The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-17 00:00:00

TOTAL DESTi.UCTION BY FINE

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Saturday morning, at seven o'clock preciely, a t,e-
cond and, we lament to say, a successful attempt was
made to destroy the National Theatre, in Cinirch-
street. In the Herald of Saturday, we gave an ac-
count of the discovery, by the manager, of fire in
six different places, on Friday, which were subdued,
and the performances went on without any further
alarm. At the close of the performance, Mr. Burton,
•xith Mr. Wemyss and Russell, remained on the pre-
mises until about half-past three, and had a thorough
sareli through every part, and it appeared perfectly
safe. Mr. Russell then retired to his room in the theatre,
and went to bed. He shortly rose after six o'clock, and
:vent to the stage door in the rear of the building, and
stood in conversation with the private watchman of the
establishment. Whilst thus occupied, something was
seen to fall from one of the upper rooms ; and in a very
i'ew moments flames were seen to proceed from several
different parts of the building. The alarm was instantly
; but so rapid was the progress of the destruction,
that it was with difficulty Mr. Russell resctud his wife,
.rho was in bed.

Not a vestige of the wardrobe was saved. Some of
the banners and stage properties were got out by the
property man, and the boxes, books, and paper in the
counting-house were go toff.

The ;ails of the building were so scandalously weak
that the lives of the firemen were considered in danger
from the first breaking out of the fire.
Mr. John T. Hollins, one of the most intelligent en-
gineers of the fire department, states that he lives
close by the theatre, and was on the spot in a very
few minutes—say, five—that he went inside the thea-
tre immediately, and saw no fire except on the stage
and scenery, which was then blazing ; there was
then no fire in front of the proscenium ; and it is his
opinion that the fire was placed on the stage or near
the,scenes, in less than half an hour from the time he
first saw it. He warned all the people living in
the rear to clear out, because in less than five
minutes after the fire broke out at the rear, he
saw the miserably flimsy wall cracking and yielding
in every part, unable to beer the weight of the root;
And before the inmates of the house of ill-fame in
the rear, kept by Julia Brown, had time to make their
escape, the wall gave way, fell on Julia Brown's house,
crushed the back part, killel one young, unhappy,
beautiful girl, aged sixteen, named Margaret Yeager, who
came from near the corner of Callowhill and 12th street,
in Philadelphia, last Tuesday, having only been enticed
from her parents so recently. Several others were
bruised, and escaped by a miracle through the ruins and
rubbish.

The young girl who was killed presented a sad
spectacle. She was lying on the floor of the hack
attic, the roof of which was all gone, and the whole
open to the light of day. Surrounded by bricks and
mortar, and pieces of burnt timber, there lay that
young and recently innocent girl, with nothing
around her small limbs but her night dress, her side
crushed in near her heart, her mild blue eyes open in
death, and yet from the smile playing around her mouth,
it seemed impossible to realise that she was dead—so
young, so fair, so guilty and so early called. Around
her stood one or two of het former companions in shame,
weeping bitterly, and the groupe was made up of the
toil-worn, smoke-covered firemen, who had extricated
her mangled remains from the ruins around her.
The rear wall and the side wall on Franklin-street
both gave way in so short a time after the fire began,
that it was by the mercy of Providence alone that num-
bers were not crushed to death in the adjoining houses.
The mortar all fell from the bricks, and the latter looked
as clean almost as when new ; and the whole building
was down to the ground in less than one hour.
The French Protestant Episcopal Church was in-
jured in the roof by fire, and in the interior by water.
The dwelling-houSes next it, Nos. 103, 105, and 107,
Franklin-street, were damaged by the fall of the
wall of the theatre, and the Dutch Reformed Church
in Franklin-street, adjoining No. 107, took fire also
in the roof, but was soon extinguished. The African
church, on the corner of Leonard and Church-streets,
opposite the theatre, caught also in the roof, but the fire
was soon checked there, and with little damage.
The firemen deserve a great deal of credit for their
activity and energy, and the chief engineer, with his aids,
by their judicious conduct, undoubtedly saved the French
church and surrounding buildings- - for at one time the
wind was high, and blowing the flames over the French
church and the houses in Franklin-street, and nothing
but the most strenuous exertions saved them.

SUFFERERS BY THE FIRE.
Burton lost, in wardrobe, &c. 095,000 00
Miss Cushman, in dresses, &c 6OO 00
Aupick, a horn, worth 2OO 00
Miss Petrie, in music and jewels
Woolf, a violin
Christian, a clarionet 6O 00
Shaw 250 00
Jamieson l7O 00
Rosier
Dugan
Other Actors
Other actors, &e., belonging to the theatre,
not before enumerated 1,509 00
Black, the builder 5,000 00
Negro Church, do 2OO 00
Dutch Church, do 3OO 00
Additional Loss, said to be Insured.
Mr. Hanford, of Albany, money advanced to
Mr. Wilson to build the Theatre 15,000 00
Other stockholders'loss, butsaid to be insured 10,000 00
The property was owned, we understand, in this way :
Ground owned by Mr. Aymer ; Mr. Moran holds a
mortgage of 10,030 on the building.