New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-10-17

II
and around it. 1t was preserved by it's OVID de-
structive significance. It was made sacred by the
curse that rested a curse more deadly than that
which darkened the lnels of the house of Tbyestes
For out Of that house. last Sunday night, came a
woman with lamp to the barn behind the house, to
milk the COW with the crumpled temper that kicked
the lamp, that spilled the kerosene that fred the
straw that burned Chicago, And there to this hour
stands that craven little house. holding on tightly to
| its miserable existence
| stood on the sidewalk opposite as duty bound,
| calling up the appropriate emotions A strange,
wriukled face on q dwarfish body came ND and said
THAT'S dreadful sight" l assented and he con-
tinucd in a melancholy Groom: Forty year I've
lived here-and there wasn't brick house but wan
and that was the Lakeside House, and it's gone now
an av ye'll behave me, Soor nver see fire loike
that" l believed him thoroughly, and he went
away. My emotions not being satisfactory from q
front view of the shanty, went around to the rear
and there found the Man of the House sitting with
two of his friends. His wife, Our Lady Of the
Lamp-freighted with heavier disaster than that
which Psyche carried to the bedside Of Eros-sat at
the window, knitting. approached the Man of tho
House and gave him good-day. He glanced up with
sleepy, furtive eyes. asked him what he knew
about the origin of the fire. He glanced at
his friends and said, civilly, he knew very
little; he wakeC up about o'clock by the alarm,
and fought from that time to save his house, at
every sentence he turned to his friends and said 81
can prove it by them" to which they nodded assent.
He seemed fearful that all Chicago was coming down
upon him for prompt and integral payment of that
500 600 900 his COW had kicked His neighbors
say this story is invention dating from the second
day of the fire. There was something unutterably
Rrotesque in this ultimate atom feeling q sense of
responsibility for catastrophe stupendous and
striving by fiction, which must have heavily taxed
his highest powers of imagination to escape areckon
ing he was already free from,
Like his fellows the nudge and the MT
Through minuteness, TO wit
Having seen the beginning of the fire we thought
it worth while to track it through its rise and its
grandeur to its magnificent end after glOriOusdays
life There is very singular caprice of the fire i'll the
North Division equally remarkable with that in De-
koven-st. The house of Mr.. Mahlon Ogden, a large
frame building standing very near the street, is
tirely untouched, while the entire region around it
is laid bare. Even the church across the street
which stands entirely detached, is destroyed. The
escape of the Ogden mansion is as complete and as
mysterious if it had invisible coat Of
bestOs The fire was no less singular in what it at
tackled than in what it spared just beyond this
house. which would seem with its dry seasoned pine
most appetizng morscl for the fredevi, there lies
green and tranquil graveyard with nothing in it
which could attract well-reulated fire. But this
fiery tempest has swept in among these graves and
tOmbstOnes, has sought out with an apparent
disregard of conducting material the humble wooden
head-boards, and has even gnawed the marble in
many places. The last expiring efforts of the flames
were in the quiet German cemetery at the gate of
Lincoln Park by the shining beach of the Lake. 1t
is here that hundreds of the hunted fugtves Of the
u,
pass that first miserable night of hunger and cold.
Loads of household goods were brought here, and
dashed carelessly upon the ground As the hard
night wore on, and the cold wind came blowing in
from the unsated sea-" chilling the blood after the
fever of the day, these unhappy people began
to break up and burn the furniture they
had saved, and brought so far with
labor and pain. Everywhere you may see the traces
Of that wreched vigil of heartbreaking desperation
At ope point there is pile of hah-burned picture
frames profusely gilded and deliberately carved and
ut another there lie the scattered fragments Of o
richly -inlad cabinet. lbrary-chair has it's back
burned away and its upholstery wrinklediand singed
with the watch-6re. Bnt there are other and more
revolving evidences of the misery which on that
night gave many over into internal guidance. l
passed one modest grave near the scene Of a night
camp heart was carved upon the wooden tomb
stone by pious hands and into this touching emblem
q steel fork had been driven by somei brutal fist
Above the outraged blazon were the tender words,
Ruhe SaWtt ('' Sleep Softly"
The scenes witnessed in that quiet graveyard dur
ing that night of horror enough to appall the
stoutest temperaments. A throng Of half-maddened
sufferers struggled through the grove looking for
their friends and finding no one oppressed by
weight of anxiety that caused them to neglect their
physical discomforts. Delicate women came as they
~ a,,ff arrn0 pt0htl
clothes blown about by the surly Autumn wind
Several were in state which demanded the gentlest
care and sympathy. Many little children were
thrown into the crowd too young to speak their |
parents names. And upon all, the crushing
blow of an enormous and irremediable disaster |
had fallen and rendered them for the moment |
incapable of any rational Judgment. lheard OF one
company of German singers from low concert 81
LOOM who flew out into the night with nothing but
their tawdry evening dresses who sat shiyering and
silent in huddled group in the lee OF tombstone
their bare arms and shoulders blue and pinched and
the tnsel flowers In their hair shining with frost They
talked little, but sometimes they cheated their mis-
cry with songs and it had strange effect TO hear In
that gloomy and stricken place the SOFT lmpu
rites Of the Vienna muse, and the ringing and Joyous
jodel of the Tyrol. Near by the fragments OF
Methodist congregation had improvised prayer !
me6JlnR ana inc 6OuDu VI podlhio anu oupPA'NN'OA
went up mingled with that worldly music to the |
deep and tolerant heavens.
The fire could get no hold on the green wood OF
Lincoln Park and 80 gave 1t up, and went furiousy
off to the left and ate up all the pretty suburban
houses on that side and ended only when the wide |
prairie lay before it with nothing more to burn At
the corner of Willow and OrchardSts the noble out
line of the Newbery School bounds the line OF de- |
vastation as If to say that the future hope OF