The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-10-28
A VAST CROWD.
The Alarm Caught the After Tea
StrOllers, and Ten Thousand
Spectators Gathered in
GammontoWn.

F~
the crowd hat turned out. 1t is no
~exaggeration to say that from seven
to ten thousand people thronged the
streets of Gammontown while the
flames scared to the sky.
The alarm just struck the hour
when Newark avenue was ~liveliest.
All the after tea strollers were out.
Men going to their club rooms, to
political meetings, or just walk
ing for the air; women doing
some belated shopping or going
to prayer meeting, or going to
call on a friend, uhronged the
sidewalks from the Ferry to Hender-
son street. The chippies were out in
force and the Washers, though they
did not dare to l.nger on the corners,
wandered up and down and helped
ito keep the streets alive. Everyone
knows that gay hour about eight
A1clock when all down town seems TO
out to enjoy the glare of the
PIC lights and the excitement OF
panorama of faces. Well, that
he hour that caught the alarm.
crowd was at its biggest and the
cement to and fro, the hustle and
eAe enjoyment were at their height.
THE CROWD wAKENED UP.
As the engines came dashing down
Newark avenue and Montgomery
street the crowd all turned one way.
The whole tide flowed towards Gam
montown. At first the motion was
slow. The flames had not yet spread
their terrible glare over the sky, and
just a mild curiosity prompted peo-
pie to fall in the wake of the engines.
The fire was very slow in its develop
ment at first. Even those who got
within a block or two of it sized it up
for a small affair. OF the three or four
thousand people who gathered in the
streets, from Washington to Hudson
street, and from Grand street to the
Gap, pretty nearly half were turning
away with lazy disgust when the ar
zival of the second batch of engines
nd the Patrol Wagon, laden with po-
cemen, induced them to wait and
latch developments.
"A VERY SLOW INDEED.
Even for ten or fifteen minutes
fter that, the proceedings about the
sene of the fire were anything but
xciting. There was not a particle of
anne and hardly a smell of smoke.
he engines stood with steam up but
ply one or two of them kept their
jumps working slowly. For a fire, it
as mighty slow, indeed.
But there was nothing slow about
at crowd. 1t had fun. Every
cond added to its density. On
pey came in streams along Washing
IN, Green and Hudson streets, down
rana and Essex, Morris, and Sussex.
reefs. You could not walka against
le stream. You had to go with it or
It into a doorway and let it flow
asst you.
There were about two thousand
irtations organized, off hand, in that
rowd, and every second man de-
Feloped into an amateur humorist.
The fire was pronouno a misfit and
the fremen were guyed for turning
out just to show themselves off. Girls
! giggled, women gossipped, men joked
and chatted and chewed the ends OF
itheir cigars. The crowd took the
whole situation for a huge joke or
themselves and were getting all the
satisfaction they could out of it. The
early birds had a specially good time
giving the late coniers 'sthe grand
laugh" as they calne up pulling and
blowing after their run.
"A A SUDDEN GLARE.
1t took just ten seconds to revoIu-
~tionize the scene. There was a flash.
a sharp cry from within the fire lines.
a general shout from the crowd, and
every man looked with awe and
amazement into the face of his neigh
lbor as it a lit up with the rudy
$glow that spread over the sky and
turned the night into the semblance