Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-06-10

cauSt which visited that city nearly
SO years ago and which is no doubt
recalled bv many Wash!ngtonians, some OF
whom may have lived there at the time Inc
writer was then a child. but the wide publicity
given the confagration caused him never 10
forget Americas most disastrous hre
Chicago today is not the same city 1t was
in 1871, when its population would prooaoy
not have exceeded one-half the people in wash
ineton now and yet it was then the NTH
largest city in the United States. having ad-
yanced to that position from the ninth largest
CITY in the brief space of 10 years. 1t was IN
deed mushroom city, so to speak, having
grown by enormous strides from mere traoing
station prior to 1891 to respectaole-szeo
town of ALTO inhabitants in 1887, when 1t re-
ceiveo its charter.
Chicago was being built too fast. Too many
frame structures were being erected. and not
enough attention was paid to the increasing
danger from the conhsgration that finally hap
pened when it was still young city in years.
1t is not as old Washington, which, in
r84O vas probably five times as big as the
Windy City. and three or four decades older.
The great Chicsgo fre-acknowledsed the
greatest I'D to that time. and probably still
holding the record-began ON Saturday night,
October Z. 1871. and burned for several days.
DESTROYING approximately 10000 buildings and
SO 900 900 feet Of lumber, and devastating an
area of 200 acres. One hundred and seventy
five thousand were left homeless and compelled
to sleep out in the open until relief arrived,
and from 1000 to 500 perished either from the
fire or from drowning while trying to make
their escape b. water.
NANTES description of the abode OF evil
u spirits would fall far short of the newspaper
account of the horrors of this seething wall OF
fire which all the ingenuity Of man could not
subdue. and which continued to eat its way
through the city until it practically burned itself
out vivid reference saws: The flames were.
in some places like huge waves. dashing to and
fro lesping up and down. turning and twisting.
and pouring now and then. a great column OF
smoke and blaze hundreds of feet into the air.
like a solid perpendicular shaft of molten
metal In other places, it would dart out long
streaks like mammoth anacondas with kissing,
fiery tongues Then these serpentine shapes
would swoop down over the blazing path into
the yet unburrt buildings, which seemed
pierced. and kindled instantaneously There
were also pillows of fame that rolled along ike
water submerging everything in its course.
Sometimes the air would be full of sparks. and
gusts of wind would float them, like focks OF
birds. hither and thither.
THE streets were thronged with people flying
for their lives. Children were carried. scream
ing with terror: women were shrieking. men
shouting, and all running. Old and sick and
helpless were carried on MISUNDERSTANDING, az
parently demented or Supplied, being dragged
along Close to their heels, in hot pursuit. came
the belching roaring and cracking flames. In
some places they actually advanced as fast as
q man ran.
Here and there, when some tall building
became sheeted in fame the walls would
weaken and waver like India-rubber. 1t was
wonderful how they sometimes swayed almost
across the street, and Immediately fell with a
loud oh. ttnY mt 5ar
afterward fresh glares of light from
newly kndled fire. The kerosene-oil stores
made awful yet sublime spectacle. the
flames seemed to penetrate the very clouds"
The news of this disastrous fire was soon
telegraphed to other cities, and The Star pub
hshed an extra, announcing:
1.-THE Fire Fiendt