Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-10-26
The Chicago Fire Contrasted
with other Great Confagra-
tiOnS.

greatest calumities that have fallen to the
passed. But they will serve to form some
estimate when compared with the present
visitation in our sister city, and for this
purpose we take advantage of the follow
ing compilation from the st. Louis Demo
crdt 1t says that the London fire, to
which frequent reference has been made
within few days, commenced in bake
shop on the night of the I'd of September,
1866 1t lasted four days and four nights,
and in that time it reduced to ashes five
sixths of the whole city. The ruins COW
cred space more than mile long and
half mile wide The value of the build
ings and goods consumed was estimated
at from fifty to sixty millions of dollars.
A number of the circumstances OF the
London fire are so nearly like those of the
present one that the reader will notice
them at once. The summer preceding had
been the hottest and dryest that had been
known for many years, and London be-
ing then, for the most part, built of timber
filled up with plaster, was as dry and COM
bustible as firewood. The flames spread
with lightning rapidity, urged on by a
high wind, and laid waste the city as if
they had commission to devour every
thing in their way. Clarendon says that
the fire and. the wind continued in the same
excess all Of Monday, Tuesday and We'd
nesday, till afternoon and scattered burn
ing brands In all directions The nights
were more terrible than the days, while
the light was the same, the light of the
fire supplying that of the sun. The por
tionS of the city burned were those where
the greatest warehouses and the best shops
were, with the greatest part of Fleet-st.,
and the places best inhabited. The fire
spread over 1876 acres, destroying 13,200
edificcs, 90 churches and many public
buildings
The Chicago fire has laid in ruins fully
5000 acres, and quite as many private and
public buildings of greater value than
those destroyed two centuries ago in
London. The graphic descriptions given
of this calamity by several British histo-
rians will be read with interest, and espe-
cially that in the Diary and correspond
ence Of John Evelyn" who, of a calamity
far less tnan that by which Chicago was
visited, exclaimed: "OE, the miserable
and calamitous spectacle Such as hap
PLY the world had not seen since the
foundation of it, nor can be 0utd0ne uatd
the uaicersal conttagrdt6on Hereofi" Still
less in proportion than Chicago's fire are
those by which at various times Moscow
and Hamburg and Edinburgh have been
visited, although they are leading events
in history.
The greatest fire up to the present, in
this country, is that by which New York
suffered in 1885 On the night of Tues
day, the 18th of December, there were two
large fires in New York, and it was day
light before the exhausted and almost per
ishing fremen reached their homes, mos
of their apparatus deranged and frozen
for the thermometer stood at zero, anC
the wind was exceedingly fierce from the
northwest. On the following night, Wed
nesday 10Th, the great calamity befel the
city. A fire commenced in a stole OF
Merchant street, and it extended and con
tinued to destroy for fifteen or more hours
until fifty two acres of houses, chiefly
great stores were burned down, at a los:
of property worth from fifteen to twenty
millions of dollars, including a recently
erected and superb Merchants Exchange
with several churches, and, indeed, almos
every building within its range. The con
tiagration was only stopped by an exten
, sive blowing up of houses by gunDowder
obtained from a distance of five miles
the depot of the navy yard at Brooklyn
!, The engines and the eXertions of the fire
men were powerless, as the water eithe
froze solid i'll the hose or was scattered il
hail from The nozzels of the pipes. Th
part of the city swept by the fire was EN-
} phatically the business part, the grea
! commercial emporium. The following i
the estimate of the houses destroyed
: Wall street, 8; Pearl 20; South 81; Wat
er rs; Front So Merchant Is; Exchang
| Place 81; Exchange street 81; William
"A; Old Slip 33; Coenties Slip Is; Ston
( street 60; Hanover Square B; Beaver 53
e Governors Lane 20; Jones Lane 10
Cuyler's Alley 20 Mill street 80. Th
burnt portion was, however, quickly re
5 built, and the city suffered in little, say
1 in a temporary check of business. Th
e city corporation raised $6,000000 on ii
bonds to lend to the sufferers; and th
r United States bank, though about wine
! ing up its affairs, advanced two millions
' Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore ais
e lent a helping hand. Ten years later Ne
s York was visited by another terrible col
fiagration, which was accompanied by
= fearful explosion, which effected the de
/ truction of five million dollars worth
: property, and caused a loss of thirsy live
+ Next to New York, San Francisco h;
r, suffered the most severely in previo,
If times from the devouring element. O
If the Sd of May, 1851, the city was literal
$ laid in ashes. Two thousand five hui
e dred of its buildings were destroyed, al
Ie in less than nine hours from the begil
y ming of the confagration more than twel
|. ty squares existed only in memory, al
( the ascending volumes of smoke al
IS flames which covered the site of the cit
lie The loss was estimated at ST, 100000. Q
% the 24th of December it suffered from
fire in which 1900, 900 worth of proper
/ was destroyed; in May, 1850, from anotl
E. er, costing the city three millions;
Of July, of the same year, from still anothe
II at which the loss was five millions, and
h June. 1857 one DESTROYING three million