Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1862-01-04
Conflnsrn,lon. h Grent clIIe..

Inc puTlldl ueblTuOtlOn OF OnarleStOn re-
calls the numerous historical examples of
similar fate visited upon other cities. In
the fierce and sanguinary conflicts of the
olden time, burning cities and towns were
among the ordinary and most common Incl
dents of the war. How many times did
Jerusalem suffer from the flames, and how
numerous are the cities which more modern
times have seen destroyed in the embittered
border feuds of the middle ages ? We have
had but little of this in our present strife,
and il is fact which can not escape com
ment, that the first marked incident is that
city of the South which has been so ready
to condemn to the flames our Northern
homes.
The extent of the confagration at Charles
ton, though comparatively great for city
of its size, was trifling in comparison with
the destruction which has visited other
cities. But six or seven millions of dollars,
worth of property was destroyed, while our
own great fire Of 1886 swept away $18,000-
900. The number ofhouses destroyed were
nearly as great, however, which shows that
many of those at Charleston were of inferior
value.
New York has suffered from other fires Of
fearful magnitude, but its history in this
respect falls far behind that of European
capitals, of which many examples are cited
in an article on "Fire Doomed Cities" in
Bid,osUS Eclectic Magazine for January,
1862.
Moscow, in Russia, is the most hapless of
these fre-doomed cities, having a history of
confagrations without precedent in ancient
or modern days. Two thousand persons
perished in the flames of its burning dwell
ings in 1886, and a still more fearful calam
ity followed in 1871, when it was besieged
by the Turks, who set fire to the town, from
which its inhabitants could not escape ex-
cept to die by the sword. The streets were
paved with great fir trees oily and resin
GUS, and the houses of the same material,
furnished no obstacle to the flames, which,
aided by the furious winds, swept like o
storm over the city. Two hundred thousand
persons were reported to have perished, but
this is an evident exaggeration. Yet thou
sands of the country people had taken re-
fuge in the city from the public enemy, and
the poor creatures ran into the market
place, and were "all roasted there, in such
a sort that the tallest man seemed child
so much had the fire contracted their
limbs-a thing more hideous and frightful
than any can imagine"
A still more fearful con1agration visited
Moscow in 1872, when its three hundred
thousand inhabitants were ordered to quit
the city, which was fired by the Russian au-
thorities. "Thirty thousand houses, seven
thousand principal edi6ces, and fourteen
thousand inferior structures, were reduced
to ashes. The private loss is supposed to have
exceeded $50 100000 sterling" "Palaces
and temples" writes Karamsin, the Russian
historian, monuments of art and miracles
of luxury; the remaining of past ages, and
those which had been the creation of yester-
day the tombs of ancestors and the cradles
of the present generation were indiscrimi
nately destroyed"
London, too, has been the especial mark
for the flames, from the days of the great
fire in 1866 down to the fire of last June, in
Tooley. street, which was one of the most de-
structive of modern times.
Constantinople hos also prominent place
in the list of fire doomed cities. In 1929
were consumed twelve thousand houses and
seven thousand persons; and in 1745, six
thousand lives were lost. Other destructive
fires occurred in 1851 and 1855, while
another in 1871 destroyed thirty thousand
dwellings and nearly eight thousand peo-
pie.
In the present century Hamburg and Co.
penhagen, in Europe, and Quebec, Canada,
have suffered most severely from the flames.
Let us hope that the old barbaric specta-
Gle of cities given to be burned may not be
added to other horrors which are insepara-
BILE from civil conflict. If the Charleston
ians must consign what is left of their city
to the flames, few will regret its self-im-
posed doom, even though, as at Moscow,
where aspen plants sprang up every where
among the ruins of the place, the winds
should bring the seeding of forest to for
ever hide the spot where once stood the city
whose pride was its ruin.