Evening star., 1927-04-17
Fifty Years Ago
Tn The Star

A shocking disaster occurred In 81:
Louis early in the morning OF Aprli
II, 1877, when the
Fatal Fire in Southern Hotel, the
G. Tou;s largest establishment
81 LouIS' Of it's kind in the
Mound City, was destroyed by nre.
The Star of that day prints the story,
which came from various sources, IN
terms which led to confusion at the
outset regarding the casualties. one
report stated that 200 lives were lost.
The number was later reduced to 50,
and finally several days after the hre
1t was announced that no more thah
15 persons had perished in the flames.
The fire started about l:4o am, ana
within an hour the floors and interior
walls began to fall The loss was es'
timated at from $750,00O to S1,00O, ,OoO.
The dispatch stated
From the best information at hand
it seems the fire caught in the store
room in the basement and was first
seen coming through the ground floor
Just north of the office. In 10 min
utes 1t had ascended the elevators and
rotunda and spread itself over the
sixth floor under the rocf. This floor
was occupied entirely by employees Of
the hotel, the most of whom were
women. The fire spread rapidly, fill
ing every room and hall with flames
and smoke, and the scene was of a
most terrible description. Frantic
men, women and children ran through
the halls, shrieking in a most heart
rending manner in their Wild and des-
perate efforts to escape. The smoke
was so dense in some of the halls
that the gas jets were eXtinguished,
which rendered eEress. even to those
most familiar with the building, a
matter of great difficulty. The density
of the smoke in the halls drove many
guests back into their rooms and they
rushed to the windows as a means of
escape. Ladders were raised as soon
as possible and the women and chill
dren, with nothing but their night
clothes on, were thus taken from the
burning building. The ladders gen
orally were too short to reach the fifth
and sixth stories, but by hoisting some
Of them on the one-story balcony on
the east side and the two-story bal
cony on the north side Of the building
these floors were reached and all those
at the windows rescued"
One OF the guests in the hotel was
Kate Claxton. the actress, who sim
gularly, had figured in the Brooklyn
theater holocaust of a few months
earlier. The first report said that she
had jumped from a third-story win
dow and both legs were broken. A
later report corrected this, and stated
that she had escaped by wrapping her
head about with wetted towels and
had walked and rolled down the
stairs. suffering only a few bruises.
The Star in it's issue of April 13,
1877, thus comments on the st. Louis
fire:
THE terrible disaster at st. Louis
is arousing the hotel keepers of Chi
cago to q sense of their responsibility,
and they are casting about for means
to insure the safety of their guests in
case of fire. 1t is to be hoped that
this apprehension on the part Of the
Chicago hotel keepers will extend to
all of the innkeepers in our large
cities. and that the proper authorities
will be compelled by public sentiment
to see that every large building occu-
pied during the day or night time, or
both, by any considerable number of
people is supplied with life-saving ap-
pliances in case of fire. The terrible
warnings received from time to time
ought not to pass unheeded any
longer"