Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1871-10-21
The Great London Fire

Great events are usually Reproductions of SINH
lar events. That which has been, shall be,
and there is nothing new under the SUM- The
details of the great London confiagration which
hupgrily and furiously licked up the tinder-iike
material of old London in the year 16,s are
cosby Sir Samuel Pepys His attention vas
first called to the red light Of the fire early ON
Sunday morning. He paid little regard TO the
nary FIRE; but as the day wore on ana the IN
creasing volumes of fame and smoke rolled m
ward 1t was soon discovered that the fire kir,
was running riot uncontrolled through London
streets.
he fire originated in a bakers shon. wbera
the men had begun their work before davliyht
There had been long drouth, and everything
was tiEd r-like. The fire sprung up and begaS
its march amid a sea of streets, lanes and honses
and shops which had been accumulatiny for
ages, many OF them, doubtless, dating their
erection back to the DAYS OF William the Con-
queror, and even TO the old Saxon kinrs Jt was
a mass of dry OvenwoOd, such as the Asmes
would delight TO feed upon. For five DAYS and
hlghts me hre ragged on, leaping from block to
DOCK, from street to street, rushing mn the
church spires, swallowing St Paul's cathedral
as II IL were bird-cage, oyer-arcbiucg Ion,
i,. 81 WIN Sheets OF waving flame, and seem
ing 10 pause at last from sheer exhaustion Or
rather the IRE was checked, as all great citv
hres can only be checked, in all ages of the
Worid, by the blowing.up and tearing down OF
bulidings on the line OF the conflaCration
he enginery for the extinguishrnent OF fires
was comparatively nothing in old London; vet
IN that regard Chicago had no advantage over
her. for when it comes to this that the fire-sfeed
has flung his riders and taken the hit in 6is
teeth, and, with streaming name and flaming
eyes and wild yell, is rushing hither and thither
an MODERN machinery counts but little; steam
ire engines are as nothing; 1866 and 1871 stand
on one leVel or utter helplessness; ancient Lon
Don and modern Chicago can oniv wiring their
i hahds m agony and hasten in distracted multi
tudes TO save life and such of the household
goods as can be snatched from the Jaws of the
fire. ' Va VIZ
Pepys gives us vivid picture of the dis
resslng scene. Men, women and children nour
ing from their homes with what they conld Law
their hands upon, trampling one another down:
wagons mingled with the thrOng, laden with
OF goods wagon driver taking
eNorbltant prices, sick and dying ones carried
out on beds. Indeed, we discern thathuman ma
ture was precisely the same then as now. There
were Ihe same eXtort1ons of nObleness and
meanness One Alderman Startling a rich man.
without children, grudginglv divided two shil,
lngs ana slXpence among thirty men who had
tolled 10 save his house, and did save it. One
horsepower offered seven shillngs for the SAL
yatlon OF his dwelling; nobody would undertake
the JOB snort OF seventeen shi}lings, and the
dwelling was burned. There was the same Sc
quel 10 the hre-homeless multitudes STARVING
shlyering in the fields, amid the peItinp of the
rain storm that followed the fire: charity pourng
forth its benefactions, and pity seeking its OBJ
jects Still il must be said as An index of tho
progress of Christian charity, that never has hn-
man calamity called forth such a universal.
spontaneous outburst of warm generosity and
uDtrai Dene1actlon as in the case of the woe
stricken queen city of the prairies
LONDON, like every burnt city, rose more beau
ttul from the flames. She was in the clutches
OF the plague when the fire seized her. One de-
mon exercised the other. The plague has never
since visited London. That fire was a grand
purgation. The area burnt over by the London
IRE was 1856 acres. The value of property de-
stroycd was about $50, 600 GOO, as estimated, So
we see that Chicago, with her burnt area of
5000 acres, and her loss of $500, 900 0OO more or
less, has the soTrowfUl pre-eminenceo of the queen
of calamity. f