Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-13
TOXIC FLAME SWEPT.
Japan's Bamboo Built Capital Visited
by a Confagration and
ONE HUNDRED LIVES ARE LOST.
Six Thousand Houses Destroyed in the
Poorer Fart Of the City.
ONLY ONE OF A SCORE OF DISASTERS
rnY CABLE TO THE p1spArcH.1


LONDON, April 12.-Advices from Japan
report that Toxic, the capital Of Japan, has
been visited by most disastrous fire. in
volving great loss of life. The origin of the
fire is not announced, but it appears to have
spread with great rapidity in the older and
more poorly built section Of the city, and
did not cease until about 5000 houses were
destroyed, making many thousands Of peo-
pie homeless. The police and the fire de-
partments Of Toxic did excellent work, and
succeeded in preventing. extended damage
to the new and better built portions of the
capital.
The loss of life was chiefly due to the
efforts of the natives to save their effects.
Many of the people remained in their
dwellings until the last moment gathering
their belongings for flight and were
caught by the flames, which licked up the
unsubstantial structures like paper. The
fremen found great difficulty in fighting
the flames, owing to the half-crazed be-
hav1or OF the people. The number of dead
Is probably 100.
Toxic, Japan's Greatest City.
Toxic, the capital of Japan, is city Of
about l, ,25O, 900 of inhabitants, and, with its
suburbs, covers over go square miles of
ground. The more compact part of the city
covers about 80 square miles. It is in the
eastern part of the main island of the Japa-
nese group, the Island of Hondo, at the
head of the bay Of Yeddo, and on both sides
of the Todagawa or Ogava river. The city
is built for the greater part on broad plain,
and yet there are many little hills and de-
pressions covered with bamboo and pine.
A great part of the area OF the city is
taken up with gardens, temples and sacred
groves, and Sir Edwin Arnold finds one of
Tokio's chief charms in the fact that one
may live in the city and yet have green
gardens and verdant scenery all around.
The city is also intersected by network of
canals and cut up By numbers of moats.
Toxic is divided into three districts. Siro
the Imperial citadel surrounded by stone
walls and moat; Soto-Siro, "outside the
CITADEL" also surrounded by stone walls
and moat; Midi, ''outer pafts," beyond
which there is yet another system Of
defenses
The City Growing European in Style.
Outside of this latter district there are
miles and miles of built-up strests filled
with all manner of buildings, great many
in the European style of architecture. The
city has changed very much in the last five
or ten years, and every year brings more
and greater changes. Old buildings are
torn down and new ones, generally of
European architecture and fire proof con-
struction, are built in their place, and the
streets are made more regular and are much
widened. The streets Of the modern Toxic
are regular, wide and remarkable clean.
There is an abundant supply of excellent
water, and the city is well policed and well
governed.
: There are still, however, large parts Of
Toxic where the buildings are of the light
est, fimsiest construction, mere bamboo
shells, where the houses are crowded to-
gether In a most compact mass, barely sepa-
rated by the narrowest of streets and lanes.
1t is in one Of these sections where the fire oc-
Cured.
Toxic has been the victim of great fires.
and on more than one occasion the city, or
Yeddo, as it was known until few years
ago, has been completely destroyed in this
way. In fact, the history of the city has
been one succession of earthquakes, fires,
typhoons, epidemics, floods and drouths
Tokio's Last Great Fire.
The last great fire in Toxic was on April
8. 1872, when fire which started inside the
Castle circuit leaped wall and moat, and IN
FIVE hours swept The city clean to the bay.
Five thousand houses and hundreds of
temples were destroyed, and all the foreign
hotels we're left in ashes. But the city was
rebuilt on modern plan. Prof. Yamakawa
worked out the mean path Of fires in the
city from date extending back 200 years,
and the authorities compelled the people in
certain districts to substitute tiles, zinc and
tin for shingles in roofing their houses. A
very efficient fire brigade was also organ
lied, and every possible precaution taken to
prevent disastrous fires
In 1901 the entire city was left in ashes.
The great palace of the Sho-Gun, the Gov
ernment of Yeddo and of Eastern Japan,
was several times completely destroyed and
rebuilt, and was destroyed the last time in
1868. The Mikado's palace, the Palace of
Nishi-Maru, was destroyed in 1873.
The City's Sad Disasters.
In 1857 the great fire of Mei-Reki oc-
Cured, in which 800 mansions, 700 villas,
$50 temples and ], 200 streets of houses were
destroyed. About 107, ,046 persons are said
to have lost their lives in this fire. In 1868
the city was again almost completely de-
stroyed, and also in 1702 and in 1908. The
greatest fire in Toxic or Yeddo in modern
times was in 1845, when several hundred
lives were lost.
In 1908 o great earthquake killed 1000
people in Yeddo. An epidemic in 1878 car
ried off 1907 900 of the city's population.
November II. 1855, the greatest of its earth
quake disasters occurred, when IA, 900
dwelling houses and more than 10000 fire.
proof ''go-downs" were thrown down, and
the reports of loss of life was about 100, 600.