Sfim m mBBm lg .•;■:•■«:.■•' .■•■■■■."'■•'•■■■■' H ' " ■ ■:■■•' -■ • ■'•' £3 ■ ; ■ ■■-■•.■•■■■■ ' w m 1 ''-■■''■*;'■■' Mfi ©ass Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT if If illHIl N U9J-' THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION. CHICAGO: ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. EMBRACING A DETAILED NARRATIVE OF THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION IN THE NORTH, SOUTH, AND WEST DIVISIONS: ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF THE FIRE. PROMINENT BUILDINGS BURNED, CHARACTER OF BUILDINGS, LOSSE3 AND INSURANCE, GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE FLAMES, SCENES AND INCIDENTS, LOSS OF LIFE, THE FLIGHT OF THE PEOPLE. ALSO, A CONDENSED HISTORY OF CHICAGO, ITS POPULATION, GROWTH AND GREAT PUBLIC WORKS. AND A STATEMENT OF ALL THE GREAT FIRES OF THE Wo'liLD. BY JAMES W. SHEAHAN AND GEORGE P. UPTON, ASSOCIATE EDITORS OF THE CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. UNION PUBLISHING CO. : 165 TWENTY-SECOND STREET, CHICAGO, ILLS. 26 S. SEVENTH ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1871. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by E. S. DeGOLYER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE This volume is devoted to a connected account of the great Chicago conflagration, with an incidental narrative of the destruction caused by the terrible forest fires in Wisconsin and Michigan, and a neces- sarily brief statement of the great fires of the world, which may serve for purposes of comparison. It is the account of witnesses of, and actors in the terrible scenes that closed with the destruction of a great city. No person saw the whole, or even any con- siderable part of the fire field. It was too mighty and vast. We have sought to comprehend in our ac- count all that is vital to an intelligent conception of the origin and progress of the fire, and the condition of the city, both before and afterwards ; and in so doing to make the work valuable as a book of refer- ence. With this end in view, it is compiled as a condensed statement of the commercial and industrial resources of the city, its private enterprises and great (3) 4 PREFACE. public improvements, and the record of its marvellous growth. The work opens with the very beginning of the fire and follows it, street by street, along its terri- ble path of devastation; describes the prominent buildings consumed ; the thrilling, heroic and even humorous scenes in the streets, during the fire, and gives careful estimates of the losses, somewhat in de- tail, and a statement of insurance from official sources. The operations of the Relief Society are touched upon sufficiently to give the reader a general idea of the manner, in which charity has been disbursed. The losses in churches, schools, and institutions of music, art and amusement, as well as the public libraries, are also dwelt upon somewhat at length. In order to arrive at official reports .as far as possible, the pages of the book have been held open to the latest possible moment, and thus much valuable matter has been secured. Liberal space has also been given to the narrative of the Northwestern fires, the great fires of the world, and the work of rebuilding the city. With this preliminary state- ment the authors give their work to the public. Chicago, December 1, 1871. CHICAGO IN 1818. CHICAGO IN 1871. View from City Hall, looking south and southeast. CITY HALL before the fire. . CITY HALL after the fire. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE before the fire. DRAKE AND FARWELL BLOCK, Wabash avenue, before the fire. FIELD, LEITER & CO.'S BUILDING before the-fire. VIEW OF THE RUINS from Harrison street, north on Wabash avenue. VIEW ON CLARK STREET, south from Washington, before the fire. TRIBUNE BUILDING before the fire. ILLINOIS & MICHIGAN CENTRAL R. R. DEPOT before the fire. ILLINOIS & MICHIGAN CENTRAL R. R. DEPOT after the fire. BOOKSELLERS' ROW, State street, before the fire. SHERMAN HOUSE before the fire. UNITY (Mr. Collyer's) AND NEW ENGLAND CHURCHES before the fire. CHICAGO CITY WATER WORKS before the fire. PALMER HOUSE, State street, before the fire. (5) 6 ILLUSTRATIONS. SHEPHARD BLOCK, Dearborn street. PALMER HOUSE, State street, after the fire. RUSH MEDICAL COLLEGE after the fire. SAND'S BREWERY after the fire. ILLINOIS CENTRAL R. R. LAND DEPARTMENT after the fire. PACIFIC HOTEL after the fire. BIGELOW HOUSE after the fire. ST. JAMES CHURCH after the fire. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, South side, after the fire. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH after the fire. UNITY (Mr. Collyer's) CHURCH after the fire. NEW ENGLAND CHURCH after the fire. CHURCH OF THE HOLY NAME, CATHOLIC, after the fire. MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DEP-jT after the fire. OGDEN'S RESIDENCE, only residence left on North Division of burned district METHODIST CHURCH BLOCK after the fire. ST. PAUL'S CHURCH (UNIVERSALIST,) after the fire. ST. JOSEPH'S PRIORY (GERMAN CATHOLIC,) after the fire. WHERE THE FIRE BEGAN. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND COURT HOUSE after the fire. POST OFFICE AND CUSTOM HOUSE after the fire. CROSBY'S DISTILLERY after the fire. FIRST NATIONAL BANK after the fire. REPUBLIC LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY afier the fire MASONIC TEMPLE, Dearborn street, after the fire. DESTRUCTION OF THE CENTRAL ELEVATOR, at the mouth of Chicago river. THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION as it appeared from the prairie. DIAGRAM, showing the origin of the fire, and situation of the most prominent buildings destroyed. A COMPLETE MAP OF CHICAGO, showing the burned and unburned districts. CONTENTS. Chicago as it Was Situation— Plan of the City— Indian Trading Post— Gen. Wayne's Treaty — First Land Sale — First Settlement in Chicago— Pioneer Settlers — Mission Church and School — Village Taverns and Cabins— Fort Dearborn — Land Grants and Public Improvements— 1 ' Town of Chicago " Laid Out — The Beginning of Chicago — Growth of the Town — The City of Chicago Incorporated, 1837 — Increase of population till 1871 — How the City was built — Improve- ments, &c, &c. . 19 TJve Water Works The Old Water Works, 1839— The Second Works, 1853— Plan and Capacity of Works — The Drainage — Defective and Obnoxious System — The New Water Works— The Great Tunnel under the Lake — Description of the Works — Water supplied through the Tunnel in 1867— General Enlargement of the Works — Capacity of the Works — Water Supply — Another Tuunel Contemplated — Cost of the Works — Character of Machinery . . . .29 The Streets Total Length — Pavements — Wooden — McAdara — Boul- ders-Cinders — Gravel 39 Sewerage Total Length of 39 (7) 8 CONTENTS. Gas How the City was Supplied—" Chicago Gas and Coke Company "—"Peoples' Gas Company " . ... 89 Bridges and Tunnels Pivot Bridges, Connecting Divisions of the City— Wash- ington Street Tunnel— La Salle Street Tunnel . .40 River and Canal Character of the River— Its Uses— A Nuisance Trans- formed into a Blessing— The Current of the River Reversed— The Water of Lake Michigan flowing " up the Chicago River," at an expense of $3,750,000 ... 40 Chamber of Commerce Building Erected, 1864— Description of Edifice— Board of Trade . 42 The Grain Market Beginning and Growth of— Shipments of Wheat— Corn and other Grains 42 Elevators Number and Capacity of 44 Cattle Yards Area of— General Description of— Cattle Trade— Receipts and Shipments of Cattle, Sheep and Hogs . . . 44 Lumber Trade Magnitude of « . . 45 Trade Exhibit, for 1870 Lake Commerce Number and Character of Vessels engaged in . ° .46 Railroads Number of— Miles of Track — Trains Arriving and Depart- ing Daily 46 CONTENTS. 9 Taxable Property Amount of , . . 47 City Debt Amount and Character of— Limited . . . .47 Manufactures Value of 47 Banhs Number of— Aggregate Capital 47 Post Office Third in business in the Country — Description of Build- ing — Government Offices 48 The Court House The Building— Location, extent and use of . .48 The Police Number of 49 Fire Department How Organized — Number of Engines — Other Machines . 49 Population Population by Wards for 1870 and 1871— Extent of De- struction in each Ward — The Character of Improvements in the several Wards — Description of Streets and Edifices — Churches, Halls and other Buildings . . . .50 Paries and Boulevards Lincoln Park — Location, Extent and Plan of— Humboldt Park— Central Park— Douglas Park— North Park— South Park 57 Business of Chicago Statement from the Tribune— Growth of Trade— Direct Importation— Bonded Warehouses— Tea Trade . . 59 10 CONTENTS. THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION. Fire of Saturday Where and when the Fire began — How it Spread — What was Destroyed — The Ruins — The Loss .... G:> Fire of Sunday in the West Division The Alarm— The Fire, its Origin and Spread — The Gale — The Fire Line — The Firemen — Struggle against the Fire- Fiend — Course of the Fire — Progress of the Fire — The air filled with Brands — 150 Acres in Flames before Mid- night — The Fire Leaps Across the River — It Rushed as in a Field of Snow— Sublime— Terrific— Appalling— The Field of Destruction 04 The South Division A Fiery Messenger at Midnight — Spread of the Fire in South Division — Flight of the Inhabitants — Showers of Coals and Fiie Brands— Flames Leaping from Hoof to Roof— Great Hotels, Great Blocks of Business Houses — Court House, Churches, Public Halls and Private Resi- dences Wrapped in Flame 73 Prominent Buildings Depots — Hotels — Banks — Opera Houses— Theaters — Mu- seums — Churches — xVrt Buildings — Chamber of Commerce — Court House— Custom House and Post Office. . . 80 Scenes from the Tribune Office A Turning Point Workings of the Fire Tornado of Flame— Sheets of Fire— Showers of Cinders- Billows of Smoke— White Heat— Steady Roar of advanc- ing Flame, the Carnival of Fire and the Howl of the Blast— Destructive Power of the Fire 85 CONTENTS. 1 1 Street Scenes How the Fire Affected Men— Mobs of Men, "Women and Children rushing wildly through the Streets— Efforts to Save Goods— Efforts to Save Valuables— Efforts to Save Life — Destruction of Liquor — Men and Boys reeling through the Streets to Destruction 83 Character of Buildings Tribune Building — Crosby Opera House — McVicker's Theatre — Farwell Hall — Young Men's Christian Associa- tion — Academy of Design — Academy of Sciences — Busi- Houses, &c 93 Fire in the North Division Course of the Fire in the North Division — The Court House — The Sherman House — No More Efforts to Arrest The Flames — The City Conquered by the Fire Fiend — Destruction Complete 105 Flight of the People The Inhabitants Driven from Place to Place — Refuge in the Lake — In the Great Parks — On the Plains — Aged, Infirm, Sick and Dying Fleeing for Life— Perilous Escapes Ill Intense Heat Complete Combustion— Wood, Iron and Stone alike Consumed. . . i 119 Losses and Insurance List of Losses and Amounts of Insurance — Buildings and Stores— Churches 124 Insurance Companies Losses of Companies by States— New York Companies- Rhode Island Companies— Connecticut Companies- Massachusetts Companies— Ohio Companies— Aggregate. 129 12 CONTENTS. Destruction of Property Sidewalks Destroyed Churches Burnt Episcopal— Presbyterian — Congregational — Baptist — Methodist— Unitarian— Roman Catholic— Universalist. . 135 Value of Goods Destroyed Ale Breweries The Newspapers The Principal Buildings Destroyed Complete of noted Buildings, public and private de- stroyed— Hotels— Churches— Theatres— Banks— Savings Banks— Railway Stations 146 The Fine Arts s Losses in Literature— Art— Mu sic and the Drama- Libraries— and Art Galleries destroyed— Places of Amuse- ment—Young Mens' Christian Association Library— The Florists 152 Statement of the Fire Marshal The Fire Marshal Interviewed— What be said of the fire. 160 Statement of the Assistant Fire Marshal The Patrol Duties Incidents and Scenes 171 Proclamations The Governor of Illinois — The Governor of Wisconsin — The Governor of Michigan — The Governor of Iowa — The Governor of Ohio — Mayor of Chicago — Lieutenant Gen- eral Sheridan— Secretary of War— Official Orders— The Mayor of New York 173 CONTENTS. 13 t INCIDENTS. Bookseller's Row 193 The Rescue of the Dead 194 Destruction of Trunks .196 Eccentricities 200 Domestic Animals 201 The Grave Yards . . 204 Weddings and Marriages . 206 The Ogden Mansion 209 A Courageous Banker . . . . . . .211 A Faithful Clerk 212 A Baby Rescued 212 Safe Vaults 213 A Deranged Woman • 213 Roche the Teamster 214 What Cider Accomplished 217 The Post Office Cat . . 217 Fire Humors .218 A Narrow Escape 220 A Scene in the Tunnel 222 Puritan Relics 223 Advertisements 223 An Heroic Woman 224 Coolness 224 Unfortunate Benevolence 225 A Plucky Merchant 225 Fire Proof Buildings 226 What a Determined Man did 228 A Fearful Trotting Match 232 Fatal Leap for Life 236 A Wedding Postponed . . • . . ... 239 Unprofitable — Deep Grief 241 The Children . . .242 The Indians . 243 n tun ISUVi 1 Through the Tunnel o. . 244 The Court House Bell 1 . 245 Labors of Love . 246 Reflections and Suggestions . 248 After the Fire . . 258 Chicago by Moonlight . 855 The Spine of Chicago . 261 Wanted to see the Ruins . . 269 Anouncements . . 263 A Mournful Case . 2(14 Mrs. Lander's Letters . 260 Escape and Death . 273 The Petroleum Stone . 277 Generous in Danger . 280 Views of an Expert . 281 Experience of Hon J. N. Arnolc 1 . 286 RELIEF MEASURES. Meeting in Boston 204 Statements of the Relief and Aid Society . . . . 2&7 Ladies' Relief Society '300 Donations 301 RELIEF INCIDENTS. Scenes in the u Church of Refuge" . . . .307 Robert Colly er's Sermon in Boston 311 Feeling in England 315 Sidney H. Gray's Letter 318 Resumption of Business. Receipts and Shipments in two days — Receipts and Ship- ments for weeks ending November 11th and 18th, 1870 and 1871, compared 327 CONTENTS. 15 NEW CHICAGO. " Resurgam" , * . 329 Rebuilding Chicago 336 The Work of Rebuilding 339 The Future— The Missouri Republican .... 343 EMINENT CITIZENS OF CHICAGO. Charles Toby— John Van Osdel 347 Philip A. Hoyne— Hon. Digby N. Bell . . . .348 Hon. Isaac V. Arnold — Thomas Church .... 349 Col. Geo. B. Armstrong — James H. Brown . . . 350 John V. Farwell— Wm. F. Codbough . . . .351 William. Heath Byford— F. G. Welsh— Samuel Hoad . 352 Julius Bauer 353 James H. Hoes 354 • POEMS. Chicago — John 6. Whittier 357 The Smitten City — Geo. Alfred Townsend . . .361 Chicago— Bret Harte 364 Out of the Ashes — Howard Glyndon .... 365 Paris and Chicago— New York Post 367 NORTHWESTERN FIRES. Wisconsin. What the Sufferers saw and Experienced— Appearance of Peshtigo after the Fire— Before the Fire— The Extent of the Burned District in the State — The Track of the Tor- nado—Green Bay Region— Oconto County— Losses in Farming Districts 371 16 CONTENTS. Michigan. Fires in Huron and Sanilac — Relief Labors — Destruction of Timber — Story of a Citizen near Port Huron . . 386 Losses of Life Summed up 393 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. Rome, A. D. 64 399 Moscow, 1812 401 London, 1666— New York, 1835, 1843 . . . .404 Pittsburgh, 1845 405 Philadelphia, 1865— San Francisco, 1851— Portland, 1866. 40'> Charleston, 1838— Chicago, 1867-9, 1866-8 . . .407 Other Great Fires 409 Comparison 412 Fire in the Air — A Remarkable Theory .... 416 APPENDIX. The Origin of the Chicago Fire The Fire Alarm— Official Investigation— Testimony of Alarm Operators 419 Court House Watchman. Statement of Matthias Brown 421 Mrs. O'Leary, "Owner of the Cow" — Other Witnesses Examined 423 Mayor Mason's Address Meeting of Council to Inaugurate the Mayor Elect . 439 Mayor Medill's Message The Condition of the City — The Pioneers — Municipal Losses — Fire Department — Police Department — Board of Education — Other Municipal Losses — The Records— Com- bustible Character of Chicago — What the Future Fire Limits Should be— Independent Water Supply for Fires — Conclusion ........ 440 FIRE MAP SHOWING EXACT LOCATION AND BOUNDARY AND ORIGIN OF FIRE CHICAGO AS IT WAS. Richaed Cobden, it is said, once remarked that no man ought to die without visiting America to see Niagara and Chicago. The City of Chicago has been regarded as one of the marvels of the age. Her rapid growth and her stately magnificence have been the astonishment of the world. Her early history, when contrasted with her wealth and grandeur on the 7th of October, 1871, becomes of peculiar interest, even to those whose particular concern for Chicago dates with the recent calamity. Chicago is situated near the head of Lake Mich- igan ; has an elevation of five hundred and ninety- one feet above the sea. It is situated upon both sides of the Chicago river, a slow stream, which at a point little over half a mile from the mouth, is formed by the junction of two streams, or branches, one flowing from the northwest, and the other from the southwest. The river and branches divide the city into three natural parts, legally known as the South, North and West Divisions. The South Division included all the territory east of the south 2 (19) 20 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I branch, and south, of the main river. The North Division included the area east of the north branch, and north of the river; while the West Division included all that part of the city west of the two branches. From 16S1 to 1795, during the time of the French possession, and after its cession to Eng- land, very little is known of Chicago or the surround- ing country. After the declaration of peace, between the Colonists and the English, the latter, by intrigue, stirred up the border Indian warfare, which be- came general in the Western States, and continued until 1795, at which period, having been effectually chastised by General Wayne, the chiefs of the seve- ral tribes of Indians, by his invitation, assembled at Greenville, Ohio, and there effected a treaty of peace, which closed the War of the West. Among the numerous small tracts of land where forts and trading posts had been established, then ceded by the Indians to the United States, was one described as follows: One piece of land, six miles square, at the mouth of the Chiknjo River, emptying into the , southwest end of Lake Michigan, where a fort for- merly stood. Here we have an account of the first land trade of Chicago — the first transaction in that line of business which has at times distinguished Chicago above every other city of the nation — the first link in the chain of title to thousands upon thousands of transfers that have been made of the soil thus parted with by the Indians. When the first settlers of Chicago began to con- ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 21 gregate and erect their cabins, with the view of forming the nucleus of a town, the point selected as the most available for village purposes, was the tract on the west side, at the junction of the north and south branches, and at first called Wolf's Point. In addition to the few buildings that were standing in 1818, we have only to mention this group at Wolf's Point, two or three buildings on the south side, between the point and the fort, and the Miller House, on the north side. The Miller House stood on the point of land between the north branch and the main channel. It was a log structure partly sided, and was erected by Mr. Samuel Miller, who resided here with his family and a brother by the name of John Miller. This house was used as a tavern. A little above its mouth on the north branch, was a log bridge, whicli gave access from that quarter to the business of the agency, and the little trade which may have con- tinued up to this time on the north branch. But the centre of attraction was at Wolf's Point, opposite the Miller House. Here, too, was another tavern, the public house, par excellence, of Chicago — the school house and church, as well as the store. On the south side, the most prominent object of in- terest was the tavern kept by Mr. Elijah Went worth, a man familiarly known as u 01d Geese," not as a burlesque on the worthy landlord, but as a compli- ment to his distinctive and original character. This building was partly log and partly frame, and was situated on the ground north of Lake Street Bridge, *nr 22 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: now occupied as a lumber yard. North of this tavern was an oblong building which had been erected by Father Walker, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for a place of worship, and for a school house. Mr. Walker had at times ministered to the spiritual wants of the settlement, from this rude temple. Mr. W. had a residence in the country known as Walker's, which distinguished the locality at that time, which is now Plainh'eld, Will Co. This log tabernacle was the meeting house of the town. Mr. See, who, it seems, was the local preacher or exhorter, and who resided at the Point, was the supply which was most generally afforded. Preaching was upon a par with other callings and employments of the place. Mr. Went- worth's tavern was the best one kept in Chicago. It was the place where men of character who visited the town always stopped. It was the headquarters of Gen. Scott, when he came to Chicago with the troops for the Black Hawk War, in 1832. The distinctive name of this celebrated tavern, as famil- iarly used by all the settlers, was "liat Castle," in contrast with its rival in distinction on the north side, "Cobweb Castle," and in