The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-08-25
TM PHEHII II sPoklM.
There was No Destination Csased
BY the Fire.
Less Of sig Millions. Hall Isssfed-
8rsxhs onsleek for the City
e ~ Fails.

lie S&eS1srtz
Il la tie first place. il y doubsfni u
anv place OF similar size ever met jas
sster with better powers OF quick re-
covery. There was practically no sur
plus or idle population 10 care for-
/ Owing 70 the construction Of three
new liaes of railroad in the neighbor.
hood n re had been strong demand
for rnu,ou sxpor. and this had taken
os,s Of town several thousand men VINO
might otherwise have been idle and
easily made q baIrdeusouie II mol
dangerous element
More than this, the business men
ana people generally OF Spokane were
exce~dIngly prosperous. There was
an abundance OF money in the COM
muuity. and it was well appertionei
among all classes. Carpenters We're
ALI eusfloyei and making - and SIS !.
( sts5Elersasons we're making 81 a day !,
feainsrsrs we're making 81 day, ana
common laborers we're receiving -
! ana $50 ay-
The conscience of ali this was that
while many we're burned out by the
fire, few were made destitute or
helpless. The relief committee sus-
pended the issuing III tree rations II
The end OF ten DAYS. and never ST any
time had any pressing demDd upon
them. The CITY fegaine. its condition
of norn mai repose AID regularity IN q
wonderfully short space o. time. An
abundance of WORK Was offered 10
everybody at increased wages. Clear
ing away of the ruins and rebuilding
began at once, anu they have been
II srfs ard
rapidiiy that is simply astonishing
and almost bewildering-
Insurance money was promptly
paid. Little or no legal obstacles have
come in the way OF rehabilitation.
believe there has been bur one case of
garnishee following the fire and no
case OF attachment. In one single in
stance 5000 of insurance money was
garnisheed To secure small debt that
has since been settled. There may be
assignments and failures before the
ultimate effects of the hire are gone,
but there is no animation OF them yet.
Prices OF property have been stiifiy
maintained. There have been several
sales at 81 90 per front foot on River
side avenue and other sales on How
ard and Main at 500 and $50 per
front foot. The total sales since the
fire aggregate about $500 nearly
all the transfers having been OF pro-
perry inside the burned district. The
purchases without exception, so far
a. | know, have been made by per-
sons who desire to make substantial
improvements The banks have been
foremost in their movement.
The reports OF loss by the ire were
al first greatly exaggerated. The loss
was about 81. 00. 0Opand the insurance
was almost 80 per cent. of the loss. Ii
was believed at first that three or four
men who had erected expensive
blocks were so badly crippled BY the
fire that they could not rebuild.
This belief has proved To be ground
less in every case The heaviest
single loss was the Frankfurt block,
owned By two mining men,. Goetz and
Baer. Their clear loss was
about $4,000 But they have already
began To prepare for rebuilding and
have completed all the necessary
financial arrangements. The new
Frankfurt will be much the same as
the old one. from which the owners de-
rived revenue in rent OF ys,j,0uo a
year.
Nearly all the standing walls left by
the fire have been pulled or blown
down and the bricks in them cleaned
of and pied up neatly in great pyra-
mids on the streets. Old excavations
have been cleaned out and new foun-
dation walls put in and buildings be-
gun in all directions; l doubt il ever
there occurred in so short time such
transformation from wreck and ruin
To an orderly display of thrift and en-
terprise. 1t looks as though some
magic hand had been laid upon the
scene of desolation and wrought mir
acies at once Riverside avenue pre-
sents a busy q scene as Broadway,
New York. 1t is thronged all day
long with wondering men, loaded wag-
ons, pedestrians, street cars and every
kind of horseback riders and vehicles.
The uncomfortable, sufiocating brick
dust that filed the air for ten DAYS
after the fire has subsidized. The streets
are well sprinkied. tifty-seven blocks
being included in the sprinkIing limit,
and the city of tents is almost as CAV
and dashing as the beloved
Spokane of old. think
such q picture of human
Invincihiiity must have been seldom
seen, even in our own American his
I tory. Such a people are unconquer-
/ able and such people will build great
i city. Ii there has been an impression
I abroad that because Spokane is an in
/ terror point IL will be provincial in its
I final makeup. that impression may or
will he dissipated at once. This city
/ is founded on metropolitan lines, its
people have metropolitan ideas and
aspirations. They grasp the situation
with resolute grip which knows no
ioosening or shaking off, and they
mean To make the most of every OPP
porfunity. With such a people and
( with Seattle and other cities OF Wash
/ ineton in the hands of men of dash
anu enterprise the same as our
/ own, what may We not expect If
Warrington in dozen years. The
+ wheels OF progressive development
turn now with ten-fold the rapidity
they did a quarter OF century ago,
and cliies are now made in the time
required to make villages then.
One OF the results following the fire
here will no doubt he the same a. one
OF the results following the fire i'm
Seattle-betier protection against fire
III the future. Whatever NAV have
been the particular facts concerning
the origin. progress and handling OF
the IRE here. there was needed no fur
Their proof than many already had of
+ the utter incapabliity and inetllcienev
81 the IRE department. There was no
doubt a shortness OF water supply az
the start, but il is Questionable whether
the city would have been saved. even
Il this had not been 50. Every man
here who had seen large fires handled
IN large cities. ielt sll the
time HAT We were al the
mercy 81 the flames, and that il was
only a question OF the extent az the
disaster that would some dav come.
1t might te block or two. il might
he the whole business portion OF the
city. a. II was. There wa no reliable
security against the latter. The inn
potency Of the IRE department MAS
distressing and pissiul 10 behold. The
flrefnen were in earnest and well in
tending enough, bat without leader.
ship, without discipline and without
sufficient appliances. To ee compelled
10 learn such lesson at - fearful a cost
- one 81 the penalties II rapid ievei-
F opFsseEt from river village into a
plsee es city-lske proportions and re-
quirrEnent.. In the eaeeruess of par-
~sais AT. victory the eXustauf vsur.