Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-11-21
TIE BOSTON FIRE.
A Comprehensive Review Of the Great
Connagration.
BosroN, November IL.

Saturday evening, when the flames were |
bursting from the fourth floor |
of large, five story granite building on
the corner of Kingston and Summer |
streets. The building was occupied by |
Baldwin & Davis, dry goods |
jobbers; A. Z. Young g. Co., manufac-
turers of skirts and corsets, and Damon,
Temple & Co., dealers in fancy goods. 1t
stood in a part of the city which is as des-
olate after dark as Broad street is in New
York. The heavy dealers in domestic and
near here. A. T. Stewards great branch
concern was within stones throw. Jor-
dan, Marsh & Co., have their wholesale and
retail house close by. j. NJ. Beebe & Co.
gave their name to magnificent block in
which they have carried on splendid es-
tablishment. Nearly everybody in this
district, where there are no dwelling
houses and few retail shops. had gone
away for the night, and the fire might
have been burning long before it was dis
covered. 1t is supposed to have caught
in the engine room and crept up the stair
way. This is very probable theory, for
a few moments from the time itwas first
seen it was bursting from every floor in
the building. The edifice was crowned
by that curse of all our cities, a Mansard
roof. Instantly: the tinder-box
ornament was in a blaze and the
flame was leaplng across the narrow
streets to meet similar infammable
roof on the other side, while showers Of
cinders and burning fragments, carried
aloft by the blast created in the hatchway,
fell upon the lower buildings on either
hand. The alarm was promptly sounded,
but there occurred one of those fatal mis-
haps which nobody knows exactly how to
account for. 1t was thirty-six minutes
before an engine arrived upon the ground.
The Boston Fire Department had a high
reputation of efficiency, and the last two
days have proved that its members in
general have much of the true heroic
stamp in danger, and do their duty
silently, as matter of course, day and
night, until they fall to the ground
through sheer exhaustion. The reason
given for the delay is that the horses
were all sick, and the engines had to be
drawn by hand. Even so, the delay was
unreasonable. Besides there were well
horses right in Boston, and if hacks and
horse cars were all running, it can only
be through great mismanagement that
steam fire engines could not run too. By
the time the water was brought to bear
the fire had become cont1agration.
sides Of Summer street were blazing,
making two fire lanes in which the heat
was absolutely insupportable. Then
the corner building fell, scattering
fire in every direction, and the
disaster began to assume threatening
aspect. All the engines in Boston were
summoned, and telegraphs were sent for
aid from the neighboring towns. The
great height of the warehouses and the
narrowness of the streets proved serious
difficulties. In hardly any case could a
stream of water be thrown upon the back
part of the roofs, and it was on the roofs
that, after the first outbreak, the fire
almost invariably caught. Nor was it
possible to approach, in these lanes, very
near the burning buildings. The firemen
put up barricades for their protection,
but the barricades were soon consumed.
They carried hose up the roofs, but the
height was SO great that very little water
could be forced through them. After a
while some large establishments, sup
posed to be in flames, were blown up.
This did no good. The flames followed
no particular path. There was moder
ately strong wind, but they travelled
own current of air and followed that
now to one side, now to the other
Wherever they went they found
a Mansard roof to feed upon
Wherever brand was shot into the all
it had good chance of falling on Man
sard roof. It is common belief that tht
Mansard roofs have cost Bosto1
$4,000, 900.
From the corner of Summer and King
dkl .r%ra 04,k ov1A
ously in all directions. Southwark, i
took both sides of Summer street, pas
Arch, Chauncy, and Hawley; and ther
ran diagonally to near the northeast cor
ner of Summer and Washington, sparins
the corner building, occupied by Rob
bins, Appleton & Co., of the American
Watch Company, and Andrew G. Mudges
fancy goods, but taking everything at tn,
rear and side of it. Thence it ran alons
the east side of Washington street, as fa
north as Milk, that is to say, within few
feet of School street, where the Parke
House, the City Hall, and the old corne
book store are situated. On the west sid
of Washington street nothing was burned
but many of the shops were scorched
and the glass was nearly all broken. From
Kingston street eastward the fire tool
both sides of Summer street and Bedford
and never stopped until it reached tn
water, destroying the wharves and depo
of the Hartford & Erie Railroad. Mean
while it had swept nOrthward along Dev
onshire, Federal, and Congress streets
toward the water. There were some ten
ement houses, liquor shops, and othe
buildings of the poorer class, and befor
midnight the wretched occupants wer
turned into the street. The general d
rection of the flames at the time wa
northwest, and from about Congress
street to Washington it formed one i'm
toward State street, and the great finar
cial center of New England. Mil
street was destroyed by ten O'Clock, an
toward morning the fire reached the rea
of the Post Office, the front of which
on State street. The mails were rt
moved to the Custom House, an
thence taken last night to Faneu
Hall, where the distribution of lei
ters began this morning, nothing ha,
ing been lost. What stopped the flame
in this quarter nobody seems to know
The buildings were no whit more sui
stantial than those which had crumble
to fragments behind them, but they wer
not seriously menaced until evening
South of them was mere heap of coal
and ashes, and the fremen were able
to concentrate their efforts here. A
any rate, nothing was injured except th
Post Office and the Merchants Exchange
On the corner of Washington and Mil
streets were two currents of flames, on
sweeping northward from Franklin, th
other westward along Milk street. On
of the choicest historical buildings of Bos
ton is the Old South Church. Sober cit
zens, who had borne the loss of their ow
fortunes without wsrd, were seen absc
lutely frantic with distress as the conf1s
grafton approached this venerable pile
1t is modest brick building with woot
en- blinds, and it seemed impossible ths
it should escape; but here the fire, whio
had destroyed stone and iron as if the
had been straw, was strangely stoppet
Save few broken windows, and lit
blistered paint, the old church is unhur
and a battered safe lies in the door.
Further along on Milk street the fire el
countered another barrier. This was IL