The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-17
TALES OF A GREAT FIRE,

Chicago Men Recall Their Experiences
 A Novel Way of Saving Chickens
 Stories About safes--How One Man
 Made His Fortune and Regained
 Health.
 "The funniest thing I saw during the fire of '71, though it didn't seem so fun ny then" said James B. Bradwell, as he grew reminiscent over the thrilling event of twent-five years ago, was the way some negroes kept their chick ems from escaping.
 '"The colored men were carrying a big coop and suddenly the slats broke and out hobbled the chickens.
 "I'll fix you howled one colored man, and grabbing each biped as it ap- peared he wrung its neck till every bird lay dead.
 My son Tom and I went on the sec ond day of the fire over to the west side to see what the blaze was doing. I remarked to Tom how thankful we should be that our home was spared. Later I had reason to thank my stars our lives were spared. During our west side excursion we found the ruins of a shanty, near which was a cook stove with the doors open and beside it lay the corpse of a woman.
 "We saw some poor Italians, who kept a cigar store They considered their most valuable stock in trade an old wooden Indian, which kept guard at the door. Grabbing up the Indian they started up the street and called the crowd: Make way for big injun, and the people gave way and the Ital ians saved their Indian. The wind came up very strong, blowing in a northeasterly direction, and I said to my son: My gracious. it will get to our house before we can get home!' We ran with all our might and when we got home on Washington street, just just east of where the chamber of com merce building now is, Mrs. Bradwell had got few things packed and was preparing to get them out She was in her slippers and dressed in a morning 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 it will be good now, and will put on this hat
 T threw fly law books out of the window on the sidewalk, and took down a large picture of my father but by that time the skylight had broken in op ho cto oirc, five T n tn think that I should never be able to get out, but with rush went down the stairs AS soon as I reached the sidewalk and the cool air struck me, I fell exhausted I offered an express man fifty dollars if he would take my books to a place of safety. He laugh ed at me. Had it been ten minutes later I would have gagged the express man, thrown him in the wagon, loaded in the books and saved them. At this time the authorities were blowing up buildings, so as to prevent the fire from extending southward. We went to the lake front and got an old axe and a spade and dug hole in the ground, as one would to bury potatoes, on the baseball grounds on the lake front.
 ''When I commenced digging 8 police man came and arrested me. I asked him what for and he said For defac- ing the baseball grounds showing me his star. I drew my axe and said: I'll make you see more stars in a minute than you ever saw in the Armament of heaven He left as if he had a flea in his ear. went on digging the hole and put in our two trunks and the pa- pers we had saved and then covered them up.'
 James Thompson, an old-time Chica- goan, was at the time of the Chicago fire in the employ of the land depart ment of the Illinois Central railroad company Shortly before the confla- grafton this department of the railroad company had been housed in a new building which was the first of the type of "fire-proof construction" to be erect ed in Chicago. This building, which stood, on Michigan avenue near Ran dolph street, went with the others.
 "In my office in a small safe inside the large one belonging to the conn pany," relates Mr. Thompson, T had some $2, 900 in United States bonds be- longing to my mother. When the big safe was unearthed it was allowed to stand three weeks in order that 1t might cool. When I took out the smaller safe it did not appear to be very warm and we opened it to take out the bonds, but no sooner did the air strike the interior of the little safe than 8. sheet of flame shot out and nothing remained of the $2,000 in secur- ities but 8 handful of cinders. Luck fly the porter, who was in the building when the fire started, had saved some of the papers in my desk, and as these contained the numbers of the bonds we were able to get them redeemed and my mother lost nothing"
 "A safe had charge of at the time of the fire stood in building at Clark and Washington streets" says Master in-Chancery Butler. ''It was buried under a pile of red-hot bricks. When it was taken out the combination had been destroyed, and, after giving the iron time to cool, we had to force the lock. We had a pail of water stand ing near and dashed it into the safe, ex- tinguishing the blaze which started as soon as the air was admitted. The consequence was that our papers were in fearful mess from fire and water. On the other hand, Judge Jenkins,