The Weekly Washington telegraph., 1871-11-29

becan TO recover. Still others have
gone forth into the broad world to
carve out their fortunes among
strangers. But many, discover by
my priced Telegraph, still cling to their
native bills, and have cast their lot
with the good people of old Hampstead.
And, coming down 10 later period,
when. in unison with the whole South,
I buckled on knapsack and went
forth TO meet the common enemy
when | revert back to that stirring
period, and photograph in my mind
the many noble-hearted citizens who
rave us material aid and moral en-
couragement-those gray headed sires
who were the stay and prop of the
community, and who had taken apride
in building up that splendid state of
society for which Washington village
and Hampstead county were proverbial
throughout large stretch of country
Il find that many of those noble
hearts. too, have ceased to beat. The
whole souled DR.. Mitchell, the genial
DIR. Jett, the brave, true hearted Henry
| p. johnson, the courtly DIR. Purdom,
the good natured, reticent DIR. Griffin,
the whole souled Etter, and many
others no less loved and respected,
sleep beneath the sod.
But a truce to these personal re-
miniscences.
THE CHICAGO CALAMITY.
Where it not from the fact that |
presume you have surfcit of that
kind of news, l might tell you some'
thing about the great Chicago fire, and
the scenes and incidents connected
Herewith. | was in the ill-fated
city at the time of the terrible vista
ton, having resided there for the past
FIVE years If Chicago rose like a
gourd in the night, comparatively
speaking, more truthfully has it in a
night perished, leaving behind it
nothing but blackened ruins as indi-
cations of its past glory, its wonderful
enterprise, aud the intense energy Of
its people. 1t was a grand, sublime,
aud awful spectacle, the like of which
God forbid / should ever again be
called upon to witness. | have been
in fiercely contested battle, where steel
was pitted against steel, have listened
to the deofening roar of artillery, the
explosion of shells, the crash of mus
kerry, the clash Of bayonets, the groans
Of the dying, the screams of the woun-
ded and the demoniac yells of the vic
tors; but for terrible grandeur ave-
inspiring sublimity, absolute horror,
and genuine diabolism, those scenes
are no more beftting comparison to
that memorable tweny-four hours
struggle between three hundred thou
sand people and the sea of fire which
swept like a bosom of destruction over
the doomed city, than is a. miniature
lake TO the storm-lashed ocean. Words
are inadequate to give you the faintest
conception of the reality of the scene.
As | stood upon a towering roof and
viewed the grand panorama--the on
ward rush of the sea of flame, miles
and miles in extent, listened to the
crash of falling walls, the shouts Of
despairipg men and terrified women
and children, and looked upon the
struggling, confused mass Of humanity
fleeing, as it we're, from the wrath to
come, il absolutely seemed as if the
day of judgment" bad come, and
that oar planet was literally being con-
sumed by fire. 1t lacked only the
blast of Gabriels traditional trumpet
to render the picture of horror com,
plete, al' ri s.a' 90 r'".
REBUILDING THE CITY.
Although the fairest and wealthiest
portion of Chicago is to~day in ashes,
including her splendid business struc-