The Placer herald., 1871-10-14
TIE ULEAT FIRE IN CHICAGO.

for some forty-eight hours The heart 0
I the city for distance Of three miles in lengtl
and over a mile in width lies in smoulderine
ruins. $3.50, 200, 900 worth Of property il
ashes, and 100, coo people houseless, home.
less and utterly destitute, is the brief story
of Chicago, the great city Of the Northwest
No pen can describe the narrowing scenes
that must have accompanied this desolation
of homes and destruction Of property by the
fre-fend. One dispatch says:
! None but an eye witness can form an idea Of
the fury and power Of the fre-fend, as hereveled
among the palatal buildings and warehouses Oh
the south side with the wind blowing hurri-
cane. At times it seemed but the work Of a
moment for the fire to enter the south ends Of
buildings fronting on Randolph, Lake and Water
streets and reappear at the north doors and win
dows, belching forth in fierce flames, which often
licked the opposite buildings, and then the
flames, belching from buildings on both sides Of
the street, would unite and present solid mass
of fire, completely filing the street from side to
side and shooting upward hundred feet into the
air above the housetops in their mad career; and
thus was street after street filed with fame and
fire, and the oxultation of the fre-hend was
given vent to in q roar which can only be equal
ed by combining the noise Of the ocean when its
waters arc driven during tempest upon a rocky
beach with the howl Of the blast. High walls
would topple and fall into the sea Of fire without
apparently giving a sound as the roar Of the
fiery element was so great that al the minor
sounds were swallowed up, and the fall of walls
was only percephble to the eye and not to the
car.
II our readers will recall to their minds the
fercest snowstorm in their experience and imag-
inc the snow to be fire, as it surged hither and
thither before the fury Of the fend, they will be
able to form faint conception OF the flames as
they ragged through the streets Of our doomed
city, Many Of the buildings along South Water
street buried their red-hot rearw walls in the waters
Of the river into which they plunged with hiss
like unto nothing earthly, throwing up billow
.oi water which would gradually s'',--..,i,e until
another wall would follow, Tine heat was so in
tense at fins from Some Of tho burning builG-
ings that they could not be approached within
one hundred and Gfty feet, which accounts for
The manner in which tho fire worked back and
often against the wind.
Tho FIRE after reaching the business part Of
Randolph and South Water streets, leaped the
river into the the north side in an incredibly
short space of time and thence among the wood
en- buildings on that side, it reached the lake
shore, after touching block after block of happy
dwellings, with its fierce blast a scene OF more
poweress effort to fight all enemy was never
presented than that OF the people trying to com
bat the firc-iepd; and the combat was not OF long
DURATION for the people bowed their heads IL
anguish of spirit and suffered the fend to
have untrnainoled run: and well and thoroughly
has he done his work. And as nothing Of the
past history Of civilized nations chronicles any
efforts to which this present one can be compared
so in all future time the great Chicago fire, when
mentioned will bring to the heart Of its partici-
pants pang of angush-to future generations a
s1nile of everything that is fearful and terrible
All business and work is suspended and every
one is intent on securing, first, something to eat
next, shelter. The suffering on the north side is
heartrending. Men, women and children-50- =
wild animals, and in another place 1900 Ger
mans and Irish praying for refef' Helpless
children are asking for bread; heart broken pa
rents, who know not which way to turn, or what
to say, with nothing to do but await the distrbu-
ton of supplies which at best must be slow
proceeding us there are parts of the burnt dis
trict over which it is almost impossible to travel
h Obi
who have been aroused from beds of sickness to
save lives that at best nearly spent; all were
exposed to the rain of last night and the cold, raw
winds of to-day Several deaths have occurred
in Lincoln Park and three women have brought
children into the world only to die There are
people who in the bitterness of their souls aseribe
the calamity to Gods judgement German
said to me- This is a second Sodom and Go
morrah, and the curse is on it." Another night
must be spent in Lincoln Park and the brick
fields at Division street, and yet another and
another Each train and the extras are loaded to
their fullest capacity, taking people away who in
many instances have no place to go, yet can't
stay here and every train is obliged to leave five
times as many as they take. Every precaution
is being taken by the authorities to guard the
people tonight, and if morning comes without
robberes, murders, or n renewal of the fires
then all will thank God and go forward with
courage. Meetings OF citizens on the west and
south sides will be kept up the rest of the night.
An immense number of people are missing, and
for the purpose of aiding in the discovery of the
missing ones a central intelligence Office has
been established, where the names OF all the mis-
sing ones are given to the police.
In this terrible condition of things the
better elements of human nature came to
the surface and gave joy, and hope and re-
lief to the afflicted people of Chicago. Fire
men and engines poured into the city from
Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Buffalo
and other cities, followed by kilograms Of
food, clothing. tents, bedding and money on
the way from every point of the compass,
A erac;ol train arrived from Cincinnati