The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 24, 1898, Page 1

This Paper not | to be taken from the Library.++++ "VOLUME LX XXITV.—NO. 177 TWO BALDWIN GUESTS DEAD AND SIX MISSING 00000J,w0000000000000500000U0000000000000000000000000000 score came galloping to the scene on their tireless mustangs. A few stopped and Leithead d: sed di arty | arrived with her child Tuesday afters 5 THE KNOWN DEAD: m|;, saddle, but the majority of them lT WAS A EA UL CON ATION B, ead dresttd for a digner party [ arrived with her children Tuesday o ¥ CAPTAIN J. L. WHITE. g |came bareback, and many came with- R FLAGR . E T ot e A O riinda imortly | TRt el to e S toraas o gty LEWIS MAYER. out saddle or bridle. after 2 o'clock, remarking that he was | Captain Willlam Barnes was the man a Cordons of police were stationed at g tired and was going directly to the hotel | killed by falling from the fifth floor. Caps P all corners a block away from the fire, xlnduct'?l Yl)ed. ’}“k‘mdt be g‘:ixrrlfid ‘?ul his i'n- mtrl. Barne;i had nuen«h-;x the (ghfmg‘ = THE MISSING 3 W ropes were stretched and the surging The number of lives lost in the Baldwin Hotel fire will not be definitely known until Ieft him at the }.;ostxelyduog at fial’?;»;‘stlz‘ 5% ['and 2, Gaptain of ABOtMEr company whd mo v i masse » = ¢ ittle before. Since then no word or | was {n the city heard that Barnes ha ] [ PrSYSnicd fromssunning e the debris has been cleared away. . So far the death list contains only two'names, but at least trace of him has been had, though It was | been Killed, He told what he had heard J. J. CARTER, A iat into the j f death under the falling Y . d, 'y ssociate aws of death under the % 5 AEY his duty to report at the boat yesterday | at camp and the members of the regiment [ ] dJudge of Oakland Race W 0013"16195- < W six people. who were known to have been asleep when the fire broke out are missing. Anxi- Tmgsand accardingg tor Qenten [ereterievingloveriCaptatt Bames death Track. { During the forenoon, after the B % 3 7 3 gt £ when he was found safe and sound, aslees B . M LEITHEAD, P W | sounder sleepers had seen the morning ous friends and relatives have searched unceasingly since yesterday morning, but no traces of e om0 Gonscs 1 n hisSanasters o aa T o o urser s & = 2% 2 % : < on, Fi i or, 5 catherbee ar i 2 a Steamer City fot Syd- .' | e l‘;‘:g “l?u":]‘:fl:;:““s:g‘u‘;’(;"“;;, the missing ones have been found. It seems almost certain that they perished. Every effort S erlend 0Bt FF. s | Masa joccupled capartments lon the fr;gs = ney. | cold, hard pavements gazing at the within' human power was made to awaken all the 600 people who slept over the awful cre- Iolate ysaterd PR e Sk { Tuesday ovening. Mr,' Weatherbee wa MRS. ANDREW and chil- ;‘;‘c':a :"i)th r?presse)d anxiety :xsd o matory, and every one hoped no further fatalities would be reported. To-day or to-morrow Coitagaies umcsaumen ol for s [ aGencimsstie s L R | ! horror each one asket e . . . 2P . . . . L Siat A P L dren, Salt Lake. I | nearest person how many lives were a search of the debris will begin. Until this work is completed the families and friends of the ometine or othen awakeme. i??x‘fl‘A MARTYR TO HIS T F. V;"E:ATI‘!“I:.IRBMEE and wife, @m| i;!rs: Sdstisreon AT ibsinMstns missing must suffer the untold agony of doubt. All those seen in the corridors and windows R Moo e e SELF-SACRIFICE averhill, Mass, | 2o eelings for the story which is : 1 1 i Joor to look down the hall, but ¥ carly | 2 ® And possibly JOESUMMER- W | surs i comefrom b_@n;ath‘;heh deb,;is_ of the burning. hostelry escaped a terrible death, either by the fire escapes or down the blazing blimaca br'a ‘Cmgd he sgn?kcu Jzsneariy e | angling from a window the prin- ray. way to the bathroom o § and . - - [ ] FIELD, a Bookmaker. Pl o s s i_’ope‘ stairway. : A laof(o;i up through the glass light i‘haflt {J. L. White Met His Death in e t 0 S i |4 es sl | I | This was the attraction for all eyes. The lack of adequate firé escapes, ropes and ladders has brought severe criticism upon e I S Noble Endeavor t | Had the and almost at my feet fell the body of a | a Noble Lndeavor to ‘When the story of the little string was NCLOSED within the crumbling | passed from lip to lip tears moistened