The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-01-12
FIFTEEN GIRLS
WE'RE RESCUED BY THE HEROIC
TRAVELLING MAN
Many Thrilling Escapes from the
Burning Minneapolis Hotel Where
Eight Lost Their Lives--oth-
ere Were Seriously In
jured.

jured.
Minneapolis, MINI, Jan. 10-The
! following is a revised list of the killed
and seriously injured by tae West Ho-
tel fire here today:
Dead
Captain John Beerwin, hook and
ladder No. /, killed by fall.
Thomas Somerville, Springfield,
Mass, sufiocated in room on sevenLn
| floor.
w. G. Nichols, Chamber of Com
merce, suffocated in room on the sew
enth floor.
J. e. Wolf, Northwestern salesman
for Sperry Il Alexander, New York,
burned to death in room on seventh
| floor.
Clinton Lamme, West Point cadet, Of
Bozeman, Mont, suffocated and burn
| ed In room on seventh floor.
, Miss NJ. e. Hodges, Minneapolis,
travelled for University Extension
course, jumped from seventh floor.
j. b. Peisinger, New York, travelling
man, jumped from seventh floor.
William Black, New York, travelling
representative of A. Tame, wholesale
jewellers, suffocated.
Injured:
Mrs. b. A. Barlow, bruised and over
come by smoke, will recover.
Gordon Sapp, Chicago, bruised about
limbs, will recover.
S. f. Spiesberger, New York, over.
come with smoke, will probably die.
Mrs. S. e. Spiesberger, burned and
overcome with smoke, probably IA
tai.
b. w Swisky, New York, overcome
with smoke, cannot live doctors say.
Daughter of S. l.. Frazer, Duluth,
overcome with smoke.
Mrs. l.. Day and her maid, Mrs. Ding,
slightly overcome with smoke.
The feature of the fire was the num-
ber of remarkable escapes and the he
roic work Of many of the male guests
in rescuing their fellows on the top
floor.
The man that did perhaps the most
heroic work of all in the rescue work
was II. w. Eddy of New York.
Fighting his way down a smoke lad
en- hallway on the sixth floor to the
reaE stairway he rescued IS servant
girls from Their rooms on the sixth
floor. Eddy occupied room 659 ana
when awakened by the fire bells in his
room, dashed into the hall in his night
clothes.
The 10 girls, crazed with fear, were
rushing bllndly about In the hall in an
effort to get to the back stairs. Eddy
seized two Of the girls and carried
them down the smoke filled hallway.
The rest of the girls followed. Once
on the stairs the girls became pane
stricken and again tell. blocking the
stairs and landings. Eddy was forced
to go back through the binding
smoke and carry ten of the girls down
two flights of stairs. All reached the
alley safely.
Divers methods of escape were in
voked by travelling men as the result
Of experience in former hotel fires
One with drawn revolver threatened
to shoot the first person breaking in
his door. Another slid down five
floors on a one-fourth inch rope
X. l. Gulick, of E. pinuad & Co, in
room 534, carried rope fire escape in
his trunk.
Il crawled back to my ROOM" he
said, "and took out the little rope.
tied 1t to the radiator and crawled
through the window which opens on
the court. | slid down all right In
my pajamas. But that time | could
not stay in my room, there was so
much smoke When l got to the court
/ found every window screened. The
smoke was thick and / began to think
would die like a rat in trap. Fin
ally got once screen off and broke the
window and got out on the second
floor"
Similar tales were told by more than
a score of the fortunate ones who es-
capped from the blazing structure. The
two upper floors of the hotel were de-
stroyed and the loss is $4,000, fully
covered by insurance.