The herald., 1894-01-10
WORLDS FAIR CONGREGATION
Regret Felt at the White
City's Doom.
The Beautiful Court of Honor Sadly
Disfigured.
French, Belgian and Russian Exhibits
Badly Damaged by Wster-The
Flames Not Suhdued TIL
Early Morning.

BY the Associated Press.
CHICAGO, Jan. 9.-Various were the
expressionssto be heard today wherever
citigens congregsted, in regard to the
fire at the worlds fair last night. The
first feeling this morning when most
of the inhabitants first learned Of the
confagratien from the morning papers,
metry of the marvelously beautiful court
of honor should have been marred by
the red-tongued fend, whose malice
has henetofore brought sorrow ana
suffering to Chicago. Many 9th
ers took a more philosophical view
of the situation, saying the fire but an
ticipsted the work which time would
have as surely done. Still 9TH
ers expressed the wish, barring
the fact that the exhibits were not all
removed, that the flames had been given
their will without let or hindrance. and
that they might have swept the grounds
from end to end, including the midway,
leaving nothing behind them ex-
cept ashes and the indestructible
portion of the great exposition. So
examplsd in the magic of its rearing
and unmatched in its supernat.
ural beauty, its end would
have been equally unparalleled
and its grandeur would have been treas
ured in memory, unblemished by the
gnawing tooth OF time instead OF falling
apart piece by Ipiece and becoming a
melancholy reminder of vanished love-
illness.
A SCENE OF DESoLATIoN.
The scene at the eastern end OF the
court of honor this morning was one Of
utter desolsticm and destruction.
Where at sunset. last night cleaned the
white columns of the peristyle, fanked
bv music hall and the casino, and
capped and ornamented by the imposing
ouadriga over the central arch and rows
of figures along its cornice, the
peristyle wac no more, and music
hall and the casino heaps of
ashes. Save for-the great golden statue
OF the Republic, standing in unmoved
majesty at the eastern end of the basin,
the view, from tine grand plaza in front
of the administration building, be-
tween the agricultural build
ing on one sisls and the great
manufacturers hall on the other, out
over the blue walters of Lake Michigan
was unobstructed and what was yester-
day perfect archi tectursl whole was now
an unsightly andl sorrowful aggregation
of unbalanced architecture. Thus
does one little change mar the symme-
try OF the artistic whole. Thus is
shown with what inspired knowledge of
artistic unity the builders of the worlds
fair worked. The beauty of the grand
court is completely taken away, as an
| artistic whole, anal plans for its preserva-
tion are put completely to rout, unless
it shall be dssermined to rebuild the
destroyed portion, thing not at all
likely.
THE INsATIATE FLAMES.
But the famsN did not stop at the
peristyle, music hall and casino. They
leaped to the worlds fair giant, the
great arched hall of manufac-
lures and liberal arts, and be-
fore, with most strenuous efforts,
the fire department was enabbed to
check them in eating away the lofty
roof, vast hole WAS made therein,
and fire brands from above
falling upon the boxed and Grated goods
below, together with thousands of tons
OF water, did vast amount of damage.
One of the great arched girders, forming
the largest span of any building in
the world, overheated by tapping
tongues OF fiame, buckled and fell to the
floor below, crushing the beautiful
French pavilion, in which were housed
what remained,of it's valuable exhibit.
The damage to the manufacturers
building ia mostly confined to the south
half of the roof and to the exhibits yet
unremoved beneath that portion. Over a
space OF 500 feet on the east side and 800
feet on the west eide the root is entirely
burned away. Beneath this portion
were the French, Belgian and Russian
exhibits, and they suffered most
TIE LOSS ON EXHIBITS.
1t is impossible as yet to estimate the
loss on exhibits, as they are all boxed
and will have to be unpacked before il
can be known what damage was done
by water to textiles and by breaking te
ceramics and othey fragile ex-
hibits in the work of hasty removal
The heaviest lose, however, is in the
French section, whose exhibit was orig
inally worth million and half dol
ldtds aAuUHA tio lOoScb III tAdA ncCLlOI
are the bronze status OF war, the Sevres
china exhibit. the Gobelin tapestry ex
hibit. mosaic and inlaid furniture ex
nibit, Dore bronze wage, costume exhibit
and French publishera' exhibi&.
2, The French commissioners and speeia
agents. appraise the total loss in theil
section at $50.000
THE LOSS ON BUILDINGS.
The loss on the burned buildings il
total, IS the insurance had expired
The manufactures building cost 81 ,700,.
600; music hall, 100000; the casino,
S20O,000 the peristyle, $150,O00
These fgures, however, cannot be taken
in estimating the value of the DESTROYED
buildings. as they were practically
worthless. the cost of demolition
and removing in the case oi
all except the manufacturers
building, being equal to, if not greater
than the saieable value, and the value o.
the manufactures building is chief,
confined to the great steel arches which
with the exception of the one mentioned.
are still intact.
1t was about 8 O'Clock this morning
before the fire was thoroughly under
control, and firemen continued on duty
many hours longer, turning streams up.
on the smoking or glowing timbers here
and there to guard against the possibil-
ity of renewed outbreaks.