skeleton of the Baldwin Hotel is | thousands of eyelashes and words of a heap of debris, underneath|sympathy and praise were spoken for the hotel management and the fire wardens. iron ladder on Market street ex- tended to the top of the building the sad death of J. L. White would not have occurred,and a shuddering crowd would not have stood for half an hour with the frantic cries of three im- man, and [ am certain that it was that of Leithead. “With the assistance of a man who had | come into my room to Ww: me I car- | ried the body into the ha Save Livesi J. L. White, who was killbd in the ter- h of a hero. 1, but it was | rible calamity, died tne des which there may be burled the | heroic J. L. White. With that rope he R : B : Dody Y i charred remains of five to ten|saved the lives of three temfled" ) periled women filling their hearts with horror. 8o dark we Could not make out his fea- | He was a man of noble charicter and bril- unfortunate vant girl d th . s G 5 5 . . 3 e L S il | lant qualities of mind. He had everything e S S g girls and then, when his brave While the panic-stricken, partially clad inmates of the hotel were running for their T oy was Jim'e. The smola | o live for, but he did not hesitate to do o SWAYINE, Ep rC like olimnoyn Sur [ deed was Sdoue, Jthroksqungerihiy came down on us then and we had all in his power to save three women at mounting the wa and the smoke blackened buildings on Market, Powell and Ellis streets mutely tell the story of | cht battle in which San | e department has ever originated in the after 3 o'clock kly shot up the of the building the huge building aring, blast furnace. chted guests who rar d the horrifying de- | ch ortly s in and about the burning | told in full in vesterday II, and to-day the addi-| idents are given. ) the number of lives lost in- enters in the origin of the fire, and the twelve-hour of brave fire laddies to subdue | royer before more lives were 1 and a greater property loss tains Comstock and Gillespie vesterday that theyv had definite- ed that the blaze started in tchen on the second floor, but establish the cause. For nutes before an alarm was tchen emploves fought | t Y unable to subdue | ther When they realized the futility of their efforts & warning cry was given ickly carried down stairs and to The first comers, who ran he hotel employes in rousing g guests, saw the fire shoot- ructed, up the well imme- he rear of the stairway and kitchen. In less than five four walls of the well were 1 through, and the fire ran like a through the corridors in direction. By the time the - tment arrived the whole interior e hotel was ablaze. moment elapsed after the first as sent in when a cond and 1l were rung. Two fires, one y can horse of t Bu rm a ag on North Beach and a larger one at| urth and Folsom, were in progress, several engines, a water tower and which should have responded a batter to the second call, were delayed in go- ing to the Baldwin. In the meantime the fire had been gaining rapidly, and the engineers knew no human power could save the Baldwin Hotel. Every effort was im- mediately concentrated on saving the adjoining buildings from destruction. In a few moments all the available fire apparatus of the Fire Department was in use, and by 4 o’clock twenty-four engines were sending tons of water each minute into the doomed structure. A lack of hydrants hampered the work of the Fire Department. There is not a hydrant on the south curb of Market street from Fourth to Fifth, and sev- eral engines were stationed directly be- neath the bulging walls of the Baldwin. Many engines were too for from the fire to do effective work. Forcing the water through 200 to 300 yards of hose taxed the utmost capacity of the pumps, and gome of the streams only reached the first and second stories. When the battery arrived from the Folsom-street fire the first effective work on the Market-street side was done. Six streams from the nearest en- gines were combined into one and sent high over the side walls into the center of the roofl fyrnace. When the walls became weak and were apparently about to fall Chief En- gineer Sullivan ordered the nozzle men to “keep it black in the vicinity where engines were !ocated.” This order was