New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-10-19
THE BURNED CITY.
rr1p NIGHT SIDE OF CHICAGO.

,pera arc seated at every cOign Of vantage sketch
ing for dear life against the closing of the mail
Photographers alarmed by the prospect of speedy |
reconstruction, are training their cameras upon |
every unprotected point of picturesque ruin They
are surc of a ready sale of all the shadows they
seize in these days. There has rarely been offered
70 tho ptying admiration of men collection Of pic
lures If more poignant beauty. II one could dVest
himself of all feelings of sympathy and pain he
could gain from these smoking squares the finest In
tellcctual enjoyment MonotonOus as the gray
stretch of desolation appears at first the longer you
Look and nGer the more this uniformity of charac-
tar and color breaks up and reveals to you an IN
finite study of lines and forms. OF course, these
ruins lack the conservation which has come with
the course Of ages to the splintered monohths OF
Thsl,eS and the gnawed plinths Of Paestum But is
there not au equal IL not greater human interest IN
surveying these brand-new shards ct great city,
and rejecting that the builders do not hide from our
sympathics in the msts 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 gTieVe
and hope and go on with work kindred to that
which now has suddenly taken its place in the Pastf
Every ono who has looked upon ruins has felt the
kesn. mperious desire TO know what manner Of men
il Wa that built them and looked upon them when
they we're fresh in the sunshine Of those cider days
Half tho Joy and half the pain of travel is in this
vain imagining. But here You look at these i'm
posing wrecks still Titanic and most impressive in
decay that already seems historical and you reflect
with sudden feeling of surprise that you know by
heart the sermon they are preaching You are your
self part of the life they symboize of the Civiliza
ton which they express You have heard the prayers
ana the Oaths, the laughter and the cries, to the
sound of which those walls went up. There is no
unknown quantity in the problem they present.
There it is-make of it what you will fyou come
to nothing do not blame time history for the dust
that is in your eyes,
StrolEng through the town in the daytime. you
sse that it must have been a heat Of singular in
tensty that melted down six miles of brick and
mortar soon into one undistinguishable mass IL
took only about twelve hours to virtually finish the
work. all that was done after that, was the after
mrath of the flame cleaning about the edges OF the
field it had reaped. But there has never been fre
which 30 completely attended to its business and
slighted no part of its work. 1t seems like mere
figure Of speech to speak of a quarter utterly de-
stroyed. The phrase is always used about great
fires but usually means that all the houses are more
or less damaged. In this it is literally true
Most of the houses are level heaps of cacined build
ing material. The walls of the CuStOm-House are
still standing; the Court House wings refuse to fall
The Rre-prOOf Tribune dsdains surrender though
only a phantom house. A few heavily buttressed
church towers wait also for the hammer of demo-
itOn But with these exceptions, the central region
of Chicago has ceased to exist You look through
it to tho far-off waste Of the North Division In
many places tho solid granite has cracked and
peeled in great fakes like stuccO in the frost. The
irOu castings partly melted and partly twisted
into forms of startling grOtesqueness have seen
huted columns, bell wires, gas and water pipes.
had and vviat cd GmOldeT1QQ asle9
of a cellar like coil of snakes Of assorted Sizes
Even the pretty gratings of the Safe Deposit Com
pany the best preserved of ALL fearfully warped
and bent like character which has resisted tempta-
ton with wOeful loss of temper.
These details we have been permitted to see for
some days; for although the proprietors 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 the light simmer of the
broOding heat hangs all day above the rubbish and
the air is full of the pungent odOr of Goals When
night comes a strange and beautiful transformation
is wrought in the scene Every evening since have
been here have watched with increasing interest
this marvellous and fascinating change. AS the sun
goes down in the prairie. and the night wind comes
in from the Lake this sleeping fire rouses and srs
in its slumber like woman who shakes off the days
deoorum. and hushes at the coming of her lover.
The vast ignited coalbeds the shore of the river
ing shadows The darkness slowly walls the lines of
shattered walls and one by one through the gloom
twinkle out the delicate blue flames that spring from
the anthracite coal-bOxes Of the burned mansions.
They are 80 blue, and fine, and fragile, that they
seem like fOrget-me-not gemming the dusky field.
They are very persistent, though. They have been
pouring tuns of water through the sidewalk upon
one small deposit in front of Gov. Brosss
residence and yet at night it blooms
- bluely and vigorously as 1t
were refreshed by the watering. As the darkness
deopens the show increases IN brllisncy until by
most lovely effect of reflection the blaze from the
unquenched fires strikes the clouds of smoke that
hang over the city, and turns them brilliant rose.
The pillar of cloud becomes pillar Of fire, and all
at once the dead luster of this reflected light falls
back upon the ruins and brings them out into pale
and singular dstinctness. 1t is not possible to i'm
agine anything more terribly beautiful than this
wild commerce of the fire and the darkness From
my window see the whole sweep of the vast illu-
mination On the left a coal heap stretches beyond
the river like shore of FIRE; boat on this side is
blackly painted athwart the blaze The sky is
flushed with the fame and notified with driving
clouds and against it loom the ragged and torn walls
of the Pacific Hotel, the sturdy arch of the First
Presbyterian Church, and further to the right the
broken outlines of the Court House, far more
reverend and graceful than ever in their for
Iorn ncompleteness. Ali along the red horizon the
coal heaps blaze and the sky is on fire. and the sharp
angles of broken walls and the slim SEEMS of black
chimneys like miDarets are drawn sharply on the
crimson background. do not know if it could be
within the reach of painting to give any hint Of the
unutterable magic of this spectacle No sunset was
ever 40 rosy ss that smoky sky. No frostcastle built
ON window-pane out of a child's breath was ever
moro delicate than those fantastic ruins flung like
tattered lace against the drifting clouds. On the
extreme light Just within the yellow blaze Of the