The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1894-07-07

CHICAGO, July G.-With flaming torch
lawless hotdes OF fire bugs are at work
at score of points in the south half ol
Chicago. Fires are raging in every di.
rection among the numerous railroad
yards; hundreds OF cars aud tens oi
thousands OF dollars worth Of merchan.
disc have already gone up in smoke OF
been carried of by the now frenzied
mobs OF rioters. 1ncendiarism is
rampant. Alarm after alarm has fol.
lowed in quick succession all day, and
tonight at IL o'clock tho glare reflected
from the:heavens shows that the das.
tardly pastime continues unabated.
Early this morning blaze started
among somo overturned cara at Ken.
sington, quickly communicating 70 other
tracks filled with long lines OF cars.
Many containing valuable merchandise
were soon blazing furiously. Famed
by strong winds, there were. at this
point q total OF eighty cars wiped out.
But with the falling shades Of night
came the climax OF tho fiery festival.
Tho Pan Handle yards from Fiity-ffth
to Sixty-third dstreets-eight blocks-are
mass Of fire. Ton tracks, containing
from thousand to two thousand cars,
half OF them loaded, will be total loss.
No water being at hand tho fire must
burn itself out. The Panhandle sta
ton AZ Sixty.third 'street was also fired
and destroyed.
Tho Grand Trunk yard at Elston is
n sea OF flames. Five hundred box cars
arc supposed to haye boon destroyed
and efforts TO check tho flames have
been futile.
At Hyde Park, near the World's
Fair grounds, the ashes OF forty cars
are now smoulderine, and word has Just
come In that after numerous efforts the
mob has succeeded in firing tho Illinois
Central shops at Burnside.
At the stock yards tonight about
fiity toughs, few OF whom were railroad
men, arc skulking from point to point
and have set largo number OF fires.
This is tho banner district OF the city,
II not Of the entire country, for all
around toughs, and 1t is as much as q
man's life Is worth to interfere with
thcm. Troops are hurrying south. COM
pany after company In heavy marching
order moving to the turbulent district
from the contre OF tho city.
The aggregate of the losses to the rail-
roads will be enormous. Milcs Of their
tracks have been ruined by the fierce
heat, hundreds OF switch and signal
towers with their expensive mechanism
utterly ruined. Thousands OF cars and
untold quantities OF merchandise of
every imaginable description have fed
the flames and gorged the larders of
thieves valuable locomotives have been
wrecked and disabled; miles Of tangled
wires and PROSTATE poles Uttered the
ground.
Tho maddened mobs, now worked up
to tho highest pitch Of fury, are paral:.
Telling tho scenes of tho commune. and
at this hour It appears as il nothing
short OF the miraculous can prevent M
armed demonstration against them and
tho oacrifce of many lives.
10 illustrate the tactics resorted 10 by
the incendiaries to hamper the work OF
tho fro department, empty cartridges
were forced into tho key holes OF the
fire alarm boxes, flremeu were knocked
down with stonos and bricks, and viii 10
working at fires the horses of tho de-
partment were stolon.
At midnight all tho cars In tho yards
had been destroyed. Tho mob showed
much method in its incendiarism and
hundreds OF cars wero rifled OF their con-
tents and carried away before the torch
was applied. The loss in the Pan Han
die yards alone tonight is estimated at
tS1 ON mn