Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1871-10-26
The Chicago Fire.

many OF tie ueJallS Oh ble great IRE
which has nearly destroyed the city OF
Chicago. We give below sad but inter-
esting incidents OF the fire, which may
well be termed national calamity:
Sad, indeed, are the incidents told OF
the fire. Women in the pains Of child
birth, and patients who had been moved
from beds of sickness to save their lives
which at the best were nearly spent,
were all exposed to the rain and the cold
raw winds. Several deaths occurred at
LincolR Park, and three women brought
children into the world only to die.
Trains wcro loaded to their fullest ca
pacity, taking people away who, in many
instances, have no place to go, yet they
cannot stay here; and every train is
obliged to leave five times as many pas
sengers as tehy carried away. Every pre-.
caution was taken by the authorities to
guard the people.
A journal describing the scene during
tle conhagrati says The sky was
lighted up for miles around, and the
river looked like a stream of blood.
Hardly had the families which occupied
the district time to escape with then
lives, and as to saving their household
furniture, which to most of them was
their all, it was not to be shought Of.
Women, half-clad, ran screaming in
the streets, baby in one arm, while
little children chung to them with terror.
At every attempt to stay the flames the
tiremen were driven back batfled and dis,
heartened, yet they worked manfully
and disputed the ground inch by inch.
Over the furniture which strewed the
streets all went running in the widest
confusion, each person bent only on
saving himself and family and caring
nothing for his neiShbor Many in their
wild endeavOrs to escape were knocked
down and trampledupon, and some even
killed. Many cartmen and draymen
naturally strove to their utmost to save
their horses. But in eases Of fire horses
seem to lose all the instinct which under
ordinary circumstances would save them
from danger, and stand stock still in
their stables, their tanks and sides shak-
ing in the agony of terror, and utterly
refuse to be driven from their stables
which, poor beasts, they have always
considered their place Of safety where
no harm can reach them. Or this NV
ful night, above even the roar of the
flames and the crash of falling timbers,
could he heard the shrieks Of the horses
ringing out in the night air They
would not be driven away, but, stcpefed
with fear, fell down in their stables and
were roasted alive, and the Sickening od0r
of burning flesh was added to the indie
scribable and nauSeating odor which &c.
companies burning buildings when water
has been sLowered upon them.
A spectator, citizen Of Chicago, in
describing til, scene, says: We could
think of nothing else but hell. The
flames in some places like huge waves,
daehingto and fro, leaping up and down,
turning and twisting, aud pouring now
and then great column OF smoke and
hundreds of feet in the air, like solid
perpendicular shaft of molten metal.
In other places it would dart out in long
streaks like mammoth anacondas, with
kissing, fiery tongues. Then the SER
pentine shapes would stoop down over
the blazing path into the yet unburnt
buildings, which seemed pierced and
kindled instantlneously. There were
also pillows Of flame that rolled along
like water, submer9ing everything in its
course. Now and then as some eNplo-
sive material was consumed, the place
would seem like the crater of vast vol.
cmo, pufts of smoke and flashes of
light and millions of sparks and cinders
scattered in every direction. Sometimes
the air would be full of them, and gusts
of wind wonld float them hithcr and
thither like 1locks of fire-birds. Occa-
sionally there were cinders of more
than two feet in length. Showers OF
these were falling-actually raining
down everywhere. Our faces were stung,
and our clothing now and then set on
fire, until we got wet umbrellas and held
them ms shields over us. There was q
terrible fascination in gazing upon the
scene. 1t was unearthly, hideous, ter
rife. Our eyes seemed riyeted so that
we could not withdraw them. There
were miles Of fire, mountains of flame,
waves of light, flashes, clouds, brilliant
scintillations. With the aid Of glasses
we could see the streets thronged with
people flying for their lives Children
were carried, screaming with terror,
women were shriek1nG, men shouting,
and all running We saw some old
and sick and helpless carried on stretch
ers-some apparently dementei or stu
petied were dragged along. Close to
their heels, in hot pursuit, came the
belching, roaring cracking flames. In
some places they actually advanced as
fast as a mau ran. The most awful OF
all was the thunderous roar that seemed
to roll upward and outward from the
centre of the huge holocaust; now there
would be report like the boom of dis.
tant guns, again came swapping like
the rafting of musketry Horses rushed
like maniacs through the streets. One
splendid team, attached to n coach, rem
over the Van Buren, street bridge, which
had been chaTed and weakened Just as
the mad horses had passed the centre il
gave land they plunged down through
the lurid glare into the scarlet river be
low.
Any attempt at description Of the ap
palling scenes Of this direiul calamity
would be idle. The simple fact that tue
once great city of Chicago is nearly de
stroyed, that hundreds of millions o.
active capital have vanished, and that
an immense number of Chicago's in
habitants are houseless, is enough. Any
attempt to embelIsh would be n mock
cry.
1t is gratifying to notice that ever,
city OF the Union, as soon as it wa
known to what fearful extent the peopl,
of Chicago suffered, lat once took measures
for their relief Hundreds of thousand
of dollars, provisions of all kinds, cloth