The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-11-04 00:00:00

THE CHICAGO AND FOREST FIRES.

The further accounts froni Chicago are very ea.
winging, and active measures have been taken for
the revival of busineas. The correspondent of the
yets nun, ts.•riting from Chicago on the lAthi '
•
a esterday svas the lirightest day since the great disaster
j ass throughout the day in the Marsh, where commerce
ass been temporarily established, mid caw no business man
despondent ur idle Every nue reari looking to the future
gaged of regretting the past, and it may safely be Bahl
tbst Chimp is Sheerly oil of her ashes. She has got to work
rill in grrat earnest, and nothing has dime more to bring
tUen a desirable result than the action of the banks,
irrlch were opened 3 esterday for the hest time for the traits-
action of IPLIIIIIItSB Stills Coll4lllClte 111111 bet n called to
use west side the banks have adhered to the south side, and
al or nearly all air located In elegant resitieuces in the parts
Wabash HMI Mishignii Avenues nearea the burnt Wa-
wa. No More gingillat spectacle was aver presented than
.Ng wow he found in these streets of splendid dwelling.,
*huh have lost their quiet and seclusion, as almost every
house bears, ude placiwal announcing itys the home of
trade or finance. ilanks have Mon estliblished in the
meat sumptuous of these houses, and the impro-
vised counters of rough lumber present striking con-
trasts to the frescoed ceiling PIO riehly ornamented
salie In some rates two 1.1.11k21 are established in one
' hcuse, at 419, Wabash avenue, where the First National loin
the parlours and the Fifth Natimml in the basement. Tee
latter found the doors mid windows too small to admit its
bilge safe, so it has been put In the front area, under the
marble porch projecting from the barium door, mid has
been enclustd in a Midi womlen house, tints practically
',siring its assets out of doors. All the leading banks me
established within a few doors til each other, and no fart
is more encouraging than that there have been no crowds
or escitement shout thou, but business has been carried
cx at though no great calamity had befallen the pe,ople.
As to these institutions, nothing else was expected after
the authoritative anneuncement of their solvency. hut
a crush in apprehended at the Savings Bank, which
opened to pay each depositor twenty dollars. Chief among
these is the State Savings Institution, burnt out in Lasalle-
atreet, opposite the Courthouse, and now established in an
elegant cottage residence, 569 Wabash-avenue. It was ell-
doitly believed that every one of its 11-4,000 depoeitors would
appear. I found noose came unless he had ummit need for
noney, and almost without exception the applicants were
msehauics mid working men. From what ilia., and heard
about this anti other hanks, it is certain that there is to be
acres upon Chicago banks. This morning I scab-boil the
pr. eeedlng at the church corner of Wabash-avenue and Peck-
court. One gentleman anti two lashes were there, almoners of
the world's charity, anti dealt out bread crackers and baked
beans With wonderful rapidity most of thisse people have been
fed almost exclusively since the Me on Arrant or crackers, and
naturally there is an intense craving upon the part of the
th Atlantis for meat. The baked beans are eagerly used as
substitute, although having a repulsive look. The majority
of the applicants are WOM n anal children, belonging to the
lemming class, and more than half are foreigners, being
chiefly Germans and Scandinavians. In every ease I saw
the applicant come for food on behalf of a family, and as
distribution is going on constantly at some, id pla es
throughout the city, !pane idea of the widespread destitution
ea be formed. To-day the hunit district literally ass armed
with labourers elearing away the ruins, and specially 011 the
amt, side im the blunts,. quarter In leasalle, Madison,
Dearborn, State, and other prominent thorougfares, rub-
bish was being cleared away from the sites of louses, and
bricks cleaned for relaying yeah hardly cocul enough to
handle. lii several instance, stalls were already going tip;
frame ',beakn are also going up everywhere in great num-
bers for the temporary acooramodation of business, and
nearly the whole side of Michigan-avenue is now covered
with these structures, making that unrivalled street for the
time as unsightly as it has hitherto been beautiful. On the
north side building is almost entirely contintal to the Free-
lion of these shanties ; on the extreme north they are In-
tended for housing families. Itoth not th and south—every-
where throughout the burnt district—there is almost feverish
activity, and no more sheering exhibitimi of the indomitable
Western pluck can be imagined than was witnessed to-day
in them desolated regions. Ai yet only private enterprise
Is pushing ahead, as no steps have been takeu for the recon-
struction of any public buildiug."

