Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-12-23
INTERCOLLEGIATE FIRE.
The Great st. Louis Jewelry House
q Mass Of Ruins.
The Loss at Least 100000. and ho~
Much More Can Not be Estimated on-
tu the Contents of the FireProof
Vaults are Examined.

Or I,oIrIs. Dec. 20.-The great
iewelrv house of Mermod-Jaccard, one
the old land marks of St Louis anu
the west, was completely destroyed Oy
fire at an early hour yesterday morn
ing.
IT is impossible to form an accurate
estimate OF the loss. 1t was one OF
the largest firms of the kind In the
world, All of the stock was ruined
unless the diamonds, which were
locked in a vault in the rear end OF the
building, are saved. The firemen kept
several streams of water playing on
the vault. and it is likely that the con-
tents are not seriously damaged AT
best, however, the loss on stock Wall
run up into big figures
The building was a landmark, con-
structed on an old-fashioned plan. 1t
was owned by the Kennett estate.
The night Waterman in charge OF
the building can give no Information
as to the origin of the fire, beyond the
fact that it started in the basement
There is nothing left of the big build
ing except the skeleton walls.
The building was burned from roof
to basement and as the flames spread
the walls fell in after the fuel was
burned away.
The big iron safes in the southwest
corner of the building, on the Locust
street side, are supposed to be fire
proof as well as burglar proof. These
vaults are covered with bricks from
the falling walls, but the valuable con-
tents, the diamonds, watches and val
liable jewelry in them are thought to
be safe.
Not one dollars worth of stuff was
carried out, so fierce was the fire burn
ing when the department arrived.
The long show cases and tables were
filed with holiday goods of all kinds,
silver, cut glass, lamps and costly
bronzes, fine marbles, clocks and works
of art Not one article was taken out
of the house. All were melted or went
down in the falling walls.
Chief Swingley of the fire'department-
said: 1t was the quickest fire we have
had to fight in q long time. 1t started
in the basement, near the alley on the
Locust street side, and seemed to take
the whole building at once. 1t worked
upstairs so rapidly that it was utterly
impossible to do anything with it.
The people on the upper floors we
had to take out. There was a standpipe
and fire escape on the Locust street
side. This was used to get the people
out from the building. They lost
everything, and had to fly for their
lives and get on whatever clothes they
could lay their hands on in a hurry.
Il have no idea what Mermod-Jac--
cards stock is worth. The building
will be total loss of about S125, 0O0."
The intense heat broke the big plate
glass windows of Scruggs, Vandervoort
& Barney, on the south side of Locust.
street, to quite costly degree. The
combined effect of the cold water and
hot fire cracked the big windows on
the ground floor into fragments, which
fell in a perfect shower on the pave
ment. The salvage corps hung up tar
paulins over the openings to save the
stock inside from damage from the fly
ing spray and the smoke.
Mr.. C. F. Mathey, head of one of the
departments, was on the scene shortly
after the fire broke out. He was ut
terly at sea as to the amount of the
loss sustained. ut is impossible to esti-
mate the loss at this time," said Mr..
Mathey. Everything of great value,
the safes when we closed up Saturday
night, but aside from that there was
an immense Christmas stock of high
grade goods which will be a total loss.
All the silver-plated ware, cut glass,
bric-a-brac and fancy stock is of course
a total loss. l could not guess within
500, 900 of what the loss will be. "All
of our Christmas trade, which would
have come in during the week is also,
of course, a dead loss"
Mr. Bolte, one of the members of the
firm, said that the loss would not be
less than $500, 00O, but how much more
it would be he could not say.
The destruction of the Springer Cloak
Co., on the northeast corner of the
building was almost as complete as
in the jewelry store.
This company carried full stock of
cloaks, capes and garments. The stock
was worth between $50, 600 and SIS. 900,
upon which there is insurance of three
fourths.