The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-02-26
Pen PICTURE OF
BALT|M0RE'S FIRE
Julian Hawthorne's Graphic
Portrayal of the Ruins.
WORLD MINUS FORM AND REASON

Viewing the Devastation, One Can
Only Imagine, He Says, That the
Angel Of Destiny Recognized n
Spot Named In His Book Of Fate.
Cold and Irredeemable Desolation
Prevailing Characteristic OF the
Scene.
Baltimore's devastation wrought by
Its great fire is graphically pictured by
Julian Hawthorne as follows in the
New York American:
"After viewing the mounded desola-
ton Of what was Baltimore's business
quarter and Of that region which was
Inhabited by the unknown hordes Of the
poorer classes one imagines that the
angel Of destiny in his %journeyings to
and fro over the earth paused there the
other Sunday morning and recognized
the spot named in his book of fate for
an especial and memorable visitation.
with his irreyocable finger he mark
ed out the area of the catastrophe. 1t
was a line sharply drawn. On this side
should be immunity, on that chaos and
destruction. Here and there in the
midst of crumbled ruin should be left
a structure almost unscalhed. But in
the main the sweep of the fiery bosom
should be thorough. Nothing should
be lacking to the significance of the
disaster.
GS1f xxy0 q v1nf lifo fl0f fhn q e, ro1 cOyrrhk
On this occasion to destroy, but that
for which so much Of our life is eager
~ expended-wealth and the means Of
wealth, the property which we buy so
dear and whose safety VIZ hedge about
with such stringent laws and precau-
Hons. These huge buildings, so costly
and we'll guarded, built to resist and
defy all perils, should be wiped out as
snow vanishes before the southern
winds and rains. All that man labors
and wastes himself to gain should be
taken away, but man himself should
be left to contemplate and moralize
ever the loss, and, perhaps-for one
inevitably aScribes a meaning to these
vast calamities-to consider whether,
after all, the accumulations and pre-
occupations of civilization are the only
or the most worthy object of mans
pursuit, whether it may not be worth
our while to give more heed hereafter
to those riches which earthly agencies
cannot sweep away in a night. Such,
one imagines, may have been the
thought in the mind of the angel as he
paused that Sunday morning over
beautiful and prosperous Baltimore.
Indeed, it is difficult to avoid the
apOcalyptic and elegiac tone in speak
ing of this event. The writing on these
walls is scored deep and spread wide.
One can almost hear the voice of warn
ing sounding in the smoke laden air.
1t seems to say to those who have lost
what they thought their all, lis this
your all indeed?" In a little while we
and u possessions must nave passed
away at any rate. The earthly works
Of mar are foreordained to vanish.
Can he not gather something that will
survive these treasures of a day? Why
love so much what forsakes him so
lightly?
"When, in the early dawn, l looked
from my window toward the east there
was a rudy glow upon the sky which
I at first mistook for the reflection of
the still burning city. But it was only
the daily miracle. Once more had
"God made himself an awful rose of
dawn" And when, leaving the train
and fastening up Charles street, I had
my first glimpse Of the city itself, the
quiet houses and the wide, clean, al
most deserted streets suggested no ca
lamity. The few shops and public
buildings in this region were closed. 1
seemed to have come upon a cOmmu-
nifty still peacefully asleep. Yet 1 did
not need to ask my way, for over yon-
der, beyond the tail and massive shaft
of the Washington column, there was
a low haze Of heavy smoke, clinging
near the ground, as if trying to conceal
the havoc of which it was the sign.
And as l passed the monument and de-
scended the hill l saw the ragged bor-
ders of the blighted area standing out,
bleached, blackened and irregular,
against the whitish mist farther down,
and the passing of squads of militia
men and the gathering of the police on
corners and the formation Of thrOngs
Of anxious and solemn faced citizens
along the lines of the forbidden space
apprised me that I had reached the
scene which / had come to behold"
After Mr.. Hawthorne had procured
his pass to step inside the fire lines he
continues his story thus:
Looking up and down what had
been streets and across the heaps of
rubbish that had been hives of in
dustry and through the great gaps in
the still standing fragments of the
walls Of some Of them, / perceived that
I had broken into a comparative soil
tude. Here and there on a corner, or
what might have been a corner Though