The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-05-17 00:00:00

THE CITY OF ORENBURG.

This city, which has lately been the scene of a terri-
ble conflagration, consists of two parts—the town
proper, which stands in a wide plain on the right bank
of the Ural, and the Tauschhof—a sort of fortress
building where the caravans are accommodated. The
inhabitants were estimated at 28,000. It is the resi-
dence of the governor of the province and of a
bishop, has broad and regular streets, a large market-
place, 12 Orthodox Greek churches, one Lutheran
and one Roman Catholic church, f ur mosques,
a theatre-,` public gardens, arsenal, barracks, banks,
booksellers' shops, a classical and a military gym-
nasium, a military pro-gymnasium, a higher school for
girls, and several other educational institutions. The
Exchange belonging to the European merchants has
180 chambers, and that of the Asiatics has 492 shops.
The local industrial products, which have been chiefly
in tallow, jute, and cast-iron, are of no great value.
But the trade which is being quickly developed by the
Samara•Orenburg Railway, which was opened in 1877,
promises to be very important. Orenburg is the
great depot for the Russian trade with Central Asia.
Over 100 caravans come there every year from Bokh,ra,
Khiva, Khokand, and Tashkend, which barter the
products of those countries, such as precious stones,
gold, silks, and especially cotton, raw silk, horses,
sheep, fine lambskins, &v.., taking ins exchange woven
goods, metal wares, sugar, grain, &c. Merchants
come to the Orenburg fairs even from ludia and
China.
Orenburg has passed through singular vicissitudes.
It was founded in 1735 as a frontier fortress against
the Khirgizes. upon the site of the present town of
Orsk, on the Or, (whence its name). In 1740 it was,
for military reasons, transplanted to a new position
120 miles further towards the Red Mountain. But
this situation was found to be so unhealthy for the
soldiers that three years later the settlement was
moved to the present site, which is 500 miles (English)
north-north-east of Astrakhan, 1,000 miles south-
east of St. Petersburg, and 800 miles south-west of
Tobolsk.