commemoration of a large class of regular boarders that infested its prem- ises, as well as every other cabin on the river shore. Next south of Wentwortlvs tavern was the resi- dence of James Kinzie. Next to these were log cabins, in which resided Alexander Robinson, and here occasionally, resided Billy Caldwell, whose wife was the wild daughter of a^ Indian Chief, and her ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 23 presence did not always hallow his wigwam with the sanctity of peace. Still further south of these was the store-house of Mr. Robert A. Kinzie, son of Mr. John Kinzie, who had succeeded his father in the Indian trade, and his stock consisted of gro- ceries, Indian goods and supplies for the settlers, and was the store of the village, as essentially as Wentworth's was the village tavern. Across the south branch, on the east side, resided Mark JBeau- bien, brother of Gen. J. B. Beaubien, who also kept tavern. In 1831 his establishment had risen to a two-story dwelling, painted, with green blinds, and soon attained to the title of the Saganash Hotel — which was the Indian name of Billy Caldwell — and so called in honor of that distinguished chief and man of the times, for he was then one of the promi- nent residents of Chicago. It stood near what is now the southeast corner of Lake and Market streets. By this time there had been a place of amusement started in a little, low, log shanty, where was set up a billiard table, at which citizens of lei- sure amused themselves in knocking about three cracked balls. Further up the south* branch was the residence of a French Indian trader by the name of Bourissa. In the South Division, near the "slough" that drained the marshes of the south side, and emptied into the river at State street, was the trading house of Medert Beaubien — son of Col. Beaubien — a cabin of small pretensions. Upon the Lake shore, a little distances south of the fort, Col. Beaubien resided in the cabin wdiich he had pur- 24 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: chased of the American Fur Company, in 1817 — which he had elevated to the dignity of a homestead, and which was now familiarly known among the settlers by the name of the " Wigwam." Near this residence was his store, in which the American Fur Company kept a stock of goods for the Indian trade. Further south,, the old Dean house had started on the way to ruin; the water of the lake had gradually encroached upon the shore-, until it had undermined the foundations of the cabin, and it had fallen back- ward down the bank, where it lay, a type of ruin, an emblem, in the estimation of the croakers (who existed at that time, as well as the present), of the future of Chicago. Another settler about this time had taken up his residence in the suburbs, to be rated with the other " outside settlers," who had linked their fortunes with Chicago, for better or worse — and this was Dr. Harmon, the father of Isaac D. Harmon, who had made a claim a mile and a half south, on the lake shore, on the site of the Indian battle ground of 1812, and was making a fine improvement there. This was the place since known as Clark's, the site of which is now occupied by some cf the finest residences in Chicago. In the year 1804 the United States erected Fort Dearborn upon the south bank of the river, just east of the present Michigan avenue. Mr. Kinzie and his son, John H., Indian traders, were the only white residents until the war of 1812, when the post was abandoned. The small garrison, in attempting to escape, were captured by the Potta- ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 25 watoraies, and massacred at a point now represented by Twelfth street and Michigan avenue. In 1816 the fort was rebuilt, and the Kinzies returned, and the fort served for many years as a resting place for emigrants passing to the West. The inhabitants did not exceed half-a-dozen families, until in 1827 Con- gress made a grant of land to aid in the construction of a canal to connect the waters of Lake Michigan with those of the Illinois river. In 1829 the State Legislature appointed a commission to mark out the route of the canal, and a surveyor arrived to mark out the town. Beside the garrison at that time, there were eight families, engaged mostly as Indian traders, in the place. Gov. Bond, the first Governor of Illinois, in his inaugural, in 1818, called the attention of the General Assembly to the im- portance of opening a canal to connect Lake Michi- gan with the Illinois river. In his valedictory, in 1822, he again urged its importance. The session of Congress, 1821-2, passed an act, granting "per- mission to the State of Illinois to cut a canal through the public lands connecting the Illinois river with Lake Michigan, and granting to it the breadth of the canal and ninety feet on each side of it," coupled with the condition, " that the State should permit all articles belonging to the United States, or to any person in their employ, to pass toll free, forever." With a hard and protracted struggle by numerous individuals, and especially by Daniel P. Cook, Esq., who was at that time Representative in Congress, and from whom Cook county was named, an act 25 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: was passed by Congress, March 2d, 1827, granting to the State for the construction of this work, " each alternate section of land, five miles in width, on each side of the proposed canal." We make mention of these facts, because it was from this act of Congress the State acquired the title to those lands which have formed the basis for many of its most important financial transactions ; from which originated the titles to the valuable canal lands, on which a large portion of the city is built — on which, too, villages, towns and cities have sprung up, all along its line. In the autumn of 1829, commissioners authorized the laying out of the " Town of Chicago," on the alternate section which belonged to the canal lands — lying upon the main channel of the river, and over the junction of the two branches. The first map of the original town of Chicago, by James Thompson, surveyor, bears date, August 4th, 1830. This was the first beginning of Chicago, as a legally recognized place among the towns and cities of the world — the first official act of organization, which must accordingly be dated as its birth, or real start- ing point, and the town was comprised within the limits of what are now known as Madison, State, Kinzie and Halstead streets, or about three-eighths of a square mile. Hence this city, with its popula- tion of 330,000 — the leading mart in the world for grain, pork, lumber, will have arrived on the 4th day of August, 1872, at the precocious maturity of forty-two years. In 1831 Cook county was organ- ized, embracing, in addition to the present county, ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FDTURE. 27 the territory which now is known by five other large and populous counties. The prospective work on the canal was attracting population, but, in 1832, the cholera visited the incipient city, and was very severe. In 1832 the first public re- ligious worship was held in a log hut erected for that purpose. The tax list for 1832 amounted to $148.29. Lake street was laid out the same year. In 18 33 the settlement had increased enough to have a post office and postmaster, and a weekly mail ; and late in the year, the Chicago Democrat, a weekly paper, was started by John Calhoun. On the 10 th of August, the voters of Chicago held an election to determine whether they would become incorporated, and to elect trustees. Every man voted, and the number of voters was twenty-eight, many of whom are now living; and the levy for city taxes, in 1834, was $48.90. In 1834 the num- ber of voters had increased to one hundred and eleven, and a loan of $60 was negotiated for public improvements. In 1835 the number of voters was two hundred and eleven. In 1836 the town applied to the State Bank for a loan of $25,000, and was refused. In 1837 the Legislature incorporated the City of Chicago, and in May following the Hon. William B. Ogclen was elected Mayor of Chicago. Thus, on the first Tuesday in May, 1837, twenty- four years ago, commenced the City of Chicago, which then contained a population of 4,179. The following is a statement of the population of Chi- cago, for each year since that time : 28 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION CHICAGO: Tear. Population. Year. Population 1837 . . . 4,179 1854 . . . 65,872 1838 . . , 4,000 1 855 . . 80,023 1S:J9 . . . 4,200 1856 . , . 86,000 1840 . . 4,470 1857 . . . 93,000 1841 . . 5,500 1858 . not taken 1842 . . , 6,590 1859 . ■ . 90,000 1843 . . 7,580 1860 . 109,263 1844 . . . 8,000 1861 . . 120,000 1845 . . 12,088 1862 . 137,030 1846 . . 14,169 1863 . , 150,000 1847 . . , 16,859 1864 . , 161,288 1S48 . . 20,023 1865 . 187,446 1849 . . 23,047 1806 . 200,000 1850 . . . 28,2b9 1807 . . 220,000 1851 . . 34,000 1868 . . 242,383 1852 . . 38,734 1870 . . 298,977 1S53 . . 60,662 n tlio ovfv. 1871 . imvlmnrv m . 334,270 wonderful city. The natural line of the site of Chicago, was but a few feet above that of the lake, and there was no drainage, and in seasons of rain the surface was covered with water. In the winter of 1855-6 the city ordered a change of grade, raising the height of the carriage ways an average of eight feet. This placed the lower or ground story of each building several feet below the level of the street; but the inconvenience was rapidly overcome by raising all the buildings, brick, stone and wood, up to the level. All the large buildings, including many hotels, business blocks, warehouses, &c, were raised, by means of screws, from their foundations a height of ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 29 from six to ten feet, and new foundations built under them. This secured deep, dry cellars and admitted a thorough system of sewerage. The city ordered an effective dredging of the harbor, and the clay thus obtained served to fill the streets to the new grade. For several years, while this process was going on, the passage of Chicago streets was a work of trying difficulty to pedestrians. The expense was great, but was cheerfully borne by the property holders. Then commenced the works of permanent improvement in the city, and how far they had pro- gressed may be seen by the following comparative tables : Tear 1854. Tear 1871. Sewers, 6 J miles. 160 miles Nicholson pavement, . 600 feet. 40 " Stone pavement, ... " 5 " Water pipe and drains, 30 miles. 400 " Sidewalks (plank), . . 159 " 900 " Sidewalks (stone), . . 500 feet. SO " The Chicago Water Works. Chicago has always had the reputation of a boast- ful city, but the truth is, its growth, expansion and increase have always exceeded the predictions of its own most sanguine people. This is in nowise more clearly shown than in its water supply, the history of which at once tells the story of an enterprising people and of the city's extraordinary progress. In lh39, a company was chartered to supply Chicago with water. It erected a reservoir on the lake shore 30 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO : at the corner of Michigan avenue and Water street, and with a pump, the motive power of which was a small engine of twenty-five horse power, drew water from the lake into the reservoir, and this water was distributed through logs, having a bore of from three to five inches. In 1851, a new company was formed, and in the fall of that year a plan was adopted, which was based upon the estimate, considered ridiculous at the time, that in 1866 the city would have 100,000, inhabitants. This company selected a site on the lake shore. A crib made of wood 20 by 40 feet was sunk 600 feet out in the lake, and from this a wooden inlet was constructed, through which the water was introduced to a large well, 25 feet deep. Over this well was erected a pump. This pump, moved by a steam engine, forced the water into the mains. At three points in the city were erected large stone reservoirs, in which the water accumu- lated and received a head, which forced it through the distributing pipes. A large tower was erected in the engine house, serving the double purpose of a chimney for the boilers, and a chamber for the standing column of water. The engine was of 200 horse power. In December, 1853, the water was first pumped, and in February, 1854, water was first introduced into buildings. In the meantime rail- roads had been laid down to and from Chicago. The city had three trunk lines of rail communica- tion to the Atlantic seaboard, and as many west to the Mississippi river. A road had been built with ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 31 two nearly parallel lines southward, the whole length of the State. Immigration was pouring in. In 1862, the length of water pipe laid exceeded 105 miles and the demand was greater. In 1860, the city had exceeded 109,000 inhabitants, and the in- crease after the beginning of the war had received a new impetus. The commerce on the river or harbor had grown immensely. Simultaneously with the water system, the city had established a system of sewerage. Under the plan adopted the sewerage all found its way into the river. As the water was extended, the closets of all buildings were connected with the sewers. On the banks of the river and its branches were erected large distilleries with their accompanying cattle pens; the drainage all flowing into the river. The packing houses which had bedome numerous, with extensive busi- ness, emptied their refuse into the river. A result was that the river became a horrible nuisance. Its odor was terrific; as the wind happened to blow, so were the various parts of the city suffocated with this fearful stench. The river itself had no current save when the wind blew off shore, when the putrid stuff slowly escaped into the lake where its inky waters might be traced for miles; when there were heavy rains, the current carried out the blackened, sickening water, and for a few days after each of such floods, the river was clean again. The smells of Chicago river had become as historical as those of Cologne. The worst evil, however, was that when- ever the wind was from the south or east, the water 32 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: of the river escaping into the lake was carried up to the crib, through which the water works ob- tained its supply. It was thence redistributed to the public. At times the stench in dwellings from this fearful liquid was intolerable. It was not only black, with a shocking odor, but was greasy to the touch. It became necessary, therefore, not only to provide better water, but also to provide for a supply commensurate with the growth of the city. In 1868, the city was authorized to construct a tunnel under the lake to obtain a supply of pure water. A careful survey was made, and such a proceeding was pronounced feasible. On the 9th of September, 1863, bids were opened and the con- tract awarded to Dull and Gowan, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for $315,139. Ground was broken on the 17th of March, 1864. The shore shaft was first sunk. The original intention to have this shaft exclusively of brick w^as abandoned because of some quicksands, and a cylinder was sunk, 26 feet, to the bottom of the sand bed. This cylinder is 9 feet in diameter inside, and 2^ inches thick. From the shore shaft the tunnel is 5 feet wide and 5 feet 2 inches in height, the upper and lower arches being semi-circles. The masonry consists of brick 8 inches thick, laid in two rings, the bricks being laid lengthwise. The bottom of the tunnel where it connects with the lake shaft is 66 feet below the level of the earth, and 64 below the level of the lake. The inclination towards the shore is 2 feet per mile. By closing the gate at the crib, ITS PAST, PRFSENT AND FUTURE. 33 the ttinnel will empty into the shore shaft, and can then be inspected and if necessary repaired. The work was prosecuted incessantly by night and by day. Stiff blue clay was first met with in the bore, and with the exception of a few slight pockets of sand, the whole work was carried through the same formation. A railway was laid in the tunnel, and cars were filled with clay and drawn to the mouth by mules ; the returning cars carried back bricks and cement. There were several niches or turnouts constructed, having a double purpose of affording convenience and of giving strength to the work. In July, 1865, or nineteen months after the com- mencement of work at the shore end, the monster crib, built for the lake end of the tunnel, was launched, and towed safely to its destination, and sunk. It was of large proportions. The dimen- sions were imposing. It was of a pentagonal form, 40 feet high, with a circle of 98J feet in diameter was built of square logs having three walls 11 feet distant from each other, leaving in the center a space equal to a circle of 25 feet ; in this inner circle or space was sunk and fixed an iron cylinder 9 feet in diameter, extending from the water line 64 feet to the tunnel. The water at that point is 33 feet deep, and the cylinder is there- fore 31 feet below the bottom of the lake. To safely anchor this important structure so that it might withstand the fury of lake storms and the incessant beating of the waters, was no easy matter. It contains an equivalent to 750,000 feet of lumber, 34 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO*. board measure; 150 tons of iron bolts, and is loaded with 4,500 tons of stone. Its whole weight is 5,700 tons. The structure stands 12 feet above the water line. As soon as this was safely anchored and the cylinder sunk, the whole was covered with a build- ing to protect the workmen. The earth excavated was loaded upon scows, which brought back with them bricks and cement. The work on the tunnel proper did not begin at this end until December, 1865, when the first brick was laid. The whole length of the tunnel was 2 miles. On January 1st, 1865, there had been 4,825 feet of the tunnel built from the shore end. After that time work pro- gressed from both ends. On December 6th, 1866, the wall between the two gangs was broken, the men shook hands, and the last brick was laid by Major John B. Rice. The water was not, however, furnished to the city until March, 1867, when there was a grand civic celebration. The increase of water supply necessitated an in- crease of distributing power. The old engine and pump house was greatly enlarged. A new tower of stone, 130 feet high, was erected some distance west of the pump. Within this tower is an iron column, three feet in diameter, to the top of which the water is forced from the tunnel by the powerful pumping machinery, and thence by its own pressure is forced through the mains and distributing pipes of the city. The total cost of this grand work com- plete, with new engines and all things pertaining to the enlarged works, was about $1,000,000. CHICAGO WATER-WORKS. