Tragedy in a South Tacoma Bedroom

Mrs. J. C. Bridges, who resided with her husband and two small children at 611 South Yakima Avenue, was burned to death shortly after midnight last night while lying in a drunken stupor on a bed in her house, the bedclothing catching fire, evidently from an overturned lamp. The house was not damaged, although Mrs. Bridges' body was burned nearly to a crisp. No one but the unfortunate woman was in the house at the time the fire broke out. Mr. Bridges, who had been carousing with his wife for several hours, had gone to the Northern Pacific hospital to visit his brother-in-law. He returned while the bedclothes were still afire, and, stupefied by the liquor which he had consumed during the day, was unable to do anything to prevent the tragedy. Running next door to the home of his step-father, Henry Burnett, with whom the two children had been left for the evening, he notified him of the fire. Burnett hurried to the Bridges house, hastily pulled the blazing bedclothes from the bed and dragged them to the outer air, but Mrs. Bridges had already succumbed. Bridges, who was much the worse for liquor, became almost insane at the loss of his wife, and rushed into the house for his revolver, determined to end his own life. Police officers, who had arrived in the auto patrol, seized him, however, and took him to the city jail for safe keeping.