obeyed, leaving the fire full sway in the crater of the volcano. Two hours of upremitting work on the part of the firemen brought its own reward. The fire was under control. All that re- mained was to keep the flames from There was no ces- sation of water throwing until 9 a. m. yesterday, when the battle was over and some of the exhausted firemen were sent home. Several engines con- tinued to pour water into the ruins all day. Long before daylight the big crowd of fascinated spectators who watched the flery panorama from the first was fncreased by thousands of men, women and children, who came from all sec- tions of the city. The rumble of the fire wagons, the rataplan of horses’ hoofs on the pavements, awakened the people from South San Francisco to North Beach. The {llumined heavens told them a great conflagration was on in the center of town. Telephones were sought, and the hello girls, before a question could be asked, informed the eager citizen that the “Baldwin Hotel was all afire.” Then came the rattle and noise of hundreds of coupes and carriages, drivers of milk wagons urged | their swift horses to greater speed, and | betore long the entire population seem- ed to be awake and on the way to the fire. Vaqueros at Butchertown by the welght and he fell to death. Yesterday afternoon when the heat had sufficiently subsided, many guests who thought a portion of their prop- firemen and bystanders to search their rooms. A few got some of their be- longings, but the property recovered was badly damaged. Curfous individuals and newly-clad guests of the hotel harassed the police almost beyond endurance. All sorts of excuses were given when a demand to | get through the lines was peremptorily refused. Pickpockets infested the crowd plying their vocation, messenger bo; ought persons to whom messages were addressed, and the day was not | one of unalloyed content for the police- men. Drs. Morrison and Fitzgibbon of the Central and Harbor Receiving hospitals were on the scene all the morning. Ambulances were held in readiness to carry woundeé persons to the hospitals, and the surgeons were well equipped with emergency supplies for instant use. About 4 p. m. yesterday a large piece of cornice, which had been dangling over the heads of firemen all day, fell with a crash, striking Assisiant Fore- man Madison of engine 4; Ike Shan- naughsy of the same company and Tom Titus, a water tower man, . All three started to run when the warning cry was given, but they did not get out of the way. They were knocked flat and the spectators thought they were killed or badly injured. Fortunately they escaped even slight injury. The total loss by all parties is esti- mated at $2,000,000 to $2,500,000; only partially insured. Mr. Baldwin has as yet no plans for rebuilding the hotel. Gottlob & Marx, lessees of the Baldwin Theater, are al- ready at work seeking to have a mag- nificent opera house constructed on the site of the burned hostelry. They have received such encouragement that they are hopeful the scheme will be carried to a successful termination. erty might still be recovered employed | 0300000OOOOOOOOOOOO00003_0.000000000000000000000000000000 | surance. he can bear. REGISTERED AMONG THE MISSING ONES 'Absent Persens Who Are Being Eagerly Searched . For. Relatives and friends of persons.sup- posed to be among the missing made strenuous efforts yesterday to locate them in the flesh or to trace them to the fiery tomb within the charred walls of the Baldwin Hotel. Persons who made their escape from the | burning bullding affirm that many guests must have lost their lives in the dark- ened corridors while trying to make thelr escape. At the moment when they were most needed the electric lights went out, leaving firemen and others to grope about in the awful smoke-laden corridors, lightened occasionally by the glare from the seething caldron of fire in the cen: ered fifteen minutes before an alarm was sent in. before the guests were warned of danger. Several minor casualties occurred among the brave firemen who fought valiantly for twelve hours to prevent further destruction of property. lives thieves entered the hastily vacated rooms and carried off jewels and other property. Trunks which were left intact by the