The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1904-02-19
.BALT|M ORE
FIRE SCENES
Spectacular Features of the
Great Conflagration.
BURNED AREA LIKE A PANORAMA
Spectators Impressed by the Theat-
rical Appearance of the Flames and
Shown Even In the Hour of Dire
Calamity-A Baltimorean's Sugges-
tiOn That Lives May Have Been
Lost.

| A great confagration without a
death roll cannot fail to impress the
| observer by its spectacular rather than
its tragic aspects. At Baltimore there
/, were none of the heartrending scenes
that accompanied such disaster as
that Of Hoboken, n. j., where sailors
were burned to death with their faces
at the narrow portfolios Of the ships
and the water but few feet beneath
them. The comments which one heard
on the streets were often quantity
phrased, bringing out unconsciously
the peculiar point Of view from which
the common people>of Baltimore, those
who have not themselves suffered loss
of property or employment, regarded
the disaster, says the New York Post $
special Washington correspondent.
You know this is unusual for Balti-
more" said one old burgher to WIS.,
itOr who stood beside him locking at
the ruins. L. was precisely the phrase
lie would probably have used if the
civic authorities had prepared a fire
works display of nneXampled splen~
der
The very impossibility of grasping
tie real magnitude of the city's calam-
! ity helped to emphasize the theatrical
aspects Of the situation. The tract dev-
| astateG was so vast that one who
| had arrived after the flames had done
their work felt that it could not pos
slbly be renl-that it must be all q
| magnificent counterfeit. cit was a
great tribute to the scene painter"
said N'ashinstonian who made a fly
ing trip to Baltimore. II had seen a
number of reproductions ON the stage
of great contiagrations, like The Last
Days of Pompeii,' The Destruction Of
Rome and The Heart of Chicago but
I never realized how truthfully they
had pictured those scenes Of flaming
desolation. II you ask. what, Baltimore
looked like could not answer you bet
ter than by telling you to go and see
one Of those great stage spectacles.
II climbed to the roof of the court
house, where 1 could overlook the
whole burned area. 1t was all exactly
llhc a. pduOI Liz NuAS, w I'LL
their skeleton windows, might have
been painted on canvas, and the red
lights that threw their wild shadows
might have come from magnesium
powder.
'"There were dozens of trivial cir
cunlstances that bore out this impress
sion. In one tall building, for instance,
all the brick and stonewOrk above The.
first three stories had fallen except one
corner, which stood all by itself like a
spindling chimney of irregular outline.
1t was hard to believe that such slen-
der and weak structure could have es-
capped being toppled over by mere force
Of the wind, and can't imagine now
why it did not fall when the rest Of
the walls went over. 1t was just the
sort Of grotesque shape that scenic
artist would cut out of canvas and
support with framework, but that
bricks and mortar should assume such
q form seemed incredible.
"Then, again. little patches Of fire
were left in such strange places. In
one of the upper stories of complete
" Quilted skyscraper- was what looked