The Hotel Fire.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 65, 9 February 1883, Page 2

The Hotel Fire.

HEART-RENDING DETAILS. LEAPING FOR BARE LIFE. „ . .THE AGONY OF DESPAIR. HORRIFYING SCENES' ~' THE DEID AND THE DYING. THE SPECTATORS AGHAST. - THE LAJ3T FAREWELLS. -

(Per Mail Steamer.) A poor fellow stood on the cornice of the fifth story corner window for twenty long minutes, not daring to take the fearful leap ; finally he became bewildered, and to judge his actions, dumbfounded by the smoke, and slid off his perch to the canvas below. The^ shattered body was carried into an office close by. Everybody seemed spell-, bound. In a fifth. , stor,y ( . .window, right over this unfortunate, safcjbhe figure of a man crouched upon the-window-sill; gazin? like one demented; into the fiery abyss below. He r . was ; motionless, but from time to time hei sent up a heartrending shriek. The; flames encroached npon him, but he did not seem to mind them. They-; then! singed his hair and licked his night-; clothes. One despairing look he gave! to the crowd below, and theu tumbled back into the sea of fire. A man and; woman appeared at a window of the third story, and were recognised as; Allan Johnston and his wife. The canvas was stretched below.the-windows of their apartment, and, a thousand voices called beseeching them to jump. Mr. Johnston kissed his wife, leaped into the air and shot downwards into! the canvas, but. his weight was such; that the canvas was pulled out of the: hands of the few who held it,- and he alighted on the ground with deadly force. His wife followedj and the body; struck the verandah and fell to the ground lifeless. Johnston died shortly after m the Express office, and the dead! body was laid baside that of his wife until they were borne away. About a dozen people jumped from the Michiganssfcreet front. Each leap meant death or shattered limbs, and hot fewer than four unfortunates at one time lay upon the icy sidewalk m front of the Chamber of Commerce, clad only m their nightdothes; with blood and brains oozing from wounds through which bones protruded. The scene m the alley west of the burning building was sickening. A s early as 7 o'clock bodies of seven unfortunate waiter girls were stretched upon the snow and ice with! broken limbs, writhing m agony, until death ended their sufferings. The maze of telegraph wires encircling the south and east sides played sad havoc with' the unfortunate m their frightful leaps for life. Several of the bodies were cut deep into by the wires, and torn and bleeding bodies would drop to the ground. Others would hit the wires crosswise, rebound, and be hurled to the ground with a dreadful crash. The waiter girls all lodged m the sixth story and attic, and to them the saddest lot has fallen. Of 60 young girls, only eleven had bean discovered alive m the evenjag.