Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-10-17
The Chicago Fire.

The Chicago Fire.
| From an extended account in the Tribune
we take the following in relation to the Chi
cago fire:
| THE DEAD.
| There are conflicting reports of the num-
Der OF lives lost. The terrible rapidity of the
hames, often hemming in the unwary spec
tators of the confagration, and often en-
| gulhng those who were endeavoring to save
| friends or property, renders it probable that
the number may be larger than can be def
| nitely ascertained. The estimated number
| Is about two hundred and a Tribune cor
respondent says that this is as large as the
evidence will warrant. One hundred bodies
were placed in the morgue on Saturday
which is thus described by correspondent
Of the Cincinnati Commercials The sicken-
ing sensation of the day is the establishment
OF a morgue for the exhumed remains of the
victims of the mighty fire. This shocking
| repository is the hearse and carriage room of
lower class undertaken on Hubbard street,
little better than barn, and yet is incorpo-
rated with the dwelling of the proprietor and
the stable for his horses. The place to-day
was strongly guarded by armed policemen,
who found it difficult to keep off constantly
renewed crowd of people, with horror and
| anxiety strongly depicted in every pale and
pitiful face. At the far end of the room was
partitioned space lighted by dirty cobwebed
windows, and on the floor arranged in lows
first all around three sides and then down
the middle, were the charred remains of
| seventy human beings. The first noticeable
object in this dreadful company was the form
OF a sister of some Roman Catholic order,
pnmntpfpIU 1adi hnr hrn, LoI.:x a.,
the cross and I. H. S. in white letters stitch
| ed on the bosom. The face was thickley
veiled, and even the feet carefully covered
up. "She was smothered, but not burned"
| observed the grim master of ceremonies. The
next was the body of young man partially
clad in common working-man's attire. The
hair was completely burned off his head and
body. The features were blackened and dis
| torted with pain, the swollen lips were wide
apart, disclosing the glistening teeth and i'm
parting horrld grin, such only as agoniz-
ing death can stamp upon the face. The
flesh was bloated to an astonishing size The
poor wretch was roasted alive. What is the
use now of giving utterance to the passing
thought as these two corpses-the only two
whose faces could be recognized-met the
gaze? Let it pass. There was one charred
form in the attitude of prayer-the form of
woman, but every feature of the face every
graceful line of the body was gone. The
head vas nothing but black lump; the body
blackened, hideous shape. Some bodies of
men could be distinguished by the remnants
of clothing and boots, but nearly all traces of
| humanity were gone. Then there were re-
mains of children and young people, but
they, WIN we majority, were nothing more
than mere blackened, charred torsos. Those
whose limbs or arms renamed exhibited a
supplicatory attitude, as if begging mercy of
the destroyer. To this CHASTITY. hideous and
melancholy spectacle were admitted, in little
parties OF four or five at time, those who
had friends or relatives missing, but no Lam
guage can describe the scenes of heart rend-
ing agony which these grim visits elected.
But besides the bodies burned to crisp, the
improvsed morgue had other horrors TO re
veal. On the near side OF the partitione,l
space lay half dozen tenanted collins
paupers' coffins-of unpainted pine, with the
bodies laid in without any preparatory equip
ment Tor the grave, not even the common
composure of the arms and limbs, the closing
OF the eyes and the washing Of the features.
In one the visitor was shown the corpse OF
the man shot through the head and hung TO a
lamp-post--a dreadful warning to incendia-
ries. In another lay the body of a man with
a bayonet stab through the body; by whom
stabbed no one knew, In another was
squeezed the body of German tailor. well
known in the neighborhood, who had lost his
all by the fire. and acting on the cowardlv
principle of sentimentality inculcated by
Goethe in The Sorrows of WeIther, commit
ted suicide rather than bravely live out his
allotted time. He had first opened vein in
his arm and then cut his throat from ear 70
ear with razor. His hands, face and clothes
were smeared with gore, and a more CHASTITY
and sickening spectacle than that coffin pre-.
scented could hardly be found.
THE MATERIAL loss.
Concerning the destruction of material
wealth there is no such uncertainty. The
two thousand acres of almost impossible
ruins, with butSa single building remain
ing-and that, queerly enough, a wooder
house which stood untouched in the very
thickest of the contlagration-are terrible
reality and may be easily realized. Had tn,
wind of Tuesday veered to the eastward-as
there was every reason to fear that # would
we might have written, as of Troy, thai
Chicago was" But, fortunately, the great.
er habitable portion of the city remains
scathed, indeed, by the confagraton, with
many smouldering ruin and blackened
street, yet capable of sheltering large pop
ulaton, and offering a foothold for reviyina
commerce. Many of the churches are left
some of the banks, railway stations and ele-
vators are spared; there are even hotels in
operation. They are not the great establish.
mepts of which Chicago was so proud in thu
days OF her glory; but now, in the hour o,
disaster, they are turned to excellent account
A mere enumeration, however, of the build
ings that have been taken, and the building,
that are left, or description Of the vast,
places suddenly created in the very centre O
the busy metropolis, would not suffice to Civ.
an idea OF the vast destruction accomplished
during the three days of the fire.