From the newspapers received from Russia the following
puttculars are gleaned respecting the great fire at Oren-
burg :
On the morning of the 28th ultimo, between half-
Past ten and eleven, a small hut on the bank of the
river Ural caught fire. The hut was of thatch, and
was such a small frail structure that a man with one
push could have overthrown it bodily into the river
Ural. Nobody, however, happened to be near
the spot at the time, and in less than five
minutes the sparks had set fire to the thatch
of several other houses contiguous. The cry of
"Fire 1" was now raised, and several persons hurried
off for the engines. Others remained behind to rescue
the children in one of the buildings, which happened
to be a school. By the time these were saved the
flames had advanced half-way down the street, and a
storm of wind blowing at the time, the only thing the
people could do was to leave their homes and hurry
away from the intense heat. In the course of half an
hour the manual pumps arrived, but there being no
water laid on to the houses in Orenburg, and a steep
bank 60 feet deep separating the place of the outbreak
from the river itself, the firemen could only bring
a few barrels of water from a distance' and this
proved wholly inadequate to check the torrent of
flame. By half-past eleven the fire appeared to be
raging in twenty different places, and the people
thought only of flight. The flames spread so fast that
peasants had to abandon their waggons in the streets
and leave goods and horses to their fate. In some
places swarms of rats issued from the houses and joined
the mass of fugitives hurrying for refuge to the
outskirts. The smoke was so overpowering tuat people
staggered along blinded with it, and the Governor had
to order the police to assist the fugitives in case they
should be overtaken by the heat and lost. The
wooden houses near the river were soon burnt down.
The flames then seized upon the two storey brick build-
ings in the centre of the town, and after,wards spread to
the town hall, the municipal offices, the military de-
partment, and the barracks of the Orenburg district
troops. At twelve o'clock the flames covered an area of
a square mile' and the firemen gave up the task of try-
ing to save the city. At one octlock the bazaar
with its several hundred shops and vast stores of
goods in the court yard began to burn, and was fol-
lowed by the Troitsa church and the city hank. Be.
the bazaar are several very large caravauserais,
used for the storage of goods intended for Central
Asia. In these were assembled large numbers of
Kirghiz camel-drivers, Bokhariot merchants, agents
from Moscow, and native teamsters getting ready con-
voys for the spring traffic across the rourgai deserts to
Turkestan, On the approach of the flames attempts
were made to save some of the merchandise, but the
Tartars soon saw the task to be impossible, and joined
the mob streaming out of the city. So rapidly did the
flames spread that the throng of Tartars got jammed in
the doorway:, of the caravanserais, and it was feared
for a moment that may lives would be lost. The
screams of the women are described as being heart-
rending. Many parents, in the confusion, lost eight
of their children, and hurried hither and thither be-
wailine their loss. At three o'clock the church of Peter
and Paul caught fire, and later on its monster bell fell
with a thud to the ground. The people so little realised
the peril of their situation that in many cases they
hardly had time to save their lives. The priest of the
Peter and Paul church, an old .man 90 years old, was
performing service at the moment the flames advanced
upon the building, and the police were barely able to
save him. After the destruction of the Peter and
Paul church the fire languished awhile, and then with
fresh impetus seized upon the State bank and the
hay market. The cashier of the bank managed
to carry away the money, but every article of his own
belongings was lost. Not far from the bank was a
magazine containing 15 tons of gunpowder. For a
while it was feared the flames would reach the build•
in, and blow up the surviving half of the city. The
police were therefore ordered to evacuate all the houses
in the neighbourhood, while a body of troops pulled
down the buildings adjoining the magazine. The
efforts of the soldiers were successful, and the powder
magazine was spared. In the meanwhile, however, the
fire hadswept towards the hay market, alongside which
is the bazaar, containing oil and colour shops, and
the stores of vendors of other similar inflammable
articles. Here the flames had it all their own way,
and the pillar of fire, with the overhanging clouds of
smoke, is described as having presented a spectacle
awful and sublime. The officials at Orenburg, seeing
the impossibility of saving the city unassisted, tele-
graphed to Samara for help, but in reply received a
message !that a fire was also raging at Samara, and
that all the engines were fully engaged. All that
could be done therefore was to direct the *stream of
migration towards the vacant lands near the railway
terminus, and make arrangements for the support of
the homeless inhabitante. At six o'clock the
principal street in Orenburg, containing a number of
handsome new shops, four monster hotels, a
gymnasium, and a church, was wrapped in flames, and
it was decided to leave the fire to burn itself out.
Thousands of fugitives had by this time had collected
near the railway. Scarcely any of them had with them
out•door clothing, and none any food. During the
day the thermometer had stood at summer heat, but
after sundown it fell to freezing point, and the people
suffered severely. Bread and meat it was impossible
to obtain, even at the highest prices. All the baker's
shops in the town had been burnt down, and only
one butcher's shop was found intact. By the orders
of the authorities the whole of the remaining food
in the place was confiscated and distributed in rations
among the sufferers. Cossacks were also sent out
to the neighbouring villages to hurry in provisions.
The railway authorities on their part prepared the
railway waggoes for women and children, and
although the number was inadequate, the more deli-
cate were provided with a shelter. The flames con-
tinued spreading the whole of the night, and lasted
until the next day, when the outskirts were reached,
and the fire received a check. The conflagration was
not fully extinguished until the third day, when it
was found that the ruins covered an area of four
square miles. and embraced 949 houses, three churches,
four mills, 300 shops, four nakkets, ten caravanserais,
eight timber yards, the law courts, the police-station,
the Turkestan College besides the public buildings
we have already referred to.

A SAW FOR THE TIMES.—No man should live be-
yond the means of his Oreditors.—Punch.
A TICKLISH OPENING.—Henry Erskine, the bar-
rister, happening to be retained for a client of the
name of Tickle, began his speech in opening the case,
thus "Tickle, my client, the defendant, my lord"—
and uticiA ptcheeding Safer was interrupted by iimAitial
in court which was increased when the rudge,
gerussiotaitned, "Tickle him yourself, Harry ; you
ate as sae to do so as I am."