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 37 Since then, the laying of water mains has been pushed extensively. In 1854 the first pipe was laid. At the close of 1860, 71 miles of pipe had been laid. When the water was admitted in March, 1867, it flowed through 154 miles of pipe. In 1867 and 1868, 50 additional miles were laid, and on the 1st of April, 1870, the total length of pipe laid was 239 miles 4,763 feet, when the fire occurred there were about 275 miles of pipe laid. The increase in the consumption of water upon the procurement of a pure quality was surprising. The total amount supplied in 1866, averaged 8,600,- 000 gallons daily. In 1867, the first year of the pure water, it averaged 11,560,000 gallons daily. In 1869 its average during the whole year was 18,633,278 gallons daily, though on some days it equalled 20,000,000 gallons. In 1870 the average had increased to 21,000,000 gallons daily. In 1871 no official report had been made, but the consump- tion was fully up to 24,000,000 gallons daily. So greatly had this demand exceeded even the most sanguine expectations, that it was feared the capacity of the works would not be sufficient. So this enterprising people resolved to extend the tunnel from its present shore end, west of southwest in an air-line, a distance of nearly three miles under the city, and under the main river and its south branch, and there erect a duplicate works. It was also contemplated to build another tunnel under the lake to secure an additional supply of water, to be used in case of any accident to the one 38 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: now in use. The capacity of the present tunnel is 57,000,000 gallons daily. The quality of the water is most excellent. It is very pure and free of all earthy substances. Even in the most stormy seasons, such are the admirable precautions at the crib, that little or no sand enters the tunnel, and what does enter is caught in the catch basins before reaching the shore wells. The engraving represents the exterior of the works with the tower. The surrounding grounds had but re- cently been put in order, and the whole presented a handsome landscape, the broad lake spreading far to the eastward an appropriate back-ground. The annual expense of the pumping works, or operating expenses including repairs and salaries, was about $80,000, and the cost of delivering water per million of gallons was less than $10,000. The annual income from water service was about $650,000, paying the interest on the water debt, all expenses, and leaving a surplus to pay for exten- sions of the service pipes. The machinery of the water works was of the most excellent character. It had recently been augmented by an enormous engine, not surpassed in power or excellence of workmanship by any like production in the country. This engine was put in place in September. The fire destroying the sup- ports of the roof, let the burning mass fall upon this machinery. It was then exposed to the intense heat borne by the gale for twelve hours. The effect was damaging. As soon as possible a force of mechanics ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 39 were put at work, and in eleven days an engine was in operation, again supplying the city with water. The Streets of Clvicago. The whole length of streets in Chicago numbers 531 miles. Of which there were improved : By wooden blocks, 37.60 miles. " boulders, 3.77 " " McAdam, 11.26 " " cindering, 2.40 " " gravelling, 6.43 " Total miles improved, . . .61.46 " The annual assessments upon abutting property since and including 18(59, for street improvements, exceeded $2,000,000. Sewerage. The total length of sewerage constructed to April 1st, 1870, was 136± miles; in 1870 and 1871 about 50 miles additional were laid. Gas. The North and South Divisions were supplied by the Chicago Gas and Coke Company, whose works were at the junction of Adams and Franklin streets; and the West Division by the People's Gas Com- pany. The former company had just completed new works north of the city, and in six days after the fire, was again furnishing gas to the people, resident in that portion of its territory not swept by the fire. 40 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: Bridges and Tunnels. Communication between the several parts of the city was kept up by pivot-bridges, spanning the river and its branches. During the fire all the bridges on the main river, four in number, were destroyed, and three were burned on the south branch. As these bridges had to be swung open to permit vessels to pass, the interruption to passengers and vehicles was so great that other means were demanded. For this purpose, in 1869, a tunnel was built under the south branch, under the line of Washington street. This tunnel has a double roadway for vehicles, and a twelve feet passage for pedestrians. In September, 1871, another but much better tunnel was constructed under the main river, on the line of La Salle street. In both cases the skill of the engineers and the success of the mechanics have been remarkable. These tunnels were not injured by the fire. The River and the Canal. To understand the last grand triumph of the enter- prise of the people of Chicago, it must be borne in mind that the river is the receiver of the entire sewerage system of Chicago. Into that river there is forever falling the foul discharges of the hundreds of miles of sewers, and in Chicago all the water closets are connected with the sewers. The wash- ings of the distilleries and of the packing-houses also ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 41 flow into the river. As the river, though deep, is but in fact an estuary of the lake, there is no current, save when the wind is off shore, and consequently none of this filth was ever carried out, save when contin- ued heavy rains would produce a current. The river, therefore, was offensively odorous; in the winter, when covered with ice, the foul gases did not escape, but at other seasons it was intolerable. The Illinois and Michigan canal was connected with the south branch of the river by a lock, the canal being several feet above the river To supply the canal with water, pumps were erected, and the city was forced to hire these pumps to pump the water from the river into the canal continuously, thus drawing pure water into the river from the lake. But as the sewerage increased, the efficacy of the pumps diminished, and finally the consent of the Legisla- ture was obtained and the city resolved to so deepen the canal as to establish a continuous flow of water up stream from the lake, through the river into the canal. Many miles of the excavation was of solid rock, and the first estimate of $2,500,000 was ex- hausted. Finally, in June, 1871, the work was completed at a cost of $3,750,000, the locks were torn away, the river poured its inky stream of fetid water into the canal, and in twenty-four hours the water in the river was as pure as that of the lake. It continues to work admirably, much to the astonish- ment of those who insist, even in the face of this con- trary demonstration, that the water of a river will not flow up stream. There is a current of several miles 42 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO! per hour constantly flowing to the head of the stream, keeping the river pure and inodorous. During the suspension of the water works, since the fire, water from the river has been pumped into the mains and distributed to the people. It was smoky but otherwise good. Chamber of Commerce. In 1864-5 the Chamber of Commerce was built at the southeast corner of Washington and La Salle streets, at a cost including the lot, of $490,000. In this magnificent building, built of marble, the Board of Trade, consisting of 1400 members, met daily for the transaction of business. It contained, also, offices occupied by two banks, insurance agen- cies, brokers, and commission merchants. The hall where the daily business was transacted was as fine as any in the country, and was the scene of many an exciting event. This building was swept by the fire as if it were made of wood. The Grain Market. Chicago had long since become the leading grain market of the world. The growth of this trade is but an illustration of the general growth of the city in all its branches of commerce. After the disas- trous events of 1837, Walker & Co., in 1838, commenced as an experiment the shipment of grain, and the shipment of that year was 78 bushels of wheat. Flour was not exported until 1844. The ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 43 record of corn shipments commenced in 1847. A few statements will show the progress of this trade : SJiipments of Wheat, Tear. Bushels. Tear. Bushels. 1838, . . 78 1860, . . 12,402,191 1841, . . 40,000 1861, . . 15,835,935 1844, . . . 891,000 1866, . . 10,118,907 1848, . . . 2,160,000 1868, . . 10,374,683 1855, . . . 6,298,155 mo, . . 16,432,585 Com. Tear. Bash els. Tear. Bushels. 1847, . 67,315 1816, . . 24,322,725 1851, . . 3,221,317 1866, . . 32,953,530 1854, . . 6,626,054 1869, . . 21,580,808 1860, . . 13,700,113 1870, . . 17,777,377 1871, to October. Of all Grains. Reducing the flour shipped to bushels of wheat, the aggregate of all kinds of grain shipped in both forms is thus shown : Tear. Bushels. Tear. Bushels. 1841, . 40,000 1862, , . 56,484,110 1350, . . 1,830,938 1866, . 66,736,660 1854, . . 12,932,320 1870, . . 54,745,903 1860, . . 31,108,750 The receipts and shipments during 1871, prom- ised to exceed by many millions of bushels those of any previous year. 44 THE GKEAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO *. Elevators. The machinery by which this vast amount of grain was handled was the monster elevators, of which there were seventeen, with a total capacity of holding 11,5*0,000 bushels in store. The trains were run to these elevators and quickly emptied of their contents, while the business of loading a vessel was proportionately speedy. The elevators were built on the river, thus admitting of receiving from the cars on one side, and delivering to vessels on the other. Of these elevators there were six de- stroyed, having an aggregate capacity of 2,680,000 bushels. They contained at the time 1,650,000 bushels of grain. The other elevators yet remain. Those destroyed will rapidly be replaced. Cattle Yards. Another institution of this city was its stock yards, which were opened in December, 1865. Their area is 345 acres; 100 acres in pens; used for hotel and other buildings 45 acres; 31 miles of drainage; 12 miles of paved streets and alleys ; 3 miles of water troughs; 12 miles of feed troughs; 2,300 gates; 1,500 open pens; 800 covered pens; the whole supplied by water from an artesian well. The hotel is large. The establishment has its national bank, telegraph office, newspaper, and is reached by the tracks of 21 railroads and their tributary roads. These yards are uninjured by the fire. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 45 The number of animals received and shipped at these yards during the year 1870 is as follows: Cattle. Receipts. Shipped. Cattle, 532,964 391,709 Sheep, 349,855 116,711 Hogs, live, 1,693,158 924,483 Hogs, dressed, 260,214 171,188 Lumber Trade. The magnitude of the lumber trade may be briefly stated in the following statement of the receipts : Year. Lumber, feet. Shingles. Lath. 1867-8, 882,661,770 447,039,275 146,846,200 1870-1, 1,018,998,685 652,091,000 More than half of these receipts of lumber are shipped hence to all parts of the west by rail and canal. Other Articles in 1870. Receipts. Shipments. Pork, barrels, . . 40,883 165,885 Provisions, pounds . 52,162,881 112,433,168 Lard, pounds, . . 7,711,018 43,292,249 Beef, barrels, 20,554 65,529 Seeds, pounds, . 18,681,148 6,287,615 Wool, pound, . 14,751,089 15,826,536 Hides, pounds, 28,539,668 27,245,846 Salt, barrels, . . 674,618 571,013 Coal, tons, 887,474 110,467 Lead, pounds, , 14,445,622 1,855,471 Hogs, packed, '( >9- '70 , 2,595,233 46 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO . Lake Commerce. The aggregate number of vessels arriving in Chi- cago during the year 1870, was 12,739, with a tonnage of 3,049,265 tons. The vessels owned in Chicago in 1870, are thus recorded: No. Tons. Steamers, 3 467 Propellers, .10 4,256 Tugs, 53 1,752 River steamers, 4 376 Steam canal boats, 14 1,226 Barks, 34 11,753 Brigs, 7 1,553 Schooners, 242 45,201 Scows, 41 2,956 Barges, 8 3,103 418 72,764 Canal boats, 224 20,564 Railroads. The number of main lines of railway entering Chicago was 21, including their extensions and branches 45, with nearly 10,000 miles of track through the country tributary to this city/ The number of passenger trains arriving daily was not less than 120, and of freight trains, about the same number. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 47 Taxable Property. The assessment for municipal taxation of per- sonal and private property for the year had just been completed, and was about $287,000,000. This did not include public property, and only so much of the personal as was visible. It was perhaps one- third less than the real or selling value. It did not include the churches, charitable or school property, all of which was valuable. City Belt. The debt of the City of Chicago in April, 1871, was $14,103,000, of which $1,500,000 was held in cash intended for the extension of the water works. The increase of the debt was prohibited by the Con- stitution of 1870. Manufactures. The manufactures of Chicago during 1870, pro- duced an aggregate of about $76,000,000. The heaviest of these establishments were destroyed. Banks. The City of Chicago had 25 banks, 17 of them national banks, with an aggregate capital of $13,000,000, and of deposits amounting to 48 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: $35,000,000, all these banks, save the Prairie Savings Institution, were located within the burnt district, and their buildings destroyed. In no case was any money lost, though most of them lost their books. The Post Office. The Chicago Post Office was in general business, the third in the country, ranking next after Phila- delphia, but in the number of letters received and mailed, it was exceeded only by that of New York. The building was erected in 1855, and was sup- posed to be fire proof. It was of Athens marble. The exterior walls are standing. The building also contained the Custom House, United States Deposi- tory, United States Courts, and Marshal's offices. All the books and records were destroyed. The gold in the depository was recovered, having melted down, but the $1,300,000 of greenbacks and na- tional bank notes were consumed. The Court House Was a large building made of Lockport granite. It was three stories high, with a basement, used as a county jail. During 1870, the city erected a large wing on the west side of the square, and the comely-like structure on the east side. These were occupied in March last for the first time. They ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 49 had been handsomely and expensively furnished throughout. All the records of all the courts, and of the city and county, including the record of deeds, were consumed in the fire. On the dome of the center building was recently erected a clock, with four dials, and on the belfry was hung a powerful fire alarm bell. The bellman did not abandon his post until the roof of the building was in flames. The Police. The police force consists of 450 men, under the general charge of a Board of Police Commissioners. The force is generally effective. Fire Department. The Fire Department consisted of four hook and ladder trucks ; two hose elevators ; 17 st«am engines ; 54 hose carts; one fire escape, and 11 alarm bells; with 48,000 feet of hose. It was a paid depart- ment. Until this calamity, it had proved to be brave, vigorous and prompt, though there was a growing impression that its executive offi ,ers were not what they ought to be, neither the Police, nor Fire Department had become political or parti- san attachments, though the Commissioners are elective. 50 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I The Population. In June, 1870, the Federal census was taken, and in June, 1871, it was again taken by private enterprise. The following are the results : Wards. Tear 1870. Tear 1871. 1 6,522 8,103 2 14,320 13,449 3 17,681 17,934 4 12,174 14,022 5 11,566 14,991 6 19,445 22,918 7 13,854 15,590 8 22,911 25,420 9 27,817 30,778 10 13,771 17,292 11 15,065 16,212 12 13,970 15,018 13 8,928 9,740 14 . . . .• 9,035 9,339 15 20,361 25,706 16 14,045 16,380 17 18,078 18,814 18 17,084 18,805 19 8,716 9,237 20 13,628 14,522 Totals, 298,977 334,270 The destruction by the fire was nearly complete in the wards in which it occurred. The fire origin- ated in the Ninth Ward, burning out the northeast corner of that ward. Four blocks of the Tenth Ward had been destroyed the night before. I ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 51 then crossed the river in the Second Ward, burning, leaving but a dozen dwellings in that ward, and de- stroying twenty-five or more in the Third Ward ; it swept every house in the First, Twentieth, Nine- teenth, Eighteenth, and Seventeenth Wards, and four-fifths of the Sixteenth Ward. This renders the computation of those rendered homeless, a mat- ter of easy computation. Taking the census of 1871, as the basis, the following is the population whose habitations were destroyed. We follow the course of the fire. Inhabitants. 9,237 18,805 18,814 13,650 Pards. Inhabitants. Wards. 9 . . . . 2,000 19 10 . . . 250 18 3 . . . 250 17 2 . . . . 13,449 16 1 . . . . 8,103 20 . . . . 14,522 ] ^lendere The First Ward was, with but few exceptions, built of stone or brick ; the streets were all paved, but in many cases the board sidewalks had not yet given place to the stone. In this ward were concen- trated all the city and county buildings; all the banks; all the insurance brokers, and real estate offices ; nearly all the wholesale dry goods, groceries, jewellers, clothing, crockery and glassware, boots and shoes, drugs, oils and paint, and leather dealers ; all the hotels, save those built since 1869, the opera house, and all the theatres. During 1869 and '70 State street had been improved by the erection of some thirty or forty marble front business buildings, all 52 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: six stories hisrh. In this street were most of the large booksellers and publishers. East of State street, and in the same ward, the improvements have been on an equal scale. There were but two churches in this ward, the Second Presbyterian, a stone building, and St. Mary's Koman Catholic. Adjoining the latter was the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, which included a large boarding house and school. Near by, on Michigan avenue, was the marble residence of Bishop Foley. In the same ward were all the newspaper offices and principal publishing houses, including Callaghan & Cochroft, Law Publishers, who lost the plates of the reports of several States. The Opera House had been re- fitted at a cost of $90,000, and was to open on Monday night. Mc Vicker's Theatre had been sub- stantially rebuilt, at great cost. The United States Post Office, Custom House and Depository, was in the same part of the city. Though the ward covered a large area, the resident population was compara- tively small, those doing business there residing in other parts of the city. It contained large factories, in which were employed many thousands of women. At six o'clock in the evening the various working people, clerks, and others, male and female, would throng the streets in long processions, returning to their homes in various parts of the city. The va- rious horse railways had their common starting point on State street. Michigan avenue, until within a few years, was the grand place of residence. Built only upon one CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. ail "I I ' mil liill llii ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 55 side, the dwellings looked out upon the broad lake, with an intervening park. Next to this was Wabash avenue, hardly less desirable as a residence, but the growth of business had become such that residence after residence was abandoned, and business, whole- sale principally, was converting once proud private mansions into places of traffic. Not a house stands on either avenue, north of Congress street; there one block was saved, including the Avenue Hotel. To the west of this the fire burned down to Harri- son street, the southern boundary of the Second Ward. The Second Ward contained a large proportion of wooden buildings, which were, however, giving way to those of stone and brick. It included the Palmer Hotel, opened in March; the Bigelow House, just furnished, but not opened ; and the Pacific Hotel, hardly completed. These three hotels were intended to surpass any of the other great hotels for which the city was proverbial. In the First Ward was the great Union Passenger Depot of the Illinois Central, Michigan Central, and Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroads, and all the freight depots of the same roads. In the Second Ward was the magnificent and costly passenger depot of the Rock Island and the Michi- gan Southern Railroads. The buildings were all of stone. Crossing the river to the Twentieth Ward, the fire entered a field of more combustible material. For three blocks north of the river the buildings 4 56 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: were generally of brick, and for three blocks west of the lake the private residences, most of them costly, were of stone. Along the river were two elevators, McCormick's reaper factory, a freight de- pot, and various manufacturing establishments. On Kinzie street was the great meat market, to which all the slaughtered meat was brought, and from which most of the butchers got their daily supply. North of these parts and for miles, the buildings as a general thing, were of wood, and were con- sumed as so much kindling wood by the fire, driven by the furious gale. In this section there were several handsome churches — St. James, Episcopal, stone ; Cathedral of the Holy Name, R. C. ; St. Joseph's Church, R. C, German ; Unity Church, Rev. Robert Collyer's; New England Church; be- sides numerous frame churches. The Roman Catho- lic Orphan Asylum, stone, and two hospitals, were also in this part of the city. One stone Public School, of the modern style, and four brick schools were also within the area swept by the fire. To the east, near the lake shore, were the water works al- ready mentioned, and also several large breweries. In the same part of the city were located the supposed fire proof buildings of the Chicago Historical Society and Rush Medical College. The population of this North Division, except along the streets near the lake, was mostly of foreign birth. The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Wards were almost exclusively Germans. The Eighteenth was principally settled by Irish. The Nineteenth and Twentieth had a ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 57 more mixed population, but the Germans were in the majority. The buildings destroyed in the Ninth and Tenth Wards have been described as wooden. The population di\lodged were mainly Irish, but in- cluded, also, a settlement of Bohemians in the Ninth Ward. The Parks and Boulevards. Chicago had just entered upon a system of parks and boulevards, which, when completed, would have been unequalled by those of any other city of the world. The first of these was Lincoln Park, a tract of land within the northern limits of the city, contain- ing one hundred and fifty-three acres, and with a broad front upon the lake. This park had been already comparatively completed and was a great public resort. The plan embraced a boulevard with a roadway 250 feet wide, proceeding from the northern extremity of this park westwardly about four miles, where it entered Humboldt Park, a tract of 290 acres. This park had only been com- menced ; it was enclosed and was partially planted. About two miles south of this, and connected by a like boulevard, was Central Park, containing 236 acres, and a mile south of this park was Douglas Park, containing 232 acres. All of these parks were but in their infancy, but with the speed with which all such things progress in Chicago, would in a few years have become handsomely decorated places 58 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: of resort. From Douglas Park, the boulevard upon the same extended to the south and east, until it reached North Park, a tract of over 500 acres, just south of the city. A mile and a half to the south and west of this park was South Park, which con- tained nearly 500 acres ; both parks containing com- bined 1,055 acres. The North and South Parks cost over two millions of dollars, for which the bonds of the South Division have been sold. Work on these parks will probably be suspended for years, as the property to be taxed for their improvement and maintenance has been destroyed. When com- pleted, as they would rapidly have been had not this fire occurred, they would have been unequalled. The length of boulevard, or broad paved avenue planted on both sides, would have been nearly twenty-five miles, exclusive of the roadways in the parks. No other equal extent of drives can be found in any other city of this day. The park system will be suspended, but not abandoned, and before five years are over, no other calamity intervening, the work will be resumed. The lands for parks and boule- vards have been purchased, and will be held until the city recovers some of her lost greatness and wealth. