Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-07-20


like q whirlwind-a surging sea of
heads, of pale faces, staring eyes, out
stretched arms, and the sound of inar-
ticulate cries of anguish. In two min
utes it was over and in that time hun
dred people were more or less injured
but we believe none were killed. The
bow window at our elbow was crushed
like an egg shell, and in less time than
the reader takes in perusing five OF these
lines, about fifteen persons were jammed
through the window into the store
several of them badly cut by the glass
or bruised by the tremendous crash
Not few made their way over the eight
foot iron-fence into st. Pauls Church
yard, while many hundreds sped down
the street nearly to the river before they
dared to look behind them. The loss
of hats, canes, coats and watches, the
rolling in the mud and reckless tramp
ling over each other, would have been
most ludicr0us but for the perilOuS dan
ger, When all was over, the inventory
OF smashed hats and bare heads was
enough to raise laugh even from Knox,
whose fine hat store was in imminent
danger of the fate which afterwards be-
fel it.
PROGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATION
At / o'clock the Museum was a mass
of fire, and the flames had burst into
the adjoining buildings in Fulton street,
Broadway and Ann street, while the
roofs and walls of the buildings in the
| neighbOrhood and the eastern front Of
St. Paul's were menaced, and it seemed
| as though the entire block through to
| Nassau street must be consumed. But
| the firemen, who had now arrived in
| force, poured cataracts of CrotOn upon
! the buildings in the centre of the block
and upon the roofs opposite; and one
engine company stood in the scorching
heat at the head OF Vesey street, and by
flooding the eastern front of st. Paul's,
| saved the venerable pile from ruin.
From the Museum the flames first Crept
through the adjoining houses and into
| the upper story of KnOX's hat-stOre, No.
| 2l2 Broadway. Tell-tale smoke playing
about the. heavy cornice first notified the
spectators in the street below that this
| building was doomed In few minuets
| the flames flashed ont of the upper story
windows on Fulton street, and then
| belched forth from those on Broadway.
The heat had now become intense and
uncomfortable. The crowd that tbronged
rark rar roy. l95 BroaddWay sd Hf aeed The Park
that stood in Ann-street were driven
halfway to Nassau.
At 1870 came crash resounding like
the explosion of a powder magazine.
| The whole wall on the Ann street side
! had fallen. A cloud of dust and smoke
| filled the air, making it dark as twi-
light. and rendering it impossible to
| descry objects at short distance.
At 1:45 o'clock the Broadway front of
the Museum fell in three different sec
tions, one after the other The first to
fall was the part parallel with Broadway
| which went over in one mass, falling on
the pavement of the street, and then
| and not until then-breaking up into
innumerable fragments.
+ = The fire, which had now extend
| ed through the rear, into the shops and
| warehouses on Fulton and Ann streets,
| burst forth in the upper stories of seve-
| raj buildings, and ragged with ungovern-
able fury, and the huge sparks-many of
! them as large as mans hand-which
were borne on the breeze over the house
tops and lodged far down through the
| commercial districts of which the post
office is the centre, threatened to extend
the disaster indefinitely. But the occu-
pants Of buildings whereon these fire.
! brands fell poured croton on their roofs,
| and little damage was caused by the
| sparks beyond the burning of a number
of signs and awnings in Fulton and
Nassau streets.
CLOSING or SHOPS.
The panic among the merchants, shop
keepers and saloon keepers on Fulton
street, extended from Broadway to Gold
street and in many instances for several
doors below toward Pearl street. The
excitement and alarm manifested by oc-
cupants of premises, on Fulton street
was scarcely less than that manifested
by the many persons who own or trans
act business on Ann street, between
Broadway and Nassau. Business was
| out of the question for the streets were
everywhere choked, the stages had been
driven far out of their accustomed
routes of travel, the cars came no fur
ther down than Church street and Vesey
on the west and to Park row on the east
side, and those tradesmen who were not
busy packing up to be ready for any
event, closed their doors and went to
the scene of destruction.
THE FIRE CHECKED.
Onward through the devoted block
sped the volumes of fire until after two
o'clock, when the flremen succeeded in
partially checking the flames as they
dashed against the solid walls of the
sixth building from Broadway, and
nothing remained to be done but to save
surrounding property. At o'clock the
| fire was wholly under, and the following
numbered buildings had been wholly
destroyed, the walls of three only being
left standing:
On Broadway-Nos. 90, 214, ZIG, 2lS,
220 and go.
On Ann street-Nos. 2, 4,6, 8, 10, IL,
Ia and 16.
On Fulton street-Nos. 147, 149, 151,
1853 and 155. "
The Tribune reporter evidently saw a
great deal that nobody else saw or could
have seen. The following extracts from
his amusing account will serve as spec
linens. He says