Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-10-31
pam That IL wouIu not De needed long.
In 1 he Railway Yards

In the Railway Yards.
80 hot was the fire that the heavy steel
rails OF the tracks on the railways had been
bent ana twisted like reeds In one place a
carload of butter had softened and sunk
into great pile and in another lay a pile
or geese ana chickens cooked to turn
without dressing. Looking south and west
the eye takes in the wholesale district
while eastward, toward the lake, a long
line OF crum ling, smoking walls marks
the site of the big Northwestern railway
freight depot, which, together with 300
cars, went u in flame and smoke. On
East Water street, where the fire started, a
row of smoking shells remained, but from
Broadway east for blocks the ground bears
the appearance of having been smitten by
a cyclone.
Scene in the Burned District.
The scene in the burned district is desola-
ton itself \ lurid glare from the still
burning ruins at blight lit up the heavy
clouds of smoke and cast funeral pafI
over the entire city. Twelve blocks were
entirely wiped ont, while five or six more
have great ugly holes eaten in them by the
Games. One hundred acres of ground is
covered with charred ruins and piles of
blazing debris Fifteen hundred people
were made homeless and destitute. One
thousand men are thrown out of employ
ment. Such is the brief story of the fiery catas-
trophe, which will forever stand as a GRIM
son landmark in the history of Milwaukee.
The banners of flame which flashed across
the forefront of the fair city will be to her a
memory that VIII draw every class together
III the ties of humanity, so close upon the
heels of disaster followed the open arm of
charity. ~
Where the Fight Was Fiercest.
Where the battle had been fiercest. and
where it was won by skill and bravery,
stood Ferneke's great factory and Weissel
& Viiler's big machine shops. They had
been blown up with dynamite to check the
southwark march of the flames. A mass
OF pipes and engines and wheels tossed into
ineXtricable confusion as if by an earth
quake marked the spot. Here it was that
Chief Foley made his stand against the red
demon that was slowly carving its way
through walls of masonry toward the river
Here it was that at midnight he wished,
like Wellington, that morning or Hubbard
would come Hubbard and his brave Chi
cago fire brigade appeared on the scene, and
We're quickly deployed around the Ferneke
factory. The battle was speedily won. The
flames were beaten to a standstill, and Mil
waukee was saved.
In the Wooden Dwelling Region.
From Milwaukee street to the North
western freight yards, w here wooden dwell
ings stood as closely together they could
be built, is an apparently endless success
sion of smoking cellars ard nothing else.
All that was left of the houses are little
piles of brick in the alleys. with here and
there a battered stove or burned and
twisted sewing machine to show that they
had once been occupied. Pitiful scenes
were witnessed in this locality. Hundreds
of tear-stained women and little crying
children wandered disconsolately anon:
the smoking embers hunting for some
keepsake of the home that was no more
Poor little children, whose pinched faces
betokened hunger and cold, and adown
whose smoke-begrimed cheeks the tears
had marked many burrows
Losses of 500, 600 and Upward.
The losses of 81, 900, 900 aud upward are:
Bubb & Kipp. furniture, 100000; J. f.
Patton 81 Co, oils and paints, $3.50 GEO: b.
Leidersdorf. tobacco, $3.50, 600; Roundy.
Peckham & Co, wholesale grocers, $780,
600; H. Sheftels 81 Co.. wholesale grocer.,
500, 900; J. Wellauer & Co., wholesale
grocers, S2o0O00: Milwaukee Chair COM
pany, s250.Ooo; H Reidberg & Son,
vinegar works. 5000 Hansen Malt
company, $6OO.lO0; Milwaukee Gas
works, $500, 900; f. p. Dohnen e. Co,
drugs, partial loss, 1856, 900; Weisel
G. Viler. machinery, 500, 200; Inbush Bros,
wholesale grocers, s250,OOO. The insurance
is less than half, and the companies will
stand the loss all right.