The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-02-09

yards, and the piles on one side were
blazing constantly and on the other
throwing of clouds of steam caused
by the water turned ON wood heated
almost to the point of ignition.
The President street station of the p,
w. and b. railroad is used as barracks
for the militia, which is enforcing mar.
tial law. The building caught fire a
number of times, and whenever the
door was opened a shower of sparks
was carried inside. In front the lum-
Der piles furnished finder for the flames
which We're ever creeping forward, yet
the men who had been pacing the
streets all night lay in the sleep only
brought by exhaustion.
1he loss will not be accurately est-
mated for weeks. Business men pros
porous yesterday are poor today. Elk.
pressions heard among these men as
they peer into their collapsed proper
ties reveal an astounding number who
were not protected by insurance at all.
When the advance OF flames had
been checked the fire companies start
ed back over the course of the disaster,
attempting to diminish the flaming ru-
ms and prevent another outbreak.
Residents and business men of the
east side are not yet fully assured of
their safety, and through every win
dow may be seen anxious, affrighted
faces. Moving vans, push carts and
vehicles of all kinds fill the streets,
carting household effects and valua-
bles to safe sections for shelter.
Colonel ]. Frank Supplee, a compe
tent authority on factory statistics, es.
Inmates that the number of persons
thrown out of employment will reach
$4,000. Others have estimated the en-
forced idleness ut greatly more.
Inspector of Buildings Preston, after
making a careful study of the burned
district, placed the building loss alone
at S15OOOO0O0.
1t is feared that aid must come from
adjacent cities or partial famine will
be an added phase of the situation.
Restaurants are entirely without food
and the destruction of the commission
houses along the wharfs has shut off
the means of supply. Hotels are but
little better or, and, though they say
they will be able to feed their guests
it is admitted the variety will be less
ened at once. Preparations are being
made to rush supplies from New York
in order to avert suffering in homes
The cheering news that the conha
grafton had been checked spread rap
idly over the city, and the great crowds
that all day had surged against the
faulty drawn fire lines began to turn
homeward. Unless the wind. which
now blows briskly from the northwest
should change it is felt that there is no
further danger. But the tired tremen
are taking no chances. All over the
burned district they are fighting the
fierce blazes that still live in large
piles of ruins These fires are not mem
acing, however for they have nothing
to feed upon outside their present lin
its.
The wall of flame has persistently
eaten its way in southerly and west
CITY hAlNNAlDl AbN NA u NAAf W 0ANAs nHh-
radio fires sprang into existence and
caused the withdrawal of apparatus
and men from the line Of battle. Build
ings old and new, large and small;
stores, shops-every imaginable class
of business-yanished as the fire swept
onward.
There was a decided check to the
forefront of the fire as it neared Jones
falls, small stream that trends north
and south and divides Baltimore from
that portion of the city known as East
Baltimore This little stream was the
last barrier
If the conhagratiOn leaped il, If by
flying embers or a rush of flame the
fire could cross and gain a foothOld, its
extent could not be foretold. Tremen-
dous efforts We're made to block il.
Dynamite was used freely. The fire
apparatus was centered and all the
skill of the fire fighters called into play
to defeat the element that had eaten
up millions of dollars. And human
skill and pluck and grit and unfalter-
ing courage won. The fire was check
ed. But behind it lay a great Quilted
waste of more than 40 acres in extent.
Every street that led TO the fire area
was crowded with awestuck specta-
tors. Down the narrow gulch- like
sheets, the black smoke hung densely,
split now and then by red glare Of
flame. The crash of falling buildings
was lost in the roar of exploding dyna-
mite as it was used to demolish struc-
lures as yet untouched by fire.
The city is under the strictest of mil
itary control. All around the burned
area was stretched Gordon of soldiers,
who held up all corners at the point
Of the bayonet. Police brought from
the neighboring cities patrolled the
district, and on every street near the
limits of the fire area paced armed
sentinels, and the streets fairly teemed
rufth nolipO