FIRE ROUTS HOTEL GUESTS.
Women, Thinly Garbed and Some in
Night Gowns, Rush for Safety
When Alarm Is Given.
Nearly 200 guests of the Hotel Cosby, Ninth street and Baltimore avenue, were routed out of bed at 2 o'clock this (Wednesday) morning by an alarm of fire, which started in the basement of the Linsay Light Company, 113 West Ninth street.
Men half dressed, women with only cloaks over them and a few frightened ones garbed in their flimsy night gowns, rushed to the street entrances of the hotel at the first clang of fire bells.
At 2:30 this morning the hotel seemed to be in no great danger, although the firemen were still fighting the flames.
Everyone was ordered out of the building when the first alarm of fire was given, and there was a a scampering in the rooms and halls that finally resulted in a stampede.
Members of nearly all the theatrical companies playing in Kansas City this week are among the guests at the Cosby, but the major portion of the register is composed of out-of-town merchants and transients.
Many women, after the first fright, began to "pack up" their prized wearing apparel and cherished souvenirs, but at an early hour this morning it was not thought that anything will be damaged in the hotel section of the block.
The cause of the fire is not known. William Ofkelh, a cook in Joe Ziegler's saloon, 109 West Ninth street, discovered the fire and turned in the alarm.
