Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1895 — CHRISTMAS CASUALTY. [ARTICLE]

CHRISTMAS CASUALTY.

Forty-One People Burned to Death. - 1 Frontier Oregon Town in Mourning— Moat of The Victims Women and Children, A Klamath Falls (Ore.) special, Dec. 29. lays: News has just reached here that a most horrible casualty occurred at Silver Lake, Lake county, Oregon, on Christmas eve, in which forty-one persons were burned to death and sixteen badly injured, five of whom will die. A large crowd had assembled in Ohristman brothers' hall to attend a Christmas festival. While the festivities were at their hight some one climbed on a bench, from which point he txpected to get a better view of wha| was going on. In doing so his head struck a lamp'hanging from the ceiling, overturning it. The oil immediately caught fire and everything in the building being dry and of an inflammable nature, the room was soon a mass of flames. Some one Shouted: “Shut the door and keep quiet; it can be put out.” ’ » | . By this time the confusion was so great that people began scrambling in a wild Endeavor to reach the deor. Women and children were trampled under foot and as there was only one exit to the hall and the fire being between the majority of the crowd and the door, many rushed headlong into the flames. The building, a two-story frame structure, contained Christman Bros.’ store. On the first floor was the haff, which was rented for gatherings of all kinds. Silver Lake is a small village of about one hundred inhabitants and it is 150 miles from the nearest telegraph office.