The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-10-10

readers this morning the details, - far
- received, Of the terrible Ore which
has laid waste the iairest portion Of the
late beautiful city Of Chicago. These
details are painfully suggestive OF the
enormous losses Of property and Of the want
and suffering 10 which hundreds Of thousands
Of people, especially The aged and infrm and
helpless women and children, are now exposed
| from this dreadful calamity. Since the memor-
able New York fire Of December, 1885, We
have had no disaster Of the kind in this coun-
| try or on this Continent to compare with this
| Of Chicago Ia the value Of the property con-
sumed, while in the number Of families left
houseless and destitute It far surpasses the
bwnings Of Charleston, Atlanta, Columbia
and Richmond during our late civil war Gil
summed up together. Dwellings. stores, store
houses, elevators, hotels, factories workshops,
banks, insurance, newspaper and telegraph
Offices, gas works. water works and shipping
lengthy catalogue-ars reduced to heaps Of
ruins.
The beautiful city, the central depot from
which is distributed to the cities Of tho Attain
tic coast and to the world abroad the abound
ing productions of the great West, ID DESC
lated, and that late prosperous community Of
three hundred thousand souls, possessing
within itself on Sunday evening last sub
sistence for millions Of people, is now in the
condition of q great army, surprised, routed
from its encampment and shorn Of it, pro-
visions. Relief then, to Chicago becomes the
first question to her sister cities Of the Union,
and in the prompt response Of Mayor Hall TO
the appeal from the Mayor Of Chicago we
know that New York city, - usual in such
cases, win grandly do her duty. Meantime,
the order Of the President to General Sher-
idan to bring in the supplies Of the army
within his reach to the relief of the suffering
people Of Chicago, though not expressly
authorized in the constitution, will meet the
approval Of the sovereign people Of the United
States, as proceeding justified by tho spirit
Of stthe supreme law Of the land" in reference
that Chicago, from all sides, including the New
Dominion, win meet with relief for her i'm
mediate and more pressing necessities, but We
expect that the city Of New York in this mat
ter will not fail to maintain her position as
the most generous city and Is possessing the
cities of the world.
Our great Northwest, in many respects,
providenHally, the most favored section Of our
supremely favored country, has this last sum-
mer and during the present autumn been ex-
ceedingly unfortunate in its losses from de-
vastating dres. For the last ten days psrticu-
larry we have hardly had any reports from
the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Nebraska and Iowa, and from the Territory Of
Dakota that have not been reports Of destruc-
tive fires in the forests and on the prairies. A
recent despatch from st. Paul, Mimi, informs
us that from small beginning somewhere near
the western boundary Of the State fire was
started which spread with frightfnl rapidly
through the dry grass and combustible pine
forests until it reached the ''big woods" one
hundred and fifty miles from the point of start
ing, whence it went whirling through the
and cracking among the trees with sound
that could be heard for many miles; that fires
are raging fearfully all through Mcleod
county; that all the prairie between the s'big
woods" and Preston has been burned over, in
GLIDING the destruction of thousands of tons Of
and farmhouses and buildings of every descrip-
ton to an extent still to be ascertained, and
that these fires are still in progress towards
the Mississippi River, and that nothing but q
drenching rain can stay their ravages.
All this is from Minnesota, and from Wis
consin we have similar reports. On the 4th
instant, on the west side Of Green Bay and
Fox River the flames extended from Memo
monee to Oshkosh, . distance of twenty miles
in length and thirty in breadth; in short,
| fires we're raging all around over three thou
sand square miles Of territory, burning hun
dreds Of families in their course out Of house
and home, and leaving them destitute in the
midst of vast scene of desolation. Even
the marshes, dried to the consistency of tin
| der, are burning like pits of camel coal, and
| at Fond du Lac the smoke Of the surrounding
fires casts the gloom Of twilight over the city
at MONDAY. At Pensaukie thirty men are
reported as having lost their lives in the
| flames.
From Nebraska, October 8, we have the
intelligence that the damages at Fremont from
these fires are very heavy; that at North Bend
the fire has been raging all day, and that at
Bon Homme, in Dakota, there is much loss of
property that an express messenger saw the
ruins Of several houses at Yankton still
place escaped from the flames in the prairie
only by turning into ploughed field, and
that many farmers in Southern Dakota had
lost houses, barns, crops, everything, barely
| escaninn With their lives From Michi1an