The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1915-07-30
OBSERVATIONS ON THE
GREAT BOSTON FIRE
OF 1872

A bundle of newspapers lie before
me, dated November II, 1872, the day
after the great Boston fire; it was
Stature day night, the 9th, when it broke
out; 1t ragged all of that night and
Sunday forenoon, during the latter
day news of it reached me hundred
miles away; Monday | went there.
and found soldiers on guard all about
the burnt district; was supplied with
a newspaper pass and began my in
designations, and familiar as | had
been with that city since childhood,
although having never had a home
there, | had to stop many times to
decide which Of two outlines Of
streets was the proper one; only those
VINO have seen great city after be-
ing devastated by fire can imagine the
great change which it makes. After
receiving my pass from the police
department | went to Washington
street and stood at the head of Milk
street; ON my left hand was the Old
south Church of historic fame; across
that street one building and beyond
that only vista of ruins, actually
smoking ruins, and from where |
stood | could look out on to the har-
Dor; here and there stood a stone pill
lar or two with the crossbeam. re-
minding me OF the familiar pictures of
ancient ruins. | had often wondered
how big cities could be so completely
destroyed as multitudes of great ones
have been; but with that first sight of
the Boston ruins | understood it;
twentyfour hourse had made the busy
/ ct I
street where a nephew had been
clerk In a hardware store; | located
the point where the great store had
stood; nothing remained except melt
ed piles of iron and steel goods; from
among them | took what had been
package of carpet tacks, melted into
one mass; that night my nephew told
me how on Sunday when he got to
the store the fire was several blocks
away, and he and his associates began
removing the stock, the fire creeping
nearer all the while, till suddenly the
flames burst into the back end of the
store, it seeming as though the fire
swept through the room as fast as
they could run out of it.
In its edition of Monday evening
after the fire was completely under
control, under the caption:
THE Curiosities of the Fire"
it says:
why the flames should have march
ed steadily to the windward against
all common reason but repeats what
great CONGREGATIONS have Oefore ex-
hibited as curiosity of FIRE. AT the
Journal office when the fire broke out
there was no sense of insecurity Git
was third of a mile distant), and
even after Summer street was a mass
of flames Gan eighth of a mile away.
Why should there be? The wind blew
steadily in the direction to carry the
fire away from us. Still, with a malig-
nant relentlessness the fire reached
towards us against the wind. 1t is
said that the rarifying of the air aid
ed by the wind creates a vacuum that
is filled again by the flames and creeps
along licking up everything in its
way, and making its march really a
backward one"
When the Journal people saw the
steady approach of the fire they be-
gan removing their office fixtures, and
had almost all sent away when the
tide of fire stopped the width of one
street and one building away from
them; in few hours they had their
force working and on Monday sent
their forms back to their own presses
and pot out their paper with com
| plete account of the fire. Only one of
the big dailies was burned out. Be
sides the Journal, which had been my
fathers paper for many years. and for
| ,.rk ,-I nft ,,-I. {
years a writer, | got copies of the
Herald, Advertiser, Traveller and the
Post. all of which | have preserved,
and which are today interesting read
ing.
1t was interesting to note the effect
on building material; it seemed as
though bricks melted and crumbled
in heap; while where water struck
the stone buildings much of it crumb-
led, dissolved, and in many places
looked like pile of very coarse rock.
salt. The fire stopped across the
street from the new granite Postoffice
building; the heat was so intense that
it caused many corners to scale off
and left square blocks with rounding
corners; | looked last summer for
those marks and discovered that in
some if not all cases the government
had replaced the damaged corners
with new square blocks.
The fire department of that city
was then composed of the latest and
very best steam engines; | can rem
ember when it was wholly composed
of hand engines. Somewhere about
1855 an inventor pursuaded the fire
department to try a steam fire engine
named the Miles Greenwood; whether
the city purchased the machine | dc
not remember; but there was so much
prejudice against it that it was stored
unused, till about 1856 a great building
called GerriSh Market took fire, and
containing much tallow and oil ii
burned fiercely; it was surrounded by
a great mass Of old wooden rookeries
the Boston department called for aid
from all the surrounding towns. and
after hours of hard fighting the fire
seemed getting beyond control, when