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 59 The Business of Chicago. On the 5th of October, only a day or two before the fire, the Chicago Tribune had the following editorial concerning the trade of the city: u Our "Washington despatches of yesterday show, that one more obstacle to the shipment of goods from foreign ports direct to Chicago has been re- moved. This is the permission of the Treasury Department to carry foreign goods, on which there is no duty, in the same bonded cars with goods upon which the duty is to be collected here. Few per- sons, except those directly engaged in the import trade of this city, are aware of what important changes have resulted from the recent removal of the unnecessary restrictions in regard to cars, and locks, and guards, that were imposed a year ago upon the shipment of goods direct from foreign ports to this city, Our leading dealers in dry goods, ribbons, hosiery, carpets, liquors, crockery, &c., say that they are importing from five to six times as much as they have ever done before at the same season of the year. It is only within a year that Chicago merchants have ever thought of keeping their own exclusive agents in Europe. Now, at least four prominent houses keep either members of their firms or an exclusive agent in Europe, the greater portion of the year, moving from one mar- ket to another, now buying German cloths, now at Basle for ribbons and hosiery, and again in England 60 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: for carpets, &c. During the last four weeks a thou- sand tons of railroad iron have been received in Chicago, direct from England via Montreal, and we hear of another thousand tons afloat for here, that will arrive within the next few weeks. When we say that our merchants are importing six times as many goods as ever before, at this season of the year, it is not meant that their stock is six times as great — though there is a vast increase also in that respect — but mainly that they are buying six times as many of their goods direct from the foreign manufacturer, instead of buying them of middlemen in New York and other Eastern cities. As far as direct trade with Europe is concerned, this great change has been effected by relieving the Chicago importing merchant from the necessity of doing his warehousing in New York city instead of at home. The Chicago merchant now pays nothing until his goods arrive here, he gives his bond here, the goods are appraised here, and he can withdraw any portion of them from warehouse on any day and have them in his store without the former delays. In this connection it may be mentioned that the increased demand for Government bonded warehouse room has increased so much, that the Michigan Southern Company are now building a bonded warehouse on Harrison street, and the company, in conjunction with others to New York, intend to bond their lines, in order to make a specialty of carrying goods imported direct to Chicago. But it is not only with Europe that the direct foreign trade of Chicago has been so ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 61 extensively increased this fall. The increase of the tea trade exceeds even that of the dry goods trade. It is a fact of great significance in this connection, that whereas the total quantity of teas in Govern- ment bonded warehouses in this city, on September 30th, 1870, was only 2,500 chests, it is now nearly 15,000 chests, all of which has come direct on through bills of lading from Hong Kong and Yoko- hama, through San Francisco to Chicago, without a day's unnecessary delay, and there are further re- ceipts of teas now via the North Western and Rock Island Railroads every day. This great increase of the direct importing trade of this city has been mainly within the past two months, as will be seen by the following table of the amount of duties paid at this custom house, during each month of the first quarter of the current fiscal year, as compared with the same time last year, viz: 1870. 1871. July, $63,141 $10,375 August, 76,803 87,608 September, 55,909 174,706 Total, $185,853 $332,689 , It will be seen that the amount of duties paid during September this year were over three times as great as during the same time last year. * As regards the tea trade there seems no reason why Chicago will not become the great distributing 62 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: market for all the central part of the continent, be- tween the Allegheny and the Rocky mountains. As prominent cities as Cincinnati and St. Louis will, of course, do a portion, but the superior facilities of Chicago, in her constantly increasing network of railroads, are practically acknowledged by the New York tea houses, four or five of which have their resident agents here, receive their teas here via the overland route, and distribute them from this point all over the northwest. These agents receive but few teas from New York, and there is no longer any question of competition, as regards the route by which the teas consumed in the States west of Pennsylva- nia and New York shall come. The trans-continen- tal railroad on the one hand, and the increased facilities for direct importation on the other, are revolutionizing the foreign trade of the United States. We see evidence of this not only in the increased direct importations of Chicago merchants, but in the exports of products. As instances, the steamship Great Republic, which sailed from San Francisco, on October 1st, took 21,000 barrels of flour for Hong Kong; the ship Ringleader, which sailed the same day, took $100,000 worth more for the same port; and every regular Pacific steamer now takes more or less flour. If China and Japan continue to take our breadstufTs, at that rate, it will leave less to go to England, and will have the effect to make a better average of prices for the grain produced in the northwest." 1. Sherml. 42 2. Briggs House. Not Burned. 43. 3. Metroes and Water Tower. 44. 4. CrtamK- Not Burned. 45. 5. Repub-- R- R- Depot. JYotBurned. A. 6. Meller R. R- Depot. Chicago & Co.'sestern R. R. Not Burned. B. 7. Matte: R- R- Depot. Not Burned. x. 8. Adamiuse. 9. A. M. Hou se. 10. U. S. McVicker's Theatre. Armory Police Court. Gas-Works. Elevator A. Methodist Church, (Wabash Avenue.) Not Burned. Elevator. Not Burned. Bridges Burned. Tunnels under the River at Lasalle St., connecting^. & S. sides; at Wash- ington St., connectingS.&W. sides. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 63 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION. The Fire of Saturday. About 10 o'clock on Saturday night, Octobei 7th, 1871, afire broke out on South Clinton street, just north of Van Buren street.^ A fierce wind from the southwest was blowing at the time, and despite the exertions of the firemen it destroyed all the buildings within the area bounded by Adams on the north, Clinton on the west, Van Buren on the south, and the river on the east, excepting a few valueless buildings on the northwest corner of Clinton and Adams, a row of frame buildings on Van Buren street from Clinton to Canal, and Murray Nelson's grain elevator, which was situated east of Canal street, and near Adams street bridge. The buildings destroyed were not very valuable, being mostly two-story frame buildings occupied as laborers' boarding houses. In one of these was a corpse of a woman, and her friends were holding a "wake" over her remains. The friends fled before the fire, leaving the dead body to be consumed. Between Canal street and the river were a number of coal yards, and the extensive lumber yard of Chapin & Foss. The piles of coal and lumber burned all day on Sunday, and when night set in the sky reflected the brilliant light of the blazing mass below. The loss of property by this fire which swept an area of about sixteen acres was > Sherman House. 2. Briggs' House 3. Metropolitan Hotel. V 4. Chamber of Commerce. 5. Republican Office. 0. Meller's Jewelry Storo, and Baker & Co.'s Engraving Rooms. 7. Mattoson House. 8. Adams' Express Office. 9. A. M. N. Express Office, 10. U. S. Express Office, 11. Tremont House. 12. Opera House. St. James' Hot« I 13. Field & Letter's Store. 14. First National Bank Building. 10. Chicago Times. 16. Booksellers' Row. Western N 17. Drake & Farwell Block. 18. Tribune Building. 19. Custom House and Post Office. 20. Evening Post and Staat* Zeitur g 21. Farwell Hall, Bigelow Hotel. Academy of Fine Arts. Palmer House. Ogden Hotel. Jones' School. Michigan Southern & Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Depot. III. Central R. R. Land Department. MI.Cen.R.R. Depot & Freight House. GalenaDepot. Chicago* N. W. R. R. Historical Society. Turner Hall. M. Ogden's House. Not Burned. 34. Water-Works and Water Tower. 35. Lynn Block. Not Burned. 36. P.F.W.&C. R. R. Depot. Not Burned. 37. Milwaukee R. R. Depot. Chicago & Nerth-Western R. R. Not Burned. 38. C. & N. W. R. R. Depot. Not Burned. 39. Adams' House. 40. Massasoit House, 41. City Hotel. 42. McVicker's Theatre. 43. Armory Police Court. 44. Gas-Works. 45. Elevator A. A. Methodist Church, (Wabash Avenue.) Not Burned. B. Elevator. Not Burned. X. Bridges Burned. Tunnels under the River at Lasalle St., connecting v N. & S. sides; at Wash- ington St., connecting S.&W. sides. 64 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO *. about $300,000. The neighborhood was visited during the day by thousands of persons. About one hundred families were turned out of their homes by the fire. The Fire of Sunday in the West Division. At precisely half-past nine o'clock on Sunday evening the fire-bell sounded an alarm, and simulta- neously a bright light appeared in the southwest. To the great majority of persons this appeared but a revival of the fire of the previous night. It was just as the churches were out and the congregations were returning to their homes. No special attention was given to the fire, and many hundreds of families, after noticing that it was at a great distance, went to their homes, and later retired to sleep, all uncon- scious that the demon was unloosed which would disturb and expel them before many hours. Stand- ing to the west of the territory covered by the fire of Saturday, we readily discovered that the alarm was not called for by any revival of the embers of that conflagration. Proceeding directly to the scene ; we discovered that it had originated in a cow-shed in the rear of a one-story frame building, on the northeast corner of Dekoven and Jefferson streets. The origin is a mystery. The story that an attempt to milk a cow by the light of a kerosene lamp, had ended in the overturning of the lamp, and the rapid firing of the cow-shed, is now known to be untrue. It must always be borne in mind that for thirty-six ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 65 hours previously the wind had been blowing with unusual violence from the southwest. The flames immediately spread to the adjoining sheds in the interior of the block, the wind bearing them far in advance. By reference to the map it will be seen that from the initial point of the fire to the water works, the direction is directly northeast, and in the light of what followed from the first outburst, it seemed as if the fire and the gale had united to mow a breadth of desolation from the one place to the other in the shortest possible space of time. From the beginning the fire rushed forward in a varying breadth, directly before the wind in a literal air line, to the destruction of the water works. Be- fore the firemen had reached the scene, the fire had crossed Taylor street, thence into Forquer street, burning a breadth of from fifty to eighty feet, leaving behind it the blazing buildings to spread the conflagration to the right and the left. It then reached Clinton street, just south of Polk street, still confining its breadth to two buildings, some- times to three ; but cutting diagonally through the blocks, it included within its path the ends of many other buildings. The firemen posted themselves in front of the fire, struggling to arrest it, but their labors were in vain; they might as well have at- tempted to arrest the wind itself because at this time the wind and the fire were the same thing, the blaze often reaching across the streets, and burning brands were carried far in advance of the actual fire. There had been no rain in Chicago, of any accounf, for 66 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: nearly six weeks, and the wooden buildings, tene- ments, lumber piles, and sidewalks, were as dry as paper and burned as readily. Though the wind carried the original fire directly before it, it also, by its eddies and currents, extended it. Though the northwest and southeast corners of the block, where the fire began, escaped destruction, it turned back to Jefferson street at a point two blocks north, and burned all the buildings on the east side of that street to a point one-half a block north of Harrison street. To the east it extended gradually from the point where it crossed Taylor street to Canal street, and thence to the river, which it crossed at Polk street, destroying the bridge, and setting fire to the extensive works of the Chicago Hide and Leather Company. The main fire — the advance guard after crossing Polk street — soon reached the rear of several planing mills and factories, the buildings being all of wood ; these furnished the peculiar aid this fire needed to make it irresistible. It would lift a bundle of blazing shingles and bearing it upon the wind would deposit them on the roofs of buildings far in ad- vance. The line of the continuous fire was thus considerably hastened. The result was as if a corps of men were firing the city at various points simul- taneously. As the continuous fire came along before the wind, it found buildings already ablaze and still others in advance already ignited. While this was going on in advance the fire at the base was ex- tending to the east, and as each building caught, ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 67 the wind carried the flames forward, making the breadth of the destruction forever wider and wider. In this way all the area between Jefferson street and the river north of Polk and south of Van Buren street was soon enveloped in flames. The scene at this time was grand to the spectator. The wind seemed to gain fresh intensity. The blazing brands were thick, and their flights long. Before the fire had reached Van Buren street, blazing faggots, shingles and other brands had commenced falling in the North Division. At 11.30 o'clock the ad- vance of the fire reached Van Buren street, the south line of the fire of the previous night, and here had there been no more than an ordinary gale, it would have stopped. Before it were the broad six- teen acres which had been swept of its combustibles the night before. When the fire enveloped the buildings on Van Buren street, there was behind it in full blaze a conflagration covering perhaps 150 acres — the food for which was planing and saw mills, dwellings, barns, factories and shops, lumber yards, coal depots, all of the most combustible character. It was, notwithstanding its terrors, a brilliant spectacle. The smoke, except immediately in front, did not obscure the view, but everywhere was a broad sheet of flame leaping, darting, and sending forth, as if from some grand pyrotechnic preparation, the most brilliant, dazzling meteors of living fire. Here was the grand turning point in the confla- gration. Here the fire, under ordinary circumstan- / - 68 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: ces, would have stopped; here it had consumed everything that had been in its path. To the north lay the plain laid waste the night before, and hav- ing nothing to consume except the coal, already on fire, and the Nelson elevator at its northeast ex- tremity. To the west was the wind ; to the east was the river. But afar off to the northeast beyond two rivers, beyond the great structures of hotels, banks and warehouses, beyond the towering walls of marble and of brick, away off in the northwest, two miles distant, were the water works, the only possible human agent that could save the city from annihilation, and to that the grand objective point of wind and fire, this conflagration seemed deter- mined to reach. Precisely at midnight, a blazing board carried by the wind fell upon a cluster of miserable shanties, striking them just at the point where the roofs of several made a sort of junction, affording a secure lodgement. These buildings were on Adams and Franklin streets, east of the river, a third of a mile from any burning building of any size west of the river. In a moment a blaze sprang up instantly, and the wind carried it to the northeast, leaving between the two fires the large building used for police business by the city, and known as the Armory, and the buildings of the south side Gas Corrpany, various coal yards, and numerous other buildings, large and small, in the area between the two fires. The progress of the fire was immediately forward. The blazing torches were carried by the wind far in advance, and where- ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 69 ever they fell they produced a fire. From that point until the fire crossed Madison street, there were several distinct fires, widely separated, burning simul- taneously, with large blocks of buildings between. But the continuous fire followed, overtaking these advance conflagrations, gathering new strength from them, and forever sending forth its pioneers — forever keeping its due course to the water works, the only hope of the doomed city. The operations of the fire after it had crossed or jumped the river from Canal and Van Buren to Adams and Franklin, belong to the history of the South Division. But, from a point of observation to the windward of the fire, the scene was, perhaps, unequalled. No thought of any serious devastation had occurred to any one, until the fire crossed the river. Until this time no one had supposed it would amount to any more than the destruction of the frame buildings which it had engulfed. All had anticipated that it would stop upon reaching the boundaries of the district burned the night before ; but the general alarm which was now rung out in all parts of the city, the blazing lights which marked its path for over nearly a mile in one di- rection, and half a mile in another, had aroused all Chicago. The people of the comparatively remote North Division were aroused, and for an hour, gazed upon the extraordinary spectacle spread out to the south and west of them, hardly admitting that there was any danger to them. But when the fire burst forth in Franklin street, at Adams ; when 70 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO. it rushed as in a field of straw, through the alleys and intervening streets to Wells, and eventually to Madison; when blazing boards and lumps of fire were falling thick and heavy on Lake and Water streets; and far away in the North Division, when fires broke out at intervening distances, far in ad- vance of the main fire ; when, standing to the west, there could be plainly distinguished five distinct fires in the route of the wind, each a little in advance of the other, and behind all these a sheet of con- tinuous flame, reaching a mile and a half to the southwest, the effect so far exceeded any previous observation as to defy description. It was sublime, yet terrific; magnificent, yet appalling. Even while the brave watchman in the court house tower made the old bell peal forth its warning notes, the flames had not only reached the stately build- ings facing the square, but had broken out on the north side of the river, beyond State street, and were making their way directly to the water works. In the meantime, the fire on the West Division had gone on in its lateral extensions. Jefferson street runs due north ; the wind, in its fury had carried the fire far to the north and to the east ; but this did not save Jefferson street. The east side of that street presents remarkable instances of the course of the fire, governed only by the wind. There are a number of houses left on that side of the street, the fire having burned all the adjoining buildings, and then, passing to the rear of these, re WHERE THE FIRE BEGAN. feiv.v.w-to-r.vw OGDEN'S RESIDENCE. ONLY RESIDENCE LEFT ON NORTH DIVISION OF BURNED DISTRICT. