures. The night was bitter UJd
and for fifteen minutes, which seemed
like that number of hours, number
Of the guests, including half a dozen
women, were obliged to remain stand
ing on the iron fire escape waiting
until ladders could be procured to take
them down from the second story OF
the building. AS nearly all the guests
as we'll as the help employed in the
hotel, were clad only in their night
clothes, their sufferings can be inn
agined. Guests on the third and fourth
floors, Mr.. Lowell writes, were obliged
to get wet towels and hold to their
faces in order to save themselves from
being overcome by the smoke.
A gentleman who was at the hotel at
the time of the fire and who reached
st. Paul yesterday said the burning of
the hotel was one Of the most exciting
experiences he had ever been through.
He was sleeping on the second floor
and was aroused by the noise and smell
Of smoke. The hotel people, he said,
claimed that the alarm bells in each
room had been sounded, but, If such
was the case, which he doubted, he
did not hear the one in his room. The
fire, which started at o'clock, burned
rapidly, and before o'clock the hotel
and the block in which 1t started were
completely destroyed. The cold was
intense, the thermometer registering %
below, and, as about forty persons, in
Guiding the guests and help, escaped
from the building in their night clothes,
the scene, he said, could be better
imagined than described. On the fourth
or fifth floor Of the hotel were ten
members of the woman in Black
company, which included four or five
women. Owing to some delay in pro-
curing ladders to connect with the fire
escape, which stopped at the second
floor, the members Of the company
were kept standing on the iron fire
escape for some minutes The result
was that the hands and feet of sons
of the guests were badly frozen, and
as they descended the flesh from their
hands and feet was torn from the
members and left sticking to the iron
steps. The half-clad and almost frozen
| persons were cared for in neighboring
| hotels and buildings and furnished with
clothing. Those who had thrown their
eTTecIS ana Cl0tnlnS IrOEn the WINDOWS
| of the rooms before leaving the build
ing we're IN numerous instances as bag
| ly off as those who made no effort to
save anything, for nearly everything
that reached the ground was either
| lost or stolen. The fire, the gentleman
| said, started a sufficient distance away
from the hotel to have afforded ample
| time for all the guests to have been
notified and to have escaped without
| any trouble or difficulty, but in the ex-
element the hotel people lost their
heads, and this caused all the trouble
AS he was informed, the hotel proper
connected with the building in which
the fire started by a hallway which was
not in use, and this accounted for the
hostelry filing up with smoke SO
/ quickly.
W. B. Dixon. agent for the Chicago
| Milwaukee & st. Paul railroad, who
1 was given as a guest at the hotel a,
! the time Of the fire, seen yesterday
said he left the house Thursday night
and was not In Grand Forks at the
1 time. The family of Thomas P. Hast
i ings, travelling agent for the Chicago
Burlington & Northern, who was also