The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-03-21

ed their way through the crowds as
quickly as possible and the injured
were removed to the hospitals.
PEOPLE LEAPING TO THEIR
DEATH.
Several Of the hotel ap-
peared at the windows of the sixth and
seventh stories n even on the roof,
and leaped to the streets from those
points. Very few of them escaped eth
er instant death OF injuries which re-
suited in their death a short time later.
Within forty Or flfty-fve minutes
after the fire broke out, the walls on
the Fifth avenue side showed every in
dication of falling and shortly, with
an awful crash they struck the asphalt
covering Of the street in front Of the
hotel. This fall weakened the walls on
the Forty-seventh and Forty-sixth
streets sides and they followed a mo-
ment later. When the walls fell the
bricks and mortar and twisted girders
and corrugated iron filled the streets on
three sides of the hotel.
The doorsteps and iron fences in
front of the houses on the opposite
sid of the street from the hotel were
wrecked by the falling walls, n the
amour of debris in the streets was
so great that travel will be impeded for
several days. The northwest wing of
the hotel continued to burr for half
oil AOuI dllSI lHC Walls VI luc OlIlSI
part of the building fell. Firemen con-
tinued to play streams upon the flames
n also upon all the adjoining build
ings, including Miss Gould's residence,
which seemed in imminent danger of
catching on fire, but the flames were
brought under control before they
could reach any of them.
DISCOVERY OF THE FIRE.
A hall boy discovered the flames
while he was passing along the fourth
floor, Immediately over the rooms &C.
/ cupied by President Mckinley broth
er, Abner Mckinley, and his family.
The boy pulled a chain attached to
the fire alarm, but the cham broke,
and then he cried out an alarm of fire
and ran to the floor below. The blaze
was then licking up everything on the
fifth avenue end of the building and
the lad, when he got to the floor above
the main hall, ran into the American
dining room and gave the alarm to the
guests there. Only a few persons were
in the dining room at the time n
they escaped. When the boy reached
the main floor Warren F. Leland, the
proprietor of the hotel, was in the rear
of the long hall, and the boy shouted
to him that the building was on fire.
On Mr.. Leland's instructions the clerks
tried to save all the books and papers.
The boy then rushed down the base
ment stairway and alarmed the wO-
men who were at work in the laun-
dry. 1t is believed that all of them es-
capped.
A HORRIBLE SIGHT.
The first horror occurred just fif-
teen minutes after the fire broke out.
A handsome woman appeared at the
window of a room on the fourth floor.
She held out her arms to the crowd be-
low. Then she raised her hands as if
in s~upplicatiOn, and in a moment
climbed to the window and leaped. She
turned about like a top and struck
the iron railing in front of the hotel.
Her body seemed to impale there
out it fell off and into the areaway.
She was dead. The woman was identi-
fed as Mrs. Amelia Paddock, of Irving
ton, n. Y.
DARING RESCUES.
One of the most daring rescues eff
fected by the firemen occurred on the
fifth floor on the Fifth avenue front.
An elderly woman was seen at a Win
dow, and two fremen succeeded in
reaching the window Immediately I'M
derneath. One of them climbed to the
coping of the window on which she
was standing and then stepped over
to the woman. He swung her clear of
the window and landed her safely in
the arms of his companion, who, with
the assistance of several other fire
men, passed the m down to the
street.
One of the most thrilling scenes of
the fire-at a time when the building
was a seething cauldron of f1ame-was
the heroic rescue of several women
from the upper stories. One had been
carried down from the fifth story. Mrs.
A. H. Fuller, Of Pittsburg, then ap-
peared with her maid at the window of
49, c..I rko~~r - o~n IT, ~
age before the ladder was lowered.
Firemen ran up and with great difficult
ty brought down Mrs. Fuller and her
maid. - N42H
Just as she was gotten out of the
window a middle-aged woman appear
ed at a window just north of that at
which the ladder was placed. The wo-
mar fearing she would not be rescued,
prepared to jump. She ives warned to
keep back, and became panic stricken
and stepped back into the dense smoke.
A hook and ladder mar seeing the des-
%peration Of the woman, seized a seal
ing ladder and went up story after
story through the binding smoke. He
climbed to the coping just as the wo-
man ~reappeared. The bremen seized
her by the waist, and holding her
tightly to the wall of the building,
crept slowly on the coping and passed
the. fainting woman to another fire
man who had braced himself to re-
ceive her. There was a dreadful sus-
pense as the fireman drew the woman
toward him and finally had her safely
on the ladder. A tremendous cheer
went up from the crowd
Fireman John Hanna, OF the fire
boat Zephar Mills, pushed through the
smoke to the top floor and foundN Night
Watchman MacNichol half ~asphyxiat-
ed. ann lowered him by means OF
wire at the fire escape two stories be-
low and let himself down the same
way. His hands were badly IL by the
wire. Then Hanna assisted the Gle
t man down the fire escape.
Fireman William Kennedy. of En-
CINE Company No. %. rescued a Mrs
: Brann from the fourth floor of the
: hotel by, means Of a scaling ladder
l Her rescue was cheered by the i'm.
mense crow
A crippled was found lying