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 73 turned to Jefferson street, north of them, again. It was not until eleven o'clock next day, fifteen hours after the beginning of the fire, that the half dozen buildings to the north and east of the one where the fire originated, were burned. The fire had burned back to them in the very teeth of the wind. It is also remarkable, that though Jefferson street in that part of the city is very narrow, not exceeding forty feet, including both sidewalks, not one house on the west line of the street was burned, and none of them were scorched or blistered. The wind in its force had blown back the fire from the street and had also blown back the heat. Until the destruction of the water works, the people in the neighborhood, to the windward of the fire, had fought and resisted it by the use of water, but when the great engines ceased to pump, all means of defence were lost, and the city was at the mercy of the wind. In the reaction of the fire, after it commenced on the South Division, the bridge over the river at Adams street, was burned, and also Nelson's elevator, which had es- caped the night before. The South Division. There was probably not a person in the South Division who imagined for a moment that the fire would extend beyond the portion of the city in which it originated. Indeed, when it approached the burned district of the previous Saturday night's conflagration, there was a universal sigh of relief, 74 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: for here certainly it would be stayed, notwithstand- ing the furious wind. The hope was a futile one. At just twenty minutes past twelve, a huge blazing brand was blown across the river. Onward it sped, like a fiery messenger of doom, and lodged upon the roof of a three-story tenement house, which was as dry as a tinder box. The roof was immediately in a blaze, and almost instantly every part of the build- ing emitted furious jets of flame. The house was about midway between Adams, Monroe, Wells and Market streets, and surrounded by one and two- story wooden houses, and alleys littered with all sorts of inflammable materials. Through this wooden nest, the fire spread with inconceivable rapidity and soon attacked another group of low, wooden build- ings known as Conley*s Patch, densely covered with saloons, tumble-down hovels and sheds, and peopled by the lowest class in the city. For years this spot had been the terror of the neighborhood be- yond it, and had been stained with every conceiva- ble crime. The male residents were absent at the fire in the West Division, and as the flames seized upon it, squalid women and children rushed out in droves. Most of them escaped, but undoubtedly some were overtaken by the fire and miserably perished. Eight and left the flames spread as fast as a man could walk, and soon the Gas Works and huge piles of coal in the yard took fire, and a red glare shone all over the doomed city. Down the south line of Monroe street, it sped with lightning- like rapidity. A fearful mass of flames leaped the ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 75 street, lapping up John V. Farewell's stables and those of the United States Express Company, and burning many of their noble animals. Across Wells street it sped, sweeping everything before it and driving out hundreds of women and child- ren, who fled in all directions without saving a scrap of household property. The fire was now beyond the control of the firemen and henceforth was to go on its way with no one to check it. Northward and eastward the flames progressed crossing Mad- ison street and extending east to La Salle street, at the same time destroying stone, brick and wooden structures alike. Another column of fire crossed the river further north and now it sped on its way with the same terrible power and swiftness. Great masses of flame from each division leaped far in advance of the main columns, and kindling new fires returned to com- plete the work of destruction. In almost an incon- ceivably short space of time the entire tract of the South Division, between the river and La Salle street, was in flames, and south of Van Buren, the fire was working steadily against the wind, taking the splen- did depot of the Michigan Southern Railroad for a starting point, south to Harrison street, thence de- stroying a narrow strip along the river as far south as Taylor street. The two main columns sent out detachments which entered every street with the regularity of an advancing army. Standing at the lake end of any one of the eleven streets between the river and 76 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: Michigan avenue, the spectator saw a furious shower of livid coals and fire brands sweep round the corners, followed by a sheet of dazzling flame, which would suck into the windows and instantly fire the buildings. At the same time the fire en- tering the alleys burst through the rear of buildings on either side, swept through them, and dashing through the fronts united in one solid, writhing, twisting column of fire, which would shoot up into the air a hundred feet,. and then, seized by the wind, leap to roofs in the next block and fire them. The progress was aided by huge, blazing brands, which the blasts would send crashing through win* dows into the interiors, of buildings, or into awnings, setting everything afire adjacent to them. The very goods which were tumbled into the streets aided the march of the destroyer. The main column of the fire had now crossed Washington street. The Chamber of Commerce, the Telegraph Office and the lofty insurance blocks were all in flames. The Court House bell rung peal after peal, ringing its own knell, for the flames speadily leaped to its dome and fired it. For a few minutes its blazing trellis work, sheeted with flames, stood out against the sky in splendid relief. Then in every window at the same instant, an ominous glare appeared. The flames burst out, the dome fell in, and then a crash told that the interior walls had yielded and the Court House was no more. The Sherman House was the next to go, and crossing Clark street, Hooley's Opera House, Wood's Mu- ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 77 seum, the Matteson House, the Tremont House and whole squares of palatial business blocks melted away before the destroyer as snow melts in water. In the meantime, still another column was sweep- ing over the South Division. The great Ogden House, which covered an entire square, and which was nearly finished, was a mass of flames from basement to roof, and from its towering height and grand proportions, presented a sublime spectacle. The new and beautiful Bigelow House was next wrapped in the flames, and so, on they went, taking successively the new Honore and Shepherd blocks on Dearborn street. At this point, for a time, the solid walls of the post office presented a barrier. Thwarted here, the flames spread down Clark street to the north, and then, turning Madison, came up the south line of the street like a whirlwind, and, turning Dearborn, melted away the Reynold's block almost immediately, bringing them to the north side of the post office ; while another column, coming east in Monroe, attacked it on the west side. Before this joint attack, it yielded, and although its walls stood bravely its interior was soon gutted. When the flames turned the corner of Madison and Dearborn streets, a huge column shot across diagonally and fired the Dearborn Theatre, further north, and from this point both right and left destruction spread anew. To the left, it went clown to Washington street, and again crossing, caught the roof of Crosby's Opera House. In almost the time it takes to write these lines, that noble build- 78 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO : ing, with the handsomest operatic auditorium in the country, with its wealth of bronzes, paintings, statuary and rich ornamentations, was destroyed, while the St. James Hotel adjoining it on the east, which had two or three times before stood the test of fire, at last yielded and fell. To the right, the flames quickly reached the corner of Madison and Dearborn streets, opposite the Tribune office. A vacant lot, formerly occupied by the Dearborn School, intervened, but the fire quickly passed round it and came up on the other side. The Tribune building, one of the noblest structures in the city, on the southeast corner of Dearborn and Madison streets, had already stood the test bravely. The fire came down on the south side of it from Monroe street and dashed against its walls in vain. It was the key to that vicinity, and if it should stand, much valuable property it was hoped might yet be saved. But far to the south the flames had seized the huge eight-story Palmer House, and came sweep- ing northward with fearful rapidity to McVicker's Theatre, separated from the east wall of the Tribune building only by a narrow alley. This new onset of the fire was irresistible. From the other three attacks, it had become heated to an in- tense degree and was ready to kindle at the slight- est sparks which should penetrate to its inte- rior. Its roof yielded. The iron shutters on the alley side, bent by the fire, sprung out of place, and speedily the whole interior was in a mass of smoul- dering ruin. Of the strength of the structure, it ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 79 may be said that on the day after the fire the walls were still standing. Some of the floors were intact, and in the basement the presses, boiler and engines sustained little damage beyond the burning of the wood work, and a slight warping of some of the iron work. At Field & Leiter's mammoth establishment, on the corner of State and Washington streets, a deter- mined effort was made to save the building but it was useless. The flames attacked it from the north and eastwardly in the rear, and it soon yielded. There was still a narrow strip bounded by Wash- ington street on the north, Harrison street on the south, State street on the west, and the lake on the east, two blocks in width and about half a mile in length, not yet burned. The fire to traverse it must burn against the wind, and strong hopes were entertained that this tract might yet escape. But all the heavy warehouses at the north termini of these streets were in flames. There was no water to check it, for before this time, eight o'clock on Tuesday morning, the water works in the North Division had been destroyed. Slowly but surely the fire worked up these streets, right and left. West of State street, the fire, hours before, had reached Harrison and stopped. On Third and Fourth avenues buildings were torn down. On State street and Wabash avenue, buildings were levelled te the ground by General Sheridan's orders ; and the splendid manner in which the Wabash avenue Methodist Church, one of the oldest struc- 80 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO : tures in the city, resisted, also held the fire in check at the corner of this avenue and Harrison street. On Michigan avenue the fire did not reach Harrison. There were no buildings on the east side of it. The west burned slowly, the last building consumed being the Terrace block. Hon. J. Y. Scammon resided in the extreme south house, and between this and Congress street was a vacant lot. Here the fire was checked, and those living south of Harrison street breathed more freely. Prominent Buildings. Let us glance for a moment at the principal build- ings destroyed by the south side fire, for in them was contained almost the entire business wealth of Chicago. The list includes the Michigan and Il- linois Central Depots, two of the finest passenger structures in the United States, and their adjacent freight depots ; the old and familiar Tremont House, Sherman House, Briggs House, Matteson House, St. James Hotel, Nevada House, Adams House, Mas- sasoit House, Girard House, Metropolitan House, all substantial brick or stone hotels, the magnificent Ogden House, covering an entire square, the walls of which had already reached the top story, the new Bigelow House, which had just received $80,000 worth of new furniture, and the new eight-story Palmer House, on State street, which had been in successful operation a few months ; every bank build- ing in Chicago except the small Twenty-second Street ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 81 Savings Bank. Every insurance building; seven daily and numerous weekly newspaper offices ; Crosby's Opera House with its brilliant auditorium, the finest in the United States ; McVicker's Theatre which had just been completely renovated and had been open but a few weeks ; Hooley's pretty little bijou of an Opera House ; Wood's Museum with its large collection of curiosities, and the Dearborn Theatre which had been the home of minstrelsy ; the great book house of the Western News Com- pany, S. C. Griggs & Co. and W. B. Keen & Cooke; the First Methodist Church ; St. Mary's (Catholic) ; First and Second Presbyterian ; Trinity (Episcopal) ; St. Paul's (Universalist) ; and the Swedenborgian Church, the Academy of Design, with its fine gal- lery of paintings, by American and foreign artists, and its splendid collection of casts from the antiques; the Chamber of Commerce, only the day before the scene of busy life and traffic ; the Telegraph Office ; the Court House, with all the valuable city and county records; the Post Office and Custom House; the Armory, the Jewish Synagogue ; such magnifi- cent stone blocks as the Terrace, Armour, Shepherd, Honore, McCormick's Merchant's Insurance, Orien- tal, iEtna, Birch, Drake, Farwell, Lombard, Stur- gess, Stone, Arcade and Hubbard; Crosby's Music Hall, Metropolitan Hall, so intimately associated with the early history of Chicago, in music, litera- ture and art ; Farwell Hall, one of the most elegant and spacious auditoriums in the country, and hun- dreds of other palatial structures. 82 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO The scene from the Tribune Office. The sight from the upper windows of the Tribune office ; a few hours before that structure was consumed, was one of the wildest and grandest ever seen by mortal eye. About one o'clock, a cloud of black smoke rose in the southwest, which, colored by the lurid glare of the flames, presented a remarkable picture. Due west another column of smoke and fire rose, while the north was lighted with the flying cinders and destructive brands. In ten minutes more the whole horizon to the west, as far as could be seen from the windows, was a fire cloud with flames leaping up along the whole line, just showing their heads and subsiding from view like tongues of snakes. Five minutes more wrought a change. Peal after peal was sounded from the Court House bell. The fire was on La Salle street, had swept north, and the Chamber of Commerce began to belch forth smoke and flame from windows and ventilators. The east wing of the Court House was alight ; then the west wing ; the tower was blazing on the south side, and at two o'clock the whole building was in a sheet of flame. The Chamber of Commerce burned with a bright steady flame. The smoke in front grew denser for a minute or two, and then bursting into a blaze from Monroe to Madison streets, proclaimed that Farwell Hall and the buildings north and south of it were on fire. At 2.10 o'clock the Court House tower was a glo- ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 83 rious sight. At 2.15 o'clock the tower fell, and in two minutes more a crash announced the fall of the interior of the building. The windows of the office were hot, and the flames gave a light almost dazzling in its intensity. It became evident that the whole block from Clark to Dearborn, and from Monroe to Madison, must go ; that the block from Madison to Washington must follow; Portland Block was ablaze, while everything from Clark to Dearborn, on Washington street, was on fire. At 2.30 the fire was half-way down Madison street; the wind blew a hurricane ; the firebrands were hurled along the ground with incredible force against everything that stood in their way. Then the flames shot up in the rear of Reynold's block, and the Tribune building seemed doomed. An effort was made to save the files and other valuables, which were moved into the composing room, but the building stood like a rock, lashed on both sides by raging waves of flame, and it was abandoned. It was a fire proof building ; and there were not a few who expected to see it stand the shock. The greatest possible anxiety was felt for it, as it was the key to the whole block, including McVicker's Theatre, and protected State street and Wabash and Michigan avenues, north of Madison street. When the walls of Reynold's block fell, and Cobb's building was no more, the prospects of its standing were good. Several persons were up-stairs and found it cool and pleasant — quite a refreshing haven from the 84 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I hurricane of smoke, dust and cinders that assailed the eyes. Meanwhile the fire had swept along northward and eastward. The Briggs House, the Sherman House, the Tremont House, had fallen in a few minutes. The bridges from Wells to Rush street were burning; the Northwestern Depot was in a blaze, and from Van Buren street on the south, far over into the north side, from the river to Dearborn street, the whole country was a mass of smoke, flames and ruin. It seems as if the city east of Dearborn street and to the river would be saved. The hope was strengthened when the walls fell of Honore's noble block without it Office Block, on the corner of Dearborn and Mon- 274 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO*. roe streets, east of the post office. During Sunday night Mr. Donovan had watched the burning of the main portion of the business centre of the city; had witnessed the burning of Pope's Block, Farwell Hall, Board of Trade, Court House, Sherman House, etc., having in his own mind concluded that the Post Office Block would not burn. But in the morning the fire had assumed such a shape that it at once became apparent that the block could not be saved. He then removed his wife and child to a place of safety on the corner of State and Monroe streets, while he returned to his room to secure some papers. What followed will appear from the fol- lowing letter from Mrs. Ackley, the last person, so far as is known, who saw Mr. Donovan : Wyoming, Jones County, Iowa, November 19, 1871. Mrs. Donovan : Bear Madam : — I regret that your letter was not received sooner, I sympathize with you, and would be glad to give you something definite regarding your husband if possible. All I can say is that, just before the building burned, I went up to my room, leaving my son Jesse on State street to watch my trunks. In a few minutes a man came up and told me to leave the building immediately, saying, " Those old stables are all on fire." I supposed he meant those wooden buildings in the rear of the block, but looking out I saw no fire, and did not think be meant the buildings oppo- site, on Monroe street I then stepped into your ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 275 room, No. 29, seeing Mr. Donovan there, and said to him, " that man is more scared than hurt," to which he replied, " that is just what /think — I don't see any fire." The man, speaking as he did, using the word " stables," is what deceived Mr. Donovan, as well as myself. This is all the conver- sation I had with him. I cannot tell positively whether he had anything in his hands or not — he was standing or walking in about the middle of the room. I saw him no more. On going to my room my boy came running in perfectly wild with fright, saying, " Mother, you will be burned alive here !" We ran down the Monroe street stairway ; in the excitement I never thought to stop at your room and ought to have called to Mr. Donovan, but you know how it is at such times. We ran to The Tribune corner, and found ourselves in a situation where suffocation seemed inevitable. When we went on Monroe street it was black with smoke. Jesse says it was when he came up, and he says he did not see any one either in the building nor in street. I did not see any one. I did not think of anything but being burned alive. The fire was coming on us from the opposite side of Monroe street. I cannot tell whether our building was then on fire, but Jesse said : " We caimot go to the trunks — we must go down Dearborn street." It was hot on the street. We kept on our side of Monroe street, ran around the corner, and down the east side of Dearborn street until we reached The Tribune office. Jesse says he looked back when in 276 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO