Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-18
NIT of one of the innumerable hills. from
its vicinity I had an excellent survey OF
the first hours Of the great flre-

NIT of one Of thu innumerab1e hills. from
its vicinity I had an excellent survey OF
the first hours Of the great IRE
Flames In Quarter-Mne Sweep
From the top OF the hill could see the
flames In quarter-mfie sweep licking up
around the taller office structures In the
wholesale district Through the overhanE-
ing multi-colored smoke shone the sun IN
a red ball of fire. With the rapidity OF all
great news the word was passed from
mouth to mouth that there was no water.
This was but two hours after the first
shock. and even then those business men
who were in the lower part of town were
met by the bayonets of soldiers, who saved
countless lives Of business men and their
rash employees. who would have been killed
by falling walls in futile attempt TO save
books, records. cash, and the myriad
minutiae of great business center.
Leaving for the moment the scene OF
the fire. 1 took a horse and buggy and
drove perhaps twenty miles over the out
lying districts In a sort of general survey
of the whole doomed city. Conditions were
about equal everywhere. Traffic was be-
numbed by falling wires. bursted streets.
subsidiary fires all over the city and hurry
ing automobiles bearing soldiers and nurses
and police. The fire department was as
helpless as the fire department of the
farthest city In the land. and before the
engine houses stood the hitched teams, the
horses. with their bowed heads and Inn
patient feet, seeming to express the hope
lessness of the doom that was fast ap-
preaching. 1t Is a singular and noteworthy
fact that one of the first to meet death
was the chief of the fire department. who
was killed in his falling engine house.
One of the most heartrendering sights of
all was the relief of the helpless In the
great hospitals. People In dying condition,
those who had but q few hours before been
under the surgeons knife, those who were
wracked with fever. those who could not
aryaV& toll
them. were being carried by litter, by
wagon. by carriage. supported by willing
hands to places of safety. Later in the
day, when the big Mechanics Pavilion was
being used as receiving hospital for
emergency cases and also as a morgue, was
found to be but few moments ahead OF
the oncoming flames, this work had to be
done all over again. Those who were left
the unknown dead-will never be known,
for the structure, like all others In the city,
was of wood. and the heat was so intense
that not even cinders were left to mark
the path OF the fire.
Burning for Twelve Blocks.
ION my return from the drive went to
the downtown district and entered the
Mutual Savings Bank building and went to
the third floor, from the window Of which
l watched the entire facade OF Market
street, the main street. burning for dis
lance of perhaps twelve blocks. Opposite
me was the fifteen-story Call building
When the fire reached 1t 1t crawled I'D and
up and up until the floors gave way and
spouting flame over two hundred feet in
height blew like blast furnace out Of the
little portfolio windows on the domed roof
above the city's business thoroughfare.
Next door was a shoe store. 1t was en-
tirely of glass on the street side, for ex-
hibition purposes. The fire seemed to be
sucking inward and backward and
watched intently to see the explosion of
this glass front when the heat would reach
1t. In almost less time than 1t takes to tell
the glass burst, and in perhaps fifteen
minutes the fire. stated with the prey be-
meath Its flying wings, had sought other and
newer fields to feed upon. The effect of the
earthquake shock was SO damaging that
when the fire reached the brick buildings
they simply crumbled like powder at the
heat and sunk into great piles of radiatfnE
heat far out into the street. This heat
was too intense to estimate. but few ex-
ampieS Will suffice. For instance the rails
of the car tracks in the middle Of the street
were fused in places, and in many in
stances, long before the actual flames
reached them. buildings on the far side of
the street contributed their molten glass
in flowing streams to the general demoIi-
ton of all IN sight. In other places since
the fire. have seen solid gold In streams,
like tallow on the side of candle stick
which has run out of bank safes and trim
killed. down the side Of the safe Street cars
burned where they stood, fusing the steel
wheels to the steel rails. Wagons were
hastily unhitched and the horses saved
These wagons now lie with an intricate
mass of scrap iron marking their former
selves.
When the heat became personal mem
ace returned through the night-like gloom
Of the smoke and the strange smells of
burnings that no man will ever dare tell Of
to my home.
Refugees in Full Flight.
When I reached home. on the outskirts
of the city, the great army of refugees was
in full flight. Later I had closer touch
with them. In an endless stream for two
days they fled The cry of Preside, to
the Preside was on the lips of all Hun
dreds, then thousands, then tens of thou
sands swung into line. Paris, Moscow,
our own Charleston. all sink into pitiable
tnsignif1cance beside this one awful spec
tacle. None was sane. One man bore by
string train of childs iron cars: another
bird cage, from which the bottom had
dropped and the bird flown; another had
upon his head a silk hat with a straw hat
on top of 1t and a step-Iadder on his
shoulder; another pushed trunk in front
OF him with roller skates strapped to the
bottom of 1t; women pushed baby carriages
laden with few precious things: many
men bodily carried sewing machines; the
rich hurried along with their handsome
carriages laden with art objects the liyerfed
coachman sitting proudly erect amid the
ceaseless shower of falling sparks and Gin
ders that blackened the streets People
begged to be carried, and the men with
teams cried back that they were saving
their own. Horses foundered from the heat
and lack of water, and wagon after wagon
broke down. yet the stream kent on and
on The fire was coming, coming, coming
and they must be gone. There are tales
of fleeing animals in a forest fire Here Is
material for tale of human beings fleeing
from fire. And the fire came on and on
and on and laughed at them and cried 10
them with its cracking flames and showers
OF sparks a mile high that It could overtake
them. With that strange physiological
reaction which seems to seize upon human
beings at times like this and which would
seem to be an arrangement OF an all-wise
Providence. every one laughed and called
10 his neighbor some jest. Got my sewing
machine, anyway. 1 got two fountain
pens left Phone me tonight ana we'll