Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-10-12

| burned with all its contents. All tho
gram elevators on the north side and one
OF the-eievators belonging to the Illinois
Central Railroad were DESTROYED with
tnsr contents. What an amount of col
lateral security was furnished by all these
| establishments, on which money has been
loaned by the banks! These securities
may all have been burned; if not they
VIII be made worthless by tie failure of
the Insurance companies. Vast compli-
cations and embarrassment must ensue in
| a thousand ways. Such an amount of
property can never be annihilated without
sucftsa result. As we write great coal
heaps are yet burning holly, and all over
| the burnt district, amidst the smouldering
ruins of the great buildings, the debris
| and half burned rubbish continues to burn.
| and will likely do so for weeks. During
last night light rain fell, sufficient, how
ever, to wet the roofs of buildings and
| other combustible materiel, so that it
gives general feeling of relief, as to the
apprehensions that were felt as to further
| conf1agrations. Late yesterday afternoon
some fiends, in human shape, were detect
cd in the act of setting fire 60 the dry and
parched prairie to the windwaid of the
great mass of buildings yet untouched, on
the West Side. These miscreant were
promptly arrested and taken to one of
the police stations There was strong
feeling in favor of lynch law in their
cases.
About s O'Clock yesterday evening,
servant girl. who had been discharged
from service, set fire to barn on Burn
side street, near Thirtieth The posse
turned out en- naasse and quickly extin
guished this fire by tearing the building
down. 1t was with diff Guilty that the
girl vas saved from the lynching process,
SO excited were the people.
But how humanity suffers and must suf.
fer in consequence of this visitation. We
would gladly leave the recital of the har-
rowing scenes that are now witnessed,
particularly on the north side, to other
hands. But charity even requires that
appeal be made for prompt relief Thou
sands and thousands of women and chill
dren are lying around in that part of the
city without shelter, food, or sufficient
raiment Many, we understand, lived
through the day yesterday driven from
point to point in keeping out of the way
of the flames, and having no food of any
kind during the day Let every loaf of
bread be sent that any family can spare
no time to be lost, for thousands of these
people are, without doubt, in state Dor
dering on actual starvation, in this land
Of abundance and plenty.
DETAILS.
The extent of the fire covers 1000
acres of ground. At two O'Clock in the
afternoon of yesterday, the heat of the
burning below Monroe street was intense,
and added to the flames that everywhere
shot up from the Nicholson pavement.
was sitting in the extreme The streets
were SO hot that a person who had the
hardihood to venture upon them was
obliged to run to prevent burning his feet,
and this must be done without breathing,
as he air was SO torrid as to endanger
life if taken into the lungs.
FREMONT HOUSE.
Our reporter was on the ground be- |
tween the Ereaing journal Office ard the
fremont House, about half past three. !
At that point the only walls that could be |
seen standing were the corner walls of
the Court House-and when the wind !
lifted the smoke-the corner walls of the |
Post Office and Farwell Hall building, not
human being was in sight at this point,
and it seemed as if the end of all things
was at hand. The stones in the street
were SO hot that no one could stand still
for an instant, and at times the smoke was
binding and the wind, like hot sirocco,
obliged the spectator to cover his face to
preserve his eyes
Our reporter went south to Washing
ton street when he met an old resident of
Chicago who enquired where he was
And SO perfectly were all landmarks
obliterated that it was only by keeping the
closest watch that one was enabled to as
certain his whereabouts.
WASHINGTON STREET WEST.
Down Washington street towards the
river the scene was appalling and no
words can depict the horror of the ap-
pearance of the street. The walks were
covered with fallen walls which on both
sides extended 70 nearly the middle of the
street-and iron pillars and posts stood
as blackened monuments to mark the
buried glories of proud Chicago. The
only spot that was not blackened by fire
IS on the southwest corner of LaSalle and
Washington streets, where the Union Ma
tional Bank building stood, which was
! blown up by order Of Gen. P H. Sheridan
i'll the vain hope CT checking the flames.
THE COURT HOUSE
The flames shot their fiery tongues
across, in spite of these precautions, and
fastened upon the cupola of the Court
| House, and in less than twenty minutes
after the flames touched the bell tower,
the building fell in with a terrible crash
burying in the ruins all the records of
Cook County which are hopelessly lost
The walls Of the old building fell in and
nothing now stands to mark the location
of that building except the four corners of
the wings. 1t is reported that 70 prison
ers persisted in the flames
LA SALE STREET
Standing at the corner of Washington
street and looking south through the
smoke, glimpses could be caught of two
or three corner walls which were supposed
to be Bryan's block One of the most
total wrecks in this locality was the Com
mercial building. On the north side no
building was distinguishable, as the
smoke from the burning buildings swept
across and obscured everything
STATE STREET.
] On Washington east to State street, the
same scene everywhere presented itself