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Show STEAMER RACES AGAINSTFLAMES City of Chicago Carrying Several Sev-eral Hundred Excursionists, Takes Fire Three Miles Off Shore. BOAT DRIVEN INTO PIER Passengers in Night Clothes Rescued as Flaming Vessel Settles Beneath Water. ' Chicago. Sept. U With seven! hundred passengers, most of them women .,nu children, the (.i( , rhl. cago, nn excursion steamer, caught fire several miles off shore early today. to-day. Racing against the flames the '' "'"r made for the government breakwater and th passengers were landed a moment before the boat Bank ("aptain BjQTk declared he I believed that all had been taken off .saieh . The passengers, many of whom had been draw n Mom the water, were hud died OH the breakwater i.iwl were taken ashore on tugs and q Other excursion boats. Some of them expressed the belief that some ,,i u, occupants ot t h,. steamer had !.,.,, drowned unc man who was taken from the water said the passengers had not bi en iwakened until a feu minutes before the boat sank He I bad been asleep in his berth, he said, and woke up only when the smoke became overpowering. The City of Chicago belonged to j the Graham and Morton Transportation Transporta-tion company and had been in use since 1 "- as an excursion boat Sh -left Benton Harbor late last night bound for Chicago. Fire Starts in Galley. The fire, which Is believed to have started in the ualley, was discovered when about three miles off the Illinois Illi-nois shore i aptain Bjoi I d n i t. d that the ship be rushed for shore ! and the Claming boat wa3 driven full force Into the government pier The bunt Btruck so hard that mucll of the piling was torn down and tin-plaster tin-plaster was knocked from a dwelling on the structure. The passengers, all of whom had been ordered aft by the captain, were tossed about, many of them be ing thrown into the water. Captain Charles Carland of the lj saving service took charge of the res cue work He and Captain Bjork said the passengers had acted with remarkable coolness. Women and hildren were given the first oppor ruuiiy to reacn tne pier Stationing himself at the side of the boat, Cap tain Bjork shouted that not a man was to leave the ship until the worn en and children were safe. Passengers in Night Clothes Most of the passengers rushed to the upper decks when they learned of the fire and nearly nil of them were clad only in their night garments gar-ments when they left the boot. No effort was made to save personal ef-' fects. Among the passengers rescued wer George Cole and Sister Dorothy ofi Waverly, Iowa The wireless of the City of Chicago faiied to work. Her bow was sustained, sus-tained, by the pier but tbe stern set tl 'i In i it. omparativelj shallow wa ter. Fire tugs and other rraft ox tiiiRuished tlie flames In her cabins. on |