Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1883 — THRILLING EXPERIENCE. [ARTICLE]

THRILLING EXPERIENCE.

A Gnest’s Story of His Remarkable Escape from the Newhall House. Perhaps the man who had the most ex. citing experience in the Newhall House fire, at Milwaukee, is Mr. T. J. Anderson, a salesman in the einploy of. George H. Taylor* Co., wholesale paper dealers, Chicago. “I eat on the window-sill of my room,” said he, “and I saw the flames take my bed, my clothes, the floor sink in the mass of flame before I escaped by sliding down the rain-spout which ran along my window. I had a room on the corner of Michigan street and Broadway, on the fourth floor. I had played pool with Mr. L. A Brown, of Philadelphia, until nearly 1 o’clock in the morning, when I went to bed. And, poor fellow, I saw him afterwards go down to his death in the mass of flame,without being able to help him. It was awful! I walked up stairs to my room, as the elevator stopped running at i2:30. On my way up I met the only watchman the hoxise employed, and I asked him how I could escape In case of fira He said easy enough. There were two ways—one by the back stairway, and the other by going through a labyrinth of hall to the front. Brown’s room was opposite to mina I went to bed after that, and I was awakened by the horrible shrieks of burning women and the groans of burning men. It was hell itself, so terrible seemed the Bounds. " The flames were crackling all around, and I opened the door. A great mass of smoke and flame rushed in, and I became stifled. I was unable to again shut it and the smoke almost killed me. I had nothing on but a gauze undershirt I felt my strength leaving me— I was choking. I' sank to the floor. I thought I was gone. But my senses had not altogether left me. I gathered myself up as best I coxild and made toward the window. By a desperate effort I succeeded in getting there. I sank again to the floor. But I rallied and attempted to raise the window. It was so well balanced that it yielded at once to my puny effort and went up. I leaned out and the fresh air revived me. I was strengthened and consciousness returned I looked down below and saw the firemen and police holding the canvas. They shouted for me to jump on the telegraph wires, hut I refused. I saw the ladders up against the building. I sat down on the window-sill and I saw everything go dow-n, my clothes, valise, everything, unable to save a thing. I shouted, I begged, I implored for those below to save me. They saw me, but gave me no help. I saw my friend come from his room and attempt to come to me through the mass of flame, but I saw him go down in the vortex of flame to his death. Oh, such a sight! It was too horrible to' imagine. I saw the tin spout. It was in part covered with ice Three women and one man had tried to descend it, aud they landed in the Valley of Death. They lost their hold and fell to the street below. It was the only means of escape left I seized it with the frantic effort of despair. Everything inside of my room was gone. I caught it in a vise-like grasp and I commenced to slide. Sometimes I slid six to twelve feet and at others a few inches. But I kept going down, using the ice made by the hose as a foothold and catch for my hands, which axe terribly blistered I went clean down to the cellar, fifteen feet below the street, but I was alive and clad in only my gauze undershirt On my way down I saw'two little girls standing in tne window of the third story, and they asked me to save them, but I was powerless to give them aid. and I had to see those innocents not over 0 years old swallowed up by the heartless flames. I saw Kelsey, Tom Thxxmb’s colored servant, go down with the walla 'He was clinging to a window-sill in the fifth story, I walked out to the front and went up-stairs to the 'office, where I found a roman who was tearing her hair. I could not see her face and d;d not know who she was. I spoke to her. but she took no notice of me. I seized her by the ankles and dragged her dow ri bodily, thus saving her life I went across to the express office where I saw An--1 tisdel, who was leaning over Mra Johnson. He said: ‘I am crazy. You rub this woman. I want to go and save my children.’ I was in a position to bexrubbed myself, being naked and chilly. I said to a fireman standing by: ‘I have lost everything.’ He said ‘You’re alive.’ Pointing to a man who was clinging from a fifth-story window, he said: ‘How would you like to change places with him?’ Somebody gave me a coat, and I walked in my bare feet four blocks to the Plankinton House. I was beside myself. On the way I met a woman who threw a shawl over me, and said, ‘Here, poor .boy, take that’ I got clothing, such as it was, from strangers at the Plankinton. I never want to go through such an experience again. ’’