West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1879-05-17
= fire la China.

\ person who was present at the late
fire In Hong Kong, China, says: 81
trust never To see such "A sight again
The long road shaded with trees lead
Ing from our part of the town To the
populous part, was alive with Chinese
carving their goods, women huddled
together over beds. baskets, stools,
| clothes, Crockcry ything and every
thing In the way OF personal goods
Small-tootcd women tottcred along.
held up 10y their children while others
bore some good bit of bronze or some
family treasure Several sewing ma
chimes lay on the road, aud met SUI
perb American piano carried along
Sick people borne past I'm blankets t1ld
us that the hospital was on lire. Sun
we made our way To the front, through
the smoke, up street of small houses.
mostly those of small Pqrsec merchants
who were budding out bales OF cotton.
silks, embroidcrics, framed pictures.
etc, while so great was the mass OF
broken looking glasses that walking
became difficult. At last we reached
the Gordon of soldiers and beyond IL "A
blazing mass was all that remained of
the civil hospital and eight other large
houses. The governor and general
stood there; and the governor said 10
me, ~ had to blow IL up to save the
jail;' and then he whispered, God
knows what We may have 20 do; there
are nearly one thousand prisoners. ="
Now came the shrill blast of the bugle
"Stand back ALL" out came from the
smoke the engineer officers, hnvin. lust
laid the charges To blow up the rear OF
the hospital, which adioined the iail-
yard. Another explosion of bricks
blazing bits of rattcr, IA shower of
sparks and binding smoke and "A gor-
geOus cloud of Colored fame showed
the drugs stored I'm the hospital were
alight Then came IA commotiOn which
| did not understand. Soldiers marched
up, fresh cries were raised aud "A stran-
stand up on the rise of the hill. for thry
are about to bring out the prisoners, "
IL was like the riot scene i'm ''Barnaby
Rudgc." could hear the order "nx
bayoncts," and then down through the
crowd and dust tramped the soldiers.
| with about one hundred hancuiIed crca-
lures I'm their midst. When y and |
returned we followed the governor
through the back entrance i'm the iail,
passing through the central police sta
tion, where the inspectors who are
married men, have large quarters
| Here English furniture, books, orna-
mcnts, dresses lay about drenched with
water. The governor of the Jail told
told me that the jail was saved by the
blowing up of the civil hospital, but
that the danger then was from the po-
lice station stables. Very soon they
were gallantly broken open, principally
| by sailors, and huge piles of hay
handed from man To man and thrown
down the steep streets and that night
many homeless Chinese were cuddled
under the hay. Now the block of build
ings In front of the Oriental bank was
to be blown up. i fastened thither
through never-cnding scene of dis
tless, to find the bank hung over with
| the handsome carpets soaked with wa
t'is 'Ithlh upOIH pa JcI were Dclng
| packed In safes, bank notes I'm fire.
| proof boxes, and so sent down TO the
| harbOr escorted by soldiers and placed
In steam launches. ! watched the
blowing up of Ross tailoring establish
mcnt, a fine block Of buildings. Sew
eral iifty-pOund charges Of powder
were laid, the buglc sounded again and
| Ross ceased TO exist. This however
| saved our end of the town. Words
cannot tell the scene In Queens road
one OF the sights Of the city, for here
are (Or rather wereJ the curiosity or
! bird shops. The place was deeply lit
tered with broken glass and shattered
vases, burning silks and gauzes, smash
ed worries, lovely lacquer cabinets In
! fragments. ! tumbled over "a lot Of
! harcs, ducks, geese, phcasantS, etc,
| the whole Of u poultercr's stock. The
fire brigade, mostly volunteers, were
! still working, looking thoroughly cx-
| hausted. Before one shop an Irish lad
| declared he could not let the birds be-
burned alive; and though he was
warned that flfty-pOund charge was
| In the house, he dashed i'm, broke open
| the bird cages with his axe, and flock
| Of little cauaries was all over Queen
! road iu less than five minutes. BY six
! O'Clock In the evening all was over,
! smouldering ruins and falling walls
! only left