Constantine republican. [volume] (Constantine, Mich.) 1836-1838, 1837-01-04


monwealth.
DISASTROUS CONFEDERATION.
THE GENERAL posT.oFFIcE AND PATENT OF
fIcE IN ASHES.
Washington Gin, Dec. 16.--It is with no
ordinary regret that we perform the duty of
announcing the destruction, by fire, OF the
building in the central part of this city, which
has for many years been occupied by the
General Post Office, the Patent Office, and
the City Post Office, with an important part
of the contents of those buildings, including
the entire contents Of the two latter.
This calamity, great as it is, has long been
feared by those old residents of Washington
who knew the combustible nature of the
building, 1.-THE floors being all wood, and
some of them not even countersealed,) and
the custom of slowing fuel, not only coal
but wood in the vaults underneath the first
floor. The calamity has come at last, and
affords the second demonstration within
four years, of the utter absurdity and inn
providence of the structures to which the
public archieves, records and Government
accounts have been hitherto for the most
part confided.
The first alarm Of fire was given by Mr..
Crown, messenger, who usually sleeps in
the room connected with the city Post office
1.-THE Post Masters own room.) The clerks
had been at work asserting the mails, un-
Ill half past two o'clock, when one of the
persons belonging to the office, Mr.. Lans-
dalc) passed out of the East door, and along
the whole front of the building, without dis
covering any thing to raise asuspicion of
danger. Not long after three o'clock, Mr..
Crown was reused from slight slumber by
the smell of smoke. Opening the door OF
the city post office, he perceived dense
smoke, without any visible appearance Of
fire. He gave the alarm instantly, first
arousing Mr.. Cox, one of the clerks, who
slept in back room adjoining the post Of
flee, and who, coming out of the door of
his room, passed along the whole of the
long room with difficulty, through the smoke,
hearing the fire cracking, but being able to
see nothing. The watchmen in the body
of the building, some distance from the city
post office, had perceived nothing Of the
smoke, until they also, were alarmed by
Mr.. Crown.
The hour of the night when all this took
place being one at which the whole world Is
buried in the deepest sleep, it was found al
most impossible to spread the alarm Of fire.
One of the church bells began to ring, but
the ringer, not seeing any flame, ceased
ringing almost as soon as he began, and II
was a full half hour before the alarm bells
were rung, and more than that time before
an engine OF a bucket of water could be
commanded. AS it was, the fire had its
own way, and was at last seen in the vault
or cellar Immediately under the delivery
window of the City Post Office; followed
shortly afterwards by flames from the win
dows of the latter, and, within five minutes
afterwards, by flames from the roof, the fire
having crept up along the staircases or par
tition to the top of the building before il
broke out below.
From the moment of the flames bursting
out from the lower windows, it was obvious
that all hopes of saving the building was in
vain. In little more than an hour the whole
interior of the building and its contents were
destroyed.
The books of the General Post Office
were all, or nearly all saved, exertions hav-
ing been made for their safety from nearly
the first moment of the alarm; but mass
of papers, &c. belonging to the office were
destroyed. Not any thing saved from the
Patent Office, or the City Post Office, the
volume Of smoke preventing any body from
penetrating the latter, SO as TO save any
thing.
AS to the origin Of the fire, it is impos-
sible to say any thing, for nothing seems to
be known of it, except that it was in cell
lar or vault, in which pine wood and coal
were slowed, all which were probably in
state of ignition before the fire discovered
itself to the eye. We the more willingly
forbear any conjecture as to the cause of the
fire, since both Houses of Congress have
taken steps, through committees, to investi.
gate, and in one House with power to send
for persons and papers.
Most fortunately, the night was calm and
comparatively serene, or the destruction of
private property would have been inevitable
uNu TfCuts hAuu IL OCCuTTcu OI1 tilc nlynt
previous, when the wind blew almost a hur.
ricane, several squares Of valuable buildings
must have been destroyed. The means of
the city for extinguishing fires are wholly
inadequate to the value of the property at
stake, and the sources for the supply of
water for the engines are limited in their ex-
tent, as well as precarious. We trust that
tho lesson va. have i,,af received. will NOT no
lost on those who have it in their power to
apply the remedy. ~
OF oil the amount of loss of papers and
property sustained by this disaster, that
which IS most to be regretted because ire
parable) is that Of the whole Of the great
repository of models Of machines in the
Patent Office. The smouldering ashesnow
only remain Of that collected evidence of
the penetration, ingenuity and enterprise
which peculiarly distinguish the descendants
Of Europe in the Western world.-Ndtional
lntelhigeneer.