The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-20
CAUSE OF FIRE UNKNOWN
KATE MALONEY LEAPS FROM
THE SECOND WINDOW.
LOUIS KRAMER FRIGHTFULLY BURNED
LueIIa Ferguson Injured internally but viii
Probably Recover Three Fremen In.
ured by Falling Floor. Heroic
Deed Of a Drummer.

Terre Haute, Ind, Dec. 1g.-The worst
FIRE in the history Of Terre Hautp broke
sent tonight causing loss of 81 ,000.000
The blaze started in the big show win
dows of the Hav,ns aud Geddcs Com
pany, wholesale aud retail dealers in
dry goods and nofloas. The cause X
not definitely known, but it is supposed
that live electro ~irc sat ire to the
cotton with which the window was
decorated and before the blaze could be
cxtinguishcd the fire spread to the
decorations Of evergreens in the store,
and the building was wrapped in flames
in an incredibly short space of time
The following firms are the losers:
Havens & Geddes, $500'O0O; insurance
about two-thirds.
Breinig & Miller, furniture, $4,000.
Pixley & Company. 100000.
Terre Haute Shoe Company, whole
sale, $1j0,000.
Albrecht & Company, retail dry goods
100000.
United States Baking Company, $780,
600.
Thorman & Schloss. clothiers, $50
geo.
4 number of small concerns were ut
terly annihilated in the fall of the rear
wall of the Hayens & Geddes wholesale
house.
The fire started at $50 o'clock. when
half the employees of the establishment
were at their homes for supper. There
is Il force of 300 or more in the retail
department of the establishment and
had the entire force been present the
loss OF life would have been frightful.
As it is Kate Maloney. clerk in the
notion department. is lying at the point
Of death. She sprang from a window
in the second story and sustained in
juries from which she will probably die.
Miss Luella Ferguson. a clerk in the
same department jumped just before
Miss Maloney, bnt was caught by some
men who were watching for her. She
is internally injured. bur will recover.
Louis Kramer, the trimmer who was
in the show window when the fire start
ed, is frightfully burned about the head
and arms. When rescued from the
bNi hlifS phAiuIliS IAt was tllNtlliC llOih ilit
pain and begged TO be killed.
Firemen Austerloo, Walsh and Shay
We're badly injured in the falling of the
floor in the Alhrecht building.
The Fire Department worked admira-
bly,, and there were many narrow escapes
among them. Several of the firemen are
in precarious condition from burns and
the effects of the sitting smoke.
At II o'clock tonight the fire was still
burning fiercely in the rear Of the United
States Baking Company, but the fire
men had it under control.
n heroic act on the part of man
named Peters, a travelling salesman from
Chicago for the Baldwin Music House.
called forth cheers from the crowd
watching the flames When the fire
first started, Peters was standing in the
crowd and saw the Maloney and Fergu-
son girls appear ut the second story win
dOws The girls were panic stricken and
were i'll momentary danger OF going
down with the floor. Peters sprang
through the door with his coat over his
head. and dashing through the flame
and smoke reached the window at which
the girls appeared, and after talking
with them swung out from the ledge and
dropped. His example was followed by
the two girls