Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — TABERNACLE IN RUINS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TABERNACLE IN RUINS.

Dr. Talmage's Brooklyn Church Burnet to the Ground, Just after services at noon Sunday and while Dr. Talmage was shaking hands with members of his congregation. fire burst out between the pipes of the organ and within ten minutes the big Brooklyn tabernacle was doomed to total destruction. Adjoining the church was the Hotel Regent, eight stories in height, with a frontage of ninety feet on Clinton avenue, and extending back 200 feet to Waverly avenue. The fire spread from the tabernacle to this hotel and then to the dwelling houses on Greene and Waverly avenues, opposite the tabernacle. The wind carried the blazing cinders in such quantities in a southeasterly direction that dwelling houses in Washington avenue, two squares away, and also the Summerfield Methodist Church were set on fire by them, but the greatest loss on any one of these structures did not exceed $15,000. The total loss, however, reaches over $2,000,000.

When asked for his opinion as to the cause of the fire Dr. Talmage said emphatically: “Electric light*. Electricity caused this fire, as it did in the last tabernacle on Schermerhorn street." The loss on the church is not far short of $50(*,000. Russell Sage, who

has a mortgage of $125,000 on the church property and is also the owner of the site upon which it stood, is fully insured. Mr. Sage said: “It is probable that the people of Brooklyn will come forward with a big subscription. The insurance will cover the rest If they want to rebuild I will put no obstacle in their way. In other Words, I will let the debt and interest stand over for an indefinite period, let them rebuild on the insurance money and what they can raise in subscriptions and in other ways’.” Was a Beautiful Building. The edifice was, in general, in the Norman style of church architecture, although not of the conventional ecclesiastical type. It was very ornate and imposing in appearance. The church was built of a stone called bastard granite, which is found in Connecticut and possesses the peculiarity of having thread-like veins of dark red running through it. The trimmings and ornamentations were of Lake Superior brownstone, with which the granite harmonized very happily. The striking characteristics of the ex-

KEV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE.