Semi-weekly independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1895-1897, 1895-12-04

a. ..
$4,000 Though the blaze was con-
fined to the Trude building. the firemen
had to make one of the stubborn battles
for which the Chicago department is
famous The gale was blowing fifty
miles an hour, and in every direction were
enormous stocks of goods stored III in
fiammable buildings. a second fire i'll
Haymarket Square at the same time did
several thousand dollars damage.
Chicago staggered all day Tuesday
from the shock of Monday nights storm.
Wreck and ruin were on every hand.
Death hung in the air from Il thousand
broken wires. but luckily passed human
ity by From the lake came reports of
disaster after disaster. but here again
fortune favored life and only vessels suf-
fered in the general destruction. For
hours the city cut off from the out
side world. At breath old Boreas hum
bed its pride in the snow. The imperial
city of Il mighty empire. Chicago was re-
duced in an hour To a pitiful dominion
thirty miles square. Every telegraph
wire leading out of the city was down or
disabled, and Chicago sat i'll the midst of
isolation as we'll as ruin.
Three hundred delegates were present
Monday at the opening session of the
transmississippi congress ut Omaha,
which was presided over by exDelegate
to Congress George y. Cannon, of Utah,
who was elected president of the CON,
gress 1T the st. Louis gathering last
year. The general object of the congress
is the promotion of the welfare of the
West. and under this head vast number
of questions have been scheduled for dis
cussion and action. Among those are the
irrigation of arid lands, the improvement
of waterways and deep-water harbors,
the construction and maintenance of
levees on the Mississippi and its tribu-
tares determinations in transmissis-
sippi freight rates, the necessity for
national bankrupt law, the restriction OF
immi grafton, methods for the relief of
agricultural depression, the project for
cable communication with Honolulu and
the admission of territories to Statehood
AT noon Thursday the ears of Col. Rob
crt q. Ingersoll must have burned and
his heart must have palpitated. If the
great agnostic were Il believer in mental
telegraphy he must certainly have re-
ceived numerous messages from people
whom he had never had the pleasure OF
meeting. At l. o'clock 1900 supplca
lions went up from the Cleveland Chris
tan EndeavOrers TO the throne of grace
in behalf of the salvation of the soul of
Col. Ingersol. There was no general
meeting of those interested in the Col
Onefs salvation. but the effort was an
individual one on the part of the MEM
bers of The Christian Endeavor societies
of Cleveland. AT the meeting Of the
Salvation army Il fervent prayer was
offered for Pagan Bob. and each mem
Der of the great army decided TO send the
Colonel Il personal appeal To see the
error of his way and to embrace the
faith of the Christian church. This ac-
ton was taken amidst great enthusiasm.
and it is likely mat the mail of Col. In
gersoll will be materially increased by
several thousand letters from his new
| friends in the Forest City. The Chris
| tan Endeav0r societies of Canada have
| been requested To unite upon a day in
| prayer to God for the conversion of Col.
| lngersoll.
One of the most disagreeable storms in
| the annals of weather bureaus descended
| on Chicago late Monday afternoon. 1t
rained, it showed, and between times
| sleet pelted down pitilessly. Untold dam
| age was caused by the elements When
| night came the downpour of the mix
| ture of snow and rain and sleet came
| heavier and the wind. which was gusty in
| the afternoon. rose to q gale. The streets
| the payements and sidewalks were flood
| ed To Il depth of three inches with slush.
| The storm made the pavements almost
| impossible; street car traffic was scri-
ously interferod with; trolley lines wele
| broken with the weight of the snow; tele-
| phone and telegraph wires were borne
down, broken and crossed until half the
| wires in the city were made useless by
midnight and communication with the
outside world was entirely cut off eX-
cept ut long intervals Ends of broken
| trolley and other electrically charge d
wires dropped into the streets to the posi-
tive danger of passers. Numbers of acct
dents of this sort were reported from
various parts of the city, and the opera
| ton of trolley lines in the outskirts of the
city suspended early in the evening OF
many streets. Then, too. the lake was
dashed to Il seething caldr0n, and it
seems miracle that many boats were not
| not lost at the harbor entrance, as a two
| days storm had driven them all to that
| end of the lake, and snow obscured the
| harbor lights.