Show i I HOME RUNED BY FIRE j I SS Walker Residence Attacked JI i At-tacked by Flames J SCORES CARRY OUT CONTENTS Center House of the Row in tho I Beautiful Walker Grounds is Now n Mere Wreck Fire Broke Out Yesterday Yes-terday Afternoon and Made Such Rapid Progress that the Building 1 Could Not be Saved Much of the Valuable Personal Property is I Token Out What was probably the most disastrous disas-trous fire that ever occurred in a private pri-vate residence In this city was that at thf old S S Walker home on South Main street yesterday afternoon beginning be-ginning about 3 oclock Mips Schoppc who happened to be passing noticed tiny columns of smoke coming from the roof at the southwest corner of the building She rushed in and rang the front door bell and Miss Thatcher who had been in the sitting room sewing with Mrs S Jr Walker Miss Nellie Walker and Mrs Eccles L came to the door L Your house Is On fire Miss exclaimed Schoppe I I What do you mean I What I say your house Is on fire 1 Miss Thatcher out flames 11ss lhaleher ran saw fames c and smoke and yelled to Mrs Eecles to telephone to the fire department I In an Instant the fire seemed to gain terrible headway and broke out ont on-t the roof of thft billiardroom which Is iS directly over the kitchen at the back of the house The fire laddies were quick to respond re-spond hut the fire was quicker and when they reached the scene It had spread to the north side where Jt was eating Its way betwcin the uecond and third stories following the crisp dry caves like a flash lke la WATER PRESSURE LIGHT The house Is mostly frame with thick adobe walls In the front part and the flames took to the tlndorllko roof with awful rapidity The firemen I tremen climbed quickly to the roof with a line L of hose and aimed the nozzle at the L flames The water was turned on but the pressure was not sufficient to L carry the stream One two three four long minutes they waited in despera tion and then the water came but to r the anxious onlookers those four minutes seemed four hours 1 The fire grew more and more on the north and in the center of the roof and finally reached the tall cupola in I front where It burned fiercely I seemed t mae great headway I through the attic as though a draught L carried It for it broke out simultaneously I simultane-ously in different places and In almost LI incredible timeSAVING i time-SAVING THE CONTENTS While the firemen were fighting the I flames that n spark from a defective r flue had started hundreds of people C many of them among the most prominent promi-nent in the city regardless of everything every-thing but a desire to help their unfortunate unfor-tunate friends rushed Into the house and carried everything out that it was fs possible to saye Under the direction of the ladles mentioned above who L showed great courage and coolness L throughout the ordeal the most valuable I valua-ble silver glass and paintings were taken out These ladles assisted by Ti Mrs 11 H Walker and Mrs Fred Ir Walker widow of the late Fred Walker stayed In the house until they were compelled to leave Airs Fred Walker personally saved all the cut gtass and rendered other valuable assistance as-sistance i CEILING FELL ON THEM While the fire was fiercest in the back of the house Max Smith and Harry Hague made their way to the billiardroom in the hope of saving something and getting their arms full started out Hague ahead With a C crash the ceiling and HUt of the room I came In Smith getting most oCt but I luckily no heavy timbers fell and Max was Just shaken up hut his clothes were Lumen no is one of the many who deserve greatest credit The lawn was covered with every jt conceivable article of furniture even two heavy pianos being removed Lit iL Li tle attempt was made to save the upi up-i stairs furniture and most of the handsome 4 hand-some rooms were gutted with their ill contents A pretty boudoir finished In 1 gold looked like n miniature swimming h swim-ming pool and the other rooms accord lf ingly inglGREAT YT GREAT THRONG ATTRACTED I Hundreds and hundreds of people gathered around the promises lined 1 the fence and trampled down the beau t ful lawns Several beau tful Sevell petty thieves l pel thought they saw something good In such a fire but the police soon Iood rid of them and all other suspiciouslook ing characters It can be said though I I that the poll tnen did httlo to keen iI the crowd where It belonged while the IP fire was in progress From the time of starting It took nearly an hour to get the fire under complete IOu trol and all work did not stop until wOI ountl nearly C The frame was spared for the most part but the fire or Water had destroyed the Interior of the second floor and waS pouring down in torrents to the lower romRAN I AN AMUSING SIDE The fire had n funny side it that may Icc be said about such nn affair and also L a fires usual quota of wouldbe heroes During the early jiart a certain police polce officer came rushing out the sweat rollIng Ing down his ruddy cheeks n worried look onthis face and in one hand The p My sl Pcs of Paris and I broken hand mlrroI and In tho other a bottle of C pickles I i In one room Sharp Walker has a cabinet of rare specimens that Is invaluable In-valuable I was comparatively safe from fire and water and some one I rushed In and purposely smashed the gd heavy gloss front There CIO numberless I num-berless Incidents of this nature where J 1 wellmeaning people did more damage iu than the fire fiend LOSS AND INSURANCE I Sharp Walker son of the late S S Walker Bald after the fire he could make no estimate of the loss When the fire started he was on his way uptown t up-town but noticing the direction of the firemen he rln back again He did effective h fective work while he watched his home being destroyed From M r I I Walker It was learned that there wan 7 only 12500 Insurance on the property j and thaj that amount will not anywhere I any-where near cover the loss There Is n slight difference opinion among the insurance men however The Insurance is distributed as follows Five thousand thou-sand dollars Milwaukee Mechanics Afi company D F Walker Jr agent tt 2500 Home Fire Insurance company New York 5000 National of Hartford I rv Union Insurance agency agents acl this between 1500 and 52000 Is on the II G furniture and the rest on the home Be Hldes this Mrs Eecles carries SOO on jIrs t her furniture I 4 WHAT THE HOUSE COST odiv Sharp Walker said the house was s built thirty years ago and cost 40000 aO being estimated with the lot at 50000 I I was talking to mother n short t1t time ago said Mr Walker and told her that we ought to tear down the house and build something modern buid somethinG moeern but she wanted to wait awhile I I I gueSs we all did way down In our hearts because It was the old home TVe will not fix It up now In fact It would be almost Impossible and In all probability wo will begin on the plans for a handsome now residence Immediately Imme-diately Of course there are things lost In a thlug Of this kind that can never be replaced but well make the best of It I |