The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-07
L u II X E Y.
The Great Fire at Constantinople.

"
raj outline of this awful confagration, but the
particulars quoted from the Leuant Herald of
June 13 will be read with Interest,"
No sooner was it known that the fire was really
great than the terraces and balconies of every
house were filled with anxious spectators; still the
furious gale increased; engine upon engire carried
horses with bags of water each side of their pa.n
saddles were hurried up toward the con1agration;
SSfSS MSpI ran sSS 9 sn
dlers and police With axes and re-h0oks joined COM
pany here and there bearded Pasha, surrounded
with guards, pressed on to issue necessary orders
troops ran at the double through the streets TO rem
der service where required; women rushed toward
the residences of their friends, thoughess, for the
first time in their lives, Of costume or personal ap
pearance; and when few men OF any nationality
BODY to assist some eiIoW.oountryman. '''N
The course, or rather courses which the fire took
after it had once got thoroughly hold It would be
quanted with the locality for though eventually the
whole place which was the original seat of the fire
sporadic appearance, and at one time, in fact it ap
peared II haf.adoz distinct fires were raging,
tible nature Of the houses that first fell prey
bined with the rushing wind, which carried not
S Of burnpr mater to an crebe d
tance was the cause Of the extraordinary spread OF
the IRE The wind, moreover, swept over the
tally, and attacked buildings apparently long way
which can only be compared to the Jets from
blow-pipe. Nothing-not stone nor iron, still less
SAINT fiery blasts, shot out from places
which were burning with an intensity sur
passing that of furnaces in an iron foundry;
bars were twisted in all manner of shapes;
and the glass in the honses were all run into
solid masses which did not preserve trace OF the
original forms of their component materials. A
stiiing heat and odor pervaded the whole of Pera;
time obscured the sky, resembled an eclipse of the
sun; afterwards the flames shot up with such vivid
ness nat long before dusk the SKY above pera had
can easily be imagined what alarm spread among
the innumerabe Perotes who had already taken up
their summer residences on the Bosphorus or Mar
mora, and who had no means until the next
morning of getting. into town to relieve their
and Of their relatives and friends. There was a
literal risk IN some places Of being scorched to
death OF suiocated even ven IN running through as fast
PLY, many persons did actually lose their lives In
the street, after they had made their escape from
their burning dwellings; and their can be no doubt
that II thoroughfare had been sooner made by the
soldiers fewer lives would have been sacrificed, and
many people would have been able to have saved a
great deal more of their property. The authorities,
however, like the public, were staggered at the fury
that tit IL would have SPREAD SO much and in SO many
unexpected places, apparently at the very
same moment: The panic among the house
holders added to the confusion. HanlGLs (pOrters)
in great requisiton, and OF course, took full
advantage of their opportunity, demanding twenty
times their usual fare and then in many cases, after
receiving it in advance dropping the articles short
distance of In the street and going elsewhere to
dispose of their services or In other cases. carrying
them much greater distance than was barganed
for, and never being heard OF again. number OF
such sceundrels 1t is said were intercepted by the
police Goods, IN great number OF instances, were
removed several times over, according as the fire
spread and were, after all, burnt in places which
had been supposed inaccessible to the fire. Thus,
the Servian Agency, a fine large stone building
some streets OFF the nearest burning house, was
"a Ss ana se s e
Lyceum) in the Grand Rue an immense number OF
goods We're stored and those placed in the grounds
ITSELF for which, when it was heard that the British
Embassy had caught fire, great fears were enter
tained the KoOIooE police barracks) hard by having
| been gutted long before the theatre and Other
houses in the Grand Rue higher up had been
touched The Grand Rue from that point down to
Galata was filed till after midnight with thousands
Of people carrying away their household goods.
To sum up, now, the loss OF property The mum.
Der OF houses destroyed cannot be estimated at less
than $4,000, and the money loss at e6,00O,OO0 OF
.e7,OOO,0OO A very small proportion of houses was
the loss of that ONCE at 100000; the Imperial Mr
! Clnton) at e25,o00; the Sun (Messrs. Hansons) a.
insaTed in the two SWISS oces the U BaIose and
"HelVetian," whose returns or estimates we have
| not yet been able to obtain.
The above figures representing as they do so vas
an amount OF distress, unhappy constitute the least
part OF that dreadful TRUTH The loss of life has beer
| modern times. The morning after the fire scores OF
| bodies OF men, women, and children were found
lying about the Streets more or less dishgured bu
as the ruins were explored an immense number
| were found burned to death or suffocated in the
stone houses where they had shut themselves up in
atutous reliance the security OF stone walls and
iron shutters ignorant that the roofs were as com
bustble as those OF any wooden houses and It was
there in the OF The Embassy, that the majority
| caught fire. Hence the enormous loss OF life
amounting, from what is already known-and al
the ruins have not yet been explored, or all thu
missing l24OO whose names were given in at the
| Municipality by their relatives and frlends) ac
counted fOr-to more than 1900. Only on Saturday
the bodies OF eight men connected with the Greel
Church OF st. Constantine were found near the
church. Whole households OF 10, IL, and Ia wer'
burnt TO death or suffocated. There are innumer
able episodes OF horrible deaths, hair-breadtl
| escapes, and heroic devotion. The narration O
some OF the most remarkable of these is necessarily
deferred, with many other interesting details