A very exciting event occurred at this house during the summer of 1866. A man by the name of Hawkes, a guest at the hotel, accidentally shot and instantly killed his young and beautiful wife. He was arrested and tried for murder, but after a long and sensational trial was acquited. * * * * * The greatest hotel fire in the history of St. Paul occurred on the night of Feb. 3, 1869. The International hotel (formerly the Fuller house) was situated on the northeast corner of Seventh and Jackson streets, and was erected by A.G. Fuller in 1856. It was built of brick and was five stories high. It cost when completed, about $110,000. For years it had been the best hotel in the West. William H. Seward and the distinguished party that accompanied him made this hotel their headquarters during their famous trip to the West in 1860. Gen. Pope and Gen. Sibley had their headquarters in this building, and from here emanated all the orders relating to the war against the rebellious Sioux. In 1861 the property came into the possession of Samuel Mayall, and he changed the name of it from Fuller house to International hotel. Col. E.C. Belote, who had formerly been the landlord of the Merchants, was the manager of the hotel. The fire broke out in the basement, it was supposed from a lamp in the laundry. The night was intensely cold, a strong gale blowing from the northwest. Not a soul could be seen upon the street. Within this great structure more than two hundred guests were wrapped in silent slumber. To rescue them from their perilous position was the problem that required instant action on the part of the firemen and the hotel authorities. The legislature was then in session, and many of the members were among the guests who crowded the hotel. A porter was the first to notice the blaze, and he threw a pail water upon it, but with the result that it made no impression upon the flames. The fire continued to extend, and the smoke became very dense and spread into the halls, filling them completely, rendering breathing almost an impossibility. In the meantime the alarm had been given throughout the house, and the guests, both male and female, came rushing out of the rooms in their night Clothes. The broad halls of the hotel were soon filled with a crowd of people who hardly knew which way to go in order to find their way to the street. The servant girls succeeded in getting out first, and made their way to the snow-covered streets without sufficient clothing to protect their persons, and most of them were without shoes. While the people were escaping from the building the fire was making furious and rapid progress. From the laundry the smoke issued into every portion of the building. There was no nook or corner that the flames did not penetrate. The interior of the building burned with great rapidity until the fire had eaten out the eastern and southern rooms, when the walls began to give indications of falling. The upper