The record-union., 1899-03-18

(COnt1nued from F1rSt FaSej
F1fth-avenue side showed every evil
;dence of falling, and presently, WITH
an awful crash, they struck the asphal.
covering of the street in front Oh Tue
hotel, and caused the hundreds OF peo-
pie who were standing there to scatter
In every direction This fall Weakened
the walls on the Forty y-sixth and fofty-
seventh street sides, and they followed
a moment later. When the wallis len
the brick and mortar and the twisted
girders' and corrugated iron nlled lie
streets on three sides of the hotel.
The doorsteps and iron fences in front
ON the opposite side of the street from
theAhote1 We're weakened by the falilng
was. and the amount of debris piled
in the streets was so great that traVei
will be impeded for several days.
The northwest wing Of the hotel con-
tinued to burn for a half-hour after
the wallis fell F'iremen continued 10
play streams upon the flames, and also
upon all the adjoining buildings, IN
cluding Miss Gould's residence, whlch
seemed in imminent danger of catcnlns
fire, but the flames We're brought under
control before they could reach any OF
them.
There were many thrilling scenes IN
the hotel during the early stages OF
the fire. A hall boy discovered the
flames while he was passing along the
fourth floor, Immediately over the
rooms occupied by President Mckin-
ley's brother, Abner Mckinley, and his
family The boy pulled chain at
tached to the fire alarm, but the chain
broke, and then he cried out an alarm
of fire and ran to the floor below. The
blaze was then eating up everything
on the F'ifth-avenue end, and the lad,
( when he got to the floor above the
main hall, ran into the American DIN
ing-room and gave the alarm to the
guests there. Only few persons were
in the dining-room at the time, ana
they escaped.
When the boy reached the main floor,
Warren F. Leland. proprietor OF the
hotel. was in the rear OF the long nail
and the boy shouted to him that the
building was on fire. On Mr.. Lelaha
instructions, the clerks tried to save al
the books and papers, and the boy lhen
rushed down the basement stairway
and alarmed the women who were at
work in the laundry. IL Is peneVeu lns''
all of them escaped
One of the most daring rescueS ei
fected by the firemen occurred on the
fifth floor on the Fifth-avenue front
An elderly woman was seen at win
dow, and two firemen succeeded III
reaching the window underneath One
of them climbed to the coping OF the
window on which she was standing,
and then swung the woman clear of
the window and landed her safely IN
I,;e n
the assistance of several other nrenieh'
passed her down to the street
SOME THRILLING SCENES.
The first horror occurred just nlteen
minutes after the fire broke out a
handsome woman appeared at the WIN
dow of a room ON the fourth floor. she
held out her arms to the crowd pelow.
Then she raised her hands as il IN sup
plication, and in a moment CLIMBED 10
the window ahd leaped. She turned
about like a top and struck the IRON
railing in front of the hotel. Her pooy
seemed to be impaled there, pul II len
off and into the areaway. She was
dead The woman was ldentineo: as
Mrs. Amelia Paddock of Irvington,
N. Y.
One of the most thrilling scenes of
the 1Ie-aI d lllilc WICA eiN 0N-~>~-o
was a seething cauldron of fiame-was
the heroic rescue of several women from
the upper stories. One had been car
ried down from the fifth story. Mrs.
A. H. Fuller of Pittsburg then ap-
peared with her maid at the window OF
the fourth story. 1t seemed an age be-
fore the ladder was lowered. F1remen
ran UP. and with great difficulty
NJ INr111E and
Just as she was gotten out of the Win
dow a middle aged woman appeared at
a window just north of that at which
the ladder was placed. The woman,
fearing she would not be rescued, pre-
pared to jump. She was warned TO
keep back and became panic-stricken,
and stepped back into the dense smoke.
Another ladderman, seeing the desper-
ate situation of the woman, seized
scaling ladder and went up story after
story through the binding smoke. He
climbed to the coping just as the woman
reappeared Catching her by the waist
and holding tightly to the building, he
crept slowly, on the coping and passed
the fainting woman to another fireman
who had braced himself to receive her.
There was a dreadful suspense as the
fireman drew the woman toward him
and finally had her safely on the lad
der. A tremendous cheer went up from
the crowd.
Fireman John Hanna, of the fire boat
Zephar Mills, rushed through the smoke
TO the top floor, and found Nightwatch-
man McNicholl half asphyxiated.
Hanna lowered him by means Of wire
to the fire escape two stories below. and