The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-11-12
DEATH IN A HOTEL
Six Die in a Fire at Poplar
Bluffs.
Several Others Are Reported as
Missing.
CLIFFORD HOUSE BURNS
Flames Started at Midnight
While Guests Slept.
There Were 45 Sleeping in the
Hotel.
HOUSE BURNS

st. Louis, Nov. IA special to the
Post Dispatch from Poplar Bluff, No,
says:
A fire accompanied with a terrible "a
tality occurred here this morning, re-
sulting in the total destruction of the
Clifford house, a large three-stOry frame
building. The list OF known dead is as
follows:
HECK CLARK, Doniphan, Mo
REBECCA OWENS. Poplar Bluff.
Missouri
SHELBY DE HART Poplar Bluff.
CURLEY BERRY Poplar Bluff.
FATALLY INJURED.
Eta Hargrove. Poplar Bluff.
Winslow Stowe, Tennessee
MISSING.
Eugene Dalton. Hot Springs. Ark
The following were badly burned or
injured in jumping from windows:
T A Smith, Poplar Bluff, terribly
burned about the face and hands.
Barney Pernaud, De Soto, No. hands
and face burned
Charles Stradley, Poplar Bluff, Mo,
bruised and burned.
Mrs. benjamin Shelby. Poplar Bluff
back injured, burned aud bruised
Pink Berry, Elmer Freshear and
James Upchurch, Poplar Bluff, severely
burned.
An unknown woman is also thought
more were slightly burned or received
bruises in trying to escape from the
building.
The fire originated about 1890 o'clock
this morning in the rear of the hotel
and in a few minutes the mammoth
building which was entirely Of wood was
a mass of flames
There were in the neighborhoOd of As
guests in the building, and the porter,
the only person awake in the hotel, was
unable to give an alarm, the smoke and
flames driving him back
The fire department was on hand
early, but they were unable to render
any assistance to the inmates. The
guests on the second and third floors
were caught like rats in a trap, the fire
preventing their escape by the staif.s
and they leaped from the second and
third story windows One Of these
Etta Aargrove leaped from a third
story window and suffered broken limbs
and internal injuries which will cause
her death Others were also internally
injured One guest Benjamin Shelby,
forced his wife to leap from a second
story window and thereby saved her life,
but lost everything they possessed.
Mr.. Shelby tried to eScape bV the
stairway, but the flames and smoke
drove him back. He asserts that he saw
ten or fifteen persons in the hallway
overcome by smoke. If this is the case
a dozen or more bodies may be found
hatrbreadth escapes and ran from the
doomed building clad only in their night
clothes, losing everything they possessed
in the world
Their hair and eyebrows were singed
by the flames
Numerous feats of heroism are re-
corded and if some of the male guests
had not aided the weaker sex the death
list would be larger
As yet it is impossible to tell just how
many lives were lost Quite a number
OF the guests We're not registered and
their names are unknown Every num-
Der in the house. forty-five was occu-
pied.
Men are now at work on the ruins. but
II Will probably be several DAYS before
the complete list of deaths will be OBJ
tainable.
The Clifford house was one of the old
est hotels in southeast Missouri and it
has been considered a death trap for a
number of years. W. P Norrid was the
proprietor. He and his wife escaped, but
lost everything