range of McVicker's Theatre, and he says (but you must not rely too much on it) that he thinks that the Post Office Block was then on fire — at least, he says, there was a fearful body of fire back of us. I cannot remember as well as he can. The only way of escape for us from The Tribune corner was along Madison street to the Madison street bridge. This was a fearful journey — beyond description. All this distance, of about seven blocks, had just been burned down, and the smoke and heat and wind, and some- times the flames, were terrible. I saw no one but men, and their faces were as white as this paper. I do not give up easy, but if a gentleman, escaping the same way had not helped me, I should never have got over the hot piles of brick burning my feet, and the hot coiled telegraph wires tripping me at every step. I lost everything but the clothes I wore. Mrs. Donovan, my heart aches for you ! I presume this letter does not contain one grain of anything satis- factory; if you do find your husband, please write to me the particulars. Very truly, Mrs. Ackley. Nothing further was known concerning the fate of Mr. Donovan until Saturday, November 18th, when the workmen in The Tribune Building found the remains of two men. Their bodies lay under the pavement, on the north side of the building, and about thirty feet east of Dearborn street. About five feet from the door which led into this "News ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 277 boys' room," lay the body of Joseph P. Stubbs, a young man who had recently come to the city, and who was associate editor of one of our daily papers at the time of his death ; and beyond him, about ten feet to the east, was found the body of John E. Donovan. Both men were found with their heads to the east, their hair burned, features destroyed, and limbs consumed. The broken pavement fell on these bodies, and the watch taken from Mr. Donovan's pocket was crushed, and stopped at 18 minutes to 10. Under this pavement then, these men had been driven for safety — where, doubtless, they were secure, until the expanding of the iron joists caused the north wall of The Tribune Building to fall, crushing them instantly. Mr. Donovan was held in high esteem by all who knew him. A friend informs us that he often heard him express his confidence that The Tribune Building needed no insurance, because it could not be destroyed by fire. Driven to the corner of Dear- born and Madison streets, as he must have been very soon after Mrs. Ackley's escape, in that awful moment he chose the protection of this building to the desperate chance through burning ruins for the distance of more than half a mile. TJie Petroleum Stone. Since the fire there have been numerous publica- tions of a statement to the effect that a large pro- portion of the stone used in building in Chicago 278 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: was charged with petroleum ; that this exuding from the stone presented an inviting material to the fire, and that the sudden wreck of the buildings was occasioned by the consumption of this inflam- mable petroleum stone. A writer in Chambers' Journal of Science relates that an immense deposit of this kind of stone lies within a few miles of Chicago, and that the quantity of ore contained in a few square yards of the rock is great. This para- graph in Chambers, has been made the most of by the sensationalists. A city bu'lt of stone from which petroleum is forever exuding ! It would be a marvel, if true ; it would be intensely disagreeable if the fact was as stated, and it would be an admira- bly devised means of spreading fire from house to house. Now for the facts. The stone used in building in the city was mainly what is known as Athens, or Illinois marble. It is found in large quantities between this city and Joliet, and large quarries have been opened along the canal. This stone is used for ordinary walls, for curbing, for flagging for sidewalks, and for the polished and ornamented fronts of buildings. It is easily worked, is abundant, admits of a handsome polish, and was the general material used. There was used also, but not until lately, a somewhat simi- lar stone, a shade or two darker, and known as the Cleveland stone. A few buildings were constructed of a harder stone, brought from Lockport, New York. A half dozen others were made of a stone manufactured by machinery, and there were two ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 279 others going up, which were using a deep red sand- stone from Lake Superior. There was but one building of any size built of what has now been called petroleum stone. This was the Second Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Wabash avenue and Washington street. The petroleum part of the story is due to the fact that the rock is deeply mottled, from a strong gray to a deep dull black. The obscuration of the natural color is owing to what seems to be an exudation of dark matter. If this be an exudation, it is inex- haustible, for this church has been built nearly twenty-five years, and there has never been any change in its appearance. The quarry from which this stone is obtained is situated in the northwestern part of the city, and the stone was used largely for foundation walls. When the oil wells were discovered in Pennsyl- vania, it occurred to some persons that this exuda- tion upon the stone might be an indication of oil. As a speculation the property was purchased, and boring commenced. At a depth of several hundred feet the drill struck water ! and from that well, ever since, during the six or more years that have inter- vened, there has been a copious flood of pure water, but not the slightest indication of oil! Not a grease spot has ever been discovered. Another well was subsequently sunk, and to a greater depth, but water and not oil has been the result. The petro- leum theory was thus effectually exploded, and was 280 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO! forgotten until it was revived by the sensationalists after the fire. Another fact, showing the absurdity of the story of petroleum-bearing rock spreading the flames, or occasioning the instant melting down of stone walls, is that the walls of the only large building in the city, built of that stone, did not crumble or fall down under the heat, but survived the conflagration in all their integrity. The true cause of the destruction of the stone walls was that the gale operated with the force of the blow pipe, intensifying the heat to that degree, that nothing could resist it. Generous in Banger. Mr. Kerfoot, son of the late Dr. Kerfoot, of Penn- sylvania, gives the following graphic account of his escape from the fire with his wife and children: " Being the owner of a horse and carriage which I used to go to and fro from my business, when I became satisfied that my house would soon be en- veloped, I brought my horse and carriage before the house, and placed my wife and children in it. There was no room for me, so I mounted the back of the animal and acted as postilion. While driving through the flame and smoke which enveloped us on all hands, I came across a gentleman who had his wife in a buggy, and was between the thills hauling it himself. I shouted to him to hitch his carriage or Vhind mine, which he did, and then ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 281 got in beside his wife. I then drove forward as fast as I could, for the flames were raging around us. After proceeding a short distance, another gentleman was found standing beside the street, with a carriage, waiting for a horse, which was not likely to come. I directed him to fasten on behind the second carriage, which he did, and in this way we whipped up and got out of the way of the flames with our wives and children, thank God." The Views of an Expert, Frederick Law Olmstead, Esq., writes a long let- ter to the N. Y. Nation under date of November 2d, from which we take the following : " I have had an opportunity of looking at Chi- cago at the beginning of the fourth week after the fire, and, as you requested, will give you a few notes of my observation. " Chicago had a central quarter, compactly built, mostly of brick, stone, and iron, and distinguished by numerous very large and tall structures, com- parable to, but often more ostentatious than, Stew- art's store in New York. They were mostly lined, to the fourth, fifth, or sixth floor, with pine-wood shelves, on which, or in pine-wood cases, a fresh stock of — larger at the moment than ever before — dry goods, or other inflammable materials, was set up, with plentiful air-space for rapid combustion. This central quarter occupied a mile and a half 282 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: square of land. On one side of it was the lake; on the other three sides, for the distance of a mile, the building, though irregular, was largely of detached houses, some of the villa class, with small planted grounds about them, and luxuriously furnished, but generally comfortable dwellings, of moderate size, set closely together. There were also numerous churches and tall school buildings, and some large factories. At a distance of two miles from the centre, and beyond, houses were much scattered, and within a mile of the political boundary there was much open prairie, sparsely dotted with cabins and a few larger buildings. It will be seen that a much larger part of the town proper was burned than a stranger would be led to suppose by the published maps. " The fire started half a mile southwest, which was directly to windward, of the central quarter, rapidly carried its heights, and swept down from them upon the comparatively suburban northern quarter, clearing it to the outskirts, where the few scattered houses remaining were protected by a dense grove of trees. The field of ruin is a mile in width, bounded by the lake on one side and mainly by a branch of the river on the other, and four miles in length, thus being as large as the half of New York City from the Battery to the Central Park, or as the whole of the peninsula of Boston. The houses burned set ten feet apart would form a row over a hundred miles in length. I judge that more than a third of the roof-space and fully half ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 283 the floor-space of the city, the population of which was 330,000, was destroyed. " Familiar with these facts and comparisons before I came here, and having already seen many who had left the city since the fire, I now feel my- self to have been able but slightly to appreciate the magnitude of its calamity. Besides the extent of the ruins, what is most remarkable is the complete- ness with which the fire did its work, as shown by the prostration of the ruins and the extraordinary absence of smoke-stains, brands, and all debris, ex- cept stone, brick, and iron, bleached to an ashey pallor. The distinguishing smell of the ruins is that of charred earth. In not more than a dozen cases have the four walls of any of the great blocks, or of any buildings, been left standing together. It is the exception to find even a single corner or chimney holding together to a height of more than twenty feet. It has been possible, from the top of an omnibus, to see men standing on the ground three miles away across what was the densest, lofti- est, and most substantial part of the city. " Generally, the walls seem to have crumbled in from top to bottom, nothing remaining but a broad low heap of rubbish in the cellar — so low as to be overlooked from the pavement. Granite, all sand- stones and all limestones, whenever fully exposed to the southwest, are generally flaked and scaled, and blocks, sometimes two and three feet thick, are cracked through and through. Marble and other limestones, where especially exposed, as in 284 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I doors and window-dressings, especially if in thin slabs, have often fallen to powder. Walls of the bituminous limestone, of which there were but few, instead of melting away, as was reported, seem to have stood rather better than others ; I cannot tell why. Iron railings and lamp-post, detached from buildings, are often drooping, and, in thinner parts, seem sometimes to have been fused. Iron columns and floor-beams are often bent to a half-circle. The wooden (Nicholson) asphalt-and-tar-concrete pavements remain essentially unharmed, except where red-hot material or burning liquids have lain upon them. Street rails on wood are generally in good order ; on McAdam, as far as I have seen, more often badly warped. # * # # # " You ask whether it is in the power of man ade- quately to guard against such calamities — whether other great cities are as much exposed as was Chicago'? All the circumstances are not established with sufficient accuracy for a final answer, and one cannot, in the present condition of affairs, make full inquiries of men who must be best informed ; but to such preliminary discussion as is in order, I can offer a certain contribution. " The prevailing drought was, I tnink, a less im- portant element of the fire in Chicago — whatever may have been the case as to those other almost more terrific fires which occurred simultaneously in Wisconsin and Michigan — than is generally as- sumed ; yet doubtless it was of some consequence. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 285 As to the degree of it, I learn that there had been no heavy rain since the 3d of July, and, during this period of three months, it is stated by Dr. Eauch, the Sanitary Superintendent, the total rain-fall had been but two and a half inches. The mean annual rain-fall at Chicago is thirty-one inches. With re- gard to the cause of the drought, it is to be con- sidered that millions of acres of land hereabouts, on which trees were scarce, have been settled within thirty years by people whose habits had been formed in regions where woods abound. They have used much timber for building, for fencing, rail- roads, and fuel. They have grown none. They are planting none to speak of. The same is true of nearly all parts of our country in which a great de- struction of forests has occurred or is occurring. If the reduction of foliage in any considerable geo- graphical division of the world tends to make its seasons capricious, as there is much evidence, the evil both of destructive droughts and devastating floods is very likely to extend and increase until we have a government service^which we dare trust with extensive remedial measures. It is not a matter which commerce can be expected to regulate. " I can obtain no scientifically definite statement of the force of the wind. Several whom I have questioned recollect that they found it difficult, sometimes for a moment impossible, to make head against it; but I think that no year passes that some of our cities do not experience as strong a gale, and that every city in the country must ex- 286 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I pect to find equal dryness coinciding with equal force of wind as often, at least, as once in twenty years. " The origin of the fire was probably a common- place accident. The fire started in a wooden build- ing and moved rapidly from one to another, close at hand, until the extended surface of quickly-burning material heated a very large volume of the atmos- phere, giving rise to local currents, which, driving brands upon the heated roofs and cornices of the tall buildings to leeward, set them on fire, and through the rapid combustion of their contents, loosely piled tier upon tier, developed a degree of heat so intense that ordinary means of resistance to it proved of no avail." Personal Experience of Son, I. JV. Arnold. The adventures of Hon. I. N. Arnold, formerly member of Congress, on the eventful night of the fire, were very exciting, but probably not more so than those of thousands of others. His story, which he contributed to the Chicago journals, is therefore the story of many others, and will serve to illustrate some of the terrors of that fearful night : Mr. Arnold's house was situated almost in the centre of a block, and surrounded by a garden which the owner believed afforded ample protection against the approach of the fiery foe. Accordingly no attempt was made to save any of his valuables, but the efforts of his household, consisting of him- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. SHEPHARn m ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 289 self, three children, and the servants, were directed towards protecting the house, in which they were for a time successful. The narrator says : " During all this time the fire fell in torrents; there was literally a rain of fire. It caught in the dry leaves ; it caught in the grass ; in the barn ; in the piazza ; and as often as it caught it was put out, before it got any headway. When the barn first caught, the horses and cows were removed to the lawn. The fight was continued, and with success, until three o'clock in the morning. Every moment flakes of fire falling, touching dry wood, with the high wind, would kindle into a blaze, and the next instant would be extinguished. The contest after 3 o'clock grew warmer and more fierce, and those who fought the devouring element were becoming exhausted. The contest had been going on from half past one until after three, when young Arthur Arnold, a lad of thirteen, called to his father. 'The barn and hay are on fire'?' 'The leaves are on fire on the east side,' said the gardener. ' The front piazza is in a blaze,' cried another, ' the front greenhouse is in flames, and the roof on fire.' ' The water has stopped !' was the last appalling announcement. ' Now, for the first time,' said Mr. A., ' I gave up hope of saving my home, and considered whether we could save any of the contents. My pictures, papers and books, can I save any of them ?' An effort was made to cut down some portraits, a land- scape of Kensett, Otsego Lake, by Mignot — it was too late! Seizing a bundle of papers, gathering IT 290 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION CHICAGO*. the children and servants together, and, leading forth the animals, they started. But where to go ? They were surrounded by fire on three sides ; to the south, west and north raged the flames, making a wall of fire and smoke from the ground to the sky; their only escape was east to the lake shore. Leading the horses and cow, they went to the beach. Here were thousands of fugitives hemmed in, and imprisoned by the raging element. The sands, from the Government pier north to LilPs pier, a distance of three-quarters of a mile, were covered with men, women, and children, some half clad, in every variety of dress, with the motley collection of things which they sought to save. Some had silver, some valuable papers, some pic- tures, some old carpets, beds, etc. One little child had her doll tenderly pressed in her arms, an old woman a grunting pig, a fat woman had two large pillows, as portly as herself, which she had ap- parently snatched from her bed when she left. There was a singular mingling of the awful, the ludicrous, and the pathetic." Mrs. Arnold and her little daughter, Alice, had been sent away to the residence of Mrs. Scudder, and the party were accordingly separated, a circum- stance which added to the anxiety of the wander- ers. After toiling along W. B. Ogden's pier, they hired a small row boat and were conveyed to the light house, where they were cordially received by the authorities, and other refugees who had ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 291 preceded them. "The party remained prisoners in the light house, and the pier on which it stood for several hours. The shipping above in the river was burning ; the immense grain elevators of the Illinois Central and Galena Railroads were a mass of flames, and the pier itself, some distance up the river, was slowly burning toward the light house. A large propeller fastened to the dock a short dis- tance up the river caught fire, and the danger was that as soon as the ropes by which it was fastened burned off it would float down stream and set lire to the dock in the immediate vicinity of the light house. Several propellers moved down near the mouth of the river and took on board several hun- dred fugitives and steamed out into the lake. If the burning propeller came down it would set fire to the pier, the lighthouse, and vast piles of lumber, which had as yet escaped in consequence of being directly on the shore and detached from the burn- ing mass. A fire company was organized of those on the pier, and with water dipped in pails from the river the fire kept at bay, but all felt relieved when the propeller went to the bottom. The party were still prisoners on an angle of sand, and the fire run- ning along the north shore of the river. The river and the fire preventing an escape to the south, west and north. The fire was still raging with un- abated fury. The party waited for hours, hoping the fire would subside. The day wore on, noon passed, and 1 and 2 o'clock, and still it seemed dif- ficult, if not dangerous, to escape to the north. Mr. 292 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: Arnold, leaving his children in the light house, went north towards LilPs, and thought it was practicable to get through, but was not willing to expose the females to the great discomfort and possible danger of the experiment." " Between 3 and 4 in the afternoon the tug-boat Clifford came down the river and tied up near the light house. Could she return — taking the party up the river — through and beyond the fire to the west side, or was it safer and better to remain at the light house; If it and the pier, the lumber and shanties around should burn during the night, as seemed not unlikely, the position would not be tenable, and might be extremely perilous ; besides, Mr. A. was extremely anxious to hnow that Mrs. A. and little Alice were safe. The officer of the tug said the return passage was practicable. Rush, Clark, State and Wells street bridges had all burned and their fragments had fallen into the river The great warehouses elevators, storehouses, docks on the banks of the river, were still burning, but the fury of the fire had exhausted itself. The party resolved to go through this narrow canal or river to the south bank, outside the burning dis- trict. This was the most dangerous experience of the day. The tug might take fire herself, the wood work of which had been blistered with heat as she came down; the engine might get out of order and the boat become unmanageable after she got inside the line of fire, or she might get en- tangled in the floating timber and debris of the ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 293 bridges. However, trie party determined to go. A full head of steam was gotten up, the hose was at- tached to the engine, so that if the boat or clothes caught it could be put out. The children and ladies were placed in the pilot house, and the windows shut, and the boat started. The men crouched clear to the deck behind the butt works, and with a full head of steam the tug darted past the abut- ments of Rush street bridge ; as they passed the State street bridge the pilot had to pick his way carefully among falling and floating timber. The extent of the danger was now obvious, but it was too late to retreat. As the boat passed State street the pump supplying cold water ceased to work, and the ex- posed wood in some parts was blistering. c Snatch- ing a handkerchief,' says Mr. Arnold, ' I dipped it in water, and covering the face and head of Arthur, whose hat the wind had blown away, 1 made him lie flat on the deck, as we plunged forward through the fiery furnace.' On we sped past Clark and Wells streets. ' Is not the worst over V he asked of the Captain, as the boat dashed on and on. ' We are through sir,' answered the Captain. ' We are safe.' ' Thank God !' came from hearts and lips as the boat emerged from the smoke into the clear, cool air outside the fire lines." The party went ashore at Lake street, and Mr. Arnold commenced a search for his wife and child, who he found had gone to Evanston. It was not until the next night that the whole family were re- united at the residence of Judge Drummond. 