Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-07-24
THE DOOMED CITY.
Details of the Second Great COnnagra.
tiOn at Chicago.
From the Chicago Tribune !


From the twenty-five columns
which the Chicago Tribune devotes to
report of the last sweeping confia-
grafton in that city, we CLEAN the fol-
lowing circumstantial account of the
terrible ravages of the fire fiend The
main points of interest, and the most
striking scenes of the day, will here
be found. Our limited space forbids
following more minutely tour a tour
the course of the flames:
1t came this time not "like a thief
in the night, but during those hours
when all are supposed to be on the
alert; when it is expected that fire
will be discovered in moment, an
alarm instantaneously flashed to an
engine-house, and the firemen on the
spot. 1t came at time-just after the
fire at the store of M. d. Wells & Co..
when it was expected that the fire.
men, stung by their failure there, and
by the charges since made against
them, would have worked with double
speed and fury.
And yet, in spite of all these things,
the fire has come and conquered, and
IcDtdltu tllc Stlu lcSSOIl Vi IOt tIldU Ill
wooden buildings there is no. safety
for us. 1t has proven again the ina
bility of our firemen to cope with the
forces of nature, to limit the destruc-
tive fury of flame once under fair
headway, or to contend against the
unbridled tempest of that fatal south
west wind.
1t is useless to go into comparisons,
to relate the story of other contlagra-
tions, that have formed bright black
page in the history of this city. The
one of yesterday can stand on it's own
merits. 1t began in an oil factory,
while the one of 1871 started in a
shanty. With q more aristocratic be-
ginning, it has been less destructive.
1t has come to complete in part the
work left undone in 1871, and to scoop
out of existence another broad belt of
wooden buildings which menaced the
new structures which have sprung up
in the business quarter of the South
Division. 1t has shaken hands with
the fire of 1871, and, reaching the
ground its predecessor conquered, has
stopped, not satiate, and yet satisfied.
Well it may be for the palaces that
line Madison street that yet another
strip of brick and stone is to be piled
frame structures that lie beyond, and
yet we cannot help rejecting that this
security of the future has been bought
by too great sacrifice in the present.
Here, as before, the fire sprang at a
bound beyond the control of the fire.
men. 1t Knocked their puny efforts,
and overstepped the limits they sought
to put to its course. They fought it
faithfully and without many blunders.
Coubtless there were not enough en-
gines. This fire comes to point the
truth of recent declarations, that per-
haps it would be better economy to
have less sewerage and more fire en-
gines; that the adoption of measures
for the salvation of property really
saves more lives than those intended
for the preservation of health. The
hundreds of women and children
who spent last night in vacant
lots, covering on the heaps of
rubbish which yet remain to tell the
tale of the fire of 1871, would have
been happier, have slept sounder, and
lived longer, had there been more en-
gines and less sewerage last year.
There have been no great fires since
and yet how quickly the people took
the alarm, once the danger was upon
them. They looked at the rolling
smoke clouds, and the flashing flames,
and then at the omnious pointing of
the steady vanes on the building
above them, and read the danger in a
moment. The tide turned southwark
earlier than its wont. The rush which
usually begins at six began little
after four, and away the people went,
merchants and employees rushing on
till they were checked by the refluX
tide of the sufferers by the cOnflagra-
tion. Their progress was stopped on
State and those Fastening home were
compelled to flank the fire on Michi-
Avenue, or on Clark or Wells streets.
Then began again the dOleful scenes
of other days. The cupidity of dray-
men and expressmen, asleep so long,
sprang once more to arms. From all
quarters of the city they hurried to
the spot to offer their services to those
who were ready to give anything to
save their all. 1t was the golden OPP
portunity they had waited for so long,
and, unhappily, it had come. But the
flames passed beyond the confines of
poverty and shame, and swept east
ward to the stores, eastward to the
dwelling-houses on Wabash and
Michigan Avenues, eastward till it
Tapped its burning tongues in the cool
waters of the lake.
THE ORIGIN.
The fire originated in little low
building that stood next to and ad-
joining the oil factory that stood be-
tween Fourth Avenue and Clark street,
on Taylor street. The building was
inhabited by family of Polish Jews,
who, the neighbors say, but doubtless