Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-11

following the advice of that eminent jour
expression, Go west, young man: go
west" Shortly after the fire he pushed
on to Denver and there began the publ
cation of a daily newspaper, which has
since become prominent as political
factor. He sold 1t in 1872, and after
dispOsing of this paper continued his
travels through the west as repre-
sentative of New York newspaper. and
spent some time among the Mormons at
Salt Lake City and the more populated
parts of what was then known as the
territory of Utah.
Story Of the Fire.
Mr.. Boyer's story of the fire is vivid
in the extreme.
ITO a man." said he few days ago.
who has seen the Chicago fire in it's
wild, magnificent acme of chaos. Dante S
Inferno appears a reality and burning
Rome can be understood. No man who
has never seen great fire can imagine
It, Vaguely he thinks OF masses OF flame
high in the air and of people running, of
engines tearing through the street and
disorder and lawlessness rampant, but
beyond this his finite Imagination cannot
go. He must see with his own eyes the
wondrous carnage and behold great
houses falling like jack straws beneath
the superhuman element, against which
nothing can prevail. He must see man,
king of the earth. reduced again to the
humble. crawling aborigine. bowling in
submission to a god that conquers him.
l say again that no man who has not
seen a fire can understand it.
The news of the Chicago fire came to
me one evening as I was walking up to
my Office with a friend Of mine. 1t is
my opinion that 1t was the will of God
that Chicago at that time should be par
TALLY destroyed The fire itself was
not of such a terrible nature at the start
that 1t could not have been extinguished.
but the circumstances attending 1t were
such that the fire department was rem
dered almost useless, and men could only
watch-terror-stricken and helpless-their
homes, their chattels, yes. and their fam
lilies, as they were destroyed before their
eyes When the first news of the fire
came to me l was not far from the ia
nous barns in which Mrs. O'Leary's COW
was sheltered. 1 arrived there to see
the whole vicinity apparently, in the grasp
of a great seethng. whirling, ever-ex-
panding, red lake Of flame. 1t was a
cauldron boiling. 1t was an Oil we'll
burning. 1t was powder magazine ex-
ploding. All combined in one marvellous.
heterogeneous scene. 1 was fully quar-
time, and yet the heat scorched me.
Glass panes cracked and fell about me,
and newly built houses, warped by the
unusual heat, crumbled and fell as a
before they broke into flames. The fire,
you will remember was then confined
to the poorer section. The roar and the
crash and the rumble and the Kissing of
the great. glowing place was so loud that
l could not make myself understood. no
matter how / yelled, to a friend standing
ten feet away. Never will l forget how
sick at heart l felt and how my conf
dence in myself and my fellow men, and
my egotism and my hitherto unaltera-
BILE belief in the supremacy of man. were
crushed by that single sight
The Moths and the Flame.
"Our fire department, we'll manned, and
our volunteer corps seemed like SO many
moths fluttering about a candle. The
combined hundreds of streams of water
turned on the fire in various places SEEM
ed as useless as squirt-gun directed at
a furnace. One could see the flames
reach out, sometimes jumping one hum
dred feet, sometimes jumping a quarter
of a mile. east and west, north and
south Like giant hands they seemed to
enfold the buildings that were near them
and, drawing them closer and closer,
seemed to crush them and tranple them
down in a great heap of charred ruins
that marked their path. ! turned to a
man who was near and said, why don't
they start the dynamiting?' I shall never