Year: 1874

ing over the expected course of the fire,


dropping its advance messengers of elm


ders on the roofs of the buildings, al


though private citizens are doing their


utmost in trying to prevent the fire get


ting hold upon their homes, yet the


effort Is as futile as for child to make


the attempt. The roar of the advanc-
ing furnace has the sound OF our


old calamity, and nothing short of its
final plunge into Lake Michigan will


quench it. Our streets within a mile


of the condagration are crowded with


teams of every description loaded to


their utmost capacity with household


goods. Although store-keepers who


are so fortunate as to secure a team are


endeavoring to save their most valuble


stock, wherever vacant space north of


the fire can be found it is at once filled


with goods of all descriptions and varie-


ty. Men, women and children are do


ing their utmost to save their little all


and bringing it to some place of safety.


The work of the fire from this on will


burn up as much in five minutes as it


has previously in fifteen, considering


the value in dollars and cents. The


heat is very great, and no doubt that in


addition to the pecuniary loss we will


have to mourn the loss of lives, as it is


next to immpossible for fire of this


magnitude and fury, and burning


through as closely settled district as
this has without calling for many hui


man sacrifice. AS the postoffice


is directly in the line of the conflagra-


tion its employees will have all they can
do to save the mail matter in the build


ing, and consequently there will be no


mails leave the city this evening, and


there can be no possibility of one being
sent before tomorrow evening, should
the department be successful in saving
their valuables. The principal lines OF
the Western Union Telegraph Co., run
ming east through State street, have all
been burned-some forty wires-but as
the lines on Canal street are out of all
possible danger, there will be no inter-
ruption of telegraphic communication.
The fire has burnt over so far about
half a mile in length and some four
blocks in width, and although the ex-
plosion of gun-powder still is heard
every little while there is but little
hopes OF stopping the fire short of the
limits given above.


As predicted in previous dispatch,
the fire swept into and over the elegant
First Baptist Church on Wabash ave-
nue., and what was this evening before
sundown one of the most elegant and
costly church edifiees of our city is now
but mouldering mass of ruins. As it
was very evident from the course Of
the fire and strength of the wind at
about half-past six O'Clock the postof-
flee building was in all probability
doomed, Gen. Macarthur, our postmas-
ter, made arrangements at once to re-
move the mails to place of safety and
all needed teams were at once pressed
into service By him, and by eight in
the evening the last loaded wagon left
and the place that had been
the depository of United States mails
here was deserted forever,
for at ten minutes of eight the building
first caught and by half-past eight
o'clock it was mass of flame. The
wind by eight o'clock had died away,
which assisted our fire department |
greatly in becoming master of the sit
uation. At the corner where the post
office was situated at Wabash avenue |
and Harrison street, the very point |
where our previous fire was stopped,
our firemen seemed to be inspired with |
efforts to prevent its |
spreading into the rebuilt district, and |
here it was that all their efforts were
to bar its further progress.
The building OH the southwest corner
was dwelling house, and by making
bulwark of this against the ever on
coming sheets of flame the prospect of
holding this building and saving it and
thereby preventing the progress of the
fire through to Michigan avenue was
quite promising at half-past eight
o'clock, whereas, the northwest corner
of these streets, occupied by the post
office, was then mass of flames. How
ever, as very high brick building ad-
Joined the postoffice ON the north there


Is no doubt that the spread of the fire
north onWabash avenue from this point
has been checked. Among. the build


ngs destroyed on the east side of Wa
bash avenue was the church building
occupied by the congregation
If Robert Laird Collier. 1t seems some
what singular that this conflagration
should be checked at the same place
where our previous big fire was check
I'd and that the very building spared by
,he previous fire should now be one of
he last to succumb. This time the
nails were all removed to the sub-sta-


ion on the corner of West Washington
md Halstead streets, between Eldrige,
Court. and Harrison streets. On the
,ast side OF Wabash avenue some dozen
buildings were destroyed.
while on the whole of the west side of


he street between these limits every
was leveled with the ground, L
md looking westwardly the same dead
evel of ruins was presented so viyidly
engraved on the memory of our inhab-
tants in 1871. The losses entailed by
this fire in the destruction and removal
# goods and furniture is in all proba-
,ility as great as the actual loss of build
ngs and property destroyed up to half
past eight, for it takes but moderate


ized fire now-a-day to set Chicago peo-
Die to clearing out their goods and
and about every store along
Wabash avenue and State Street, as far
lorth as Monroe street was removing
Is goods or the most valuable part there
If to a place of safety, and the dwelling I
houses in the apparent line OF the fire
we're not slow in following the. sam elm
tinct Of self-preservation by the remov-
Il of everything portable from cellar to
,arrer, and their destruction entailed
,y this speedy and hurried exodus will +,
never figure among the losses sustained