The Penn's Grove record., 1904-02-12

and stores Of the commits sion mer-
chants who supply the city with food.
There are green-grocers and butchers
scattered about the city. Baltimoreans
getting their supplies from a central
market. The wares for this market
are bought from the warehouse men
n commission merchants. When the
warehouses were threatened the cry
went up that famine might follow the
fire, but the people of Baltimore soon
got over that fright.
The warehouses and the Storehouses
OF the commission merchants went up
i'll smoke, but it is easier to replenish
blocks of foodstuffs than it is to re-
store human life. Had the fire jumped
Jones' Falls to the lumber yards and
piers beyond, there would have been
a second fire. among Baltimore's tene-
ments, which, like tenements of the
lower East Side in New York, are
packed close together beyond the east
shore of Jones' Falls. But the New
York fire fighters were ON the other
shore of the creek and the tenements
were saved.
AS soon as the New York fire fighters
arrived here Battalion Chief Howe,
who was in command, put one question
to the Acting Fire Chief Of Baltimore:
"What is the exact situation. and
where can we fight for you hardest?'
The flames were rapidly eating their
way to the harbor. To the question
from New York, the Baltimore Chief
made answer:
"Our supply of fresh wa ter is low,
onl fn-1 ~ nv opnszac aora 20 Iya colt
water from the bay. Our men are
about played out and the fire is sweep
ing toward the warehouses and the
docks. If those go, God help u.s."
"Send us there" said Chief Howe,
"and Wen do what we can for YOU"
To the warehouse district in the
southeastern part of the city and to
the water front the New York appara-
tus went racing. Even the horses ap-
parently realized that it was New
York to the rescue, and as they raced
the flames raced after them. Chief
Howe took a good look at the ware
houses, gagged the force Of the wind
and looked back at the ~Outreaching
fame fiend.
'"Those warehouses are doomed" he
exclaimed, "but we'll save the docks
and the shipping and the lumber yards
or bust" and so he stationed his men
and his apparatus around the big
houses of the American Ice Company
and the Maine Lake Ice Company, got
his engines quickly into action, and
when the flames leared from the: last
warehouse to the nearest icehouSe, the
New York fire ladies were at them.
There they stood fighting hour after
hour and ~retreating a foot. The
icehouses were pretty well done for,
but the great lumber yards and the
piers, where the merchandise of the
world is laid at Baltimore's feet, were
saved. Just at sunset Chief Howe
hunted up the acting chief OF Balti-
more and simply said:
ST have the honor to report that your
fire is under control"
The story of the fire is one of ruin
and destruction from the business GEN.
tire to the harbor. Sweeping down
German, Fayette and Baltimore streets
the flames encountered old, timeworn
structures, and for the next few blocks
their progress was SO rapid that the
firemen gave up all attempt to fight the
flames back. The Sun and American
Ol1CcS WGuL up III OL1OhO OCAOlC Iu1u-
night. All the banking buildings and
brokerage Offices on South and German
streets were in ruins.
At midnight, after the fire was under
control, the city, almost in total dark
ness, was as quiet as a country vii
lage. The burned dis ,rict was patroled
by the citizen soldiers of the First,
Fourth and Fifth regiments and Troop
A, of the National Guard. and about
| fifty men of the naval militia. The oc-
| casional challenge of a belated traveller
by one of the sentrieS was about the
only sound that might be heard in the
place where the commerce of the city
less than three days ago was in full
swing.
Except for the dreadful calamity
| which had plunged the city in such
ruin, the town presented a holiday ap-
pearance. Every incoming train and
steamboat brought hosts of s~ightseers.
The Baltimore and Ohio refused to sell
any more tickets from Washington.
The power house is destroyed and
| street car traffic was suspended.
Every sort Of vehicle imaginable was
pressed into service, and millionaires
| could be seen riding up and down town
in moving wagons. The city was placed
| under the strictest kind Of military
| rule. and every saloon WIS closed as
| tight as wax. Troops were on guard
at almost every corner, and only a pass
signed either by Adju.tant-Genera
Riggs or by President UEshur, of the
| Police Board. would allow any one
| within the fire lines.
4 Tha h,rrD01 1ic&ri0f 0Oennnricinn 1IQ
acres of a roughly drawn right angled
triangle, is piled with heaps and
masses of brick, stone and twisted iron,
from which walls of the more substan.
tial structures tower, some seemingly
ready to fall at any instant. Flames
still rising from the ruins on the second
morning after the fire, and the burning
gas from the broken mains gave light
for the iremen, who were pressing
steadily inward from the borders of the
burned region.
Fifty thousand men and women are
out of employment. The insurance
companies have to meet the greatest
losses they have encountered since the
Chicago fire. There are hundreds OF
ruined merchants. 1t will take years
to restore the city. And with it all
Baltimore is not cast down.
1--WE will rebuild. We will become a
greater city. A new business Balti-
more will rise on the ashes of the old"
That is the sentiment of the leading
men of the city. They are appalled, at
the calamity that has befallen them,
but they have courage.
The great wholesale and financial
centre of the city, together with oyster
packing houses, warehouses, small
stores, lumber yards, docks, malt
houses, factories, the granite Office
! buildings, were wiped out in the TWEEN
!