Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-10-18
For Inc JOufnhI.
The Destruction Of Chicago.
rnE nrsroN.E rnon nosros.

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many dear friends Of ours having located there,
we were kept well posted by visits to them and
from them, and by their letters, to how it look
cd and what wonderful progress it was making
We little thought then that, because Of our many
friends located there, we should feel constrained
10 stop before we concluded our trip and
talk about Chicago. But nevertheless such is
the case Thinking Of the appalling calamity
that has come upon them, and that has laid waste
the city of their adoption thinking too that
perhaps as we are writing, homeless and house
les, dependent upon the charity OF government
for shelter, and the generosity OF neighboring |
cities for bread they aud their little children may
be tenting amid the blackoned ruins Of their once |
happy homes or out upon the prairie under the
chccrccss chill, uutumnal sky we feel that YOU |
will have as little heart 10 read a letter upon |
" the night on the road as we have TO write it |
All that we can think or read about is the Night |
that has come down upon the doomed city of the |
prairie and the lake and what write you
this time shall concern itself with the effect this |
night" had upon this city and its people
At this time, all that we know here is that out
Of the midst Of the city, an area four miles long
by about two in width, is in ashes that this area
comprises the city with its stores its public |
buildings. its churches It's depots its hotels, its
luniber yards, It's best residences while what il |
left is merely suburbs that its wealthiest citi-
zens are penniless, with nothing 10 eat and no
where to lay their heads that aged. sick dccrcp-
id men and womcn-oycn women in the agony of
travail, -all are suffering and dying, with the
fall rain coming down and the autumn winds
blowing upon them. "God have mercy upon
them, is the cry that goes up from every heart
in this city, while from every house to the places
for deposit goes food and clothing and money in
answer TO the prayer Never, since the assassi-
nation Of President Lincoln, has anything hap
pcncd that so reused the feelings Of our citizens
The whole city is in mourning there is hush
over every mart there is gloom upon every
street there is sadness upon every face, and a
groan in every heart. 1t is felt that the greatest
calamity that has ever boilllen peaceful commu-
nifty, has come % this fair sister city-the queen
city Of the Republic The great fire in London
I in 1865, about which we have all read with such
keen appreciation Of is horrors and its dire ter
rors, sinks into comparative unsignhcance beside
this. For that fire burned over space not so
great a. this by over half while the property do
stroyed amounted in value to less than one-sxth
Of what has been swallowed up by the fire Gend
in Chicago. But the memory Of that fire yet
sends a shudder through every city that turns it,
thought upon it, though 80 distant in time aud
space from US Of this age and land. Now we ave
looking upon a more appalling calamity, sent
upon a city of our own time and country The
only alleyiating circumstance in this case, com
pared to the fire Of two hundred years ago is the
greater facility By which aid and sympathy can
reach the sufferers Even while the flames are
eating their way through their streets, they know
that aid is coming to them as fast as the wings of
steam can bear il. While cooking their food
/ upon curbstones, or pillowing their shelterless
heads upon the prairie turf, or dividing crack
er between their crying children, the telegraph
whispers to them that every father and mother
in Boston feels for them, and every table is spar
ing Of It's yands and every wardrobe of its cloth
ing, that their hunger may be satisfied and their
nakedness clothed. They hear it, voice tell them
that it could transpire that the whole one hun
bred and fifty thousand homeless ones could be in
this city tonight, lis every home would throw
wide its doors 70 welcome to its warm hearth
stone and genial board the stricken and afflicted
All, this voice must be to them an earnest Of the
fact that God has not iorsaken them that lie
loves them and cares for them now in their ad-
yersity as lie never did love and care for them in
their prosperity, and that like as His children
f help them in temporal things He will send them
spiritual aidand cheer, that they may take new
heart, rise up out Of their calamity better and
noberpeope, to build stronger more enduring
iairer city, and build it in calmer, humber, more
self contained manner than before.
And are not Ills children, their brothers and
sisters, helping them in temporal things2 In all
the history Of this city the parallel Of the present
has never been witnessed ] attended the meet
ing of the citizens in Faneuil Hall, and | have
} walked through the halls and churches where
supplies are being collected for the sufferers and
such meeting never attended, and never ex-
, pect to attend again and such a sight as the
halls and churches present never have seen, and
: | hope never to see the occasion happening that
; will call for its representing. Shall give you
, meagre description Of the meeting and the sight
| say meagre, for like all great events and scenes
events and scenes Of infinite Neutrality-suspicious.
description tranocends the power of the most fer
tile brain.
Boston of a Monday morning hears that Chi
: cago is burning down. IL listens, ineredulous ;
it cannot believe such horror can happen but
dispatch after dispatch confrmatory Of the first,
orces it to belief. Monday night passes Tues
, day morning comes, and with ii comes fresh and
more terrible tidings from the doomed city. The
: worst fears are more than realized. "What can
? Boston do ~ is asked by ALL To Faneuil Hall
and let us counsel together, is the universal cry
and to the old Cradle, not alone of liberty, but
many movement that has meant the good and
; the relief of suffering man, all male Boston goes,
though it is twelve Of the clock of one of its bust
D est days. And there assembled merchants from
Pearl, Water, Milk and Washington streets /;
officials from the City Hall, the Court and Gus.
! tom Houses; ministers from the North, the South,
1 the East and West ends what next? The in
terohange OF anxious inquiries the gaze Of tear
iul eyes into othereyes equally fearful the utter
ance OF tremulous words from hearts too full for
utterance, feeling for the friends that may be per-
ishing in the flames, or rushing through the
streets out upon the lonely prairie. Now the
mayor mounts the platform. Hank what says he Z?
! " Fellow citizens a dispatch just received tells
us that a great rain last night extinguished the
fire, and part of Chicago is saved" "Hur-
/ rah Hurrah Hurrah !" responds Boston
/ But, fellow citizens, in that city those who
, were millionares yesterday, are beggars to-day
their wives and children are shelterless and fam.
: ishing Tor want OF food, and dying for want of
, covering to protect them from the pouring rain
} and the raging gale. Boston must send them at
once food and ament, money and shelter y
" We will ~ responds Boston.
linen Mr. Rice, President of tho board of trade
parelleis as best he can the calamity that has
come upon Chicago by telling that it was as if a
nre' breaking out upon Long wharf, should sweep
> through where they were standing to Hanover
street upon the right, Essex street upon the left
straight on to Beacon street, and across the Back
BAY clear down to the foot of Commonwealth
Avenue Hearing this, Boston shuddcrs. It'll
Oeglns to comprehend the situation, and getting
!