fleeing guests, and which were not destroyed in the flames, were broken open and rifled, it is charged, after the fire had been extinguished. This is being investigated by-the police. The heroic work of civilians, policemen and fire laddies in saving fear-crazed men and women from incineration is praised by the rescued ones. raculous escapes are told by those who passed through the terrible ordeal. Estimates place the aggregate loss by the fire at $2,000,000 to $2,500,000, with light in- E. J. Baldwin is the heaviest loser, and the severity of the blow may be greater than It is believed that his old-time friends, men whom he assisted in the trying days of the California Bank crisis, will come to his assistance. One of the probabilities men- tioned is that a company will be organized to rebuild on the Baldwin site. Fire marshals have learned that the flames originated in the kitchen and were discov- Employes attempted to extinguish the fire ter of the hotel's ruins. Many men and women are supposed to have lost thefr | way and in a delirium of fear overlooked | the avenues of escape and thus met | death. : Attaches of the Recelving. Hosnital.were. busy all day answering personal inquiries and also those received by telephone. The hospital people treated.but two cases from the fire during the early hours of the morning, although.all the available men and ambulances were on_ the spot ready to alleviate the injuries of suffering ones. No organized search of the ruins will be | made until the wooden walls on Market, | Powell and Ellis streets have been razed. | It would be hazardous to send men into the ruins in their present condition. If | bodes are thought to be in any particular place an attempt will be made, however, | to_bring them out. | _John J. Carter, associate judge at Oak- land race track, is among the missing. | With George Carroll he océcupied room 454 on_the fifth or top floor. -Mr. Carroil made his way down the fire escape op the Market street side. The last he saw of his companion the latter had thrown a heet over his head and had made a_dash or the stairway. Harry Frolich, a book- | maker, saw himon the third floor, which Nerve-racking experiences and mi- 000000000 QO000000COOO0O0N00000N000CON000O0CO00CO00000Q00000000 [£00000000000000000000000000000000000CO00O000000C00000000Q was the last trace of him discovered. He was a Tennesseean by birth, about 50 years of age, and was well known | throughout the country. The Pacific Mail steamship people have practically given un _their search for James M. Leithead, purser o. the steamer City of Sydney, who occupled room 406 on the fourth floor of the Baldwin. General Manager Alexander Center said last even- ing that no doubt remained in his mind that somewhere among the smoking ruins Leithead’s body would eventually be found. First Officer J. W. O'Connor of the same boat and a chum of Lefthead is convinced | that it was the dead body of his friend | that shortly after the fire began he car- ried from his room through the fire and smoke to the' hallway, where he was obliged to abandon it to save himself. Leithead’'s movements have been traced lock from the time he left his boat at Tuesday afternoon to half-] t day morning, w..en he dismissed h 4 at the door of the Baldwin and went up to his room on the fourth floor, not quite an hour before the first alarm of fire was turned in. At 3 o'clock Tuesday head left the Sydney and with O'Connor went up to his rooms®at the hotel. The men remained together until after dinner, when O'Connor went to the Orpheum 3 0" 2 afternoon Leit- | | { | Ay THE HARVEST Ilflllm' \ AL OF THE FIRE FIEND. fl i # e i ! leave the dead and take care of the living women who were rushing frantically up and down the hall, shrieking, praying and utterly panic-stricken. “We_rounded up a lot of them and led | them down stairs. We then went back to get the others, but were shut off from them by the smoke and flames and so we went to work on the lower floors There is general sorrowat the Pacific Mail office. Leithead had Been in the em- ploy of the company for nearly flve years, and was immensely popular with the offt cials as well as the employes. He about thirty years of age and, if de leaves to mourn him a mother in Can: