The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-01-17
The Great Fires OF History.

The four great tlres OF history were
those of the city of Rome in the tenth
year of the Emperor Nero, or about Is
years A. D., London in 1866, Moscow
in 1872, Chicago in 1871. Of these
the latter was by far the greatest and
most disastrous, though statistical de-
tails are not obtainable so closely for
either of the three preceding it. Those
for Rome are especially meagre, the
historian Tacitus neglected to tell
how many houses and insula were de-
stroyed, and he notes but briefly the
famous fanes and monuments which
were swept away. The first fire lasted
for six days, and ust as the wretched
/, people were beginning to take breath
and visit the ruins of their former
homes, second fire broke out which
lasted three days. In that respect
the confagration partially paralclled
our own, as the fire which began here
Sunday night was preceded by an ex-
tensive one Saturday evening. Of the
fourteen regions of Rome three were
entirely destroyed, seven others were
injured more or less severely, and only
four escaped unhurt. Whether or
not it may be true that the Emperor
played on his fiddle while the city was
burning, there is no reason to doubt
that the people were so exasperated
with him that he judged it necessary
to divert their suspicious that he had
deliberately set the city on fire in or
der to rebuild it to his own glory. So
he "saved himself at last by sacri6c-
ing the little band of alien secretaries,
already the objects of their hatred and
vilings, to whom the vulgar gave the
name of Christians"
The great fire Of London lasted four
days and nights, reducing to ashes
fve-sixths of the whole city within
the walls, the population Of which was
estimated to be about 100000. 1t
had been much reduced by the great
plague of 1865. The area burned
over was 435 acres, being about one
third of that laid waste by the fire in
Rome. London was rebuilt within
the next four years on a much improv-
ed plan. The destruction in Moscow
seems to have been complete except
the Kremlin, the city having been set
on fire by its own inhabitants on the
night of September Il, after which
they abandoned it to the French
troops, who looted it and probably
took little thought of the II, 900 woun-
ded men that were left behind when
the Russian army evacuated the place.
A few years earlier Moscow had con-
tanned about 5000 houses, OF which
one. sixth were stone, 3l4 manufacto-
ries and workshops, and nearly as
many churches.
| The Chicago fire devastated an area
of 2, 100 acres, or nearly three and a
third square miles, destroyed II, ,45O
buildings, and rendered homeless
go, 500 persons. The mum Der of kill
ed were estimated at about 200. The
value of the property burned up was
ascertained to have been about $780,
O0O, 900 the day preceding the fire,
ard the deduction from this for sal
wage and variously estimated at from
$4,000, 900 to $1O,OOO,OOO. The loss
was not far from one-third of the
value Of the property in the city, and
only $44, 900, 900 was recovered in in
surance, much Of the property having
been insured in home companies the
assets of which were reduced to zero
by the calamity. In a year after the
fire large part of the burned district
had been rebuilt, and the volume Of
business was much larger than before
the event.. which drew out practical
expressions of sympathy in the shape
of material from all over the rest Of
the United States and from many pla-
ces in Europe. The uwhoh amount
contributed in money, provisions and
clothing was estimated at not less
than s7,OOO,OOO, and the magnitude Of
this contribution alone attests that
the great fire in Chicago was regarded
generally as the most calamitous that
had ever been experienced.-Chicago
Tribune.
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