Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-11-17
BRET HARTE.
THE NIGHT slDE OF CrIICA-
GO.
From the Special CORRESPONDENT of the
Tribune.l

From the Special CORRESPONDENT of the
Tribune.l
OCT 14.-The town is beginning to
| fill with aesthetic sight-seers. The ar
fists of the illustrated papers are seat
ed at every cOign of vantage, sketch
| ing for dear life against the closing of
the mail. Photographers, alarmed 10y
the prospect of speedy reconstruction,
| are training their cameras upon every
unprotected point of picturesque ruin.
They are sure of a ready sale of all the
shadows they seize in these days.
There has rarely heen offered to the
plying administration of men col
lection of pictures of more poignant
beauty. II one could divest himself
of all feelings of sympathy and pain
he could gaiu from these smoking
squares the finest intellectual enjoy
ment. MOnotOnouS rs the gray
stretch of desOlation appears at first,
the longer you look and linger the
more this uniformity of character and
color breaks up and reveals 10 you all
finite study of lines and forms. OF
course, these ruins lack the consccra-
tion which has come with the course
of ages To the spliutered mOnOlithe of
Thebe and the gnawed plinths of
Paestum. But is there not an equal
if not greater human interest in sur
veying these brand-Hew charIls of
great city, and .ref15cting that the
builders do not hide from our sympa-
thics i'm the mists of immemOrial
time. but to-day live and breathe,
think the same thoughts which found
expression in these broken walls and
melted columns, eat and drink and love
and grieve and hole, AID go on with
work kindred to that which has row
suddenly taken its place in the Past?
Every one who has looked upon ruins
has felt the keen, imperious desire to
know what manner of men it was that
built them and looked upon them
when they were fresh in the sunshine
of those older days. Half the joy and
half the pain OF travel is i'm this vain
imagining. But here you look at these
imposing wrecks, still Titanic and
mo impressive i'm a decay that 81
ready seems historical, and you reflect
with a'sudden feeling of surprise that
you know 10y heart the sermon they
are preaching. You are yourself a
parfaof the life they symbOlize, of the
civilization which they express. You
have heard the prayers and the Oaths,
the laughter and the cries, to the SQUAD
of which those walls went up. There
is no unknown quantity in The prob
lem they present. There it is-make
of il what you will. If you come to
nothing. do not blame time or history
for the dust that is in your eyes.
Strulling through the town i'm the
DAYTIME, you see that it must have
heen heat of singular intnsity that
melted down six miles Of brick and
mortar 50 soGn into one undistin
guishabIe mass. 1t took orly about
twelve hours to virtually finish the
work; all that was done after that,
was the aftermath of The flame gleam-
ing about the edges of the field it had
reaped. But there has never been a
fire which so completely attended to
its business and slighted no part of its
work 1t seems like mere figure of
speech to speak of quarter utterly
destroyed. The phrase is always used
about great fires, but usually means
that all the houses are more or less
damaged. In this case it is literally
true. Most of the houses are level
heaps OF calcined building material.
The walls of the CustOm-HOuse are
still standing; the COurt-House wings
refuse to fall. The fire-proOf Tribune
disdans surrender. though only a
phantom house. 4 few heavily but
tressed church towers wait also for the
hammer of demolition. But with
these exceptions, the central region of
Chicago has ceased to exist. You can
look through it to the far-Off waste of
the North Division. III many places
the solid granite has cracked and peel
cd in great flakes, like stucco in the
the frost. The iron castings are paI tly
melted and partly twisted into forms
of startling grotesqueness. lhave seen
huted columns, bell wires, gas and
water pipes, wreathed and twisted
among the smolderiug ashes of a Gel
lar like coil of snakes of assorted
sizes. Even the pretty gratings of the
Safe Deposit Company, the best pre-
served of all, are fearfully warped and
bent. like character which has re-
sisted tenlptatien-witha a woeful loss of
temper. ~ sAt& tA FU
These details we have been permit
| ted To see for some days; for although
the prOlirietuIs are eager to begin their
work of reconstruction, the lack of
water has thus far made it impossible
to quench the smoldering flames
so that Il light simmer of the brood
ing heat hangs all day above the rub
biSh aud the air is full of pungent
Odor Goals. When nighL comes a
strange beautiful transformation
is wrought in the scene. Every even
| ing since I have been here i have
watched with increasing interest this
marvellous and fascinating change.
As:he sun goes down in the prairie.
and the night wind comes i'm from the
Lake this sleeping fire rouses and stirs
in its sIiunber Ike woman who
shakes off the days decorum, and
fiushes at the coming of her lover
The vast ignited eoal-beds on the 81 orr
of the river throw red greetings to
each other through the gathering shad-
ows. The darkness slowly walls the
lines of shattered walls, and one 10y
one through the gloom twinkle out the
\ delicate Llue flames that sIr.ng from
the anthracite coai-boxes OF the burn
ed mansions. They are SO blue. and
fine, and fragile, that they seem like
forget-me-nots gemming the dusky
field. They are very persistent,
though. They have been pouring
tons OF water through the sidewalk
upon one small deposit. in front Of