and a brother in Montana. F. L. Holland of the Columbia Bank re- ported at pollce headquarters that he thought Mrs. Andrew and children of Sait Lake City were among the missing. Sha *the imminent danger of his own life, and in the carrying out of his heroic impulse an unfortunate accident pul an end to a | happy career. Monuments are erected for | less' brave deeds than his, fut the mem- ory of his generous action will live long in the memory of San Fra cans, Miss Kate Richardson, who with her | friend had lowered themseives by a ropa which they had attached 1° a bedpost in | their room on the top floo:, had reached | the fifth story while the cuj’ola was burn- | ing fiercely. They the ledge of the window facing the apariment of J. L. White. Miss Richardson ‘ad_displayed remarkable courage in the ‘arrible ordeal, and it was she who conceiv~d the plan to lower herself and Miss Joh!:son by means of the rope. There were ioveral gentles THE BALDWIN BEFORE THE' ALL THAT IS LEFT TO THE PRIDE OF LUGKY BALDWIN. FIRE. men and a lady with Mr. White in the room, and the lady, whose name could not be ascertained, made pitiful _entreaties to be saved. It was then that White's hero- ism was evinced. With no thought of himself he helped the ladies to slide down the rope one by one to the ladder below, the strange lady being the first one to go Then Miss _Johnson was lowered, st was Miss Richardaon. The ge was very hot by that time ry_minute the danger increased. lly, when White saw that the ladies had beén landed safely, he started to go down the rope, but it burned through when he reached the third story, and when he was picked up he was dead, a martyr to his self-sacrifice. B Dué credit must also be given to Miss Kate Richardson. She lowered three la- dies who came to her room in the top floor while she was arranging the rope. With a heroism equal to that of White she helped them to reach the first ledge on the side of the house where the fire- men_rescued them. Richardson, in speaking of the affair, said : ““Too much praise eannot be given to Mr. White, who met such an awful death. When I reached his room I said to him: ‘You had better o down.’ The smoke by that time had ecome more intolerable” than it was in my room when I left it. % iNo, he said ‘you go down first; and then heé assisted us three ladies to make the perilous attempt_ which resulted so disastrously to him. Poor fellow, had he waited a moment he would have been saved with the other gentlemen who were with him, as I am told they were brought safely down. I cannot express my feel- ings when I realized our peril. Above us, on the top floor, was the burning cupola, and below an appalling death. Neverthe- less I felt that coolness would alone’save me. The crowd on the ground was more excited than I was, as they kept crying out frantically, ‘Don't jump. You're all right where you are. There's no dan- ger.” T had no intention of jumping. My | sole desire was to reach the ground in safety and I bethought myself of the rops which I have had in my room some years for just such an emeérgency. It saved several lives and I regret that it falled in the case of poor Mr. White.” o e LS GOT SAFELY OUT AND THEN EXPIRED Suspicion That the Body of Lewis Mayer Was Robbed of Jewelry. Lewis Mayer, a member of the firm of Bernard Stahl & Co.,cigar manufacturers, New York, had rooms. on the fourth floor, and was among the first to get out. He was partially dressed, but brought his overcoats and satchels with him. He got to the corner of Eddy and Powell streets and sat down on a box.. Some bystanders saw him sway and fall. The patrol wagon was summoned and he was hurried to the Receiving. Hospital, where Dr. Tormey discovered that he was dead. It is sup- posed he was suflerini from heart disease and the fright kiiled him. The body was removed to the Morgue. He was about 60 years of age and a widower. His daugh- ter is a student at Vassar and she was to meet him in a day or two at Seattle to spend her Christmas holidays with him. He was president of the Latuya Bay Gold Placer Mining Company of Alaska, and was going there with his daughter. Mayer's friends claim that the body was robbed of over $4600 worth of diamonds and considerable money. Last night Q, i