The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-02-08
LIKE A TIDAL WAVE.
Flames Swept Over the City in Great
RilIoWs

Washington, Feb sAA member of
the staff of the Baltimore Sun who
came over with the force from that pa
per, said that the fury of the fire was
beyond description. You cannot
imagine it; you cannot imagine it.
he kept repeating. The scenes
of gigantic destruction he had witness
ed seemed to have impressed them
selves upon his memory to the Oblitera-
ton of every other idea.
Il have seen big fires in New York
and Chicago" he said. when block
after block would fall before the sweep
of the flames, but nothing that approach
ed in it's terrible fury the catastrophe
that fell upon Baltimore. The flames
swept down the streets with the on
ward rush and fury of a tidal wave.
Great pillows of fire 200 feet high would
ill the space between the buildings,
and sweeping from side to side, would
blot out of existence a skyscraper as
though it were a box of matches.
THE Union Trust building and the
Atlantic Trust building shared the
same fate. One moment they stood in
the stately beauty of stone and mar
BILE; moment later and they were not.
The flames would dash against their
sides, beat in the massive walls, leap
from windows and roofs, and then
would come the collapse. The Union
Trust building, one of the handsomest
in the country, seemed to my mind to
vanish almost as I looked.
w HlH1lNG EMBE<tlc.
THE city was a matter of whirling,
burning, binding embers. In the Sun
office where we were at work, copy pa
per would burn as we wrote In the
streets burning emberS would fall in
sheets, and the swift wind carried them
along. Everywhere We're drawn and
anguished faces. and the marks of des-
olation."
The circulation manager of the Sun
said that when he left Baltimore at
~ he, f1ra e-4f a =
n block from the Sun building but the
sparks which filed the air were so
fierce work had to be abandoned within
the Sun building. The burned district
of Baltimore is the business section. in
Guiding the entire wholesale trade and
q great part of the retail trade In the
fige district We're all the important
business and office buildings, all the
newspaper offices, two hotels. the Cen
trail building of the Baltimore & ONO
railroad, the court house, the postoffice
building, the Western Union and Postal
telegraph offices, the Bell Telephone
building, Holiday street theater and
several of the important banks.
Baltimore street was the main bust
ness street of Baltimore and the divid-
ing line between the wholesale and re
tail sections, being lined with estab-
Iishments of both descriptions. For
three or four blocks south of Baltimore
street and from How ard street on the
west, to South street on the south, the
flames swept everything before them.
North on Baltimore came first Fay
cite and then Lexington street. West
of Charles street these two streets are
devoted to retail business and east of
Charles mainly to office buildings.
IA STORY BUILDING CAUGHT.
In the burned portion south of Balti-
more. the old Carrollton hotel the
building of the Evening News, the four
teen story Continental Trust building,
the Guardian Trust building. the Mer-
camille Trust building. the Alex Brown
& Sons bank, the National Exchange
bank the wholesale establishment in
which ex-Postmaster General Gary
was interested. Hurst & Co. wholesale
house. Daniel Miller & Sons house, r
NJ. Sutton & Co, Digs, Curran & Co.
and smaller wholesale establishments.
Among the retail establishments or
the south side of Baltimore street were
Oehm's Acme hall. a large department
store: Weleh & Bro. one of the oldes
ieWelry establishments in the city
Hennigen, Bates & Co, jewelers.; The
Arminger Jewelry company; this
Schwarz Toy company, the largest es
tablishment of this kind in the city
Rurk's saloon. which occupied one o.