The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-01
NARROWLY ESCAPE CREMATION
INTENT TO KILL OR MAIN 200
VOTERS FOILED BY EARLY
DISCOVERY
ST. JOHNS HALL IS BURNED
Fire Department Succeeds In Saving
the School, but the Hall Is
Badly Damaged by the
Flames.

One OF the worst outrages known in a
political campaign was perpetrated in St
Paul last night, when the hall Of st.
Johns school, Francis and Forest streets.
crowded with people who had come to
hear speakers in behalf of the Democracy
in the closing meeting of the city cam
paign, was fired by an incendlary.
In the recent campaign 1t has been
shown by the Republicans and their allies
that assault on the venerable nominee OF
the Democracy was not beneath them.
Last night the torch was applied
The firemen who responded to the alarm
were unable to find any, reasonable cause
for the fire other than lncendiarism.
CROWDED HALL.
There We're over zoo people in the hall
last night when the meeting was called
to order by A. c. Dornfeld. David Pee
bles, one of the Democratic nominees for
the assembly, had spoken eloquently amid
enthusiastic applause, and J. ]. Parker
also a nominee for the assembly, was Just
launching into an arraignment Of the
present incompetent city administration
when those in the rear Of the hall smeled
smoke
"Fire! yelled some thoughtIess person,
and, as the alarm proved to be based ON
facts, a panic ensued.
Mr.. Parker and the others on the plat
form endeayored to stay the mad rush
| of the crowd for the door, not believing
! that the fire could be serious, but ia vain
/ The stairway and the rear Of the hall was
rapidly filling with smoke, and those who
! had been fortunate enough to gain the
outer air found the flames creeping up
the side OF the building.
Meantime men were jamming through
the door and down the stairs excitedly,
| and the police present were unable to
| restrain the maddened throng.
Charles Kartak, the Democratic nomI-
nee for alderman Of the Second ward,
| made hasty investigation from win
dow, and in a moment quietly warned the
| speakers not to further deceive the audi
ence
The alarm was a real one.
NARROW ESCAPE.
BY the time the speakers, who stayed
heroically till the last of the audience
went down the stairs, left the building
the passage was ablaze, and some of the
candidates faces were blistered by the
flames.
An alarm was turned In, and the fire
department. was soon on the scene and
extinguished the fire before It had spread
to adjoining buildings.
1t Is only few months since the hall
was reopened the school having been
burned to the ground in July last when
| 1t was struck by lightning.
AS near as could be learned last night
| the fire started just above the engine
room and was the work of some incen-
diary. The place where the fire was first
seen has not been in use since last sum-
mer, and was used to put the sweepings
| and scrap paper In. A woman who was
| coming home, and was taking the short
| cut across the vacant lots on the west
side Of the school and hall, says that she
| saw man running in a westerly direc-
ton, and, on looking toward the way
| from " feh he came she saw flames
bursting rom the rear of the building.
Rev. Father r. F. Gleeson, who has
| charge of st. Johns church and the
! school, was unable TO estimate the loss
| last evening. The fire was a most outra-
| geous one, and if the miscreant who did
! it could have. been caught last night 1t
would have gone hard with him.
/ The fire department succeeded in keep
! ing the fire from getting any headway in
! the main building, and, after three-quar-
4 ters of an hour of hard work, it was final
! ly put out