, 1865-11-17

THE HURNlNG OF DK. IfkHS
CHURCH.
Scenes of the Ftre-tRo,v 1t Originated
The Appearance at Night The
Towers and Walls still Standing.
[Frum thc n. I. World. Nov. ISL
Yesterday afternoon, the people In the Vi.
cinity Of Rutherford place and Sixteenth
street were startled by the sudden appear.
ancc Of fire On the roof Of 81. Georges Epis-
copal Church, ut that place. 1t flashed over
the whole building with great rapidlty, and
In less than forty minutes this beautiful
and grand edifsce vas In runs. There were
many rumors and theories as to the cause
Of the frt, but the fact appears to be that
II originated through the carelessuess
Or accident Of some Workluen. For several
days past several plumbers have. been at
work on the roof, repairing the cutters, and
doing other such work. as was found ncccs-
snry, hav1ng, Of course, small hand-furnaces
Of iron, Or tl,e-brisk IN which to heat their
soldering tools. The men were upon the
roof when the fro wns discovered, and 1t Is
believed that tome Goals fell out OF one Of the
furnaces, and the roof being very Dig,
caught fire at once, and burst ont
In huge 5laze: Reverend Dr. Tyng,
the pastor, Who lives next door, Is said
to have been The first to discover It,; The
a4A4 IL " - 4iAAeu4atSAJ RlseIl. uuk owing 10
singular tact, there Was some delay before the
tiremen a<tfnd and were diligently at work.
At that time, the bells were ringing for the
third district In consequence Of 4 false alarm
from the Dune Methodist Church, In Hudson
street. - pon, however, as the bells began
to ring for tie fifth district, the steam engines
hurried to tie place, and the 1rcmen set to
work throwing heavy streams Of wafer.
The fire pread With wonderful rapidity,
anshtnE from beam to beam almost like light
ming, shatteing the. WindowA and bursting
out in huge ,heets Of smoke and flame, and
darling IN srpent1re wTeaths upon the roof.
It rolled In ;oluncs along the Shingles, and
in an inconeivahly short space Of time the
VI %os see eevfn S4P Psessatfa sa r,;, vast .hest
the very tearens: For . time It Kissed
md ersckl|d, louder and higher each min
dte till therafters gave way and the root fell
With thug crash within the walls. Then
for mn,nsnt superb spectacle was present.
ed as al immense cloud of blackest smoke
rolled upwiih the billions of sparks aud huge
red cipdcrs curling in and out as If thousand
constellations Of stars had been dashed to
fsasme Fur mp Into The aky they sailed
with tic black cloud. which grew fclnter by
degrees AZ 1t asceuded, and rested for some
little tine afterwards In the distance. Then
tho clnt1rs, still burning, fell in showers on
the roof Of houses aud among tho crowd col
lectud il the street.
The fce engines p'ayed awny with re-
doublcd yiEor, throwing large streams
throughthe windows and On the walls, but 1t
was too1ate to save any part Of the wood
work. The galleries and pews were already
burning, aud us the roof icll in, tho burning
fragments were scattered all over the inte-
rior.
Soon the flames shot into the towers and
mounted up the interior, cleaning through
x4c1. 4
fame. The clock, which Ind been kasping
time regularly al ever. apparently, now
struck one loud note, although 1t
was between the hours of and s.
It was doubtless caused by the action oil
the heat warming some Of the works. A
few minutes more and the hands stopped,
pointing to ten minutes Of s.. For years the
clocks In the tower Of st. Georges have been
the standard timekeepcrs Of the whole yicin-
itv round, hardly ever varying second from
the rtgu1ar rate Of notation. Hundreds OF
peop14 living in the: vicinity have looked to
st. George's the first thing on waking in the
morning, aud known the time for breakfast
By the pointing of Its hands. It was a
"Qauamark OF the nelghborhood, unfail-
Ii r in accuracy and often consulted, and ttIha
people there almost feel as If they had lost a
valuable thing from their Own household, as
they look from the windows forgettiu9ly,
and sec only the bare, blackcued spires and tic
circular spot gri1ncd and broken. where the
bright letter. and truthful face Of the old
clock CLEANED in the morning sun. The CHEEKY
call to DINER chimed in With the ringing Of
the belfs Of the clock, and on Sunday the
church bells rang, just as II pointed the half
hour. The sound Of lts striking was 80 fa-
miliar that it will almost seem al # q we'll
known voice had become suddenly silent. As
tue fire sprang upward, the hands stopped,
bent, Qufyered, and finally fell away into the
burning wreck, while the glass face broke
into fragments. .. -
Perhaps there are few moro: sublime spccta-
cles exhibited by the fire. king than the burn
Ing Of chnrch:spire. with the flames twining
and embracing Il to the very topmost point
aud shooting Of into the clouds, The towers
Of St. Georges arc entirely of stone, except
ing some little woodwork inside, the removal
OF which does not affect the solidity Of the
structure. What little there was was con
snmed In q short time, with curls Of smoke
and myriads Of sparks rushing up inside, as
ifthrough . chimney, and dashing out at
threw streams of water; as hixh Is
the clock, but they fell in showers oj drops
that seemed to have but little effect toward
e1tingnlshng. For long time after, the in
terror Of the towers was bright with bnrning
mRsses Of wood that occasionally burst out
into flames. The towers themselves were,
AonS@N43 VAt AthAG ullAC41 A4A lAClE II Plu-
baby not the slightest danger OF their falling,
a they are firmly and solidly built. They
stand imnoyabla ns ever, still supporting the
cross, emhlematlc Of the ecclesiastical char
acter Of the cdifce.
For some time after the IRE seemed to have
spent it's strength elsewhere it burned 6ercely
from the pulpit as II that had been reserved
for the last triumph Of the element. In the
rear of the church was Z small extension
containing the vestry room and a portion of
The sanctuary, within which Was the pulpit.
This was covered with IN octanRular roof e1-
tending outward from the centre of the semi
circle at the highest point. This roof also
fell In, and the IRE seemed to burn within
more obstmatcly and longer than at any other
place, Notwithstanding three or four streams
Of water were constantly thrown over the
wall upon the condagration inaide.
The loss by the fire is roughly estimated at
se5o, 600. There is IN Insurance Of 81, GOO in
tho iFtna, Washington, Equitable, Green
wIcb, Howard, Knlckerhocker, American and
Republic insurance companies. The church
was consecrated in 1873 The cost of the
cdiflce was about s20o, ,000- Tbs towers alone
cost so, 900. The organ which WIS entirely