The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-10-17

OF music. It is feared that DR.. Frear
and family were also burned, as they
were i'll the building, and have not been
seen since Mrs. Idsall, whose husband
was murdered last week, and who was
suffering from illness, was carried away
for protection TO building which was
afterward consumed, and it is feared she
also persisted. All the books and papers
Of the Historical Society, including the
original copy ofthe famous Emancipation
Proclamation of President Lincoln, for
which the Society paid $4,000, were
destroyed. 1t is feared that large mum.
Der of children, inmates of the Roman
Catholic Orphan Society on Statc-st.,
were also burned, as many of them are
missing. On Chicago-avc., n father
rushed up stairs to carry three children
away, when he was overtakcn by the
flames and persisted with them. The
mother was atterward seen on the street
on the northwest side, a raving maniac
In the same ncighborhood family of five
persons persisted. The list of such ia
talities is very long, and can only be full
ly verified after the smoke shall have
cleared away. There arc hundreds of
families on that side who saved no cloth
ing, but barely their lives. Among these
is the family of Perry Smith, formerly
President of the orth-Western Railroad
Company.
There is rumor that in burned
blacksmith-shop on Rush-st., the bodies
Of Of Is men were found burned to Il
crisp, they having rushed into the shop
to escape from the flames, which had
surrounded them before they had dscovi
cred their peril. An immense number o.
people are missing, and central inteli-
gencc Office has been established where
the names Of all the missing ones are
given to the police.
Twcnty-thrcc dead bodies have been
taken to a staton-housc on the North
Side. At the present time it is impossi-
bic to identify the bodies.
Women in the pains of childbirth, and
patients who have been moved from beds
Of sickness to save their lives which at
the best are nearly spest, were all expos.
ed to the rain of last night, and the cold
raw winds of to-day. Several deaths
have occurred at Lincoln Park, and three
women have brought children in the world
only to die. Another night must be
spent in Lincoln Park aud brick fields at
Division-st., and yet another and another.
All trains are loaded to their fullest ca
pacity, taking people away who, in many
instances, have no place to 60, yet they
cannot stay here; and every train is
obliged to leave five times as many
passengers as they take away. Every
precaution has been taken by the author
tiles to guard the people tonight, and if
the morning comes without robberics and
murder they all will thank God, and 90
forward with courage.
THE FURY OF THE FLAMES.
None but an eyewitness can form an
idea of the fury and power Of the fire
among the buildings and warehouses on
the south side, with the wind blowing a
hurricane. At times it seemed but the
work of moment for the fire to enter
the south ends Of buildings, fronting on
Randolph, Lake, and Water-sts, and
reappear at the north doors and windows.
bclching forth in fierce flames which often
reached the opposite buildings and then
the flames issuing forth from the build
ings on both sides of the street, wo Id
unite, and present a solid mass of fire,
completely filling the street from side to
side, and shooting upward hundred
feet into the air. Thus was street after
street filled with flame Hugo walls
would topplc and fall into the sea of fire,
without apparently giving sound, as the
roar OF the fierce element was so great
that all minor sounds were swallowed up,
and the fall of walls was only precepti-
BILE to the eyes. Many of the buildings
situated along South Water-st., buried
their red-hot rear walls in the water Of
the river, into which they plunged with
a hiss. The heat was SO intense at times
from some of the burning buildings that
they could not be approached within $50
feet which accounts for the manner in
which the fire worked back and often
against the wind. The fire, after reach
ing the business portion of Randolph aud
South Water-sts., leaped the river to the
north side in an incredibly short space Of
time, and thence among the wooden build
ings on that side, reached the lake shore
after destroying block after block of
happy dwellings. A scene of such utter
powerlessness in the face of an enemy
was never presented than that Of this
people trying to combat the flames
sELFIsHNEss AND DEBAUCuERY.
While there are many instances Of
generous devotion on the part Of rich and
poor in dividing with the destitute, there
are painful instances Of meanness and
selfshness. One person was trying to
remove valuable papers from an Office
and asked two firemen to help him, but
they refused unless he paid them $50 /;
the papers We're destroyed. Drivers Of
express wagons have taken 500 and
even $500 for an hours use Of their
vehicles, in getting distressed people
away from danger. Among the saddest
scenes of the calamity was the appearance
of hundreds Of men aud boys in beastly
ntoxication, around the streets Of the
North Division, where the saloonkeepers
stock of liquors were emptied into the
street, thus furnishing convenient op-
portunity for the qualification Of their
slavish propensities and there can hard
ly be any doubt that many of these poor
wretches found their death in the flames,
from which they were too helpless to es-
cape. One poor man had crowded for
refuge into the water main, near the
Water Works, but the fire found him
even there and he was burned to death
THE LOSSES.
A careful survey of the assurances, to-
Al ..l.- 1 Al.