Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1902-02-25
A HOTEL HORROR.
Park Avenue House at New
York City DESTROYED
by Fire.
Eighteen Guests Perish in the
Flames or Jump to Their
Death.
Fifty Others More or Less Severely
Fifty Others More or Less Severely
Burned and Injured in Max
ing Their Escape.
Prominent People Among the Killed
and Injured-Col. Pepper, U.
S. A., Meets Death.
Fire In Hotel Follows Burning of the
S1st Regiment Armory-Thrtll-
ing and Awful Scenes.

New York, Feb. 24.-Fire early Sat-
urday morning in the Park Avenue
hotel and the Seventy-first regiment
armory, this city, resulted in the loss
of 10 lives and the destruction of
property valued at $750,00O. The
dead persons were all guests OF the
hotel. Flames were first discovered
in the armory, and As minutes later
it was found that the hotel was on
fire. A revised list of dead and in
iured follows:
THE DEAD: Norman Acton, Alabama.
Col Charles L. Burdett, Hartford, Conn.
colonel First regiment OF the nauonal
guards of that state.
Mrs Ellen Foster, Tombs prison mis-
sionary.
Fred S. Hovey, Lyon, N Y.
Thomas P. Horne, Denver.
John H. Iverson, Denver.
Unknown woman.
Charles Underwood O'Connor. New
York. died of his injuries in hospital.
Col Alexander Piper, U. S. A.. retired,
resident of hotel.
G. A. Robbins, lawyer. of Selma, Ala.
Miss Esther Schlesinger, Chicago.
N. Y.
John E. Walker, Columbia, Tenn.
William H. Barnhart. of Chicago Mr..
Barnhart had come to New York to take
charge of the furniture business of de-
partment store.
Unknown woman, body found on the
sixth floor, wore five rings on the left hand.
THE LIST OF INJURED, who are being
cared for at Bellevue and New York hos
pitfalls, is as follows: Mrs. Leonora A.
Bausch, an invalid, suffering from nervous
shock. Margaret and Catherine Bennett.
of Denver. Col, burns on bodies hands and
burned. Louis Berry, Portland, Me-,
Cove. employe of hotel, burns and
shock Charles A. Gregory, lawyer,
Portland, Me, shock. Bridgeman. burns
William A Cove. employe of hotel burns
and shock. Charles A Gregory. lawyer,
New York. face and hands burned. Mrs.
Caroline I. r. Hall and her daughter. Miss
Anna G. Hall. Newark, N. j., suffering
from burns and shock William B. Hale,
Whliamsville. Mass. partially suffocated.
e. 8. Hearne, Atlanta, Ca, burned on
body. Emily /. Livingston, burns on face
and body. 49, Lyons, las East Twenty-sec-
ond street, cut by falling glass. Miss E. S.
Meyer, Savannah, Ga. suffering from
shock. Joseph Pearson, 90 years old, hys-
1erics. Frank B. Reed, proprietor of Park
Avenue hotel, burned on face and hands.
Mrs Frank B. Reed, burned on face and
hands. William Stebbins, IS years old,
burned on face and hands. Mrs. S. Veach
burned on face hands and body. Charles
l.. Woodbury., Portland, Me-, partially suf-
located.
Panic Among Guests.
Z When the fire started in the
armory-. scores of guests in the
Park Avenue hotel were awakened
by the clang of the engines and
crowded to the hotel windows. 1t
was about As minutes after flames
were discovered in the armory be-
fore they spread to the hotel. but
in spite of this many of the guests
were in their rooms dressed in
their night clothes, and some of
them were in bed The fremen, as
soon as they learned that the hotel
was in danger, decided to devote all
of their efforts to the rescue of it's
occupants. Men and women APP
peared at the windows of the Park
avenue side of the hotel and called
for help.
Terrible Death,
Col. Charles /. Burdett. of Connecti-
cut. met death in a terrible manner
His body, with the skull split open,
was found lying in the courtyard
within the hotel. He had fallen at
least six stories. Col. Burdett had
a room on the eighth floor of the
hotel When the alarm of fire
reached him his escape was cut off.
His room faced the court in the cen
ter of the hotel. Apparently he had
dragged the mattress from his bed
and dropped it to the roof of an ex-
tension over the hotel dining-room,
several stories below. Then, by knot
ting the sheets together, he made
rope and secured it to the window
When his preparations were complet-
ed they must have been finished in
few moments-he lowered himself on
the improvised rope and then dropped.
His design was to land on the mattress
and thus have the frightful fall
broken. He miscalculated the dis
tances Went beyond the extension and
was killed.
Father Smith, fire chaplain, found
Bishop i4ndden, of Syracuse, In u room
on the seventh floor of the hotel and
helped him to the street Bishop Lud-
den told the fremen then that there
were a number of priests in the. no.
tel. including Mgr Kenney. also of
Syracuse. Father Smith returned
into the building, fought his way
through the smoke and up the stairs
and conducted the priests down the
stairway to safety.
Ffremen Search for Bodies.
The fremen i'll searching the hotel
found the body of an unknown
elderly lady. 1t was found near
the elevator shaft and was so badly
burned as to be almost unreoogpiz-
able. Charles U. O'Connor and Fred
S. Hobby died of their injuries in the
hospital to which they were taken.
Their deaths and the finding of the
unidentified woman increased the
number of known dead to IS. One of
the bodies awaiting Identification was
recognized by Henry Newman, of
this city, as that of his niece, Miss
Esther Schlesinger, Of Chicago, who
had come to New York to buy goods
FOR her employers IN thst city.