The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-03-23
SEARCH FOR THE DEAD.


I WOrkmeMs 8Dlgg1ngssO Over Ruins Of
SvVindsor Hotel-No Bodies Found g
---Precautions Against Theft.
New York, March %. ~ The latest es-
innate with reference to the Windsor
hotel fire places the number Of dead at
16; injured, 81; missing, As. The figures
cannot be accurate until heroic fire.
men and police. supplemented by the
Wrecking companies, have dug into the
mass that now blocks the streets
around the ruined building. The value
Of the hotel, furniture, ETC., is placed at
$l,250 900; insurance, $500, 900. No esti-
mate can be made of the precious metal
and gems which have withstood the
fiames and lie hidden in the EN- bers and
Fwreckage Of the great hotel. One fam
/ nv lost jewelry valued at 5000, 900, and
the total will run up somewhere near
million. How much has been picked
up and carried away can never be
known, nor can all ever be recovered.
Mrs: Nancy Kirk, who lost her life, and
her daughter, Mrs. Mary Kirk Haskins,
had the family jewels, valued at more
than, 5000, 900, with them. There were
scores Of other wealthy families who
lived in the hotel and who lost Jewels
worth thousands of dollars.
just before midnight: two sections of
the rear or eastern wall of the hotel
fell in with mighty crash. Fortunate
| ~ no one was near, and the collapse
was more beneficial than otherwise.
The workmen on the job are each
| given q red card, and without this they
are permitted neither to enter nor to
leave the lines. This is an additional
precaution against theft and to keep
any professional thieves out of the for
hidden precincts. Each man is supplied
with brass check upon which is his
number. While at work he is not known
as John JONES' but as "No. 49, or
whatever the card may call for. While
this check is attached to man he may
not leave. the. lines. The 400 men who
had worked for eight hours were al.
lowed to stop at midnight and their
places were taken by as many more.
AS the midnight shift had progressed
pretty we'll into the ruins and had ex!
cavated to where much of the missing
wealth might be found, extra precau-
tons were taken as they came off the
job. Each man was taken into a shantv
near by, where he was submitted to a
critical search by detectives from the
building department and regular po-
iceman. It took more than an hour to
go through the clothing of the 400 Ia
borers, and those last in line grumb1ed
considerably at the enforced delay.
| Mrs: A: S: Jarvis reported to the Do
lice that she had lived in the hotel for
three years. She said she lost Jewels
worth $4,000. She had them in bu-
reau drawer. Her room was on the
Forty-seventh street side. fourth floor.
The police are now led to suspect
that the Windsor hotel fire was the
work of thieves. Many of the guests
who lost friends and valuables declared
that thieves had set the big hotel on
lire TOR the purpose of creating a panic
and looting the rooms. The police are
Investigating these stories and are
questioning four men now under ar
rest. Frank Kane, arrested near the
Windsor hotel Friday afternoon while
the fire was raging. was held on q
charge of robbery. Kane's pockets
were bullying and he carried a bundle
when arrested. AT police headquarters
the bundle was opened. Inside were
found valuable silk skirts and waists.
sealskin sacks and furs There were
also pins with diamonds and emeralds
I and rubies, chatelaine watches and ear.
rings and other articles of adornment.
The whole amount of property was val
ued at from $1,000 to $4,000. Among
the articles were silver cardcase and
a pocketbook belonging to Abner Nc
Kinley.k So %4zE.,.r -"
New York, March 2O.-In drizzling
I rain more than 200 men continued Sun
day to work among hedebris and smol-
dering ruins of the Windsor hotel
searching for the bodies of, those who
persisted in the flames and to recover
any vatua bles. that might have escaped
the ravages of the fire. The efforts of
the searchers were futile, however, as
the ruins were. too hot to permit much
progress, and the smoke arising from
the burning material was rendered
more dense by the dampness of the at
mosphere.' At intervals during the
night, flames burst forth from the burn
Ing embers and. drove back the work
men,. Work was begun Sunday morn
ing to demolish the fragmentary por-
tons of walls on the east and north
sides of the burned building, and later
the number of-workers was reinforced
and the work of removing the rubbish
pushed as vigorously as was practi-
cable. The chimney, IS feet high, stand
ing on the Forty-sixth street side of
the, ruins near Fifth avenue, was
blown up. Thirty pounds of .dyna-
mite were placed under the base of this
chimney and electricity was used to ex-
plode it. During the day workmen were
engaged in picking to pieces the six
story wall that is standing on the Forty
seventh street side of the hotel in order
to make search in the, ruins safe. The
second 85-foot chimney was dynamited
shortly after three o'clock in the after
noon. The explosion wrecked num-
Der of plate glass windows and doors in
nearby residences, a large force of
men were at work on what was the main
entrance to the hotel. It was expected
that bodies would first be found there,
A large amount, of small articles, prin-
cipally the personal property Of guests,
was found. 5sS -
SCHOOL AND CHURCH.