The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1878-12-28

companies, VINO lNcfc promptly on lHc
ground, commenced playing upon them. 1t
was out of the question tosavc the building;
but Notwithstanding is close proximity to
other buildings Of II tcndcrish nature, but
little damage from the fire was sustained
elsewhere. The ncighboring buildings were
hurdcdly Quilted OF their contents; but the
actual loss, aside from that sustained by Mr..
Baltrcy, was inconsdcrabc---n exceeding,
probably, $50 or N'j to each family. Mr.
Balfrcy was not at home at the time Of the
outbreak Of the fire, else the alarm might
have been given earlier, His loss, including
furniture, etc, will reach five osiy hundred
dollars, and we are told that he had no IN
surancc. Mr., B, has the hearty sympathy
Of our citizens. He Is II poor man, and this
los, of his home, following so closely upon
the heels Of severe domestic alilicton, will
tall upon him very heavily,
We are reminded every day Of our
lives that each Of us, as an individual part
of the sum total Of humanity, figure but US
an Insignificant atom. We sicken, die are
hustled out Of sight, somebody SORROWS
awhile, and then we are forgotten. Could
the fifty or sixty citizens who died If yell
low fever-thc peers Of their survivors see
the city and all the business and social
machinery that constitutes it, moving on
the same as if they had never existed, they
might, for Il tme give way to paroXysm Of
set-depreciation. Bat Us with them. so it
will be with all Of us. We may think that
we fairly shake the earth as we walk, and
that our death would create void in the
intellectual, social and business world that
could scarcely be supplied. We think this,
most of us; but should we, latter passing
in our checks" happen to come to life III
our collins. who can say that we would not
find ourselves the tenant of pine box,
humping and bouncing about in dump
cart, with appeared mule and whistling
negro as the motive power on our way to
the seven mile grave yard! The world is
made up of entirely too many people for one
poor creature to command much attention;
and if any Of our vain, self-lnilated fellows
would enjoy hearty surprise over the vast
difference in the estimation they put upon
their own merits and the estimate at which
the world holds them; they need but run
for an office that somebody else would like
TO have, or die In either case, if they are
notincurable asses, they will be struck dumb
with surprise at their conSummatc littleness
And the same rule holds good if applied to
matters of more material nature. Only
few weeks ago our city was panic stricken;
thousands fed beyond its limits for safety;
perhaps hundred sickcncd and n half
hundred died, To-day we estimate that oc-
currence as a matter of but little moment
and rarely give it thought Those who
fell are scarcely ever missed except in the
bercavcd home circle, and the city moves
on, the same as if they had never lived.
All the marks Of the epidemic have been
removed, and, as u community we no long
cr think Of it as Il dread terror or terrible
affection. Upon our business, upon values,
upon rents, upon our socisl relations it has
left no visible impress; and no one would
infer, from appearances as they now present
themselves, thai Cairo ever tc.t, even then
slightest touch, of the great epidemic.
such experiences ar0 speedily forgotten,
and it is well for Us that they are. 1t is the
torgttluiness that gives place to the spirit
that builds up the waste places in the world
as well as in our individual organlsms-the
spirit that built mp great cities in the south,
where tenacious, unmodfed memory of suf-
| fcring and death, would have left but gloom
and dcsolation. The shadow Of our late
affection fingers in the homes Of those who
were directly bercaved but with the com
munity--thc great body of the busy, hust-
ling money-making, business pushing pco-
pie, the shadow has followed the substance,
and the city moves on in its accustomed
pace.
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