Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — GREAT LOSS BY FIRE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GREAT LOSS BY FIRE.

DISASTROUS BLAZES OCCUR IN MINNEAPOLIS. Three Simultaneous Fires Destroy Many Big Mills and Wipe Out Over a Hundred Dwellings of Workingmen—Two Lives Reported Lost. Over a Million in Ashes. Minneapolis has experienced the most disastrous conflagration of its history, the loss from which will reach a million and a half dollars. Two fires, presumably the work of incendiaries, broke out within a short time of each other. The first fire broke out in a stable in the rear of the Cedar Lake Ice Company house, and soon spread to the ice-house proper. From there, fanned hy a quick breeze, it spread to Clark’s box factory. and then destroyed the boiler works of Lintges, Connell & Co., including a $27,000 riveting machine the only one west of Chicago. Lenhart’s Union Wagon Works were totally consumed. Also a quantity of lumber belonging to various firms. The Cedar Lake Ice Company loses $5,000; Clark's Box Company, $30,000; Lintges, Connell & Co., $60,000; Union Wagon Works, $15,000. On this there is a total insurance of about half. While this fire was at its height an alarm was turned in from the lumber district at the other end of the island. Boom Island, as the place is called, was a mass of wood and timber piles belonging to Nelson Tenny & Co and Backus & Co. This was blazing fiercely, and fanned by a brisk wind the flames soon spanned the narrow stretch of water and began eating their way among the big sawmills and residences in the vicinity of the river bank. One after another the planing-mills of the Wilcox Company, the Chatterton mill, the Backus mill, the Hove mill, Smith & Corrigan, and Nelson Tenny &, Co. felt the blast of the fire and were either totally destroyed or badly damaged. The flames left a path of blackness through Marshall street and were prac-

tically stopped by the big brick structure of the Minneapolis Brewing Co., although their loss is put at SIIO,OOO. Situated as it was, directly in the path of the flames, with wooden buildings on one side of it and a blazing lumber yard in the rear, it seemed as if this magnificent edifice costing $500,000 would be added to the long list of property destroyed. But Providence camo to the aid of the exhausted firemen and frightened citizens. The wind changed. It no longer blew from the south, but sprang up from the east and north, wafting large cinders and embers across the river, jeopardizing valuable property on the noith side. The citizens, however, were on the alert, and a reception in the shapo of a bucket of water awaited any spark that found a lodging. All along Marshall street and through that entire section are small frame houses occupied by laboring and sawmill hands. They went like tinder when the flames first struck them, but the residents had ample time to move their belongings. In all 112 houses were destroyed. Although a general alarm was turned in, the entire city department proved inadequate to the occasion and aid was asked from St. Paul. That city promptly responded and sent over two steamers and a hose cart that did excellent service. The fire on Boom Island was burning fiercely at a late hour at night, and the only hope seemed to lie in letting it burn itself out. For a while it looked as though all of northeast Minneapolis would bo destroyed, but by the concentration of the department the furthor progress of the flames was checked. There were several accidents caused by spectators attempting to run on the logs and falling in. Two lives are reported lost and a number of persons sustained serious injury. A conservative estimate puts the total loss at $1,500,000 and the insurance at $900,000. The principal losses are as follows: E. W. Backus & Company lose 60,000,000 feet of lumber, worth $750,000, two sawmills, and barn, making their total loss about $1,000,000. J. F. Wilcox, planing mill, $50,000. J. B. Chatterton, sawmill, $15,000. Lintges, Connels & Company, boiler works, $60,000. J. R. Clark & Company, box and ladder factory, $50,000. Nelson, Tenny & Company, sawmill and lumber, $40,000. F. F. Lenhart, carriage works, $15,000. George W. Higgins, wood yard, $5,000. Cedar Lake Ice Company, ice houses, SIO,OOO. Miscellaneous losses on dwellings, barns, etc., $75,000. Hundreds of people are homeless and many of these are the recipients of charity, having saved only the clothes on their backs.

SUIT AGAINST BRECKINRIDGE. Miss Follard Seeks Heavy Damages for Alleged Breach of Promise. In the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia suit has been filed for $50,000 for breach of promise against Representative W. C. P. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, by Madeline V. Pollard. The plaintiff charges, according to a Washington correspondent, that in April, 1884, when she was 17 years old and a student at Wesleyan Female Seminary at Cincinnati, she was met on the train traveling from school to Frankfort, Ky.,, by W. C. P. Breckinridge, who made her acquaintance on the plea of his knowing her family, and that, she was flattered by his attentions, knowing who he was and regarding him as a very prominent man, and that on Aug. 3,1884, he came to see her at the seminary and got permission of the president for her to dine with him, and by wiles and artifices and protestations of affection subsequently took advantage of her youth and inexperience. She avers that he got her completely under his control. The allegations filed go at great length into relations which existed between the plaintiff and Mr. Breckinridge, as she charges, until recently. The birth of two children (who died) and the premature birth of a third child are alleged as a result of this intimacy. She further alleges that after the death of the children she came to Washington, and he promised to marry her as soon as it would be proper for him to do so in a sufficient time after the death of his wife. From time to

time, she alleges, the date for the marriage was postponed until on the 18th day of July she avers Mr. Breckinridge wrongfully and injuriously married another woman, Mrs. Louisa Wing, who was then a resident of the city of St. Louis. The plaintiff in the case was for some time an employe in one of the departments in Washington, but shortly after the death of Gen. Sherman was dismissed, it is said, for the making of a derogatory remark respecting the dead General. The announcement of her engagement to Mr. Breckinridge and the subsequent breaking off of that engagement and Mr. Breckinridge’s marriage created a sensation in the capital.