As further evidence of the rapid progress of affairs,
it is stated that the street railroads have been pot in
order.—Another correspondent of the stone journal ra.
ports that a committee of three was appointed to co-
operate with the committee of the Board of Trade to
devise come means to save the grain in the destroyed
elevators :

"Grain In large masses burns very slowly, and ever since
the great fire, the grain in the live destroyed elevators has
been burning at the rate of le,olo loon t ids worth per day, with-
out any steps being taken to stop the fire. Probably the action
by the committee win save a large part of this grain, as much
of the 1,51,0,01:10 bushels in three elevators is yet left un-
hand. No one ran yet make a reliable estimate of what
will be saved, as it is not of certain when the fires will be
estinguished, but it is thought about 100,000 buithels can
. . . .

be secured in a tolerably good condition. A telegram de-
spatched to the Tribune states that the papers are still
making up lists of the dead and missing. but so far it is
little better than guess work. 11111.11 Se placards cover the
main fronts of the Post-office and Tekgi aph-ottice with long
lists of names, the bearers of wbich it is impossible to find,
and the papers teens with notices of lost and absent people.
As was anticipated, the banks stood the test of opening well,
and, still better, instead of calling for deposits, Bow ac-
counts were opened and vary little drawn out by their cus-
tomers. This inspires the greatest confidence, and the re-
sult is evident in every pulse of the newly-grew jog trade.
The newspapers here pnbliely acknowledged the help de-
rived front the conduct of the New York tenths in connexion
with the many institutions of this city. When the prospect
seems/II gloomy the hankers here received assurance from
their New York brethren that time sal aid wore at their
service, and this as notch as anything else has sustained the
vigour and revived the spirit and energy id thieagt,. The
capitalists of the New York and Boston houses it is known
have instructed their correspondents here to sell to the
Chicago merchants all the gemis they want, opening new
accounts and letting the old One's take care of themselves.
The receipts and shipments of grain are enormous again, end
there seems no break in the old-titne trade of the city. The
sction of the Legislature promptly appropriating the canal
line to the use of the city assures an early restoration of the
airy buildings, which are now more needed than anything
else, save gas and water. Both of these latter, however. are
to he restored within a day- or two. All the daily papers
11,.." appear. usual, together with several of the religious
weeklies. Never was a busier city seen, and never a more
cheerful, hopeful people."

Additional details are given of the ravages by the
fires in Wisconsin and Michigan. The Tribione thus
comments on the disaster :

The most striking fact about these great fires is the
spontaneity with which they burst forth in a hundred
widely separated places at the sume time If n baud of inc..
diaries scattered over two States bad lighted the tires by pro.
concerted arrangement the result would not have beell widely
dinerent from the actual fact. There are reports of villages
ablate all along the Huron shore, from the St. Clair River to
Saginaw Bay. The east and west shores of the Bay have
alike been devastated. Conflagrations have been reported from
Satinaw Valley, at various points along the Detroit and Grated
Haven Railroad, and oven as far south as the Central Road,
while on the we stein shore of michigan, frorn Grand Traverse
Ray to South Haven, over 200 wiles, the destruction has been
great. It was on this cLast, about twenty miles south of
Grand Haven. that tier proverous town of Holland stood,
which was entirely consumed. Further !tooth Manistee, alum-
her town, was in great part destroyed, aced Glen Haven, on
Grand Traverse hay, was wholly burnt. Across the lake in
Wisconsin both shores 44 Green Bay were ravaged and the
fire swept the whole length of the lower peninsula Fires
are also reported in the countries of Fond du Inc. Manitow or.
Sheboygan, Dodge, Marathon, and Wiee.ebago. Some ex-
imgerated accounts represent Michigan as burnt from lake to
Ink,', but these are nianifedly based upon the number of tires
reported at many different points, which, to one not knowing
the frequency of forest nres in dry seasons intim North-West,
would give the impression that the whole country for hundreds
of miles was its flames. The districts desolated In Michigan
and in Wisconsin are quite similar to each other. to both
States vast forests of pine and hemlock, with occasional
Fees of beech and maple, cover the land. 'They total
gloomy wilderness, whose monotonous loneliness is relieved
by an occasional manufacturing village on tie shore at the
mouth of a stream, or seamy of lumbermen in the interior.
The villages reported to have suffered on Michigan are Birch
Creek, Little River, Centre If irbour, Sand Beach, White
Roth, Forestville, Cato, Verona, Huron City, Port Austin,
and half of Port Hope, all on the Lake Huron shore:
land, Grand munctMn, part of Manistee, and Glen Ilaven,
on the Lake Michigan shore. in Wisionsin thee villages
of Peshteen, Upper Bush, Lower Bet,h,
Rosiere, Millekawnee, and part of Marenette. on the west
shore of Green Bay, were destroyed, and on the cast
shore of the bay Little Stir-pen. Frankenscovi he, and
(Mon perished. The camps of the workmen on the rail.
toad constructing north (tom Fort Howard were conisumed,
and so where many lumber camps. The loss of life by these
calamities cannot yet be ascertained. lii Peshtego over
MO persons were burnt or drowned, and 150 were seriously
injured. In the neighboming lumbering distrists over 200
dead bodies have already been recovered. It is believed 000
persons perished in the Green Bay region, and the victims in
Michigan will swell the total toonlur of the loss to nearly
1,000. The condition of the survivors in tier burnt districts
In pitable one) ace far :espy from toe es or railroads, and
they cannot be promptly reached and relieved like the
sufferers oy the Chicago calamity."
-

