, 1872-11-18
Going to See the Fire---A Moonlight
Walk Through the Ruins.
The Second Night After -"
Darkness Over the City.
What Made That Which Perlshed ---
Past and Future OF the
Eurnt District.
Recuperativeness Of Boston.


a telegrephic despatch from Chicago to Wash:
1ngton made me know that Boston was burned
before was else aware Of it.
Stirring down in the city, saw the Spanish
Cal7inist, as he looks, Secretary Boutwell,, NOV
ing along in hie cloak, with that sort Of high-air
IS if he would stop this thing of towns burning
up BY a judicious avalanche Of bonds. When
q man becomes head of the Treasury, and
stock-bull at will. he is formidable object in
Nature. The smallpox gets out Of his way, and
the compass dances on its pivot as if a human
loadstone was making campaign, or the mag
1etic mountain had sworn fearful oath. No
conyulson in Nature moves more understand
ingly than great man on good terms with him
eelf!
on TIE ROAD TO BOSTON.
At o'clock was nearly asleep on the night
train. Soon afterward, if may be allowed the
euppostion, WAS fully asleep. The next thing,
wns in New York, studying the newspaper-maps
of Boston. and wondering how they were made.
Next, was taken with the queer look Of people
in the Boston train, all OF whom seemed to want
to insure each other; and these, as had found
out on my way to the Chicago fire, we're the in
surance adjusters On their way to Boston to set
tie losses. Nothing is 80 noble and
so praiseworthy, besides being un-
common, as to sea 3 young man,
aged SO, the possessor Of telegraph
despatch across the cable saying: Williams,
proceed to Boston, and settle our losses dollar
for dollar. The Great London &; Cheapside
Company settles without an audible murmur,
and asks continuance Of the same" Conscious
that some Of these much-trusted gentlemen
wanted to tell me shout it. opened both ears
3o],,, md fha npyf thing heard
was "Springdeld! !" There ste my soup at the
1rassaseoit House, and wished that it had more
Of the fire in it.
From Springfield to Boston, We took on sight
eeers, and people troubled in their depths one
of whom told me, with sigh, that he had lost
everything in the world, and borrowed cigar OF
me. With that cigar he smoked like the
emouldering ruin that he was. Said I:
..,How "How the duece does man who has lost q
million feel:"
.:Well," said he, s:after you get million and
lose it, you don't feel any worse than II you only
mad thousand dollars and lost that. There le,
unfortunately: no change of grade IN total BANK
ruptcy. The man who has lost his only cigar
approaches the mental ec6tacy OF the man Who
has lost part Of Winthrop square,"
All the railroad-depots we're full OF adml1lng
people merely watching the train. Next to see
ing great fire yourself is the happiness OF the
man who is going to t. we PaSzea aa 1arPngh baf
a-dozen or more called Newton; and then We
began to meet great trains Of cars, each
drawn By two locomotives, bringing away the
sight~seers who had preceded us. We we're
stopped outside Of Boston BY other trains haul
ing fre-engines. After long delay, We got
down and walked between brick walls to the
depot, which, as we're chagrlned to know,
had been right by us all the time. About 5000
people we're IN and around the depot; I took
the fremont coach, and saw. The old twilight
glare of fire from settled ruins which /
had seen in Chicago, climbing up
the sky ike northern lights, and sense
Of ave fell over me- he estas OF In many ny Clam 81 Tue
almost breathing light, pink and blue, like the
grandeur in fire slowly throbbing out, the dying
Of the mighty scourger around whom the very
heavens bend
trict, with Mr. Walter Allen, of the Boston
4dpertiser. ...
TIE QUESTION OF PASSES.
We we're provided with night passe:, s'gned
by the Chief Of Police; but presenting these % on 2
been stretched across, several college boys, II
blue cloaks, who looked to be in great danger OF
their pieces, stopped Us short, AZ as tney 1aas naa
tIhat poss net good here - said g. q large
part Of the armed college.
" Call the Corporal Of your guard!,'
t'Kon't do i'll" said the descendent OF In
crease Mather. 'sWe don't recognize any elv.l
posses. We've got our orders from the military
commonder, and, as he said he shouldn't poss
anybody, ne shouldn't read his poss If you had
one."
1t this point of great moral discipline in the
knightly soldier, person who did not know our
business, nor We anything about him, but whom
Isuppose to have been akind Of natural commits
siond1re, loving to guide people for the delight
of it, volunteered to squeeze US through r SIDE
street, and, before We could draw BREATH had
remarked to q set of thick-waisted policemen:
81 They're all right!'
With these words the man disappeared, like
the Genii Of the lamp; and 60 did ne, the other
way.
Passing down the alley, with the smell OF
burning rags and the fall Of daky cindeEs quite
apparent, ne came to q venerable and chuhy
policeman, ali mufied up in woollen comforter,
who took our civil passes; and climbed up re
eide OF a lamp-post and there read them upalde
down. with part OF one eye.
s*Pass, gentlemen!" he said, and, in another
minute, We we're under the rope, and in per
fectly quiet and abandoned piece OF wide street,
right opposite the great new Post Othee. 1t WAS
De7oushire street. and all before ue we're
THE RUINS AND THE Low FLAMES,
covering many acres, and very STRIKING and pc
turesque as they still consumed in the dark
night, Illuminating the wretchedness OF each
other. A rim or frame Of other buildings,
scorched but erect, girt round this great crater
OF fame and void on every side but one, and
there we beheld moving lamps Of green and
white, dropping along the harbor On vessels. or
shining down the bay, and, by the Ralpitatipg
water iteeif, and some masts Withdrawn from
the danger of the ignited wharves. Where the
streets Of the burnt district passed out Of it and
beroud, a wall of b1acker shadow, still revealing
scme perspective of things plai:. to be seen
along it's rejecting side, met the view; but the
tall remnants in the foreground, bearing their
ma1tyrdom of slow fire, absorbed nearly all our
consideration.
The ruins which saW in that more narrow
space Of desolation
WERE MORE IMPOSING.
drawn close together, than on any like piece o1
ground after the Chicago fire. One very high
chimney-high and thin, like shot tower-rose
on slender stem Of masonry to the fullest per-
lection Of it's former self, every brick in place
and along it the fire, far below, shed from every
side such equal illumination that it looked whitt
As ivory to the very tip. It might have been ISL
feet high Flanking this chimney we're severa
norticoes of iron columns, supporting tier o.
Two Of granite blocks apiece, the granite
rounded like great bouldcrs; but the effec
at a small distance was that of
nnmber of Grecian orders surveying each othe
after some ancient sack and waste. The cor
ners of brick structures, where two walls, meet
inc at right angles, buttressed each other, stoo'
most frequently amongst the remaining wit
neases OF the city; hut, in the distance, ther
we're nearly the whole broadsides of gable