Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-12-15

Chicago, Dec. 5.-Fourteen men met
death by suffocation yesterday morn
ing in a fire in the Lincoln hotel, 176
Madison street. Thirteen were stifed
while lying in their beds. One was
rescued alive, but died in the ambu-
lance on the way to the hospital.
Coroner Traeger, after inspecting the
building, united with Fire Chief Mus
ham in declaring it was a verltabIe
trap. No fire escape was on the front
of the building, although one was in
the process of construction. The scaf-
folding was up and from it dangled
several ropes, down which number
of people slid to the pavement, alter
ecape by the stairway had been cut
off. The dead are:
l. c. Yocum, fire insurance agent,
prominent in Davenport, Iowa
Samuel Yocum, son of l. G. Yocum,
Davenport, Iowa.
A. B. Coon, lawyer, Marengo, ILL.,
T. l.. Ewing, mail clerk, Marietta,
Ohio.
B. F. Boswell, Chicago.
T. V. Slocum, machine dealer, Wau-
conda, Ill.
H. K. Woods, Lebanon, Ind.
Edward Toner, printer, Milwaukee.
F. w Corey, 29 years Of age, rail
way postal clerk, Bucyrus, Ohio.
Ward Lowe, railway postal clerk,
Scheleryille, Wis.
GAINESVILLE, Wis.
G. P. Cowan, collector on the Wa
bash railroad, st. Louis.
George B. Graves, compositor, Chi
cago.
An unidentified man, five feet eight
inches, 165 pounds, As years of age,
thin brown hair and moustache.
Among the Injured were:
j. S. Allison, Richland Center, Wis,
cut about the hands.
Edward Davenport, Chicago, injured
internally by jumping from fourth sto-
ry to roof of adjoining building.
W. G. Thomas, Cedar Rapids. Iowa.
badly cut, burned.
William M. Snyder, Loom CITY, Ia,
bruised by falling down stairs.
Mrs. June Sheppard, Chicago, back
strained, arms and hands cut, bruised.
Robert G. Hamilton, Lebanon, Ind.y
hands cut.
Cliff Ward, Battle Creek, Mich, cut
about the head, hands decorated.
Fred G. Baker, Nashville, Mich,
feet burned.
Irwin Westernland, Chicago, feet
burned.
Olif Oldorf, Chicago, hands lacera-
ted.
The hotel was four stories in
height and contained an unusual num-
Der of rooms for hotel of it's size.
Fire Chief Musham declared after the
fire that the rooms were the smallest
he had ever seen in any building. Had
there been fewer partitions, he de-
clared, the chances of life of those
sleeping on the upper floors would
have been greatly increased.
House Packed With Guests.
F. A. Smith, proprietor of the hotel,
estimates that 125 people were in the
building 1t was in fact filed to it's
utmost capacity Night Clerk Weber
discovered smoke pouring through the
halls shortly before o'clock and did
his best to alarm the guests, but the
smoke was so dense and increased SO
rapidly that he was unable to arouse
only a small number and was then
compelled to grope his way to the
street to avoid suffocation. Guests
came pouring down the stairway in all
stages of undress and several leaped
from windows of the second story and
escaped without serious injury. A
number of men were turned back by
the smoke in the Railways, which pre-
vented them finding the stairs, ana
swung down on ropes placed in front
of the building by wOrkmen who were
| erecting the fire escape.
The fremen saved many lives by
carrying people down ladders from
the windows. Those not able to
reach the windows in five minutes
after the fire broke out were suffo-
Gated The fire itself amounted to
very little. A portion Of the third and
second floors were burned and the.
blaze was soon extinguished AS
soon as the smoke permitted the fire
men to live inside the building
search was made of all the rooms
with the result that 10 men were
found to have been stif1ed in their
beds