294 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: RELIEF MEASURES. The greatness of the calamity was equalled by the greatness of the generosity which followed it. The world has never known such an outpouring of charity before. Scarcely had the telegraph borne the news of the disaster abroad, when in every city, town and village of the country meetings were held for the relief of Chicago. The movement was a universal and spontaneous one, city councils, cor- porations, railroads and steamboat interests, banks, churches, Sunday schools, theatres, men, women and children, vied with each other in generous deeds. Cash contributions and car loads of provisions of every description poured into the city until there was absolute danger, that in the plethora every thing would be wasted. Meeting in Boston. Among the many stirring appeals, none were more eloquent than that of Rev. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston, at Faneuil Hall, as follows : " Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen : — It is but a sin- gle word that I have to say here. I have simply to remind you that this is no mere matter of voting in which we are engaged. I have to remind you that these people, our people in Chicago, by their munifi- cence, by their generosity, by their strength, by their public spirit, have made us debtors to them all. [Applause]. There is not a man here, the beef upon ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 295 whose table yesterday was not the cheaper to him because those people laid out their world-renowned and wonderful system of stock-yards. [Applause.] There is not a man here, the bread upon whose table to-day is not cheaper because these people, in the very beginning of their national existence, invented and created that marvellous system for the delivery of grain which is the model and pattern of the world. [Applause.] And remember that they were in a position where they might have said they held a monopoly. They commanded the only harbor for the shipping of the five greatest States of America and the world, and in that position they have devo- ted themselves now for a generation to the steady improvement, by every method in their power, of the means by which they were going to answer the daily prayer of every child to God when praying that He will give us our daily bread, through their enterprise and their struggles. We call it their misfortune. It is our misfortune. We are all, as it has been said, linked together in a solidarity of the nation. Their loss is no more theirs than it is ours in this great campaign of peace in which we are engaged. There has fallen by this calamity one of our noblest fortresses. Its garrison is without munitions. It is for us at this instant to reconstruct that fortress, and to see that its garrison are as well placed as they were before in our service. Un- doubtedly it is a great enterprise ; but we can trust them for that. We are all fond of speaking of the miracle by which there in the desert there was ere- 296 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: ated this great city. The rod of some prophet, you say, struck it, and this city flowed from the rock. Who was the prophet % what was the rock 1 It was the American people who determined that that city should be there, and that it should rightly and wisely, and in the best way, distribute the food to a world. [Applause.] The American people has that duty to discharge again. I know that these numbers are large numbers. But the providence of God has taught us to deal with larger figures than these, and when, not many years ago, it became necessary for this country in every year to spend not a hundred millions, not a thousand millions, but more than a thousand millions of dollars in a great enterprise which God gave this country in the duty of war, this country met its obligation. And now that in a single year we have to reconstruct one of the fortresses of peace, I do not fear that this coun- try will be backward in its duty. It has been truly said that the first duty of all of us is, that the noble pioneers in the duty that God has placed in their hands, who are suffering, shall have food and cloth- ing; that those who for forty-eight hours have felt as if they were deserted, should know that they have friends everywhere in God's world. [Applause.] Mr. President, as God is pleased to order this world there is no partial evil but from that partial evil is reached the universal good. The fires which our friends have seen sweeping over the plains in the desolate autumn, only bring forth the blossoms and richness of the next spring and summer. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 297 " I can well believe that on that terrible night of Sunday, and all through the horrors of Monday, as those noble people, as those gallant workmen, threw upon the flames the water that their noble works — the noblest that America has seen — enabled them to hurl upon the enemy, that they mi:st have imagined that their work was fruitless, that it was lost toil, to see those streams of water playing into the molten mass, and melt into steam and rise in- nocuous to the heavens. It may well have seemed that their work was wasted ; but it is sure that evil shall work out its own end, and the mists that rose from the conflagration were gathered together for the magnificent tempest of last night, which, falling upon those burning streets, has made Chicago a habitable city to-day. [Applause.] See that the lesson for this community, see that the lesson for us who are here, that the horror and tears with which we read the despatches of yesterday, shall send us out to do ministries of truth and bounty and benev- olence to-day. [Applause.]" Statement of the Relief and Aid Society. "The Executive Committee of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society are aware that the public desire to know the amount of the subscriptions to the relief fund. It is impossible at present to give a detailed account of the amounts, for the reason that purchases made in some cities — invoices of which have not yet reached us — are to be deducted from the gross 298 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: amounts of the subscription. The previous report of our treasurer stated the amount actually received at that date. We are now able to give the amount received to this date, November 7th, and the prob- able amount of the entire subscriptions with ap- proximate accuracy. We have actually received $2,051,023.55. a Arrangements have been made by which the society draws 5 per cent, on all its balances in bank. So far as our present information goes, and we think we have advices of all sums subscribed, the entire fund will vary but little from three millions and a half dollars. This includes the funds in the hands of the New York Chamber of CommerQe, amounting to about six hundred thousand dollars, and the balance of the Boston fund, about two hundred and forty thousand ; both amounting to eight hundred and forty thousand dollars, not yet placed to the credit of this society, but which may be relied upon to meet the needs of the future. "As to our disbursements, we can only say that we are at present aiding 60,000 people at our regu- lar distributing points. Some of this vast number we relieve in part only, but the greater portion to the extent of their entire support. This is in addi- tion to the work of the Special Relief Committee, for people who ought not to be sent to the general distributing points, and which is largely increasing upon our hands. It is also in addition to the ex- penditures of the committee on existing charitable institutions. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 299 "The great matter pressing upon your committee is shelter for the coming winter. We may feed people during the mild weather, but where and how they are to be housed — permanently housed — w r e regard as the serious question. To this end we have been aiding those burned out to replace small but comfortable houses upon their own or upon leased lots, where they can live, not only this win- ter but next summer, and be ready to work in re- building the city. Of these houses (which are really very comfortable, being 16 x 20 feet, with two rooms, one 12 x 16 feet and one 8x16 feet, with a planed and matched floor, panel door and good windows), we have already furnished over 4,000, making permanent houses, allowing five to a family for tw T enty thousand people, and with the seven thousand houses which we expect to build, shall have houses for thirty-five thousand people. These houses, and some barracks, in both of which is a moderate outfit of furniture, such as stoves, mattresses, and a little crockery, will consume, say a million and a quarter dollars, leaving two million and a quarter with which to meet all the demands for food, fuel, clothing and general expenses from the 13th of October last, until the completion of the work, which cannot end with the present winter. "The committee need hardly say that if the de- mand should continue as great as at present the fund would be exhausted by mid-winter ; but we hope to cut this down very largely as soon as we can get people into house s, so that they can leave 300 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO. their families and find work. Indeed, this is being done already. Within a few days we shall arrive at the exact daily expense of food and fuel rations. But the demand is a fluctuating one. If the weather is good and men can work, it falls off; if cold and stormy, it increases at a fearful rate. "The work has so pressed upon us night and day that we cannot present a detailed report to the pub- lic, but furnish this statement for the purpose of affording a general idea of what we have done and are trying to do, with an organization necessarily composed of unskilled forces, but the only one at hand for the emergency. We shall soon be able to give a detailed report of all sums contributed. Ladies' Belief Society. In connection with the Relief Society, a Ladies' Relief Society was organized on the 19th of Octo- ber, at the house of Mrs. Wirt Dexter. One of its primary objects was to seek out those sufferers by the fire, who shrank from making their wants known, even to the bureau of special relief, and to relieve them as quickly and as delicately as possible. For the supply of clothing, the society had an Employment Bureau. Rooms were opened where seamstresses were furnished with work. From thirty to fifty, under a competent forewoman, were busily engaged in making garments for the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. This work was under the careful supervision of the ladies, who allowed no ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 301 waste of materials in cutting, or carelessness in sew- ing. Through this Employment Bureau poor, home- less girls, whose means of living were taken away by the fire, by the loss of their machines, or their places, or both, and who were rapidly coming to the extremity of poverty, found useful work, and true, kind friends. The officers are as follows : President — Mrs. John Mason Loomis. Vice President — Mrs. Robert Laird Collier. Recording Secretary — Mrs. S. H. Gay. Corresponding Secretary — Mrs. Wirt Dexter. Treasurer — Mrs. George M. Pullman. Assistant Treasurer — Mrs. Martin Andrews. Employment Committee — Mrs. J. W. Foster, Mrs. G. M. Pullman, Mrs. L. Z. Leiter, Mrs. J. M. Wal- ker, Mrs. M. Andrews, Mrs. G. C. Gore, Mrs. Wirt Dexter, Mrs. R. L. Collier, Mrs. J. C. Hilton, Mrs. S. Reeve, Mrs. A. C. Badger, Mrs. Palmer Kellogg, Mrs. N. R. Fairbank. Distribution Committee — Mrs. Wirt Dexter, Mrs. G. M. Pullman, Mrs. Palmer Kellogg, Mrs. D. A. Gage, Mrs. F. M. Mitchell, Mrs. R. L. Collier, Mrs. L. Z. Leiter. Visiting Committee — Mrs. C. H. McCormiek, Mrs. Dr. Locke, A. C. Badger, Mrs. F. M. Mitchell, Miss N. J. Lunt, Miss N. T. Agncw, Mrs. J. M. Walker, Mrs. M. Andrews, Mrs. N. R. Fairbank. Donations. To give all the donations sent to Chicago in 302 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: detail would fill a large volume of itself, and we therefore content ourselves with a few of the more prominent, as follows : St. Louis, $200,000 Boston, 400,000 Pittsburgh, 300,000 Buffalo, 100,000 Cincinnati, 225,000 Rochester. N. Y., 70,000 San Francisco, 100,000 Toronto, 10,000 New Orleans 30,000 Philadelphia, . . . 260,000 Baltimore, ....'. 200,000 A. T. Stewart, N. Y., 50,000 Robt. Bonner, 10,000 Kansas City, Mo., 10,000 Indianapolis, 40,000 Montreal Board of Trade, 10,000 Portland, . 20,000 Leavenworth, 10,000 Quincy, 111., 15,000 San Francisco Stock Exchange, . . . 8,000 Lawrence, Kansas, 10,000 Syracuse, N. Y., 25,000 Haverhill, Mass., 10,000 Oswego, N. Y., 12,000 Newark, N. J., 30,000 Trenton, N. J 17,000 Manchester, N. H., 15,000 Terra Haute, Ind 10,000 Bloomington, 111., 15,000 New York Gold Exchange, 12,000 Erie, Pa., 15 000 Detroit, 30,000 Lancaster, Pa 25,000 Layfayette, Ind., 10,000 ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 303 We have only given the above as indications of the immense volume of charity which flowed into Chicago. The feeling of sympathy extended to Europe, and from all the large cities of England, France and Germany, came generous contributions, which were swelled by donations from the royal purses. From the king on his throne to the poor woman in her hovel, all gave their mite. The fol- lowing incident told of Mr. Edward Hudson, an Illinois Railway Superintendent, shows in a humor- ous way the universal sympathy, and the degree of charity to which it actuated people : Upon hearing of the burning of Chicago, his first act was to telegraph to all agents to transport free, all provisions to Chicago, and to receive such arti- cles to the exclusion of freight. He then purchased a number of good hams and sent them home with a request to his wife to cook them as soon as possible, so they might be sent to Chicago. He then ordered the baker to put up fifty loaves of bread. He was kept busy during the day until 5 o'clock. Just as he was starting for home the baker informed him the hundred loaves of bread were ready, " But I only ordered fifty." said Ed. " Mrs. Hudson also ordered fifty," said the baker. "All right," said Ed., and he inwardly blessed his wife for the generous deed. Arriving at home he found his little boy, dressed 304 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION CHICAGO: in a fine cloth suit, carrying in wood. He told him that would not do ; he must change his clothes. " But mother sent all my clothes to Chicago," replied the boy. Entering the house he found his wife, clad in a fine silk dress, superintending the cooking. A re- mark in regard to the matter elicited the informa- tion that she had sent her other dresses to Chicago. The matter was getting serious. He sat down to a supper without butter, because all that could be purchased had been sent to Chicago. There were no pickles — the poor souls in Chicago would relish them so much. A little put out, but not a bit angry or disgusted, Ed. went to the wardrobe to get his overcoat, but it was not there. An interrogatory revealed the fact it fitted in the box real well, and he needed a new overcoat anyway, although he had paid $50 for the one in question only a few days before. An exami- nation revealed the fact that all the rest of his clothes fitted the box real nicely, for not a " dud " did he possess except those he had on. While he admitted the generosity of his wife, he thought the matter was getting entirely too personal and turned to her with the characteristic inquiry ; u Do you think we can stand an encore on that Chicago fire." LAND-OFFICE, ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD CROSBY'S DISTILLERY. REPUBLIC LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. FIRST NATIONAL BANK. