GREAT TIRE AT MILWAUKIE.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1234, 16 February 1883, Page 2

GREAT TIRE AT MILWAUKIE.

. + The following are additional items : Tom Thumb and his wife were rescued from the burning hotel by a policeman, who took one of the little people under each arm, and carried them downstairs and across the street to the American Express office. They were in their nightclothes, and Mrs Thumb suffered 'much from cold. The General, immediately on being planted in the Express office, began mourning the loss of • valuable diamonds and other jewellery belonging to his wife. The latter heard him, and replied, reprovingly, .•' Wliat'i if I have lost everything 1 Oust' look at those there." pointing to the forms of 2Q dead and dying men and women cm , the flo6r. The little woman then'bravely began to relieve the sufferings p,f those around her, by su pplying tliem with water, and by the display of other acts of sympathy and kindness. • • ' ■ ■ . John Gilbert, comedian of the Minnie Palmer Company, jumped from the third storey with his wife in his arms. About the same time a man named Johnston jumped from a window above. He jumped on Mr and Mrs Gilbert, and crushed the wife to death. The actor was cut and bruised in a frightful, manner. lie was picked up in an unconscious state, and taken to Plankington ffospital. Mrs Gilbert was an actress, but a young lady of culture and refinement. A strange accident occured when Mrs Gilbert's body reached tlw morgue. An . attendant identified the body as that of his daughter. He at once proceeded to strip the fingers of the dead woman of her sparkling rings, and wrei^chcd the rings from her ears. At that momnt old ;■ Mrs Donahoci reached the morgue, and with a passionate burst of grief recognised the body as that of her dii ■•.ghter-iu-'r.'w. "It's my. child," cried the alleged father, still stripping' the jeviJlVy from tbe deM wornm The .■-•-. -.■♦ ? «.:t"/ griei-^vicU ,v,, oki • .dv

aud the robber confronted each other, and the painful scene, amid its ghastly surroundings, created the greatest cotnruotion. Ffty-one bodies have so far been recovered,, 28 of which are burned beyond recognition. Forty persons reported 1 missing are yet unaccounted ■ for, which swells the list to 9"2. It is almost a sure thing that over a hundred people lost their lives by the calamity. Ifrre stated) the fire was the work of an incendiary.