The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1877-03-01
BURNING OF FOXS THEATRE IN
PHILADELPHIA.
ROGERS CARRIAGE WAREHOUSE DAMAGED
FIRE PATRoLMEN HURT-A BRAVE MANS
SToRY-FoXs FIRE RECORD.
PHILADELPHIA Feb. &c. 1877.


PHILADELPHIA Feb. 26, 1877.
Yesterday morning, at about twenty
minutes to ] o'clock, the few stragglers on
Chestnut street in the neighborhood of
Eleventh were startled by the cry of "FireI'
This terrible exclamation, which always
comes as shuddering sound, of fear in the
night, was made doubly appalling by the
fact that the alarm emamated from Fox's
Theatre, an immense structure we'll known
to Philadel phiaus, and from which had
poured scarcely more than an hour before
a mass of youthful pleasure seekers, Hard
ly had the alarm been sounded in the vic
Unity, and the Central Station informed by
telegraph of the fire, than dense volumes
of smoke and forked flames burst through
the roof in the northeast corner of the
building and shot up into the dull sky,
making the floating masses Of heavy clouds
seem like rolling ocean of lurid flame.
Soon the deserted streets were filed with
crowds of excited spectators every adja-
cent alley poured forth It's inhabitants, and
citizens from every direction hurried to the
scene of the confagration. The vicinity
was soon blockaded by engines and ladder
policemen and the Fire Patrol,
every man trying to do his duty to stay
THE MARCH OF THE DEvOURING ELEMENT.
On Eleventh street, between Chestnut
and Marble, all was confusion and hustle.
Men carrying out household effects and
valuablcs, weeping women with frightened
children in their arms, and the rushing
fremen made up scene as stirring as 1t
was sad. On Chestnut street the proprie-
tors and employees in the different stores
and saloons on each side of the theatre en-
trance were in a state of wild dread and ex-
element. The valuable paintings in the
room of the Neptune Club were carried out
to place Of safety. Men hurried along,
bearing in their arms loads of cigars and
liquors, whilearound the Mercantile Library
an anxious crowd watched, with painful
solicitude, the safety ofits valuable contents
The efforts, however, Of the fremen were
for q long time in vain; it seemed only a few
moments before the roof Of the theatre fell
in, and then the firemen and spectators who
happened to be near were treated TO grand
spectacle Through the sheet OF fame and
curtain Of pyrotechnic sparks the vast gilded
galleries were seen for an instant, and then
they fell with a crash that echoed for many
squares. In the meantime, light north
west wind was blowing, and great masses
of burning wood and cinders were thrown
into the air as if from the crater Of vol
cano in mild eruption.
THE FIREMEN AND FIRE PATROL.
The attention OF the fremen was now
directed to saving the adjoining buildings
and through the smoke and fame they
we're seen on adjacent roofs, nobly perform
in@ their perious work The Fire Patrol
too. deserve the greatest praise and not
inferior to the fremen did they prove them
selves, for where the post Of danger was
there they were to be found.
At about ten minutes past one the north
or rear wall Of Fox's Theatre fell with
laundering crash outwards and directly
upon the rear Of the building Of the Mer-
camille Library, smashing in the great sky
light and setting fire to the building. Now
was the critical moment. Masses Of burning
embers were carried to the cast and north
east, threatening destruction to all the
buildings in those directions. The roof,
Of Il dozen houses were on fire at one time,
and the energies Of the fremen and patrol
seemed unayalling to prevent general con-
hdgration, but at this juncture it was seen
Of what service one really fre-proof build
ing in a neighborhoOd can be The wall
Of the New York Mutual Life Insurance
Company building.
STOOD LIKE A BATTLEMENT.
at the corner Of Tenth and Chestnut streets,
and the burning debris dashed itself against
it in vain, but the building to the west of
it, and lower in height-the carriage ware
house of W. ID. Rogers-received the whole
mass of burning lances that glanced off
from the shield Of its neighbor, and in "a
few minutes the factory and storerooms
were in flames.
In the endeavor to fight the fire here
and to save the property several painful ac-
cidents occurred to members of the Fire
Patrol 1t was not until nearly D o'clock
in the morning that the fire was subdued
and the damage to the various buildings
could be reckoned. Times.