Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1852-05-06
The Fire EiCnG.
BY GEO. CANNING HILL.

CA4C'
At first it was only stihed cry, as of
a person in distress
The winds Of winter were dashing in,
swift ,squadrons down the street, twisting
off loose blinds, slamming insecure shut
ters, putting out sleepy lights in dingy
lanterns, and then scurrying away to the
deserted mole that stretched far out into
the frozen harbor
The din of rattling wheels and tramp
ing feet had long ago .died out. Only
the mad screech of the changing winds,
or the clatter of the crazy blinds and
shutters, broke the dismal silence. The
lights in all the houses of the street were
out, and the feeble rays from the sleepy
lanterns scarce revealed the outward
shape of the buildings on which they fell.
/ The distant clock had changed the hour
of midnight from its lonely watchtower,
and the echoes of It's iron tongue had
scarce been broken and lost in the strange
angles and crannies of the grotesque
roofs, The cry sounded as if it came
from a heart smitten with deep terror,
and spent half it's strength in its passage
over ivid lips.
''Fire Fire Fire ~
1t was so faint, one could hardly dis
tinguish the fearful syllable ;.yet was so
distinct, that it curdled the swift blood
in the veins.
Again it came This time, louder
This time, higher. This time, more deep
and voluminous.
"Fue Fire FIRE!
There was no mistaking that cry then
A hundred strong men caught it up, and
a hundred strong throats poured it out
on the midnight air. A single bell rang
the alarm to the immediate neighborhood
and instantly score of bells caught the
fearful tone. The air above the gables
and roofs was peopled with voices OF
fear, and the close and narrow streets
below were alive with echoes of alarm
Bells and voices both shouted lustil y in
the midnight
The street was filed and blocked up
with people. A passage through it was,
for the time, impossible, for its narrow
throat was choked up. Every body was
tossing his arms Every one was scream
ing, and shouting, and ordering, and en-
treating, at the top of his voice. The
place seemed a pandemonium let loose ;
every man a mad DEVIL whose features
the lurid fires lit up with ghastly and
unearthly CLEAN.
The building was of wood, and stained
with the beating storms of years. On
either side were similar structures, closely
united with this. Doom seemed to have
settled down in the thick smoke cloud O.
yer each one of them.
The fires poured out through the sash.
es of the windows, while the glass melted
as if by magic, and run down upon the
walk in silver flood They thrust their
fearful forms far out into the street, quite
over the heads of the swaying crowd, as
if they would storm the barrack of wood
en- buildings on the other side. Then
they wrestled themselves like furious
Gorgons into entangling knots and spiral
: forms, and lifted their undulent bodies
up into the dark midnight sky. And
their hot breaths were poured out upon
the street air, almost sitting the terro-
stricken mass that fell back before
them.
i In an upper room a young child was
still sleeping. Her window opened upop
the adjacent roof, whose dry shingles
were already cracking in the hungry
jaws of the Fire Spirit. She had not yet
walked, but lay on her couch blissfuly,
yet frightfully ignorant of the demon
that was on her track.
A single Whit of the changing wind
and the fre-fend had mounted to the
roof Running swiftly along the moss
speckled caves, it crept slowly, but sure
ly, up the deeliyous roof, laying hold
firmly by each row of shingles, and final
ly pausing at the window of the child s
bed chamber. It climbedup at the wind
ow sill, and looked in!
The picture of innocence should have