The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1875-12-30
uAnR1soNnuRa IrEms.-op last Thursday

IIARRISoNBURG TENSION last Thursday
evening, about y O'Clock, a destructive fire
broke out in the tin-shop OF N. L. Greiner on
East Market Street, in Harrisonburg, and in
a very short time the flames had communicated
to the adjacent buildings and soon enveloped
them. 1t was at first SUP posed that the fire
had originated from cannon crackers, skyrock-
cts, &C., which were being hurled thro' the air
like meteors, but it was afterwards asce:tained
that it had been started inside Of one Of the
houses. The buildings consumed were the
shop and storeroom OF N, L. Greiner, dwell
ling house owned by A. J. Nicholas and occu-
pied by Mr.. Sheppard as a butcher shop, and
also by two cololed families as dwelling, and
another building belonging to Mr.. Nicholas
and occupied by J. s. Lewis as grocery store.
In addition to these the large ware house of S.
M. & II. C. JONES' occupied as hardware store
by Messrs. Gassman & Treiber was very much
damaged, about one-fourth of the roof being
burnt. Almost all of the goods were saved
i from the flames, but a great deal was stolen
and broken up. All OF the property was fully
insured rs follows: s. M. & II. G. Jones, in .
st,red for $4,000, on building; Gassman & Trei-
Der, $4,000 on stock /; N. T.. Greiner, 1000,
$500 on stock and $500 on building; A. J. Mich
olas, $1,000 on building, and J. S. Lewis $500
on stock. Messrs. Gassman & Treber, Grei-
ner and Nicholas are insured in the Albemarle
Insurance Company. The fire companies had
their engines promptly at the big spring, but
the difficulty seemed to be in getting men to
do the pumping, and although there was no
/ rf ,la in, tba
4 implorng accents, beseecbed the INDECENT by
ISLANDERS to take hand at the engines, still
there didn't seem to be much enthusiasm NAH
Tested in that direction, and some were so
heartless at the remark that if half of the men
who were storming around in the endeavor to
enlist workers would exercise their muscles in
stead of their lungs they would conduce more
to the public veal. Had the night not been
unusually calm the greater part of the business
portion OF the town would probably have been
destroyed. AS it was the people have occasion
to be thankful for this visitation, as it has put
out of the way several old finder boxes which
endangered all the property in the neighbor-
hood. The council should now condemn all
of the building from the Register office to the
corner and I'D to Gassman's store, ON Main ST..
and have them pulled down, or else another
Christmas treat like the one OF 1870 will leave
very little worth saving about the place. We
understand that both Messrs. Nicholas and
Greiner will erect substantial brick buildings
at once, to supply the place Of those burnt.
Whilst engaged in fighting the fire, Mr..
Pinkney Brufey fell through sky-light on
| nj
severely.
On Friday night the young gentlemen gave
a ball at the Spottswood, which was attended
by almost all of the youth and beauty of the
burg, besides good many strangers.
On the same evening the scholars of the
Methodist Sunday School gave series Of beau
, tiful .ableaux in the Church, and on Christmas
morning the scholars OF the Presbyterian Sun
day School had a Christmas tree at the Par
) sonage.
The members of the Catholic congregation
had their recently purchased church appropri-
ately decorated for the Christmas holidays and
mass was held early Saturday morning
An exhibition was given at the Town Hall on
Saturday night by the Principal of the Public
Female Schools, Miss Paul, at which there
were readings, &c., and an address by J. N
Liggett, Esq. The audience Lad assembled to
: witness these exercises on Thursday night, but
the fire caused such general stampede as tc
entirely disnersa ii
q that none were hurt in the confusion, and but
for the presence of mind of one of the gentle
, men, who mounted a seat and told all of the
j, men to get out first, the consequences might
have been distressing to contemplate He
: knew we'll enough that in emergencies woman
display more self possession and pluck, and tina
. knowledge was the tactics by which he pIopo
sed TO relieve the pressure. We might illus
trate the courage Of the weaker sex by giving
a little incident connected with The rush from
the Hall, but then we forbear for the present