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A HOTEL'S SAD ROLE
The Tuttle House, Third street, was like a hospital all night. In one room upstairs lay William Cogan, one of the best known members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He runs on the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern, and was to have taken out the 3 o'clock fast mail train on that road. He was in a barber shop at Third street and Missouri avenue when the storm came up, The building was completely wrecked and the half dozen people inside buried out of sight. Mr. Cogan worked his way out without assistance and did not think he had been seriously injured. He suffered intensely from pains in his back and sides. H. K. Vail, one of the boarders, had a broken arm in a sling. He was crossing the bridge when the storm came up. He hurried across and sheltered himself on the leeward side of the frame building, which blew over on him directly afterward. One room at the Tuttle House was occupied by three young ladies. Maggie Herbert, of Washington, Ind., had a broken arm. I was in the dining room of the Tremont House when the storm occurred," she said. "A portion of the roof blew off and half a dozen of us ran to get out of the way of flying timbers and bricks. We ran to the kitchen and back into the dining room, and finally the whole house fell in. Mrs. Hays, the land lady, and two or three others were killed and the rest of badly hurt." Miss Herbert's companions in the room were Florence Reilly, a telegraph operator, and Josie Gallen, a type. writer. Miss Reilly lives at 3672 Finney avenue, this city, and Miss Gallen at 3311 Chouteau avenue. They are both in the employ of the Illinois Central Railroad, and were at work in the company's freight office, on the Levee, when the storm struck the building. They went down with the structure, but each escaped with only a few braises. They inquired anxiously about the effect of the storm in St. Louis, and particularly on Finney and Chouteau avenues. C. E. Obrist, a boarder at the Tuttle House, got one of his arms badly cut by falling glass. He is an electrician. Mrs. Dowd, one of the boarders, was missing. She went out for a ride on her bicycle just before the storm. Mrs. Dowd's husband is a government beef inspector at the National Stock Yards. He escaped without injury and hurried to the hotel to find that his wife was gone. BACK |
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