The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1894-07-12
THE FIERY FESTIVAL
Chicago At The Mercy Of ID. Flaming
Torch Carried by Prsnlied Mobs.
NILES OF RAILROAD CARS BURNED.
Fire Alarm Boxes Plugged and she
water suppiy Iusufficsent-The
lii'ne's Central shops Destroyed.
A story OF Destruction.

CHICAGO, July 6.-[Special with
flaming torch the lawless hordes OF fire.
bugs are at work at score Of points in
the south half Of the city. Fires are
raging in every direction and in the prop
erty OF the numerous railroads. Hundreds
OF cars and tens OF thousands OF dollars
worth OF merchandise have gone up in
smoke, or have been carried OH BY the
now frenzied mobs OF rioters. Incendiar-
ism is rampant and fear has stricken the
citizens. Alarm after alarm has followed
in quick succession all day long, and To-
night at II o'cock the glare reflected from
the heavens shows that the destructive
and disorderly pastime continues una
bated.
From early morning until this hour Of
midnight reports Of fresh fires followed
each other with great rapidity. being con-
fined, no Sever, principally to railroad
rolling stock and buildings against which
the greater part Of the fury Of the mob is
directed. Early this morning a blaze
started among some overturned cars at
Kensington, quickly communicating with
other tracks filled with lines Of cars, many
containing much valuable merchandise,
which were soon raging furiously. fan ned
by strong winds. There is at this Joint
a total Of eighty cars wiped out. At the
stockyards one blaze after another was
reported In rapid succession and from out
lying districts came urgent calls for en-
gines and police protection, increasing 10
frequency. But with the falling shades
Of night came the climax Of the aery fes
tival. In the Panhandle yards, from
Fifty.Hfth to Sixiy-third streets, sixty
stock cars are on fire. Tracks containing
from 1000 to 1000 cars, half of them
loaded, will be n total loss. No water te-
ing at hand the fire must burn itself out.
The Panhandle station at Sixty-third
street was also fred and destroyed. The
Grand Trunk yards at Elston is sea OF
flame. Five hundred boxcars are sup
posed to have been burned. Efforts to
check the flames have proven futile.
While directing the movements of the
Eleventh battalion at Fifty-first street,
Fire Marsh al Fitzpatrick was seized by
thoroughly frenzied mob OF fre-bugs and
thrown into pond, from which he was
rescued by the police. Everything at
this point is probably a total loss. About
dusk, near the Worlds Fair grounds, the
ashes Of forty cars are smoldering.
After several efforts, the mob succeeded
in firing the Illinois Central shops at
Burnside. At the stock yard about fifty
toughs, some Of whom are railroad men,
were skulking from point to point aud set
q large number OF fires. Their methods
were thoroughly unique. Loading sew
eral hand-cars with buckets Of waste and
oil, they would glide around among the
cars in the darkness lighting wads Of
stuff, which would be thrown into the
open doors oil the cars as they passed by.
Fires sprung up on every hand, and no
organized effort on the part OF the police
seemed to be under way to intercept
them. This ia the banner district of the
city, II not Of the entire country, for all.
around toughs, and it ia as much as
mans life is worth to interfere with them.
Troops are hurrying south, company after
company, in heavy marching order NOV
ing to the turbulent district.
The Losses will be enormous. Miles of
track have been burned or ruined by
fires and heat. Hundreds of switch and
signal towers. with their expensive mech
snism, are utterly ruined. Thousands OF
cars and untold quantities OF merchan-
disc OF ever v imaginable description have
fed the flames. 10 ,omotives have been
wrecked and disabled. Niles of wires
and PROSTATE poles litter the ground.
Communication is destroyed. Telephone.
telegraph, electric light and FIRE alarm
wires are now the special object of at
tack. The plugging OF fire-alarm boxes
is constituting new and doubly danger.
Gus element 10 the tremendous wave of
incendiarism sweeping over the south
west portion Of the city, preventing, as il
does, notice beir z received Of the starting
OF fires until, with the poor water supply
in these outlying districts. the fire has at
tanned such Roadway that it cannot be
stopped, except through lack Of further
material on which to feed.