The herald., 1898-03-17

lication, Alfred Brill. sheet mtisic pub
Usher. Sweet, Wallach & Cob photo
graphic supplies. w. A. Olmsteah, school
supplies.
ESTIMATES OF Loss
The building was owned by Fired X.
Ayres, of Lowell, Mass. 1t waIs worth
about $4,000 and is said to be Hartially
insured. Insurance men at tile fire
stated that the loss on contents Would be
in the neighborhood Of $350,000
The elevated railroad tracks were
badly damaged and there will be b loss of
$40, 900 or $4,000 from the breaking of
plate glass in the stores on the opposite
side of Wabash avenue.
The six-story building adjoining on
the north, numbers 211, 213 wass badly
damaged and it's contents soaked with
water and partially burned. The occu-
pants of this building are the Educa-
tional Publication Company; Z. Thos.
Charles & Co., kindergarten supplies;
Ideal Music Company, sheet music; New
Haven Clock Company; Waterbury
Watch Company; e. Fl. Putler IL Co.,
publishers; r. c. Weichbrodt, Turkish
rugs; Geo. b. Ward & Co., photograph
finishers, and N. G. Uhlein, musical in
strument repairer.
| The loss on this building and contents
is estimated at $4,000, but may be more.
According to some the fire started in
the fourth floor of the building occu-
pied by Albert Peats, dealer in wall
paper. This floor is used as stor@room
for wall paper and is provided with gas
Jets in swinging brackets. One Of these
brackets had been turned in such a man
ner as to ignite the wall paper
Jos. Murphy, son of w. H. Murphy, the
engineer of the building, discovered the
blaze and promptly sent in an alarm but
it was impossible to stay the flames, so
great was the rapidity with which they
spread among the rolls Of wall paper.
PEOPLE MISSING
People acquainted with the interior
arrangement of the building doubt that
all of the employees on the fifth and sixth
floors escaped. While there is stairway
leading from the sixth to the fifth floor,
similar to those on the other floors, the
passageway is so closed in that persons
coming down have to go through pas
sageway to the next stairway that is
often barred by a wire gate. The wire
partition and gates were erected to pro-
tect the property of the Presbyterian
Board of Publication from thieves who
might use the stairway. None OF those
who escaped knew of any others who had
made their escape by the stairway from
the sixth floor, through the fifth. It is
supposed that they tried the stairway
and found themselves closed in by the
wire partition on the fifth floor and were
beaten back by the flames through the
Board rooms to the top of the next stair
way
Chief Musham. of the Fire Department,
at o'clock, estimated that there are
still twelve bodies in the ruins. -Four
have been taken out, making the prob
able total sixteen dead. The total num-
Der is at least twelve.
| Sol. Grollman, western agent of the
Holtzman Company, tool manufacturers
of Columbus, Ohio, and his father. had
rooms on the fourth floor of the burning
building. Neither have been seen since
the fire broke out and 1t is believed that
both perished in the flames.
1t was reported that Hugh S. Elliott,
the manager of the Presbyterian Board,
had been caught in the building. Rev. S.
lC. Williams, the city missionary Of the
Presbytery, was searching for informa-
tion of the fate of the employees. He
says Elliott was in the building at the
time of the fire.