Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1897-12-29
THE COLISEUM BURNS.
The Largest Permanent Exhi-
bition Building.
Fortunately but One Life was Lost
Burned Like finder.

Chicago, ILL.,, Dec. 27.-For the second
time in it's short history of less than three
years the great Coliseum building at Six
ty-third street was laid in ruins Christ
mas. A blaze that started among crossed
wires in one of the booths of the Manu-
facturers' carnival exhibition spread I'M
opposed and grew in ten minutes to fire
that possessed all one end of the great
building. Five minutes later the heavy
truss arches Of steel, $50 feet in span and
80 feet I'D height, upon which the best
engineering skill of the country had been
expended, were falling in closely success
sive crashes into the hotbed of fire be
meath. Within half an hour from the
first sparkling of electric wires, the main
section of the building, 700 feet in length
twisted iron and burning debris. All that
was left standing was the wall OF the
front pavilion.
Providentially the fire claimed only one
victim. He was \. II. Johnson, whose
charred remains were recovered from the
ruins Christmas day. johnson was
fireman employed about the building. lie
had evidently remained at his post until
the last moment Then he rushed to-
ward an exit. Within a few feet of the
door an immense piece of glass fell from
the roof, pinioning him to the earth while
the flames slowly smothered him.
1t is practically certain that johnson
was the only person killed; but a thor
ough search of the ruins is being carried
out.
Those who were reported missing re-
turned to their homes. Most of them had
narrow escapes from death.
The Coliseum was the largest perma-
nent exhibition building in the world and
had in its eighteen months of activity
made more than a national reputation.
William j. Bryan sat under its roof as a
delegate to the Democratic national con-
yention of 1896 and there was seen the
stampede of the states to him that made
him the representative of Democracy IN
the campaign that followed. That con-
vention was practically the baptism Of
the Coliseum; since then it has been the
scene of five stirring football games, the
stories of which have interested the whole
country, and two or three bicycle records
have been broken there. Military carni-
walls, bicycle shows, circuses, the Wild
West and, last and most famous, the
horse show have held the arena at times.
The accident that sent the ponderous
arches to the ground in August, 1895,
caused a loss only to the contractors,
but the fire was more far-reaching in its
effects. The Coliseum company expend-
ed nearly S50O,O0O on the big auditorium
and it was insured for but S125.00 The
loss to exhibitors in Mr.. Daniels ''carni-
VAL was in the total something like
$1,000 One exhibitor, Mr.. Bostwick,
the owner of the two merry-go-rounds,
lost 100000 on these properties. The
other losses among the exhibitors is dis
tributed among thirty or more persons in
small ar cunts.
About IL o'clock in the evening Of Au-
gust IL, 1895, the first Coliseum, then in
the course of construction on the old site
of Buffalo Bills Wild West show, was
wrecked entailing loss of S125, 1000 The
wreck covered a space $50 by $50 feet
and the real cause of the collapse has new
er been known. 1t was thought that the
last arch was not placed in position cor
rectly. The building was 10 have been
opened September 2 Of that year by the
Barnum q Bailey circus and the con-
tractors were rushing the work in order
to have it completed in time. Six hun
dred men had been working on the build
ing up to half an hour before the crash
came. They were to have resumed work
at 3 o'clock the following morning. Three
men were inside the building at the time
of the crash, but they escaped. They
were all in the north end of the building
while the collapse started at the south
end. Fifty thousand feet of green lumber
which was to have been used in roofing
was on the roof Of the building at the
time and the weight of this was supposed
to have had something to do with the ac
cidpnt