Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-20
SEARCHING
THE RUINS
Many Bodies Will Probably be
Uncovered
IN WINDSOR HOTEL RUINS
Dismembered Leg Was Taken Out
TOday--MethOds Employed to
Prevent Thicvcry.

| New York, March 20-Tt is believed
! the workmen today will reach that part
! Of the Windsor hotel ruins where most
/ of the bodies are supposed to be. The
wo k of removing the debris goes on night
and day and much progress will be made
| today, the ruins have cooled and some of
| the threatening walls have fallen. No
! picks or shovels are allowed the laborers.
| They remove the debris with their hands.
| There is a twofold design in this method.
First, there is the care to recover valua-
hles from the wreckage. Were the debris
taken up by the shovel the jewelry and
other property might thus be thrown un-
seen into the carts to be cast away among
! the waste heaps. Every precaution is
taken to collect all articles of value so
| the workmen are allowed to take up only
| the smallest fragments of wreckage and
are instructed to search at every moment
for hidden property. Whatever is found
in THIS progress is turned over to the po-
lice and taken to a little shanty in Fifth
/ avenue where Roundsman Nugent has es-
tabMshed headquarters and property
bureau.
Lest some of the workmen secrete about
their person jewelry and other valuables
they come across in their labors. they are
carefully searched after they stop work
and are allowed to leave the ground.
Formed in long line, they are marched
between rows of watchful policemen into
the shanty Where their clothing is care
fully ovelhauled for hidden treasure.
But beyond all considerati tion for valua-
hles in the care used in delving in the
ruins is the thought of the human bodies
which any touch might bring to light. 1t
IS in mindfulness of the dead more than
the rest that no picks or shovels are al
lowed in workmen's hands, lest a blow
should bury it one of these. Near by with
, a corps of assistants about him, is DR..
/ Blauvelt of the health department. Bar
res of disinfectants arc at his hand to be
sprinkled over the bodies when they be
revealed.
! DR.. Edwin j. Donlin, coroners phys-
cian, with several aides, waits for the
time he shall be called upon to perform IN
= part To him has been intrusted the Of
: flee of caring for the dead and superin-
: tending their removal to the morgue. His
: details are all arranged. Each body as
5 recovered will be borne INTO the police
: shed, there to be numbered. Then it will
be carried to the dead wagon which is not
to be summoned till wanted. and then to
the morsue. To prevent confusion, such
, as followed the hotel Royal fire and Park
, Place disaster, DR.. Donlin has instructed ID
the police to remove no jewelry from the
bodies. Such has been the custom and
confusion resulted. Now the coroner vii
.nly OH lf I'm mo t.r l,a hot
safe has been round uninjured. 1t has no,
. been opened.
, Miss Helen Gould turned her house into
0 a bureau last evening. Four long tables
i were spread in her kitchen, boilers Of cof-
v fee We're put on the range, ham sand
n wches were cut in the laundry and al
I the men at work on the ruins We're invit-
r ed to stop for refreshments. This act OF
n kindness was thoroughly appreciated by
the tired and hungry workmcn. Frank
iGould was around personally to see that
Inonbody that applied went away unserv-
> cd The damage TO the Gould house is
a bout $4,000.
> ! All sorts Of theories are current as tc
the origin of the fire. One very persis tent
q theory is that thieves set fire to the house
In order to aid them in robbery. Chie1
. Bonner said he believed the fire started
!, | somewhere near the water tank near the
. | roof, calculated to hold 5000 gallons
which was near the court on the Forty
= sixth street side; that this tank dropped
into the hotel and made hole big enough
to give the flames, which had already OBJ
ltained good headway plenty of play
The crash of this tank was what was gen.
: orally supposed to be the first explosion
: The accidental explosion from the com.
e lustive materials in the building came
n little later. This theory would contradic
o the statement of Miss Gould's chef tha
he saw flames near the flagstaff on tht
west side of the building, but everything
now tends to show that the fire began OF
the east side of it.
n The search of the ruins Of the Windsor
\ hotel was begun today by a large fore,
of laborers The fire is still smoulderng
y The big office safe was dug out, appar
It entity intact. At 8 o'clock the charred lee
d hone of a human being was found neal
the entrance burned beyond any iden
Ititv The first seen of it was skeleton
!of the breast, including the ribs ant
breast bone. Close by a foot with nearly
e all the flesh on it was found. 1t appeared
d ia be severed from the leg by the falling
n of some heavy piece of debris Those in
l.. inred from the fire were reported thi!
lmornng to be improving.