Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-04-10

CORRESPONDtN OE s161G
INTSIIsIGENCE
GAIESA, III, April /, 1850.
Eait6r.=-ssIyh Who can telI9hata DAY may
bring forthr" Allthings earthly reuncertain-
from ehIldhood's rosy hours, to the brilliant
dreams Of rnaturer years. Flowers are born but
70 fade; friends come around us but to die; and
m our dearest hopes arc ever passing away
What then, are riches, and honors, and powt
e and glory, If in the twinitling Of an eye.
they may take wings and fec away?
Yesterday, and along yon crowded streets,
hundreds Of busy feet were trcading rapidly,
and in their haste, striving to keep pace with
thedghtaing speed of calculating thought: to-
day. and many of those busy feet arc moving
slowly from theweightof bitter memories There
Be many who but few hours since could have
claimed their tens 81 tltOuapids and to-day have
not somueh ofweaIth as would buy cottage
home Women and children, hurried from
their warm beds, in the chilly night time, with
scarcely enough Of clothing to hide their naked
ness--aaye wandered forth from the abode of
peace and plenty to meet charity and wretched-
mss, and dependency on every hand. =
How much Of evil ono hand may: do God only
knows How much fiendishness one heart may
contain Is beyond our ken; but this we know,
that in the lurid flames, and binding smoke, and
crumbling walls of last nights confagration,
there was born enough Of Indebtedness aud mis-
ery. and priyation and bitter want, to dunn a
MousaadJ ReaGls a human shape, tcho for sport,
ST1ate, o. eaey, do ioith their occurred Hands,
yearly, aatttef deStruetio,. to Tie Iedrtds and
AOhlsef thousanols. .z..-.z s,'
ButI fear you may not understand me. Did
you ever see a fire-T meana ravishing, terrible
fire: fire. that made enough of smoke to cure
more hams than Cincinnati ever knew, and heat
sufficient to warm moderate sized world! n
Last night, for the first time in my life, God
grant it may be the last time-I looked upon
saGh,asffre. At three o'clock the flames com
menced their ball, and to the music of women's
sbr1eEs, and crashing walls, and childten's cries
andimanly voices, kept dancing on till the sun
rose up in heaven Obi it was a sight to make
theheart grow sick, and, bring prayers to the
most sacrilegiouslips. Alasl neitherpraycrs nor
tears, nor curses, could stop the mad fiery
waves that, like a riotOus sea, headed themselves
aloft, andin their frey arms folded up forever,
the labor of years, and the many rich hopes Of
hundreds.
But let me tellE,you how much of ruin that
nights reyelry left behind it The fire common
ced, or rather was commenced, in the old stage
stable near the MDe Soto House, " and from there
to the frame building on Main street, adjoining
Packard 4 Co.'s Dry Goods House. Ina few
minutes more, the cornice of the DE Soto House
Was on fire, but the wind changed, the flames
of stores on that side, and in little while they
presented d blazing front Then. it was that
with Blankets &c., the fire in the hotel was ex-
tinguished; and very luckily, too, for had so
large a building here gotten under Roadway,
Heaven only knows where the fire would have
ended ~.
!, The heat generated was intense. The flames
kept stealing on till they reached the four story
building nearly opposite the hotel, occupied by
Dodge and Bent as drug, house, and perhaps
the largest or one Of the largest in the West,
when by concentrated effort of all the fire; ap7
.paratus, and glimpse of Heaven, in.the wayof
a change of the air current, the deyourer was
checked. Had the fame gotten little better
start at that point, the "De Soto House" would
have undoubtedly taken hold the second time,
and with it the remaining portion Of the best
hOuscsin the city. -s..rs. sas
I..,But in the meantime, the Catholic Church on
Beach Street, had become lenvclopcd in flames,
and before the apparatus could be made to play
iairly It was in ruins By this time, the fire had
extended down to the next square on both sides
of the street and left nothing behind but crutnbl
ing walls Every house had BEEN consumed,