Judge Barron, Filth Auditor of the Treasury, den-
erases a visit to his lining in Wi,condu. Ile says
The published reports of the wide-spread destitution
and suffering in that region caused hy the ter, ible !Ire are in
no respect exaggerates!, and indeed no account can give
an aslesetate idea of the frightful extent of the calansity.
The loss to the lumbering interest in the destruction of
mills. stc., is immense, but not, however. irreparable, as the
pine forests are still generally left standing, though stripped
by tire of their lighter branches and foliage. The Secretary
of War has authorized General Sheridan to afford such relief
s may be in his power to the sufferers by the fires in Michigan
said Wisconsin."
A letter dated at Camp Desolation, where once
wa, Peshtego, October 14, eight p.m.. contains an ac-
count of the scenes that came under observations of the
writer. He says :
—I am writing by the light of a piece of poili with a stick
through it and stack in the ground. our tents are rather
shabby affairs, still we are cheerful, awl mean to work as
long as we Ma nocornplish ally good. It seems the tornado
was fearful, and the country was one sea of fire, making the
heat intense beyond power 41 endurance. Three settlements
on the Sugar Bush roast were entirely consumed. In many
eases the men became deranged, and gave up in despair. and
Bonner than be roasted alive deliberately con tttt Med suicide
with knives and other weapons. large numb.. of sufferers
. . . .

woo woo 000 .... • ••••
are arriving at this point from the interior. Every hour we
are administering to their wants hy binding lip their wounds
and giving them food and sending them to Menominee and
arenette. We have camped on the river where once was the
village of Peslitego, but where not a single building has been
left standing. 'the water will be drawn to-morrow from the
pond, where we expect to llnd from 100 to 125 dead bodies of
those who were drowned in atti meting to iseape from the
fire. It Is now estimated that the whole number of people
drowned and burnt to death will reach 500. Whole families
Yet remain unburivd The great difficulty seems to have
been that the people inhaled what came from the lire and
hundreds are now suffeileg intense agony from this cause.
No tongue can tell, or moths deserthe such ghaatly sights we
hole never to ace again. I will mention one case eta little
girl twelve years old whn was advised by many to desist
from the attempt lest she hi ninth ihould perish. She heeded
them not, however, but by the most heroic efforts she suc-
ceeded in rescuing her little sister from ths merciless flames.
tier father, mother, brother, aid other sisters perish.' in
the flames, and after the Ore bad abated somewhat she worked
her way Mot over the hot ashes and burning coals and
drsayed the dead Indira of her relations out into the open
space, then stool watching their charred remains all day and
through the tong andefeeMaCe arkeiraia-
A gentleman who has been to Green Ilay from
Saginaw nays, in a description of his voyage
Me boat was greatly detained on her upward trip on
account of high wind and smoke, and the latter was so dense
that the Imat had to be steered entirely with a compass. ,
The fire on the east side of the hay extended in an almost '
Unbroken line from the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago to
the northern extremity of the eastern peninsula, telly 150
miles, burning up in Recourse fences, barns, houses, and an
endless quantity of cedar telegraph poles awl tan bark, the
latter of which was piled in inimeme heaps on the docks.
hun deen and dismal was the darkness caused by the i111nt..11,0
volumns of smoke that the gun was totally obscured for a
distance of Set) miles. This midnight dargn, in continued for
a week. The air was red with burning fragments earned all
the way from Pestiteao and other places aloug the shore, a
distance of nearly CO miles."