The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1896-12-14
THE CHICAGO FIRE.
MEN WHO WE'RE THERE RECALL soMs
OF THEIR EXPERIENCES. -.
A Novel Way OF Saving Chickens-faw.
books Buried Like Potatoes - Storie,
About Safes and Their Contents-Saved
by Barrel of Cider. .e-zsz 49,"

BY Barrel OF CIDER 49,. k-s,
"The funniest thing saw during the
FIRE of 1871, though 1t didn't seem so funny
thcn," said James D. Bradwell as he grew
reminiscent, Twas tho way some negroes
kept their chickens from escaping.
"The colored men were carrying biG
coop, and suddenly the Stats broke and out
bobbed the chickens.
"'I'll fix you howlcd one colored man,
and grabbing each biped as 1t appeared he
wEung Its mock till every bird lay dead.
my son Tom and went on the second
day Of the fire over to the West Side to SOC
what the blaze was doing remarked to
Tom how thankful we should be that our
homo was spared. Later had reason tc
thank my stars our lives were spared. The
wind came up very strong, blowing in Il
northeasterly direction, and I said to my
son, My gracious, 1t will get to our house
before we can get home. We ran with all
our might, and when we got homo on
Washington street, just east Of where tho
Chamber of Commerce building now is,
Mrs Bradwell had got a few things packed
and was preparing to get them out She
was in her slippers and dressed In q morn.
ing gown. On her head she wore my con.
sistory hat, with red and white plume.
She said to me, If Masonry Is any good
at all, ID will be good now, and will put
on this hat
II threw my lawbooks out Of the win.
dow on tho sidewalk and took down q
large picture of my father, but by that
time the skylight had broken In and tho
stairs were on fire. began to think that
7 81 !, n l. 4,
rush went down the stairs. AS soon
as reached the sidewalk and the cool air
struck mo l fell exhausted. offered an
expressman ESQ If he would take my books
to place Of safety. He laughed at me.
Had 1t been ten minutes later l would
have gagged the exprcssman, thrown him
In the wagon, loaded In the books and say.
ed them At this time the authorities
were blowing up buildings so as to pre-.
vent the fro from extending southwark.
We went to the lake front and got an old
AK and a spade and dug holo in tho
ground, as one would to bury potatoes, on
the baseball grounds on the lake front.
"Whcn commenced digging police.
man came and arrested me. asked him
what for, and he said, For defaoing tho
baseball grounds, showing me his star.
drew my ax and said, IN make you SEQ
more stars in q moment than you ever saw
in tho armament of heaven He left az
II he had flea in his ear I went on dig
cling tho holo and put In our two trunks
and tho papers wo had saved and then cov-
cred them up"
James Thompson, an old time Chica-
goan, was at tho time Of tho Chicago fro
in the employ Of tho lard department Of
the Illinois Central Railroad company
Shortly before the conflagration this do
partment Of tho railroad company had
beon housed in new building which was
the FIRST of tho typo of "ffeproof construo-
ton" to be erected In Chicago. This
building. which stood on Michigan ave.
nue, near Randolph street, went with the
others.
sin my office In a small safe inside the
largo one belonging to the company, re-
lates Mr.. Thompson, II had some 90 900
IN United States bonds belonging to my
mother, When tho big safe was unearthed,
it was allowed to stand three weeks In or
der that it might cool When took OUT
the smaller safe, 1t did not appear to be
very warm, and We opened 1t to take out
the bonds, but no sooner did the air strike
tile interior Of the little safe than sheet
Of flame shot out, and nothing remained
Of tho SO, 600 in securities but a handful Of
clnders Luckily tho porter who was in
the building when tho fire stared, had saw
ell somo OF tho papers in my desk, and as
these contained tho numbers of the bonds
we wcro nblo to get them redeemed, and
my mother lost nothing"
Judge jenkins, whose Office was directly
above ours, found his safe tumbled out on
the curb away from contact with the red
hot bricks. Tho combination was unin-
iured, and, with the help of a passcrby, he
set ii up on end and took out his papers in
as good condition as no had left them.
"a barrel of cidor played part IN tho
great fro quite foreign to tho purpose for
which it was originally intended" said
Scott Fergus, who was In reminiscent
mood.
''In 1871 there was on Grant street, in
North Chicago, small frame dwelling
house perhaps q little farther removed
from Its neighbors than they were from
each other and set back from the street
about 20 feet do not know whether 1t
is still standing or not, nor do remember
its number, but 1t stood there couple of
years ugo, like the relic it was. On Oct.
9 tho man who owned the place-his name
l have also forgotten-saw the fire was
headed his way and knew that the little
homo would soon, like thousands of 9TH
ers, be wrapped in flames From its COM
psratlve seclusion the thought entered his
mind that there might DO fighting chance
of saving tho place If only no had g supply
Of water. IIo had resolved to remove his
family, as tie neighbors all around him
wero doing, and cave what TROY could
carry, when he remembered that in tho
cellar was o barrel Of cider which they
had purchased for their rogalcmcnt during
the long winter evenings He would use
that Quickly removing the liquid from
Its cool storage place, ho gave Clippers and
other containers to the different members
of the household, ard, instructng them to
watch for every little blaze, tho resoluto
band Of amateur fremcn and Grewomen
worked and watched, and while every
house for blocks on every side became the
prey Of tho iiame5 this little homo was
saved nnd that by mere barrel Of cider"
Chicago News.