Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1891 — THEY WILL RISE AGAIN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THEY WILL RISE AGAIN.

GREAT DESTRUCTION BY FIRE IN CHICAGO. Lobs Occasioned by the Flames Amounts to a Million Dollars—Bungling Work or a Juggler Doing Tricks with a Lighted Lamp—Miraculous Escape of the Audience in, the Museum and of Occupants of Other Structures. Once more has Chicago received a costly visit from the fire king. Not since the little Chicago fire which swept everything from Twelfth and Clark streets north to Van Buren in 1874 has this latest call ever been eclipsed in its damaging work. The other afternoon fire started under the stage in Kohl & Middleton’s West Side Dime Museum on Madison street, and before it was taken In control by the fire department it had destroyed the immense furniture establishment of John M. Smyth. Kohl & Middleton’s Museum, and five other five-story business blocks, and damaged several of the adjacent structures. A low estimate to place on the loss is §l.250,000. Aside from its tenible effects, says a Chicago dispatch, the fire was a grand sight to behold. Fierce and furious were the flames, eating all before them. The sky, at first blackened by the huge volumes of smoke that poured forth from the seething flames, soon took on a roseate hue as the tongues of fire darted through the black mass. Great firebrands sailed through the air, and falling started blazes which threatened with destruction the surrounding edifices. It appeared as though the western part of the city was doomed. The high wind carried the firebrands here, there, and everywhere. People ran about demoralized. Thousands of persons were in peril of their lives. Kohl & Middleton’s museum was jammed with amusement seekers, who in an instant had their pleasure turned into greatest terror. So fast did the fire burn that it was hardly, a moment fiom the time it broke out until the entire place was in

flames. A stampede followed. In the fierce fight for life eight women were knocked down and trampled under foot. Several men jumped from windows, and one of these, Alexander Grant, a painter employed on the place, leaped from the third story and struck a sign in his descent. He fell to the ground senseless, his skull fractured, and one leg broken. When all those who were able to get out had left the building Officers Welbaskey and Pat Sheedy entered the burning bui ding and went as far as the flames would permit They pulled out several women who had fainted from fright or been crushed in the stampede. Across the street in tho Haymarket Theater a similar panic was averted only by tho coolness of George Fair, the treasurer. When it became apparent that the theater was in danger Mr. Eair called the ushers into his private office, and instructing them to stand at tho fire-escape and to by no means permit crowding, he quietly went around from one gallery to another and told the spectators that there was a fire-across the street, but that there was no immediate danger. They were then led to the fire-escapes and male their way easily. As in the case of the great fire, this last conflagration was started by a lamp explosion. While the audience in the museum theater was watching with interest a juggler balancing a lighted lamp on a wand, at the same time walking a tight-rope, the juggler slipped, the lamp fell, there was an explosion, and a flame darted up the scenery of the stage. The stage curtains took fire, and before the panic-stricken men and women could make their exit the entire stage was a mass of flames. John M. Smyth is the heaviest loser. The Kohl & Middleton edifice, as well as the building occupied by himself, was his property. His loss on buildings is 8400,000, and on stock 8600,101 He carried an insurance of 8175,000 on the buildings. Kohl <t MiddletonTose their entire equipment, valued at 820,000. The five-story buildings 147-149 West Madison street were owned by James Casey and were destroyed. They were valued at 8210,000. Alfred Peats occupied the entire building with a large stock of wall paper. His loss is 855,000. The next building, occupied by Louis Laberge, was six stories, entirely destroyed, and owned by Col. Thompson. Loss on building $40,000, stock and fixtures 815,000. Joseph Stein’s shoe store was at 153 Madison street. His loss on stock is $20,000. Other losers are: Adam Gerhardt,barber shop at 155 West Madison street. $3,00J; Baer Bro.’s hat store and Eureka laundry at 157, $13,000; M. J. Jrrmin, cigars, $6,000; Neely Bros, boots and shoes, $20,000; L. Kaempfer, jewelry, loss unknown; Lawyer Payne Fittz, $5,000. Two persons were fatally injured and six others seriously hurt. The peculiar reach toward Lake Erie In the State Line of Pennsylvania, known as the Triangle (from its being originally .the State of New York extension) was a special purchase, Sept. 4, 1788, from the Government, of a slice of the Northwest Territory, containing 202,187 ac.es, at a Stat? cost of 8157,640. Washington, D. Q.' the home of the “Senators,” was the former, site of a settlement called Rome, whicli was located on the Tiber (stream or creek still so called), and curiously the proprietor of the soil was a gentleman named Pope.

THE REMAINS OF SMYTH’S BIG ESTABLISHMENT.