The New York herald., 1877-09-04

been raging for some time within, to those the out
sidc these tho first moments OF The fire. The
conaasra:ion at its height and nothing could
stop Il In its maddening course. IL was "a
grand sight--too grand almost for tho power
of pen TO picture. At instant the many
wndowod building stood peaceful aud sercne
Ia tho morning sunlight and The next columns Of
flame shot out from every window aud meeting each
other lifted themselves up in one mighty embrace and
held over the doomed edice a dome oil fire. oulrival.
ling in spcndor the domo Of ST. Peters itself In
these few minutes-mInutes OF destruction of despair
OF death, OF iruess efforts to life and property
aud OF desperate attempts az escape the flame got the
mastery, and all that followed were only tho Sc.
qucpccs Of the tragedy.
EccEyTRIcIrEs THE SCENE.
On the opposite side of ThIrty.nth street wore
tenement houses which have already been referred
to- Even when IL was known that tho piano ia ctory
ire IL feared that any damage would
to them. But the wind which at the time
blew halt gale from the west, shifting now driv
ing the flame way and then another and flaming
the grand dance OF fire above into solid of heat
that could be almost well as felt The whole
mass would bo lifted into the air like Of namo
reared and upheld by omnip potent hand and, bend
ing again toward the earth II would kiss the roofs
adjacent buildings and leave behind II in living embcrs
tha baptism OF its touch. Sweeping 10 the north II
shot dart OF fro through the tenement houses in
Thiry-sx;n street, and, bending low down TO the
ground, licked up the shan,tcs the rocks In that
thoroughfare dog would lap up the crumbs which
fall from his masters table Sweeping 10 the cast it
enveopcd everything that stood between 1t and
Tenth avenue and gashed tho buildings in tha,
street with its iorKca tongues Of fire Sweeping tho
fall mantle Of rage upon of
McMasters and McCoy's and Devil S tenement houses
the opposite side Of ThirtyGlih street, driving the
inmates Of the tenements and factories into the street
homeless, and without the opportunity OF earning
another home instead Of the that lost. The
awiulness Of the connagration had asserted itself in
another iorm tor not fewer than $50 families had
nowhere to lay their heads Another panic ensucd,
and frantic efforts, as wild and ungovernabe the
fame itself. made TO something from tho
wreck Men and women and children rushed to and
fro--mothers with their babes in their arms, little grs
saving their dolls from destruction with the
or parents for their children carrying out arti.
cles Of little value and forgetting those Of the greatest
importance. One man saved his bed and his clock
forgot his watch $40 gold piece aud SAL in green
backs. woman saved her jewelry and her bonnet,
but forgot her dresses and her shawl. The eccan.
tricities OF tho people were even moro remarkable
than tho eccentrcties OF the fire. for the first half
hour 1t II tho raging rocks and shiverng
shocks rhibbus' car had been hurled against
offending neghborhood. maddening tho people while
their homes destroyed by the dcvouring flames
Of y consuming sun.
THIRTY-sIxTH STREET
The scene Thirty sixth not less fright
ful and stirred the stoutest heart though
the heart OF fireman. Being early hour thou
sands were quickly on the spot, and many of them
which they will not forget Tor lifetime
The smoke fingered as If it were pail waiting TO pay
tribute to the deaths SO soon to follow. The mems
faces that appeared In the topmost windows away up in
the sixth and seventh stories from which dc ah
to jump and where It death to stay, had already
been seen. An old officer Of tho department.,
who the first 10 arrive Thirty-sixth
street, looking UP, exclaimed "My God, see
that mans hands clasped in prayer!' Aasl It was
too true Every window seemed to DO filed with the
pac earnest desperate faces OF clanbering over
each looking vainly for the succor that
was not in human power to give A minute more and
they fell back overpowered, sufocated, dead Some
jumped, but It was only to como down with dull thud
the hard sidewalk, pulp, OF broken bones,
with blood gushing from tho mouth and nose, more
masses Of unrecogn izablo humanity. The city ambu
ances came, gathered the poor romans and droye
them to the Morgue Others, in their agony TO escape
attempted slide iown tho wnter pipes. bus uetore
reaching the ground found their hands burned by
the scorchng metal that they preferred mutaton
pain, and, letting so, dropped to the pavement
wounded and insensible.
II was impossible to all incidents OF this char
acer the moment but it easy TO read eloquence
the eyes and the lips Of the bcgrimed lire cap
tains they described in their rude nervous way
the pictures which they saw-that which horr1ed
them, of tumblins front OF huge edi6ce with its
OF hungry suppliants for help gcsticulating
wildly from every window.
rEyEMENrs.
Meanwhile the flames had leapcd across the street
among the tencments, among the women and children
whose husbands anu fathers had gone 10 work at an
early hour aud were all unconscious OF the
danger that raging around their homes.
Children, too had g0no school only to
come back and nnd ruins ana missing parents and
spend their grief In tears The neat was intense.
Everything was dry and combustlble. No water!
The frcmcn absolutely cursed in their impatiencc.
Wherever a flame touched " seemed to rest Ninth
avenue and Eighth avenue tapped; steamers
were throbbng everywhere, but not until tho lire
boats Fuller and Havcmeyer arrived at the docks on
the Hudson fifteen hundred two feet away
from the scene 0f disaster, anything like com.
petent streams thrown on the burning mass. Then II
was salt water through probably six thousand feet
OF hose The fault was not with the men at work,
for they fought like heroes. They faced
battery the ferceness OF which scarcely
gave them chance 10 unlimber their own
guns in the battle before they were driven hastily
from the field. AS one brave fellow, SO black with
cinders that you could scarcely tell him from negro
said to tho rer:--"Thcre Grc to tho right of US
lro to the lot, fire all around hardly knew how
going get out ana 1t was only sheer good luck
that enabled rs to save apparatus" The scenes
and incidents cannot be gathered in single grasp.
They belong to tho details that will DO found else.
where. How the corpse OF poor woman, who had
died OF cancer just before lhe fire. was removed
IRON tho death chamber while thick volumes of
smoke were pouring into n; how women ana
children clambcrci down lire escapes all affrighed;
how others with stolid Indifference, as il thoy
dazcd, hands aid every household favor
Ito which old associations had made precious; how
men watched every iamo as If IT had tigcr's lilo
roaring It's prey, creeping and crcep pg there
laDpinp homo and siuess spot growing hoter and