The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-10-20

| Oh nOScOW DtlTtleu over space OF NJ
acres, and destroyed 12,OO0 house.
The great fire of Chicago laid vast
over 1 800 acres, upwards oils, ,O00build
ings, and rendered about s., 900 person
homeless.
AS 70 pecuniary loss, no fire whicI
ever Occurredsin the world has bee
attended with that suffered by Chi
caSO, and in no other city was ther
such an amount of valuable merchan
disc or so many expensive building
destroyed. Most of our merchant
had received their winter stocks q
goods, none of which they were abb
to save. The loss i'm merchandise alOn,
at this last conflagration, will he dou
bic that suffered by London and Mos
COW combined.
The great calamity which has falleI
upon our city, as overwhelming as i
is, has not broken the spirit of Oul
| citizens.
With heroic courage the people a
present, not thinking of their OWL
losses, are everywhere setting to work
To relieve the distress of others. Mil.
| waukee, St. Louis, Detroit, Toledo
in fact every village and city within
| reach, have already come to our relief
with generosity and promtitude, the
memory of which will ever be treasur-
ed i'm the grateful memories of ALL
But, we repeat, the great heart OF
Chicago is not broken, nor her spirit
of enterprise crushed. She will arise
from her ashes. with an energy which
will eclipse all her former efforts, and
speedily regain her former position.
REAL ESTATE TITLES.
All the records of deeds and mort
cages are destroyed. This includes all
the real estate, not only in Chicago,
but in Cook county, with its numerous
suburban towns. Fortunately The alb
stracts of titles. ia the Office of ShOr-
tall & Hoard, conveyancers, are
known to be safe. There is s. great
hope that when the vaults are opened
at the other abstract offices, the record
books which are intended to be copies
of every real estate transfer in the
country are safe. There are several
of them, and it would be strange if
some of them, beside the one already
examined, are not safe. A leading
member Of the Chicago lar gives il az
his opinion that the title to all the
property in the country can be rc-cs-
tablished by means of these abstracts.
The Legislature will probably pass
some enabling act 10 cover the case. AS
to the value of real estate, il is now en-
tircly indeterminate, because it is
impossible 10 deyine where the future
business will he. The latter will de-
pend upon the location selected hy the
leading business houses, which are
already i'll consultation.
LAWYERS
As n specimen of what the legal
profession of this city has lost, we may
state that General III. y. Eldridgc. of
the firm of Eldridge & TOurtelotte, the
attorneys for Field, Letter & Co., lost
all his papers, no; Il scrap left, after
having practiced law for fourteen
years in chicago, and in the same
office. There is not Il law Office nor a
law library left in Chicago, except Il
few small duplicate libraries; at the
residences of the lending lawyers,
There is not n paper showing that
there is suit pending i'm any of the
six courts of record in Cook county,
the Federal Court. There
is not an indictment in existence in
the county against anyone, not a
not a petition in bankrupt
cy in the Federal courts. Even the
duplicate files that the lawyers kept
in their Offices of important cases are
all gone. A few may have escaped
by being taken 20 the houses for Sum
day or night work. We may add
tha; there are in Chicago about five
hundred lawyers.
RATTLE OF GETTYsAURG."
Rotherincl's great historical paint |
ing, "The Battle of Gettysburg was
in the Academy OF Design,
together with other valuable paintings |
and works of sculpture.
YOSEMITE.
Bicrstadt's great painting, the Tose-
mite Valley, was in the Art-Gallery, |
Crosby's Opera-house, and was not,
50 far as we can learn, saved.
HORRIBLE.
News have been received at the
Post-of,ice that the bodies Of thirty
poor refugees are lying on the prairie,
, few miles west of the city. The un-
fortunate5 most of whom are women
md children, died from prolonged
hunger and exposure. Teams with
&c, are being sent out TO
hose who are not yet beyond the
reach of aid.
LOSS OF LIFE.
Cincinnati Commercially
The loss of life during the conila-
grafton is subject upon which the
newspaper reporters have been able 10
Gather very little definite information.
The city editor Ofthe Tribune says
hat at least one hundred persons
were bIrDed on the Rush-strect |
bridge, whittier they ran from the
rooms of the Chicago Historical So
ciety, supposed to he fire-proOf. Many
were doubtless overtaken asleep in
their rooms by the flames that leapcd
Dn the wings of the gale, awakening
and killing them at the same instant /
by miraculous shafts of fire.
fiat or. 81, lonely dodgers in the |
upper stories of Cincinnati should |
hear an alarm of fire, examine the !
card, and find the locality two miles
away, they would retire To their bian-
Ilets reasonably certain Of safety. And
yet, in Chicago, men who lodged two
miles from the first building that
burned late in the evening, persisted |
in their beds before daylight. They |
were witherc.l into ashes at n single |
atroke. Doubtless numbers of deli |
rate and aged persons have perishcd
from cold and eXcitmcut- Amid the |
confusion Of the moment |
the facts in this regard are very nard |
To run down. In fire like this the |
list of the missing unknown can never |
he made out. Wild rlImors prevail
also in regard to the iynching of ill.,
Misunderstanding definite has been
obtained OF that subject. The destruc-
tion is so complete in the burned terri |
tory that wreckers and prowlers are |
left without the slightest occupation.
There is nothing to steal except red |
hot safes, buried under ruins-pOssi-
bly, not many of them.
From correspondence of yesterdays Gin |
cionati Gazette.
WHERE ARETHE PEOPLE?
Ten square miles of homes and
houses i'm ashes. Only think of il. |
Suppose the squares are 400 feet to the
side. This will give nearly four acres
to the square, allowing for streets and
alleys. There are 1890 such squares
in ten miles. Say there are fifty
houses to the square, and you have
81, 900 houses destroyed. But in this
case it must be remembered there are
arge lumber yards, numerous and
arge hotels, and business houses, and
,ther cdificcs not occupied by families.
It furnishes some data for an estimate
IF the number of families made home
ess, nevertheless.
)NE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND