Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-11
ORCESTER.
WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER IL, 1871.



Chicago's affection has not yet reached its eli
max. The fire once cxtnguished has been re-
kinded, and the flames have devoured a great
number Of the most costly dwellings in that
part of the city which the first conAagration
had spared. The revulsion of feeling must have
been sickening when the over-wearied men and
women, whose mental and physical energies had
been taxed to the utmost, found that, instead Of
the rest they craved terror and anxiety had
come upon them with renewed force.
Although the magnitude of their calamity
cannot be adequately conceived by the aid OF
the fullest details and the most graphic de-
scrptons, it is possible to ovcrstate the figures
which express some of its consequences, and
this has undoubtedly been done, naturally
enough, amid the mental excitement and con-
fusion which such events must create. For in
stance it is stated in the dispatches received
last evening that one hundred thousand per-
sons engaged in mercantile business are de-
prived of employment. The whole population
of the city by the last census was less than
three hundred thousand, and it is manifestly
impossibIe that one-third of them were directly
EMPLOYED in mercantile business. OF the same
character is the assertion, also telegraphed, that
not less than ten thousand wealthy men
had been reduced to perjury. This could
not to be true, even if all the rich men had be-
come pennilcss, for in no city is the wealth so
great or so evenly distributed that in each thir-
" individuals of the whole population there is
one rich man. 1t is not important to correct
these errors, but we mention them only as a
suggestion that, enormous as the calamity is
beyond all our power to realize it, some of the
details may be overdrawn. The amount of
physical suffering from destituton, ia
tigue, exposure, wounds and death, of
mental terror, anxiety and despair, at the
loss of friends and from seeing the fruits of
lifelong labor vanish in an hour, and the fair
prospects of comfort and prosperity botted out
forever, cannot be exaggerated nor even pic
tured by the most vigorous imagination, with
any approach to adequacy.
The only thing which could have added to the
horrors settling down upon the doomed city was
the rapine and violence OF the rufians who prey
upon the mislortuneS of their fellow-men. 1t
has often been observed that devastating fire,
pcstilence, or any other overwhelming disaster
which for the time DISCREPANCIES society, is accom-
panied by an outbreak of the vilest classes, who
relieved from restraint, are stimulated to wilder
license by the spectacle of misery and helpless
ness around them. This addition to her wretched-
ness it seemed by the earlier accounts Chicago
had escaped. The dispatches declared that there
were no robberies nor crimes of any kind, but
even the dangerous ruffians, of which every
great city has its share, and Chicago probably
oil bo
into decency by the appalling magnitude of the
disaster. But the dispatches received last night
tell different story. There were men so incon-
ceyably depraved as wantonly to help the work
ofdestruction. When the fire was extinguished
and men worn out with intense labor
and anxiety trusted that at last the end of
this terrible visitation had come, these wretches
rekindled the flames, sending ruin to sections of
the city which the elements had spared. They
could have had no other motive than mere wan
ton delight IN the terror and misery of their
victims. The savage, who fortunes his prison.
ers with fendish ingenuity, is estimable COM
pared with these miscreants. 1t is needless to
say what fate befell those of them who were
caught at this internal work. Courts and juries
will not be troubled with them. There was no
opportunity, amid the universal panic, and the
memorable strain imposed upon everybody's en-
ergies, for formal arrests, and, if there had
been, executions more prompt than those or
dered by Judge Lynch, would seem the only
fitting method of expressing the horror such a
crime demands.
The prompt Hberality which moves all hearts
TO relieve, SO far as material aid can do it, the
suffering of the destitute and homeless citizens,
is the only redeeming feature in the tale of Ca
lamity with which the columns of all the papers
are filed. Aid in the forms most needed and
in liberal quantity, has already been furnished
by the cities nearer to the scene of suffering
but there need be no fear that our contributions
Will be supeIfluous. The wants of a hundred
thousand people, without food, clothing or shell
ter, are not easily appeased, and it will be some
time before they can begin to provide for them
selves. Worcester is not apt to be lacking in
good works. We are already late in responding
to the calls upon our charity. Let the response
make up in heartiness and abundance for its
delay.