Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-10-14
brave fellow seized a little girl, plunged in
and safely crossed with his precious bur

and safely crossed with his precious bur
lN9k THE GHoULs AMONG THE RUINS.
No sooner was the extent of the disaster
known abroad, than the ghouls of the race,
who ever haunt scenes of disaster and mis-
fortune, began to gather. Thieves mingled
with the great stricken multitude and bust
| w piled their vocation, even in that dire
hour of calamity. Williams seized upon
the fleeing inhabitants as they came from
their blazing homes, and endeayoredt to take
what little remained to them, saved from
the general wreck. Hackmen and express
drivers and carmen seemed TO have lost all
conscience, and charged fabulous sums for
conveying load from the scene of distruc-
ton to safe distance. Men who had large
sums of money, epdeavoring to convey 1t
away to places Of safety, were beset by
thieves, even in the street, in the earish
i. light of their consuming houses, and robbed
Of their remaining all.
One instance is known of hackman ex-
acting from distracted husband $3.50 to
convey his invalid wife from his burning
home to a place of safety. Twenty-Five
dollars was regarded as a very moderate
charge for an express wagon to take load
Tel SQIldltS, pOV tllu p1OO htIt .IrpUueDIlV
demanded and paid for the use of wagon
and team Of two horses for half an hour.
1t seemed that half the people of this class
had turned out to be thieves and robbers of
the most dangerous character. Instances
are known in which hackmen agreed to
convey ladies from the region of disaster to
a place of safety, and when little way
from the crowds, deliberately robbed them
| r. a. and ruha
they might have about them, and then turn
ing them out of their cabs to take care of
themselves.
When the fire was raging along Lasalle,
Clark and State streets, and sweeping on
ward toward Washington and Randolph,
toward the north, the great commercial
houses were thrown open and an effort
made to save the most valuable goods. The
harvest of the thieves began at this time.
The police had lost control. Those intent
on profting by the fire now went in with a
zest. They loaded themselves with the
richest goods, and sought a place of con-
cealment. A banker had cash-box in his
hand containing $4,000, which he was en-
deavoring to convey away. Three despe-
radoes seized upon him with the intention
of robbing him. To prevent it he threw
the box with its valuable contents into the
fire, rather than yield it to those ghouls of
disastrous fate.
THE STARVING MULTITUDE.
Monday morning broke with the fire-fend
still sweeping onward in its devastating
course through the north division.
All night the houseless and homeless peo-
pie, filed with anxiety, and frequently
startled by fresh alarms, had watched the
s1rbli,na and o11-fuI confederation, n bT1,.-
ried forward to fresh conquests over the
proudest works of man.
Many in the vast throng of anxious spec
tators of the awful scene had been startled
by the first alarm, and left their homes sup
erless; but the night passed and the day
came again, bringing no prospects of break
fast. The sun mounted toward the zenith,
and yet the cravings of hunger was not APP
peased. The scene became pitiable in the
extreme. Thousands of children, who had
never known what it was to want even for
the luxuIries of life, now pitiously cried for
bread they could not get. Men with bag
gard look, and blood-Shot eyes, wearied by
exertion and anxious care, unrefreshed by
slumber or food, moved about with
lstless air, and if spoken to, frequently re-
turned for an answer, vacant and mean
iilSltSo oldiC, do IL ICdoOil anu JiIC pONNl VI
utterance had vanished together.
The day wore slowly away, and still
thousands had taken no food. The cries of
the children became more boiSterous; wO-
men wept, and even strong men bowed in
unutterable agony.
The wind blew clouds of dust, ashes and
smoke into their very faces, and envelOped
and covered them up, until they scarcely
I lan Of hrIf
Nothing l ever saw; nothing l ever read
about; nothing the Imagination ever con-
jured up, ever presented to my mind so ter
rible picture of human woe, as the scene
witnessed by the lakeside on that terrible
evening. There rolled up the dark, pOrten-
tous clouds of smoke, mingled with the red
tongues of flame, mounting high up into the
heavens, that told of devastated and ruined
! city. Here were the inhabitants, hurried
out into the streets almost without warning;
away from their homes, destitute of every
| thing that could minister to their comfort;
| crying for bread, wearied by watching, and
awe-stricken by the extent of their misfor-
| tunes. 1t was altogether such scene as
! the world has seldom witnessed.
The red sun went down behind the
| smoke-cloud. The mantle of night unrolled
| over the ruffied waters of the lake. The
lurid fire-light of the still bErning city cast
a great glare over the scene. But never in
/ the history of man has day closed so sadly
with so many hundreds of thousands Of
people watching by the smOuldering ruins
| of their homes. Never before has night
! fallen on ruins so vast, so suddenly made.
THE SCENE AT NIGHT.
If the day had passed so sadly and so ter
| ribly, the night came on with still glOOmier
prospects. Toward evening some train
loads of provisions had arrived, and an eff
fort was made to supply the immediate de-
mands of the most neceSsitiouS. The pangs
| of hunger were in many cases appeased.
But the smouldering ruins still fitfully
blaZed here and there, with a strange, wild
light, marking out distinctly the devastating
track of the tornado of fire that had swept
through it.
Further away doomed up the grand and
glowing light of the fire cloud, as it rolled
| away beyond the river to the nOTthWard.
The clatter, the noise, the buz, hum, and
confusion which had prevailed during the
previous night had sObered down some
what. The exhiarating effects of the first
great storm of excitement had passed away.
Exhaustion had succeeded the 1.-the move
ments had ceased. Men moped around ;
women sohhed themselves into uneasy
slumbers wherever they could find place
under the broad canopy of heaven. The
wailings of distressed and homeless children
came borne in subdued murmurs on the
night wind. Policemen, wearied by their
constant exertien, lost their watchfulnesS,
and moved about with vacant, listless air,
while the ghouls that haunted the
scene of disaster plundered at will.
Devils, wearing the form Of men,
went about robbing the helpless and
insulting the feeble and defenceless. The
sick, carried from homes of comfort and laid
under the trees in the parks and on the
beach, expired unattended by groups of sor-
rowing friends-died alone, with the earth
for couch and the sky for canopy.
Even amid these terrible scenes, which
were sufficient to move the very stones to
cry out in an agony of sympathy, there
moved amid the wreck and through the
smoke-flled streets, beings wearing the
forms of men, but with minds and hearts
filed with more than satanic malignity, with
deliberate purpose and prepared torches, to
assist the uncomfortable contiagration to a
more speedy triumph. hear that two OF
these genii of destruction were caught with
saturated shavings, in the act of setting fire
to a house and hanged Immediately on a
lamp-post. 1t is also stated, and | shall be