Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-02-16
HOW THE FLAMES RACED.
Julian Hawthorne's Graphic Story OF
the Disaster.

the Disaster.
Julian Hawthorne, writing of the
Baltimore fire in the New York Amer
lean. says:
After viewing the mounded desola-
ton of what was Baltimores 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 here
on the Sunday morning of this week
and recognized the spot named IN MS
book of fate for an especial and MEM
orable visitation.
Not long ago he had made terrible
history in Chicago theatre; In the
near future he had work OF another
kind to do, far to the east, In the yell
low Sea, and adjacent shores; but he
has always leisure for his doings, and
he was resolved to leave nothing un-
done.
With his irrevocable finger he mark
ed out the arc of catastrophe. 1t was
line simply drawn. On this side
should be immunity, on that chaos and
destruction. Here and there, in the
midst Of .crumbled ruin, should be left
structure almost unscathed. But In
the main the sweep Of the fiery besom
should be thorough. Nothing should
be lacking to the significance OF the
disaster.
It was not life that the angel on this
occasion sought to destroy, but that
for which much of our life is eagerly
expended-wealth, and the means or
wealth, the property which we buy so
dear, and whose safety we hedge about
with such stringent laws and secre-
ton.
When in the early dawn I looked
from my window toward the east, there
was a ruddy glow upon the sky, which
| I at first mistook for the reflection OF
the still burning city. But it was only
the daily burning miracle, once more
God made Himself an awful rose OF
dawn" and when, leaving the train
and fastening up Charles street, had
my first glimpse of the city itself, the
quiet houses and the wide, clean, al
most deserted street suggested no ca
lamity. The few shops and buildings
in the region were closed. I seemed
to have come upon community STILL
peacefully still.
| Yet I did not ask my way, for over
yonder beyond the tall and massive
shaft of the Washington column there
was a low haze of heavy smoke cling
ing near the ground, as if trying to
conceal the havoc of which 1t was the
sign.
| AS l passed the monument and de-
scended the hill, saw the ragged bor-
ders of the blighted area standing out,
bleached, blackened and irregular
against the whitish mist further 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 forbidden space, ap-
prised me that 1 had reached the scene
which / had come to behold.
| The only means of passing the ready
bayonets was by means of pass sign
ed by the general Of the city. 1t was
a magical document; upon sight Of 1t
the sentinel at the line admitted me
under the rope, warning me that he
must return the pass, and that If l
stepped back over this line could not
be readmitted except by means of
fresh authorization.
What was the prevailing character
istic of the scene? I should say cold
and irredeemable desolation. Nothing
was visible that was not ruin-burnt
out of mere lime and cinders. Heaps
of barren brick; rugged mounds OF
scorched, splintered and calcined stone;
a cheveaux -defrise of contorted steel
girders and gigantic beams Of iron; an
inextricable tangle Of wires Of all sizes;
the low ramparts of walls which had
been lofty, charred with the breath and
bitten by the tooth of the intolerable
flames: now and then the entire facade
of a great building, tottering in air.
destitute of support, which a gust OF
wind might blow over; isolated pin
nacles Of masonry, still more threat
ening, all that was left Of some mas
sive four-square structure; in one
place a towering ediice over fifteen
stories in height, with ali four walls
standing, but as hollow and empty as
house of cards, and scorched and de-
faced with smoke; telegraph posts
which had become mere crooked sticks
of charcoal; pillars Of iron which had
supported trolley wires, corroded by
fire as by the erasion of centuries; the
tracks of the street railways embedded
in the pavement, visible here and there
through the crowding rubbish; a will
derness. an emptiness, labyrinth OF
defaced nothings.
| Nothing was in sight in this region
which last Sunday morning had been
an array of commercial palaces worth
a hundred millions of money but an
agglomeration Of desolation for which
no man would have given cent. And
the ruins did not look recent; but you
would have said that they might have
stood there for hundred years. The
dust and antiquity seemed already to
have fallen upon them.
In spite of the thin pail of smoke, and
the strange, sickish smell of burning
that pervaded the atmosphere, and the
nickering tongue of fire which rose
from some of the brick heaps, and the