The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1842-06-02


valuable store or Harpers, brothers, the
celebrated Publishing House-Burxlary Of
James New Novel. W
About o'clock yesterday morning, the large pub
fishing house of the celebrated booksellers, Har
pers, Brothers, of this city, Cliff street, was dis
covered to be on fire in the fourth story, occupied
as their bindery and before the flames could be snb
dued, the whole OF the fourth and fifth stories and
their valuable contents destroyed.
The fire was discovered about o'clock, by some
females residing in the next house, (Which is a
boarding house) as they were getting up for the
day, they flames issuing from two side win \
dows the north side of the building the fourth
lloor which occupied exclusively as one OF
the binderies of this enerprising firm On seeing
the flames they screamed out, and were heard by
Mr.. Fletcher Harper, who resides but two doors
off AS he could get into the street. he saw
smoke issuing from the building, and gave the
alarm The Hall bell then brought the engines
down speedily and in abundance, No. we believe
being first the spot, and the Southwark and steam
| Fire Engine being there after. All the other
engines were speedily there, line was formed to
the river, up Ferry street, and down Pike slip. The
| hydrants opened, and in about Is minutes
| there a tremendous body of water thrown into
| the building. BY this time the fire was making
tremendous Roadway in the fourth and fifth sores
raging furiously throughout the whole length Of that
large building in these two stories, bursting out of
| twenty windows at once, and through the roof,
threatening destruction to the whole building and
in fact the whole block. And by five o'clock, every
one but the firemen had given up all hope of saving
any of this valuable property.
And here it would be proper to state that this large
building is divided into five stories, which thus
| occupied On the first floor is the counting room
and large wareroom, literally crammed full Of
books ready for sale. The second floor is occupied
| exclusively a press room, and contains about
thirty presses. The third story is divided into two
rooms one is the large girls folding and stitching
room and the other small press The fourth
story was the large and valuable bndery Of the
bshment, divided into two rooms, and the fifth was
the general ware room In the latter, the warehouse
| man had lately kept the most valuable unbound
books which are published by this house, in order
to have them near to the bindery. All the less valu
able unbound stock was kept in their large printing
establishment Immediately opposite the burnt build
| ing This wareroom was crammed full Of their
best stock. In the bindery at this time about
| 10000 copies of James new novel, MORLEY ERN-
| STEIN, many of them bound up, ready for delivery
this very day. which book, there is doubt at all,
was the motive for incendiarism, we shall pre-
| sently show.
The presence OF such an enormous quantity of
combustible material paper, and paper shavings,
fed the flames so freely, tina, it required almost
perhuman efforts the part of the iremen to get
them under, and for long time the fate of the
whole was doubtful When the roof was burnt off,
the wind caught the loose sheets and leaves by thou
sands upon thousands, and carried them up into the
| Bowery, and even over to Brooklyn. Several Of
the streets around were literally covered with books
and stray literature of all kinds, and the air seemed
full ofleaves-book leaves-Hying in all directions.
The remen placed ladder against the fourth story
windows, from which the flames were issuing furi-
ously eight of them mounted with the hose, and be-
fore they could reach the fourth story, the fire had
burnt the top of the ladder off, and they all came
near losing their lives. However, they persevered,
two of them reached the top, poured in tremend.
Gus stream, and arrested the flames in that quarter
BY this time many tons of water were being poured
into the building every minute, and it was
seen that the progress o. the fire was checked; and
in an hour afterwards all danger was over But the
iremen worked men scarcely ever worked be-
fore, and deserve everlasting credit for their exer
TONS and the good Judgment by which they
directed.
TIE Loss.-The flames did not pass below the
fourth story bu, the whole of the large stock in the
folding room, was destroyed by the water The
presses in the second story also injured by the
water. On the first story there very valuable
| stock closely packed, and OF course it is much in
ured by water, though by no means to the extent
that might have been supposed. About four-hfths
of it are injured. Every thing in the fifth story was
destroyed by fire, and what little the fire spared in
the fourth story was destroyed by water. The total
loss, at fair calculation, cannot be less than 500,
OO0 Ofthisarge sum are pleased to say the firm
has S45 900 insured in several Offices, and regret
that they are not fully covered The loss is upon the
Jefferson, Mutual Safety, Bowery, Equitable, Hart
ford, and Spring Gardens, Philadelphia, Insurance
Companies. Such is the lose and it is well it Is no
| worse for when the stock of books in the estab-
lishment was taken a very short time since, this
great firm had $230,000 worth Of book stock on
hand. In short, they had the largest and most va
liable stock in the United States Most fortunately,
all their stereotype Plates the choicest part Of their
property, was uninjured being safely slowed away
in vaults under the street. And all their extensive
printing establishment is uninured. They have
also a very large building in Hague street, where
they can fit up new bindery, and new folding and
press rooms, and be all ready for full operation in
4s hours.
CAUSE OF THE FIRE.-There is no doubt that il
the act Of incendiary; and the principal cause
was the securing of one two sets of James's new
novel, Morley Ernsten and the destruction of the
| remainder of the edition.
1t appears that the Harpers, by paying very large
sums TO James and Bulwer, get manuscript copy OF
their novels They had this new novel all printed
+ bound and ready to be packed and sent into the
. country this very day. 1t became known to the
trade that they had the work ready and during
| the last week or 80, one or two offered the Har
pers large sums for the privilege Of publishing it
par passu. with them. This they refused, and dld
not let copy leave the place; and up TO last nigh
at closing the store not copy had left the bindcry
Another publishing house offered well known prin