Detroit's Bid File

The heart of the city oí Detroit was seared and scarred by one of the most destructivo conflagrations the city has experienecd ín a decade. It was shortly after midnight; Julia Arthur's splendid theatrical company had giren their fourth renditioa of "A Lady of ijuality" in Ihe Detroit opera house; the largc audience had dispersed; the actors had gone to their hotels, and the lights had all been extinguished by Janitor Wm. Moore and he aud liis wife had just retired in their rooms on the fifth floor of the opera house building', when the re was a loud explosión and Moore heard the r-ear wall back of the stage fal!. Instantly the re was a flashing of flaines through the structure and Moore and his wife hurriedly fled by way of an outside fire escape, but even then the flatnes were shooting through the windows. Roundsman Springer and Patrolman Rutledge were standing on the corner of Woodward aud Gratiot avenues when they heard an explosión and saw a burst of flame in the direction of the rear of the opera house. Rutledge turned in a quiek alarm and both then ran down an alley toward the fire. They hardly arrived befoi-e a second explosión was heard, followed at intervals of a minute or two with half a dozen others. The explosions were caused by the calcium tanks used for the stage lights. There were eight of them on the stage, and at each explosión a section of the walls would fall and the sparks would fly in every direction. Within 10 minutes from the time of the first alarm all the available fire apparatus of the clown town district was at hand and in service and that from the outlying precincts was hurrying toward the center of town. I!y that time the whole rear of the Detroit opera house was one solid mass of flames, the sparks from the burning scenery and light furnilure spreading over blocks of the down town buildings. As the fire grew hotter the efforts of the firemen were directed toward saving the surrounding buildings, but to little avail. Constant streams of water were kept on the rear of the Leonard & Carter building, but in a short time the windowa had goue in and iire was sweepiag Uireugb. every ilwer, driving the flremen from the alley. Over on the opera house square, which faces the Campus Martina and the city hall, the flames were giving the flremen even a harder batile. The wind was blowing briskly from the west and as the roof of the opera house began to crumble and fall in sbowers of sparks and brands rose high in the air and saíled a way in perfect clouds to the east. The smoke and flames begau to roü from the upper windows of the Micheil Table Supply Co's store next to the opera house aud it was soon plain that that building was beyond help and that the fire department had on hand a job that was almost too big. From the tall Leonard & Carter building the fire soon worked down into the upper story of the next building to the east, th o five-story structure occupied by the Central Storage Co., Vaughan & Tanner and the Central Music Co., and several other tenauts. Oradnally it forced its way from floor to floor, and a portion of the falling walls carried the fire into the Parisian laundry, which was soon a mass of debris. On Monroe avenue, back of the Micheil Co. 's stores the big Schmidt and Werner buildings had been holding out against the devouring ñames, but they fiually gave way and were soon roaring furnaces inside. An explosión evidently of chemicals, in the Schmidt building threw down the walls crushthe two-story Boston shoe store like an egg shell. Probably this fact more than all others saved the Valpey building, on the corner of Monroe a and Farmer street. A ohange oí the wind then turned the flames back upon the charred ruins of the burned buildings and in a short time the firemen had the fire under control, after having worked on it steadily for six hours. The heaviest losses fall upon the Micheil Table Supply Co. and the owners of the principal buildings. The principal losses are as follows: Detroit opera house, 895,000; Julia Arthur Co., $30,000; Micheil Table Supply $80,000; Traugott Schmidt estáte, building-, 190,000, Schmidt estáte, stored wool, $30,000; Werner, j and stock, 890,000; Leonard & Carter building and furniture stock, $95,000; Parisian steam laundry, $50,000; Central Storage Co., building aud stored goods, $55,000; other tenants of storage building, 835,000; Micheil building, owned by G. H. Barbour, $20,000; Hugh Connolly, jeweler, $10,000; Grand lTnion Tea Co., 83,000; P. J. Kinnuean, tailor, 83,000; Wright, Kay & Co., $3,000; Brossy dye works, 82,500; D., G. II. & M. railroad, repair shops set on iire by flymg embei-s, $3,000. About 20 smaller losses to Woodward avenue stores and minor tenants of thg burned j buildings would probably total $20,000. The parents of Robl. Pennlnffton, ufl-ed 15, reported their boy missing two days after the fire and this led to a search of the ruins of the Detroit opera house in the alley where two or three people claiined to have seen a boy crushed under the walls. It only required half an hour of work on the pari of a dozen Mends to brinjï to ihe body of the boy, tnaugled an 1 crushed almost beyond reco nition. Christopher 11. Crosbie, mghtwatch for E. Bemeut & Sons, of Lansing, ( mitted suicido by walking iuto the ris-er it; the rear of ihe works.