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Show PERISH IN FLA1TES. J OVER TWO HUNDRED MEET DEATH AT HOBOKEN, N. J. Three i I r 1 1 1 rl r 1 In the Hospital, While Many .More are 51 ulu Four Oteau fcu-amerg ami a Nuinbt-rof Smaller VseU Dt-Mroyo'l, the I'roprrtT Loqi Heine, ft 1 0.OOO.OUO. Fire which started among the cotton ball's under pier Xo. :; of the North German I. loyd steamship company at lloboken, X. J , caused one of the most terrible and appalling conflagrations ever recorded in the history of this country. Fifteen hundred lives were imperiled by the great conllagratiou, and the list of dead up to the present lime is known to be 200, w hile 300 arc-in arc-in the various hospitals, badly burned. .Many of the bodies recovered arc so badly charred that they are only identified iden-tified by means of trinkets worn by the victims. It is estimated that fuliy 10,000,000 worth of properly was destroyed. de-stroyed. In less than fifteen minutes after the lire had started the flames covered an area a quarter of a mile long, extending extend-ing outward from the actual shore line to the bulkheads, from (ioo to 1,000 feet away, and had caught four great ocean liners and a dozen or more smaller harbor crafts in ils grasp. There were hundreds of men on each of the destroyed steamships and a few women. Crowds of dock laborers and also emploj'ces of the companies were on all the piers. Men, women and children were on the canal boats, and juen on the barges and lighters, and wheu the Tire made ils quick descent upon them escape was cut off before they realized their awful position. The people on the piers jumped into the water to save themselves and scores of men huddled under the piers, eliuging to the supports, only to be suffocated suf-focated by the flames or to drop back Into the water from exhaustion. Men working in the holds of the fire steamships were shut in by walls of flame, and it was impossible to reach them. It probably never will be known how many men perished in the ships, ns the flames were so fierce they would leave but few, if any, remnants of the human body. |