Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-03-23
TO DEATH.
A Fire in a Women's Lodge Build
ing Causes a Panic
Two KILLED, MANY OTHERS INJURED
Escape IL Cut on by the Stairs and One
After Another Of the Women Spring
from Windows to the Ground
b0lOW,

Omaha, Neb., March s2.-Compara.
lively insignificant in material de.
struction, but appalling in its harvest
Of death and suffering, was fire that
partially destroyed the Patterson
block at Seventeenth and Douglas
streets yesterday afternoon. Two Of
its victims have already passed away,
one more is not expected to live and
about 20 others are suffering from
broken limbs and burned and lacer-
ated flesh. Mrs. Thomas Taylor and
Mrs. Anna Schamel were the two who
lost their lives.
A group of happy women, busy with
the affairs of the secret orders with
which they were affiliated, were in
moment brought face to face with
death. Sixty seconds later several Of
them lay burned and bleeding on the
pavement to which they had dropped,
30 feet below, and the others were res
cued after they had been more or less
severely injured in their desperate
dash down the single pair OF stairs
that led to safety. The blaze started
just after three o'clock from gaso-
line stove explosion in room in the
rear of the third floor Of the building
and next to the elevator shaft twas
not discovered until it had spread to.
the adjoining apartments and the en-
tire floor was filed with smoke and
flame.
About 30 members Of the women's
lodge OF Maccabees were attending
committee meeting in the waiting
room in the front Of the middle of the
building on the same floor. They were
unconscious Of danger until a janitor
threw open the door and told them to
get out before the flames cnt them off.
The warning came too late. The fire
swept through the door and down the
single stairway. Those nearest the
door fed through the binding smoke
and reached the street with hands and
faces burned and blistered. The rest
faced a solid wall of fame. There was.
fire escape at the south front Of the
building, but not one Of them seems
to have thought Of 1t. They rushed
panic-stricken to the windows through
which the smoke was already pouring
in suffocating puffs. The fire was
scarcely foot behind them. 1t caught
their clothing and storched their faces
with increasing intensity.
In another instant the spectators,
attracted by the clouds Of smoke, were
Mortified to see one after another
spring from the open windows and fall
heavily to the pavement No one arose.
They lay in an inert and apparently
lifeless heap until carried into the
office of physician across the street.
Most of them were bleeding from Sc
we're cuts and bruises and all were
burned until their torn and blackened
skin hung in shreds.
Aside from the fatalities and the in
juries to persons, the fire was not a
serious one. Few of the losers are
able to place an exact estimate on
their losses but the total will not ex-
coed $50, 900. The loss on the building
is less than half that sum, and aside
from that the heaviest losers are the
proprietors of the Boston store, who
had large surplus stock in the base
ment Of the block.
st. Joseph Wants an Exposition.
st. Joseph, Mo-, March %. Plans
for an interstate fair and exposition
were laid before capitalists OF this
city by J. T. Imbrie, formerly well
known as an exposition promoter.
The plans will probably be accepted.
The exposition will continue a month
or more in the fall Of each year, and
may occupy an auditorium, plans Of
which are being discussed