St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-07-06


,a Food for tho Flames-several
gog, Narrow Escapes.
|. CHICAGO, July 5.-The Worlds CO.
lumbar exposition is billowy sea of
white ashes, calclned staff and twisted
steel girders.
The stately administration building,
the architectural crown Of the White
City, with its decorated dome, Its sup
porting pavilions, enriched with statu-
airy; the ornate, though majestic, agri-
cultural building, with its tinted
ana decorated colonnades, its
beautiful statutes of abundance,
Its Zodiacal circles upheld on the aims of
FEMALE figures. representing the races
OF man. and flattened dome surrounded
by decoration of turkey cocks with
spreading tails. above which once
wheeled st. Gaudeus' beautiful fig
ure of Diana. the cbaste; the beautiful
palace OF mechanic arts, with its lofty
fiuted Corinthian colonnades, its superb
circular porched entrance and Its figure
tipped spires; the light and
airy electricity building. with its
open roof lanterns. its curvilinar
recessed entrance where erstwhile
stood the statue of Benjamin Franklin
On the south, and its graceful project.
Ing bays on the north: the attractively
lnornate but MISUNDERSTANDING mines
building, the mammoth manufacturers
and liberal arts building. with its tow
ering arches of steel. enclosing forty
acre lot, and its lofty triumphal corner
and central arches, together with a
number of minor structures, have
passed into history at the wave of an
ineendiary's blazing wand.
From the south colonnade to the
government building and, from the lake
to the golden door of the angel-guarded
transportation building, the world
famous white city is no more. AS the
evening sun was shedding his level
rays for the last time upon the erst-
while scene of life, movement and
color they fell upon the familiar out
lines OF these flowers of human handl-
work almost untouched in their serene
loneliness. Two hours later the moon
bent her pale crescent above them,
shining OH mass of ruins, wrapped in
pail of smoke, save where the yellow
red OF blazing timbers flared against
the blue black which covers the site of
the white city and covers US all.
OF all the great departmental struc-
lures the fire spared only the transport
tation building, horticultural hall. the
fisheries building and the art palace.
The last named is now occupied by the
Field Columbian museum and the fish
cries building is mere steel skeleton,
having been demolished by wrecking
company.
Besides these the government build
ing, the woman's building, the British
and German and few state buildings
are all that remain Of hundreds of struc-
lures which once filled jackson park.
Even the pulyglot glories of the merry
Midway have departed. Sic transit
gloria mundi.
The ire, was communicated almost
simultaneously to the transportation,
the manufactures and the agricultural
buildings. BY hard work, however, the
bremen succeeded in saving the greater
portion OF the transportation building,
but the other two buildings were soon
enveloped in flames, and by 9:15 the
last OF the framework had fallen in.
When the firemen first reached the
spot an engine company was detailed to
prevent the fire in the terminal build
ing from communicating with machin-
cry hall. For some time the effort was
successful. but with the four immense
| structures, the terminal building, the
| electricity and the mines and mining
building and the administration build
ing, Oh fire at the same time, the heat
became SO intense that machinery hall
was lgnited also. The direction of the
wind, however, being away from the
building, enabled the tireInen to save
| part or the structure.
! An unknown man was burned TO
| death. He, with companion, was
standing upon one of the conduits
through which power was transmitted
from the electricity building to the
| MacMonnies fountains The roof of
the conduit, which was burning inside,
/ cayed in, letting both men into the
flames. One of them was burned to
death and the other SO badly that he
may die. Both were bookkeepers for
! Marshal Field, and were present as
spectators.