Woodruff County news., 1908-05-07
MEET DEATH IN HOTEL FIRE
Scores Trapped in the New Avelin- Many Meet Fiery Death and 9th CTS are Maimed by Leaps From Lofty Windows Bodies Buried Under
 Debris.

iuJul Su, lS lue result Ol d Ire IudJ Qe- stroyed the New Aveline hotel, Fort Waynes principal hotel, at an early hour Sunday. Chief of Police Archer. bruch said he believed 20 bodies were still in the ruins.
 The entire interior of the building is smoldering heap of ruins, and the number of dead concealed by the de- bris is not exactly known.
 The hotel register was consumed by the fire and there is no accurate means of determining who is missing. The known dead are:
 R. s. JOHNSTON, Pana, III.
 M. HIRSCH, New York
 J. B. MILLER, Sheboygan, Mich.
 J. E. ELLIS, Carson, Pierce, Scott & Co.,, Chicago.
 w. A. PITCHER, Fort Wayne, salesman for s. F. Bowser & Co.,, Fort Wayne.
 J. w. DEvINEY, salesman for Crawford & Lehman, Philadelphia.
 THREE UNIDENTIFIED DEAD.
 One unidentified woman.
 The knOWn missing:
 Frank Baxter, attorney, Auburn, Ind.
 Companion of Frank Baxter, Au- burn, Ind. 2 E. Balty, Wabash, Ind.
 Charles Benjamin, salesman for Detroit neckwear company, Detroit, Mich.
 Mrs. Sarah Hathaway, Mishawka, Ind.
 Unknown woman, companion of Mrs. Sarah Hathaway.
 R. E. Tribble of Dalhart, Tex, a ranch owner
 Among the injured were:
 F. c. O'Donnell, Deroit, right arm broken.
 James A Foster, Fort Wayne, burn ed about face and head, at St. Jo- seph's hospital.
 A. NJ. Meth, .Pittsburg, burned about face, arms and legs.
 Lyman Campbell, jumped three sto- ries, badly shocked.
 Charles Falls, Columbus, O., gash in leg, confusion on head and lacerated. Leaped three stories.
 E. NJ. Matthews, Columbus, O.. back broken and burns, at St. Joseph's hos pital.
 George A. Sill, Philadelphia, badly cut and burned about face and arms
 Agnes Nadeau, Margaret Meechan, Anna Block and Nathan Bell, all kitchen employees, burned and blister ed, at hospital.
 F. c. Philips, Calumet, Mich, face burned and head scorched
 John Long, bartender, arms broken.
 The complete destruction of the in- terior of the hotel makes the work of recovering the bodies a task of mul. tiplied difficulties. Some of the bod ies taken out are mangled and char red beyond recognition, and the worK of Identification is, in these cases, task almost baffling.
 The fire was discovered at 3:S0 o'clock Sunday morning in the eleva- tor shaft by Night Clerk Ralph Pip kins. He rushed to the upper floors alarming the guests until the flames which had spread with appalling ra- pidity, drove him back His efforts. however, saved many lives The hotel burned like matchwood and within few minutes from the time the fire was discovered the whole interior of the hotel was a mass of flames that filled the corridors and rooms with suf. locating clouds of smoke and laid fiery barriers across all means of escape, except by the windows.
 As the fury of the flames increased, men and women were secn in the windows of their rooms, where they wildly implored help. Some did not wait for the efforts of the firemen and leaped to the street. Several were se- riously injured in this way. Those who got from their rooms before the flames cut off their retreat were able to make their way to the fire escapes and SC were saved with comparative ease. Soon the flames broke from the win dows and curled about the fire es. capes. Some of the more hardy ones braved the flames and made their way through smoke and fire down the iron stairs.
 24 Dead, Hurt or Missing m Chicago