Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-07
FROM CURB AND CORRIDOR.

The Picturesque Side of the Big Fire-Ons
Of Its Lessons-A Great Hunter Is Oddly
AIlied-The Grips Reappearance-Au
Ode to May.
The scene when ths Seventh street fire was
at its height, viewed from the north side of the
Allegheny, was beautiful and terrible in q
wonderful degree. The sky was cloudy and
carried the reflection of the intensely white
flames for miles around. The lower part of
Pittsburg could be as plainly seen as by day.
and you could read a newspaper on the north
end of the Sixth street bridge without strain
ing your eyes. When Christ Church spire
caught and the jets of fame circled about it.
above the waves of fire in the crater formed by
the totter1ng walls of the cold storage build
ing, the climax was reached. Since the night
when the flagstaff and harp on the top of the
Hamilton building blazed for moment before
1t fell, meteor-like, into the abyss of smoke
and fame, no such picture >has fire painted in
Pittsburg. The heat from the burning butter
and oils was SO intense that it could be felt as
far away as the middle span of the Sixth street
bridge, and the glare was SO brilliant that spec
tators block distant could not gaze steadily
at the scene for more than few seconds. An
other feature upon which Chief Evans and his
gallant men congratulated themselves yester-
day was that the falling walls injured no one
The walls fell suddenly, and to the spectators
who were denied clear view Of Seventh street
it seemed impossible that the fremen could
have escaped, and groan Of horror went up
groan that carried a chill to the heart
The conhagration would not have been
stayed at the church and college If the wind
had been more westerly, for then the flames
would have easily leapt the narrow bounds of
Eighth street and seized upon the temptingly
wide windows OF the lofty Arbuthnot building,
from which again it is easy to be seen the IRE
might have crossed Penn avenue and found
rich food on all sides. Another fortunate
thing was the audience at the Bjou Theater
was out before the fire began and at the
Duquesne Theater the play had just ended.
A Lesson of the Fire.
surely no better argument for the union of
P1ttsburg and Allegheny has been advanced
than that which the big fire last night indirectly
furnished" said Pittsburg fire insurance
man yesterday. IT the two cities had been
under one government at least two FIRE com.
panies from Allegheny would have reinforced
the Pittsburg contingent on the first alarm,
and every engine in Allegheny could have been
massed upon the scene at least half an hour
before the most remote Of the Pittsburg en-
gines-the East Enders-were able to get in.
1t is to De supposed that the Allegheny fire
X
desperate emergency. and Pittsburg would
do the same under like circumstances, but the
real need Is of speedy concentration of forces
TO combat the fire in its first stages, before 1t
becomes unmanageable. An Allegheny engine
did good service at the Hamilton building fire,
but as l have said, under the existing division
OF what is really one city into two parts adds
greatly to the danger Of both sections in the
face of large fire like Tuesday nights"
Hunter and Taxidermist.
Il have never known a man who enjoyed life
so much as hunter 1 met out in Colorado
some years ago." said Charles Clavering, of
Denver, to me in the Hotel Anderson lobby
yesterday. he was a Pennsylvania, by the
way; came from Center county. think, where
his parents must have been well-to-do people,
for they'd given him college education.
When met him in Summit comfy, Colorado.
he was in partnership with taxidermist, and
their method of business was to 60 out and
shoot as many elk, bear and other game mar
ketable for their skins and then return to
town, prepare the skins and ship them
East, where they always found a ready
sale. The curious feature Of the alliance
was that the hunter. whose name was William
son, followed the life he did out of pure love
for nature and had no interest in the outcome
of the ta1idermist's operations. Williamson
was dead shot; never missed anything he aimed
at, in fact. One day when was with the party
he shot four bears before notwithstanding of iti
He came upon the bears sporting en- famfne IN a
creek. Two of the grizzlies were full grown,
and these and two cubs he killed in four shots
while two escaped. That was the sort of
shot he wasI" .a.5..
La Grippe Again.
doctor with wide practice in both cities
said to me yesterday: "The extraordinary
change in the temperature which began on
Sunday has brought back la grippe to some ex-
tent, and retarded the recovery of the hundreds
who suffered earlier in the winter. There Is
reason to hope that the weather will change for
the warmer before the disease gets good hold
of the community again. And 1 believe that
the cold weather we are having is not half as
productive of sickness as spell of rain and
raw winds would be-"
May, Out of Sorts.
There was month of flowers
many years ago
When poets sang of bowers,
But now they sing of snow.
There was month when Cupid,
In very slight attire,
Flew 'round-he IS not so stupid
To-day to leave the fire.
Our grandpapas remember
tn I'M wit