Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1889-06-12

q drop Of water could be had to put upon
The fire, and the citizens resigned them
selves 10 see the city blotted out. Tho fire
leaped across Front street at Madison and
caught in the new Opera House, and In
half an hour laid an sntire square across
Front street in ashes. II was th, N ap-.
parent that tho Occidental Hotel must 60,
as well as the most substa gtial buildings
in its neighborhood. BY 4:3o o'clock the
fire had swept over the best dry goods
stores, and all the banks, telegraph Of
fees and newspaper Offices in the city,
and had gone south Of iesler
immense area cove ed with tene.
ments, lodging houses, cheap hotels, rail-
road and steam warehouses, wharves, saw
and planning mills and the whole
sale district Of the town, all built upon
piles and sawdust. Here tho progress of
the fire was terribly rapid. BY 8 o'clock
the whole area OF sixteen squares long
by from three to sir wide, not counting
the long piers on which many OF the
largest warehouses and mills were built,
was involved in flames, which now lit mp
the heavens for many miles.
Etnm heia9 ssAlly frsatic the pvPu3ees
bad become apparently resigned to the
situation. and nearly everybody saw that
he could do nothing to quench the firs,
and coolly turned his attention to saving
az much as po sible of portable property.
The three companies Of militia belong
Ing to the city were called out and put on
guard around the limits Of the fire. Two
or three hundred special policemen were
sworn in to help them maintain order,
The burnt out residents Of the tenement
house district managed to ssve . good
many of their goods, ard With them they
camped down In the streets on vacant
lots. or in the door yards Of more f0rtu-
nate people and MAIDS themselves as
comfortable ., possible for the night.
Dispatches which had been sent 10 Ia.
coma, Olympia, and Port Townse d
brought in some fire apparatus, and many
willing hands to help tight the fumes, but
when they arrived they found that moth
ing could be done except patrol the
streets and protect the thousands Of dol
lars worth Of property that Was exposed.
This they did, finding little 10 do, how
ever, except 70 keep In order the crowds
Of sight-seers which all night long surged
through the btirned rsgion.
All estimates of the loss, Of course, vary
widely. Nobody puts it at less than $lO,-
10000, and some rate II % high a. $780,
OO0, 1000. Among the institutions and
firms burned ont were fve banks, three
theaters, eight agricultural implement
warehouses, eight iron and machine
shops, four newspapere, four large job
printing Offices and binderiss, seven
commiSsion firms, Ave drug stores, two Of
them wholesale, nineteen dry goods,
boot and shoe stores, six Wholesale deal
ere in cigars and confectionery, twelve
furniture dealers, three dealers In general
merchandise, twenty-one groceries, the
best hotel in the city, and at least ten
other. hotels and lodging houses,
one hundred and sixty saloons. four
livery stables, forty msat mar
houses, three lanndsiss, four paint and
oil dealers, ave dealers In musical instru-
ments, the Western Union and Postal
Telegraph ohAcs, the American District
Telegraph Office, and the telephone ONCE,
al the warehouses Of the Columbia and
Puget Sound Steamship Company, thrse
oe Tie o. B. = N. Company, the Seattle,
Lake Shors 4 Eastern Railway Company,
the Canadian Pacihc Dock, and an the
warehouses Of the Northern Pacific Com
pany except one, . large, new one that ID
hardly yst completed.
The strsots Of Ire burnt section this
morning were filled With fallen walls,
columns, end chaffed telegraph poles.
twisted and tangled wires, nnd bent street
railway rails. There was also : vast
amount Of furniture, trunks. and hun
dfeddROf safes rescued from the burning
offices, al Of which stood In the open
street all night long, With nobody oder.
inR 10 molest them. The b M vau.t,
have been examined, And found TO be al