Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-10
oRCES T ER.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1871.
The Chicago Fire.

The Chicago FIRE.
In the annals of many a great city is the
record of a calamity which its citizens recall as
"tbe great fire." Rome was burned more than
once by hostile armies, and later by chance or
design in the time of Nero when that profigate
emperor, who was accused of having kiudled
the coufagration for the pleasure of seeing a
city in flames, is said TO have viewed the specta-
Gle from the roof of his palace, "tiddling while
Rome was burning" The great fire in London
is a familiar incident in the history of that
famous city. 1t occurred in 1866 two hundred
and five years ago. Three hundred and thirty
six acres were burned over; 1920 houses,
ninety churches and many public buildings
were destroyed. The most disastrous fire that
ever occurred in this country, until that which
has Just laid Chicago in ruins was the great
fire in New York, December 10th, 1885, when
the population of that city exceeded but little
that of Chicago at present, its wealth was prob
ably not much greater and its public buildings
less handsome and costly. That fire destroyed
Gas buildings, including the most valuable part
Of the city, and consuming property to the
value of S20,0000 900. 1t is too soon yet to OBJ
tain trustworthy estimate of the loss by the
Chicago fire; but, judging from the imperfect
and confused accounts already received, it must
greatly surpass, in the area devastated, the num-
her Of buildings consumed and the loss in
CURED, the great confagration to which elderly
New Workers refer as an era in their city's his
tory.
Chicago, which has surpassed most cities of
its age in the rapidity of its growth and the
magnitude and novelty of its public works, ex-
GELS them all, Also in the suddenness and extent
of this great disaster. The direct pecuniary loss
in the destruction of buildings and their con-
tents of every kind, is of course enormous, but
this will not fall entirely upon the people of Chi
cage. 1t is distributed among insurance COM
panies in all parts of this country, and in Can
ada and in England. 1t is reported that a
single company, the Etna of Hartford, has
policies to the amount of eleven millions
on property in Chicago. Many lives must
have been lost in the terror and con-
fusion, and thousands of families are
homeless and destitute. The rivers by which
the city is intersected seem to have been no
obstacle to the spread Of the flames. Every
quarter of the city has suffered; what proper
ton Of the buildings may have escaped it is yet
impossible TO learn, but from the mention of
localities in the somewhat tconfused dispatches,
it seems probable that the statement that half
the city is in ashes Is no exasgeration. Certainly
no such crushing disaster, nor any approaching
this in severity, has ever fallen upon city in
modern times.
But besides the direct losses, there are other
consequences OF this catastrophe that viii be
felt severely there and elsewhere. Many insur-
ance companies viii doubtless be ruined and the
capital invested in them lost Then, too, this Is
the season when large amounts Of money are
advanced by eastern banks aud capitalists TO
move the crops. Probably millions Of bushels
of grain, on the security of which this money was
lent, have been destroyed and the debtors are
ruined. The eastern insurance companies
besides their direct losses, have invested largely
in mortgage securities on Chicago property, and
other eastern capitalists great and small, have
similar investments, whose value is now almost
destroyed.
Taking all these things into consideration, this
calamity can hardly fail to produce financial
panic of unexampled severity. Another grave
consequence is the destruction of the records of
land titles in the court house. These were con-
fused and uncertain enough at the best, but all
titles will now be thrown into almost hopeless
disorder which will seriously interfere with in
yestrnents in reminding