Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1871-12-14
A Lecture Oh Fire.

A Lecture Oh Fire.
Mr. S. S. Cox, of New York, delivered lee
ture at Cooper Institute, on Friday evening
last, in aid of the Odd Fellows of Chicago
We make some interesting extracts:
The modern chemist has declared that there
is no such thing as fire; that it is only the COM
material universe However this may be, one
thing is sure, that the sun, the chief source OF
our light and heat, is an incandeSccnt mass OF
fire, consuming and Illuminating, and that the
universe would be an engine without force if it
lacked fire. The iron. magnesia, silver, and
what not Of the chemists terminoogy, which
burn in waves Of stupendous unresting and in-
etlble brllllancy lG our central orb, are closely
akin to the flint spark by which the savage
lights his pipe, or which is struck from the iron
shod hoof of the horse upon the stone.
nous glaciers of Greenland, as well as the vol
cano of VesuvuS, or the geysers of California,
are instinct with fire. The belt Of Orion and
the comet Of Eucke, the ring Of Saturn and
the furtherest star "piDnaced dim in the in
tense iuane' of the inter-steler spaces are vital
with that mysterious force which cooks for Del
monco and consumes Chicago.
The Stag, lava and trap Of the volcano buried
Herculaneum by the same processes by which
she cinders are heaped under your CRATE. The
power which has made valleys and mountains,
upheaved aud depressed our globe, is the same
which hurs the meteroric bomb through the
summer night and makes the tea kettle boil
for Watts invention and Biddy's delight. The
rosy fingers Of Aurora, of which Homer so
often sings, are tinged with this subtle flame;
but it is the same flame in another form which
paints the carnation, adds hue to the violet,
gives color to the ruby, makes the diamond
Shine on the breast of Matilda Jane and paints
her cheeks with bushes when John William
Henry jnges the door bell. 1t enables the
photographer to cast the exact features of tie
human torm, divine Or ugly; and it enables the
scientist to determine by the spectrum the
color which indicates the passing of iron into
steel iu the big BesSamer retort, and the ma
ture of the substances in the distant stars By
the aid of the vapor it creates from water it
drives the steamer over oceans. tunnels noun
tains, mines for gold and silver within the sun
less chambers of the earth. fires the mtrallle
use, and dives for the relics Of old wrecks and
the wonders Of the sea.
But thugs are as we use them. A pound
of beefsteak has enough prussic acid in it to
kill ten men. Y GU may sweeten your tea with
sugar drawn from the bung of the vinegar bar
rel Out of the black muck the rose of Persia
and the lilies of Sharon grow, and Solomon
has no apparel so inwoven with hue and light.
What a blessing, what curse, is this element,
whose ravageS in the Prairie City we come here
tonight to mitigate.
What drives that train?' said Stephenson,
the inventor of the locomotive. well, is it
not one Of your big engines? Aye. but
what drives the engine - "Oh, very likely
canny Newcastle driver" "What do you say
to the light of the SUI p ''How?' asked the
friend 1T is nothing else" said the eugt-
neer. 1T is light bottled up in the earth tor
tens of thousands of years-light absorbed by
plants and vegetables, being necessary tor the
condensation of carbon during the process of
their growth and now after being buried IN
the Garth for long ages, in fields OF coal, that
latent light is again brought forth aud liberated
by fire. to work as in that locomotive tor great
human purposes.
What marvellous recuperatlve power there
is in this American race Of ours. | was in the
Sierra Nevada last summer, at the town OF
Truckee; or to be more particular, while there
political meeting was held at night; [ will
not mention of what party. Suffice 1t that
was on platform, built over a big boulder
which was half out of the ground. The orator
was in the act of sending up the American bird,
when the cry Of Fire - dissolved the meeting
aud startled the town. AS it was the third
time it had been burned in a year, the popua.
ton knew their fato. At midnight | retreated
to Donner lake. But returning next evening,
| found already some pitch-pine shantles and
canvas back houses built amid the ashes. On
one there was a sign out in garing letters Ice
cream for sale.
So in Chicago, there is similar spirit of
recuperaton. 1t is the offspring of our Amer
ican institutions, an elasticity which suffers no
disaster to repress its enterprise. 1t lights the
chances of life, and the changes of time not on
" with courage, but with heartiness. 1t Is
called by an English journal, the indifference,
easineSs, huidty of being peculiar to this coun.s
ty which, if it does not amount to herolSm OF
stoicsm, is very near skin to it. 10 illustrate
When yellow fever was decimatipg New Or
leans, waiter at the St. Charles Hotel ruShes
to the office and exclaims, 'Cofin for 2l, gin
cocktail ior %" Clerk: Cocktail for %, cot-
fin can wait" So in Chicago; merchant hast
ening to lis house and home, meets friend.
What news?'' House burned; wife safe at
fathers, babies all right" "All right re-
spends the American man, and he goes to work
rebuilding.
1t is under this supreme law of the American
mind-call it what you wil-that the future
and safer, if not better, Chicago will rise. 1t
will rise all the more rependent like the tabled
city, because of the music of the human heart,
which throbs with it in sympathy. Like Mon
treal, which grew greater out of her great fire,
like New York in 1885, like the London OF
1866, it will rise more substantial and grander
than ever.