The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-12-20
ACTION OF A HERO
CHICAGO TRAVELLING MAN RISKED
HIS LIFE TO SAVE TWO
GIRLS
JUMPED FROM A WINDOW
Saw Their Peril and Rushed
Through WALL of Fire to Set
Them an Example-Two Million
Dollar Fire at Terre Haute-
Several People Seriously Injured,
but No Loss of Life.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind, Dec. 19.-The
worst fire in the history Of this city
occurred tonight, causing a loss of
nearly $2,O0O,O0O
The blaze started in the big show
windows of the Havens & Geddes COM
pany, wholesale and retail dealers in
dry goods and notions The cause is
not definitely known. but it is supposed
that live electric wire set fire to the
cotton with which the window was
decorated, and before the blaze could
be eXtinguished the fire spread to the
decorations of evergreens in the store,
and the building was wrapped in flames
in an incredibly brief space of time.
The following firms are the losers:
Havers & Geddes company, $500, 600;
BTeinig & Miller, furniture, $4,000;
PiXley & Co., 100000; Terre Haute
Shoe company, wholesale, $3.50, ,00o; AL
brecht & Co., retail dry goods, $3.50, 1000;
United States Baking company, $780,,
600; Thorman & Schloss, clothiers, $780,,
600.
There were number Of small con-
Germs which were utterly annihilated
in the fall of the rear wall of the Ha-
the loss in their case will more than
bring the total losses up to the $1,000
600 mark
The fire started about $50 o'clock,
When half the employees Of the estab-
lishment were at their homes for sup
! per. There is a force of 300 or more
in the retail department of the estab-
lishment, and had the entire force been
present the loss of life would have
| been frightful.
JUMPED FROM WINDOWS.
AS it is, Kate Maloney, a 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 Della Ferguson, clerk in the
same department, jumped just before
Miss Maloney, but was caught by some
men who were watching for her. She
is internally injured, but will recover.
Louis Kramer, the trimmer who was
in the show window when the blaze
started, is frightfully burned about the
head and arms. When rescued from
the burning building he was insane
from the pains and begged to be killed
Firemen Austerloo, Walsh and Shay
were badly injured by the falling of a
floor in the Albrecht building, and are
now in the city hospital.
The fire department worked admir-
ably, and there We're many narrow es-
capes among the men.
Several of the firemen are in precari-
Gus condition from burns, and the ef-
fects of the sitting smoke, but it is
thought tonight that all will recover.
At IL o'clock tonight the fire was
still burning fierce1y in the rear of the
United States Baking company, but the
firemen had the fire under control.
A heroic act on the part of a man
from Chicago, for the Baldwin music
house, called for cheers from the crowd
watching the flames. When the fire
first started Peters was standing in the
crowd, and saw the Maloney and Fer
guson girls appear at the second story
| windows. The girls were panic-strick.
en-, and were in momentary danger OF
going down with the floor. Peters
sprang through the door, with his coat
over his head, dashing through the
flames 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.
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