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Distress in the Once Prosperous Cripple Creek. SUMMARY DEALING WITH A FIREBUG The Loss is Estimated at a Million and a Half. BLOWING UP THE BUILDINGS CRIPPLE CREEK, Col., April 30.-Thousands of homeless people shivered about camp fires or wandered among the ruins of this once prosperous city through the night. The cold wave was severe, and toward morning snow began to fall. During the night for a distance of a mile to the right and left the burning embers presented a sight most incomparable. Standing on the hill beyond the burned district and to the west the picture was one of a huge bowl, with the steam arising above. Everywhere along the thoroughfares can be seen the work of the dynamite, a great mass of kindling wood. Work of the Dynamiters. While the fire was raging here yesterday afternoon, special trains were run from Victor and Gillette, to bring in miners with sticks of dynamite, ready to use wherever there was any call for it. It was more common than water at a city fire, and the lavish use was productive of many fatalities. The Palace Hotel, containing 300 rooms, was one of the first places attacked with dynamite, and from the results It would appear that no warning was given of the impending explosion. As the walls tottered in response to the tremendous charges of giant powder, the air was filled with shrieks of dying men. who nad been caught in their rooms and draged down in the wreck. Before the wreckers could offer any aid; they were driven tack by the flames that were rolling over the site of the hotel. The dynamiters fled to save their own lives, and the loss of life at the Palace is merely a matter of conjecture. Burned Like Paper. The Bimetallic Bank and the First National Bank burned as if they were made of paper. The First National Bank, while it was the leading Institution in the district, was without proper facilities for holding the $150,000 or more of deposits that were intrusted to it. Since the last fire the bank has had temporary quarters in the new burned district, where there were no vault accommodations. To add to the apprehensions of the stockholders and depositors, the explosion of the dynamite leaves nothing to be eecovered from the ruins. Volunteers operating without guides or reason are credited with blowing up the buildings. After the explosion at the Palace Hotel, the crowd that had followed the fire paused for a moment. and the people began to glow vehement in their denunciations of the dynamite's, and there were several warm encounters between disputants. While a riot was impending, the flames worked their way toward the crowds that blocked Bennett avenue, and the advantage gained by the destruction of the hotel was lost by not removing the debris. A company of the Colorado National Guard is on duty in the unburned district. Numerous arrests have been made in the outside district, resort to which has been made by the vagrant element, which lately has infested Cripple Creek. All night fires were starting up occasionally on the placer. Where possible, the residents pulled the houses down, and, if that failed, blew them up. They had no water in that portion of the city A rumor is in circulation that a man was seen in the act of setting fire to a dwelling on Capitol Hill, and was shot by a resident, just as a firebug was shot and killed by Floyd Thompson yesterday afternoon. Mayor Doyle of Victor has employed two fire wardens for every business block in that city, as it has been rumored that the firebuys are after that town as well as Cripple Creek. A man was caught in the very act of firing the rear of the Newell Hardware Company's store. He is in jail. The Losses. The total loss by yesterday's fire is estimated at $1,500,000. The insurance will probably foot up between $400,000 and $300,000. The heaviest losers are as follows: Louis Weinburg, clothing store, $40,000; Palace Hotel, $40,000; Portland Hotel, $20,000: furniture, $7,000; insurance on furniture, $6,000; W. T.Booth, furniture, $50,000; Wright Hardware Company, $20,000; El Paso Lumber Company, $20,000; Heller's drug store, $20,000. Many other individual losses run as high as $20,000. All the local newspapers, banks and express offices and nearly all the stores and restaurants and lodging houses are wiped out. Two men were caught building a fire under a saloor. in Poverty Gulch. An officer fired four shots at them, and they were captured. In their possession was a bunch of skeleton keys. Ruin Caused a Suicide. DENVER, Col., April 30.- Robert Campbell, forty, himself through in this city today. was deshooting residence aged committed the heart He suicide at his by on account of pracall his in the fire at spondent speculation tically possessions having in Cripple worth mining lost $100,000. Creek. stock He was recently considered He leaves a wife and four children. The widow attempted to shoot herself after discovering the act of her husband, but was restrained. BOURKE COCKRAN'S BAD FALL