SEVEN BURNED TO DEATH. Many Persons Perish in a Small Chicago Hotel. Shortly after 7 o’clock Monday morning a fire, which cost the lives of at least seven persons, started in the little Senate hotel on Madison street, near the corner of Fifth avenue, Chicago. The dead are: Mrs. Coons, Bertha Coons, aged 7, Charles Coons, aged 9, Godfrey children, and two unknown men. There were over a score of guests in the hotel. The flames spread so rapidly and the exits were so inadequate that the inmates were unable to escape. The little hotel was situated on the two upper floors of a three-story brick building. The fire started on the second floor, midway, near the stairs leading to the floor above. Mrs. Ahrens and her daughter Annie slept in room 20 in the front part of the third floor. They discovered the fire first. The other twenty occupants we re flying about, seeking an avenue of escape. Annie and her mother groped their way through the stifling smoke to the window and stood out on the sill. The crowd below yelled to them not to jump. With desperation the women clung to the frame-work, keeping as far out as possible, while the smoke and flames burst through the windows, around them. Although badly burned they retained their position until the arrival of hook and ladder company No. 6. A ladder was raised and they were rescued. A man whose identity is unknown next reached the window.

The flames were already scorching his almost nude body and he jumped to the stone pavement. He wa3 picked up in an unconscious condition. When the firemen arrived ladders were raised and the woik of rescuing the imperiled inmates systematically began. For some, hemmed in by flames, overpowered by smoke and with all egress shut off, the rescue was too late, however. The firemen found dead bodies rather than living ones. The bodies of six persons wei e recovered and several still living were carried to surrounding drug stores. Lieut. Humanson was the first to reach the third floor. The brave fireman was cheered by the crowd and climbed through a window. The bodies of the unfortunates lay near and one after the other he lifted them out. All the patrol wagons from the South Side were summoned, and drove rapidly to the hospital with the injured. The fire is said to have started from an overturned stair-lamp. Many of those killed and injured were World’s Fair visitors, and, as tho hotel register was burned, it is feared the list of dead here given is not complete.

Currencies Condensed. Geoege Shiras, a Pittsburg pioneer, is dead. Ex-Vice President Morton and family have gone to Germany. Senator Brice, of Ohio, who has been ill at Washington, is recovering. John Parker fell from a third story scaffolding at Norwalk, 0., and was killed. The National Bank of Fort Scott, Kan., which recently suspended, will resume business. The sealing schooner Helen Blum and a crew of twenty-five men has been lost in Behring Sea. Lois Fuller, the dancer, who has been in France for two years, has returned to New York. McLeod Bros.’ elevator at Marietta, Kan., burned with (.0,000 bushels of wheat. The loss is $50,000. W. G. S. Keene, a prominent shoe manufacturer of Lynn, Mass., committed suicide by drowning. At Chester, Pa., the largest steamboat in tho world was launched. She will ply on the Fall River line. Mrs. Henry C. Myer, of Galveston, Texas, ended her life by poison. Her husband is a prominent attorney. Prof. A. B. Orr, of Chicago, has been elected President of the Southern Indiana Normal College at Mitchell. Richard Kamin. of Sandusky, Ohio, is under arrest on a charge of - pounding his daughter to death with a club. A quarantine has been declared against Pensacola, Fla., by Birmingham, Ala., owing to the yellow fever scare.

Tom Ricketts and Robert Miller, residents of Parnell. Mo., were run over and killed by a Chicago and Great Western train. S. H. Boyd, United States Minister to Siam, has not tendered his resignation, but it is believed he will soon be relieved of official cares. It is rumored that W. H. Clough, Vice President of the Great Northern Read, has resigned to accept a position with the Northern Pacific. The Broadmiore Land and Investment Company at Colorado Springs. Col., has failed. The assets are $500,(0). and the liabilities $260,000. The prosecution has closed its case in the trial by court-martial of Paymaster Sullivan at Vallejo, Cal., and the examination of witnesses for the delene© has begun. Johnston. Buck & Co., cf Ebensburg, Pa., conductings banks at Ebensburg, Carrolltown and Hastings, have closed their doors. They say they have plenty of assets, but cannot meet demands for currency. A black beetle has made its appearance ir Wayne County, Inch, of about the same shape but far more destructive than the Colorado potato bug, from the fact that it attacks almost every species of vegetation. The rafters on a Methodist Church building at Round Head, 0., collapsed, letting four carpenters to the ground, a distance of forty feet. Two of the men, Oliver S. Wagner and Clarence Morrow, were fatally injured.

VIEW OF MINNEAPOLIS FROM ST. ANTHONY'S FALLS. (The district burned over is on Nicollet Island, just north of the bridge in the foreground extending north beyond the second or Hennepin avenue bridge.]