The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1902-02-22
FIFTEEN LIVES ARE LOST IN
VEW YORK FIRE
Park Hotel and The Armoy Burned to the Grouud
With Frishtfu Scenes Of Agony and DEATH
Description of Many Of the Struggles
for Life BY i!otei Guests.

suffocation, with one exception. One
man jumped from the fifth story window
TO the inner court. His skull was crush
cd and death was instantaneous.
When the fire started in the armory
scores OF guests In the Park avenue
notel were awakened by the elang of the
s,ngines and crowded TO the hotel wins
Vows.
About an hour elapsed before the hotel
took fire, but In spite Of this many guests
were In their rooms clad only I'm their
night clothes and some were In he'd.
Men and women appeared at the win
lows OF the Park avenue side Of the
hotel and called for help.
Jumped Five Stories.
Mrs Charlotte Bennett and her hus-
band. Harold. of Alabama, stood on a
ledge ON the fifth floor just over the
portico of the main entrance of the ho-
tel Mrs. Bennett was terror stricken
and screamed again and again for some
one to rescue her. Her husband srasped
her and from the crowd Of thousands
gathered In the streets there were shouts
Of warning not to jump.
When 1t was seen that she was deter
mined to jump the Gremen gathered In
a final desperate effort Mrs. Bennett
wrenched herself free from her husbands
grasp, and with piercing shrek. flung
herself into the arms OF the fremen five
stories below.
When she jumped from the ledge on
which she and her husband had stood on
flames were licking out Of the window
behind her and around her form. In
ali rf tIax., oil tn fa.
Bennett struck In the arms of the fire.
men.
Her weight caused them to sag and
she struck the pavement. She was ter
ribly burned about the body. She was
taken To Bellevue hospital where she
died. Her husband. when Mrs Bennett
jumped, fell back in the room. He was
not seen afterward, and 1t Is believed
he was burned or suffocated to death.
Made a Poor Calculation.
Col. Charles l. Burdette OF Connecti-
cut met death In a terrible manner His
body, with the skull split open, was found
| lying In the court yard of the hotel. He
| had fallen at least five stories. Colonel
Bnrdette had room on the seventh
| floor When the alarm OF Are reached
| him his escape was cut OFF.
| His room faced the court In the center
| of the hotel.
Apparently he had dragged the mat
| tress from his bed and dropped 1t to
| the roof of an extension over the hote,
dining room, several stories below. Then
| by knotting the sheets together he made
4 rope, secured It to the window, low
| cred himself on the improvised rope and
! then dropped. His design was to land
on the mattress and thas have the fright
| ful fail broken. He miscalculated the
| distance, went beyond the extension, and
| was killed.
Priests Brave Act.
Father Smith, fire chaplain, found
| Bishop Ludden of Syracuse In a room
on the seventh floor of the hotel and
| helped him to the strcsA Bishop Ludden
! told the firemen that there were a num-
| ber of priests In the hotel, including Mgr
| KeHney, 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 stair
I'way to safety.
! One of the bodies awaiting identifica-
tion was recognized BY Henry Newman
OF this city as that Of his niece. Miss
| Esther Schlessinger of Chicago, who had
| come to New York to buy goods for her
| fathers store In that city.
4 CASTOR A. Robins who was killed, was
formerly congressman from Selma,
4 Ala @ vs 4