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 307 RELIEF INCIDENTS. A lady connected with relief operations, after the fire, says : " Once within [the church of refuge] we found plenty to do. Beds had been hastily improvised from the seats in the lecture room for the sick. Here was a poor old grandmother, with the skin all burned from her hands. There the doctor was attending to a man whose head had been crushed. Everywhere were lost children crying pitifully, who needed comforting. One boy had gone out of town to spend the night with a friend, and when he re- turned, his father's house, barn, everything was gone, not so much as a fence-panel left of his splen- did home. But, sadder than that, he could not find father, mother, brothers or sisters. No one could give him any information, nor any of the other poor lost children. We could only see that they had warm clothing, and urged them to eat; and, thanks to the ready forgetfulness of childhood, they all had good appetites. And didn't we give them strong coffee and tea, and all sorts of indigestible things, though ? for already loads of good things were arriv- ing from all the blessed country. There were boi hams and tongues, roasted sirloins of beef, turkeys, chickens, cakes and genuine country dried beef, cheese and butter, and the poorest beggar in Chi- cago had the privilege of dining with the Mayor and his staff of assistants. c There are no big-bugs 308 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I here*now,' said an old Irish woman, not, I think, without satisfaction. " On one seat lay a beautiful babe about eight months old, that had been found on the sidewalk. It lay sucking its thumb, and gazing as contentedly up at the bright windows as if it had always lived in a church. " In one corner was a German woman, with nine children, of all sizes. ' Where is your husband ? ' we inquire. " ' Ach, Gott in Himmel ! I took the children and he took the feather bed, and he was so slow I think he got burned up, mit the feather bed. There was no water, and all the men on the north side drinked beer and whisky, and then they could no go fast. If I had taken the feather bed mineself, now I would have it.' " ' Yes ; but you. should be thankful that you have all your children,' I suggested. " ' Aber ! What can I do mit the children, mit- out a feather bed? ' she asked in astonishment. " Not feeling equal to a reply, we turned to an- other group. It is a woman who is clinging tight to her baby, and with sobs of despair telling sympa- thizing listeners how yesterday she had a pleasant home, a dear, kind husband and five children ; now this little child is all she has left. They had slept so soundly they did not waken until their own house was burning. She had snatched her babe and es- caped, she knew not how, through the flames and smoke, calling to her husband to follow with the ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 309 other children. But he was too late. There was nothing left of the husband, children and home but a sickening little heap of ashes ! ' Let me have the baby,' said a tearful listener: 'I will give it some warm milk, while you lie down and rest. I hope it will be a comfort to you.' So saying she undid the shawl that was wrapped around it, but quickly closed it again with a look of horror, but not soon enough to prevent the mother from seeing that her darling was dead in her arms. It had either inhaled the flame, or the mother, in foiling, had killed it, and had been carrying it for miles, not knowing it was dead. The shock was too much for her. We could see from her wandering eyes that her reason had gone forever, and we could not help feeling that it was a blessing. " In another room is a woman who has been hav- ing convulsions all day. She brings a note to the pastor, saying that her husband was cut in twain by a fire-engine. " The next day we spend in giving out clothes. What wonderful boxes have come ! What a beau- tiful exhibition of divine charity throughout the whole land ! People were in such nervous haste they did not stop to consider what was most needed, but sent everything they could lay their hands on — ball dresses, theatrical costumes, white vests and lav- ender gloves, piled in with homespun jeans. Only Boston, never in her intellectual pride impulsive, telegraphed to know what was most needed ; and 310 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: what elegant clothing the noble citizens of the Hub sent when they received the answer ' Everything.' " Some dear old lady has sent some brocade silks, made in the style of 1700, with immense sleeves, puffed out with eider down, and short waist with big puffs. They are really too precious to give away, say the ladies. We will have tableaux in the church this winter for the benefit of the sufferers, and use them in that way. " And what wonderful contrasts there are in the people who" come for clothes ! Side by side with the miserable Irish beggars, who want something be- cause the Poor House is burned down, come a for- eign Consul, Judges of the Supreme Court, lawyers, editors, professors and merchants. An English gen- tleman on his bridal tour, stopping at one of the hotels, lost his trunks and money. Although he offered a man $500 to assist him, he could get no assistance. Even his w r ife's clothes she had on caught in the flames, and had to be torn from her back. His order called for the very best we had to give, but our very best would make a strange outfit for a wealthy young bride. " There comes a lady in a black silk velvet suit, with diamonds to match. She put on her finest clothes to save them, and has come to ask for a calico wrapper, so that she may not be so splendid in her poverty. " We were perfectly overwhelmed with calls for baby clothes. It seemed as though every family who was burned out was blessed w 7 ith a baby — and ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 311 a good many orders called for clothes for twins. They were of all ages, from two hours to two years. " Many who had escaped from the flames with good clothes on, in wandering over the ruins fell into vaults and sewers, and lost them in that way. " One poor Norwegian woman, who had been sit- ting in stony despair with her children by her cook stove, the only thing she had been able to save, on being tolcl that she could get a bucket of hot soup every day all winter, without money and without price, burst into tears and insisted on shaking hands with everybody in the church, and then taking heart, fell to polishing her stove with such a will that it shone almost as bright as the blessed charity that had cheered her." Rev. Robert Collyer's Boston Sermon, On the 12th of November, Rev. Robert Collyer, the eminent Unitarian divine of Chicago, preached at Rev. E. E. Hale's Church in Boston, from the text, "A crown of life," in which he made the fol- lowing allusion to the Chicago fire : " There were men in Chicago who were wearing and had already won that coronation of life. They saw in that calamity the work of the best part of a life, as it were swept away in an instant. And what a work it was, what homes they had made for themselves ! This morning they are what the world calls ruined men, all the savings of all the years melted before their eyes in fervent heat, not 312 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: even the home remaining. Bat, thank God, there remains that which made their homes prosperous and happy. And yet I will say that I never before saw such a divine opportunity opened before these men to win this noble coronation, the crown of vic- tory. Already we have seen dozens of them right on the way to this coronation, so clearly and com- pletely victorious, standing among the ashes of their burnt homes and their blasted hopes, that I should not feel more sure of their divine coronation if I saw the chariots of God and His angels stand- ing with their trumpets at their lips ready to sound the glorious consummation of their lives. And yet it is a very simple thing that I have witnessed in that city since the calamity- — only the shining of clear, strong eyes, only the beating of steadfast hearts, only in the hand as clasped that of a neigh- bor's, only as they stood on their burnt houses ready to begin again. And I tell you if the blessed angels above knew nothing of such heart-breaking as we have had to go through there, yet I know that if they witnessed such high courage as our men have shown, and are showing, they will have anticipated God's will already done, and will have already re- ceived the crown eternal. I have a small, delicate man in my parish; I have him now in my eye; slightly dwarfed, and I know how I used to wonder how he could carry himself along the streets ; when I met him he would tell me his business was not doing much for him, and that he was very poorly , all the time I had a little ache in my heart for that little man. 313 But he had a splendid wife, and a house full of children. God bless him for that ! When the fire came it burnt him up clean. He has a rich nephew down at the East, who telegraphed at once to him, offering him a home for the winter, and to give him a new start in the spring. But that little, delicate man telegraphed back, * I can't leave the ranks,' and he hasn't left them ; he is working hard, has a nice little home, and there he lives as pleasant, com- fortable and contented as ever he was." Alluding to the work which women in Chicago had done, Mr. Collyer said : " I think that in these weeks the good women of our city have already won their crown^ and the angels have sung their praises. They have done such work as men never could have done ; they have been as steadfast and calm through all the terrible scenes as great captains who know the whole fate of an army lies in their hands. The day of the fire was their coronation day. They not only worked hard necessarily to save their own children, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, but any who happened to come in their way. Through those dark days they had shown a courage and heroism far above the men ; for by their example men were sustained, cheered and roused to greater effort. They could not well afford to have another such a fire, in one sense, but if such a fire would again call forth such a display of courage and devotion he would say heartily, 4 God's will be done.' The only great example of hope and courage displayed any- where during the great fire came out of the example 814 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO. of woman ; out of the ruins of our city a crown has been gained and a coronation for every one." Mr. Collyer then referred to the many young men and young ladies, born, brought up and educated in the best manner which money could effect, who would be bettered by the experiences they had passed through, and who would now be enabled to commence life with a purpose in view, and with such an incentive as never before actuated their breasts. Speaking of his personal feeling in regard to the fire he said: " When that great calamity settled down upon us I thought I ought to trv and find some view of the better meaning of it. I was fighting it for a whole week. But I couldn't find it. I said this whole thing is just as bad as it can be. The evil one, the devil, has got loose in this town, and has overcome the good God. And when I stood on the stone that had fallen from the crown of our poor church, with my poor flock around me, there was still a bitter drop in my heart, and I said, sometime we may thank God for this, but He won't expect us to do it to-clay. Now I take it all back just as Job did. I said it because I couldn't say anything better; I couldn't bring myself to thank God for what he had wrought upon us ; I hardly thought he could have done it ; I thought the devil had overthrown God, and had wrought the destruction of our beautiful city. But I have altered my mind since then ; I have begun to talk more like 'Brother Collyer.'" In conclusion, Mr. Collyer alluded to the event of a new church for himself and congregation; he couldn't ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 315 ask his congregation to build it, but he would ask the Unitarians of Boston; it was their duty and their right. As long as it pleased God to give him life, no other man should stand over his congrega- tion ; it was his right until his mission was fulfilled, and he heard a voice saying : " Well done, good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful unto me in a few things, I will make thee ruler over many. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." The Feeling in England. One of the best statements of the feeling in Lon- don produced by the details of the fire, is contained in the following letter to the Chicago Tribune, from its own correspondent in that city : London, October 28. No event has occurred to divert the attention which the fires at Chicago attracted from the first. Money continues to pour in, and were it not for the persuasion which some of the influential are endeav- oring to use, viz. : that America herself has already met the emergency, the supplies would be very much larger. People anxiously wait to learn the amount of suffering that exists ; whether there is sufficient shelter ; what has been saved ; what are the methods of recovery. The history of the Chicago Tribune has been printed in every journal of the land, and the names of three or four of its staff havo become familiar. For my part, I search every mail that comes in for a copy. I know it will soon be 316 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO. forthcoming, and that we shall have its every characteristic, freely examined and described. The electric telegraph is freely used in connection with the Chicago intelligence. The Cunards and other steamers are boarded, and the contents of the latest papers are put on the wires without much abridgment. It was the Silesian that brought us the first long despatches. She arrived at Plymouth, from which port the news is republished, but in this instance an exception was made. The haste with which the New York press printed the early details sent from your city prevented even an ordinary dis- crimination from being exercised, and English read- ers, accustomed, I am bound to say, to more exact- itude and accuracy, are puzzled to find so much that is stated contradicted a little further down. The illustrated papers were sorely tempted, and some of them " fell." We had pictures last week in two of the papers, of Chicago on fire, and this week the Illustrated London Neivs supplies a cartoon of the kind. It is scarcely possible that, even at this com- paratively late period, any genuine artistic reproduc- tion can have come to hand. If the idea once gets bruited around that the cartoons in the illustrated papers are drawn from imagination, they will suffer in material fortune as well as in fame. As soon as order is restored the authorities at Chicago will, no doubt, send some report to the people here of the mischief done and the means that have been taken to remedy it. I will suggest that this be transmitted to the Lord Mayor of Lon- ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 317 don. The Lord Mayor, like the Sovereign, never dies. The present gentleman, under whose care the Chicago fund was established, retires into private life next week. But it is to the Lord Mayor the people will look, whoever that gentleman may happen to be. I may say that the despatches of ac- knowledgment already transmitted by the Mayor of Chicago are deemed most touching and appropriate. People shed tears on reading them, so strong are the feelings aroused. The Queen's donation was made with expressions which reveal her truly fine and sympathetic nature. The Queen reads every line from Chicago that is printed in the papers, and I am sure she will be gratified if she is made to know that the republicans of the Far West give her credit for recognizing a common human life. I am jealous of Chicago at this particular crisis of her history. I want nothing to escape her that can be laid hold of by the envious and by the misanthro- pic. She has been made famous alike by her pros- perity and by her adversity. Let all her public acts be governed by high aims, and let the official com- munications with European friends be made by men who are distinguished by delicate taste as well as by good judgment. Something is thought in such circumstances even, of phrases. Your readers would smile in the midst of their trouble could they peruse some of the curious re- flections to which the peculiar calamity at Chicago has given rise. The " unco' guid" see in it a judg- ment by Heaven, imagining that those upon whom 318 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO. this " Tower of Siloam" fell were worse than the rest of the world. Others account for it by engi- neering defects — blunders in building — downright recklessness. Some of the philosophic class, who look at all these things through the most powerful microscope their faculties supply, propound a lazy kind of theory that Chicago was proceeding too ra- pidly altogether to be safe. She existed in fact, through friction ! As to the future, the sort of pre- dictions uttered and written concerning you are amnzing. The general belief appears to be that you are to be rebuilt — in striking contrast to the origin of Rome — " in a day." In ruins yesterday — stately marble to-day. Jonah's gourd was nothing to it. You are credited with superhuman powers, and the English public will be sadly disappointed if they don't hear very soon that " not a trace of the late calamitous fire is to be seen." Letter from S. H. Gay. Mr. Sidney Howard Gay, who speaks from actual personal knowledge, and from thorough acquaint- ance with the workings of the Relief Society, has written a letter to the New York Tribune, from which we make this extract, as it shows very clearly what the society has done, and is from the pen of one in a position to know of what he writes. After alluding to the fire, and the number of people left homeless, Mr. Gay says : "Of this 100,000 people, 20,000 probably left ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 319 the city in the course of a few days. The Trans- portation Committee alone has issued passes to 7,000, which the different railroads have duly honored; the railroad officers have passed many more of their own motion, and a large number have gone out of town, in various other ways than by rail, to the towns and country round about. Then 15,000 more, perhaps, found refuge with friends in the city, or could command the means to establish themselves in some sort of an abiding-place of their own. But making thus all possible deductions, there would remain from 60,000 to 70,000 persons, absolutely destitute of everything, to be fed, and clothed, and sheltered , and, indeed, now — more than a month after the fire, and when a large decrease has been made, from various causes, in the number of those who cannot take care of them- selves — there stand recorded upon the books of the Relief Society 13,000 families who need to be sup- ported wholly or in part. It is not likely that they average much less than five to a family, and that would give about 60,000 as the number who have to be looked after daily by the Relief Committee. It is a complicated business to care for an army of 60,000 men, duly mustered and in quarters, its command divided and subdivided, so that each man is under the immediate and personal supervision of a superior officer, its Commissary Department fully provided for, its whole machinery thoroughly syste- matized and in perfect running order, with all its traditions and regulations and checks and balances 320 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: as accurately adjusted as in an eight-cylinder print- ing press and a first-class steam-engine. Given first this great and perfected machinery, and given then the men who are accustomed by long habit to run it, and your army of 60,000 men goes on smoothly enough, provided every man is careful and diligent in his special duty, provided no screw gets loose anywhere, and no hitch occurs anywhere from the Commissary General down to the drummer-boy's rations. But conceive of an army of 60,000 to be composed, not of marshalled, organized, and trained men, where there is a place for every man and every man knows his place, but of men and women and children, without organization or cohesion; huddled together in extremity of distress, weary, hungry, houseless, naked, cold, and in despair, and the problem is how to feed and clothe and shelter them — a problem to be solved instantly or they per- ish — not to be ciphered out at leisure with time enough to devise plans and appoint officers of tens and of hundreds of thousands, to provide material and places, to divide and subdivide work and duties — but the whole thing to be taken in a lump then and there, and then and there done before sun- down. Conceive of this, and you have an idea of the work that was hurled at the Relief Society ; of the chaos out of which they had to evolve order ; of the prayer for salvation which came from those tens of thousands of pleading eyes, and those tens of thousands of outstretched hands. They did what they could ; it is wonderful they did so well ; none ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 321 but that Power which said, • Let there be light, and there was light,' out of such darkness could have commanded the perfect day. " It was fortunate for Chicago that it had such an organization as this Relief and Aid Society. It has been in existence nine or ten years, has taken upon itself, during all that time, the care of such of the poor of the city as were not absolute paupers, and has been managed by picked men from among its lawyers, physicians, clergymen, and merchants. As in all such cases, the work had devolved upon a few, but those were men who, voluntarily, and from conscientious and benevolent motives, took this work of charity upon themselves, and reduced it to a system of scientific accuracy. On Monday, the 9th of October, in the first confusion of that dire disaster, and when the city was like the first resting-place of a routed and fugitive army, with no water save that dipped from the lake by hand; no gas in streets or houses; a .third of the people without food, or shelter, or clothing; that pitiless south- west gale unabated in its fury, and over all that fierce glow of the smouldering fires, shedding down upon us a lurid light from a brazen sky, like a moonlight red with blood — then we turned for suc- cor where we could. The first generous supplies of provisions, and clothing, and money, that poured in from all sections of the country were used with- out discrimination or judgment, and, though they relieved much suffering, where relief could hardly go amiss, there was enormous and lavish waste, as 322 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: well as cruel, selfish greed. And in another sense, also, we were like a defeated army flying, with all the people round about, before a relentless enemy, for the birds of prey scented death and disaster, and gathered for the feast, and filled the air with their clamor. Here were millions of money coming, and thousands upon thousands to be dependent upon bounty, and disbursements to be made which, both as to those who made and those who received them, would be a fruitful source of power and of profit. The November election was only a month away, and to the foul brood of city politicians, it seemed that their father, the Devil, had come in just the nick of time to their assistance. A Board of Alder- men, a majority of which has aspired to be the Tamany of Chicago, and so far as it has failed, has failed for want of opportunity and ability, and not because of any fear of either God or man, counted now upon retaining place and putting their enemies under their feet, with the personal and pecuniary power which the handling of the relief fund and provisions in kind would give them. For the first three days, from Tuesday to Friday, the danger was that affairs would fall completely into the hands of this class of political bummers, and the struggle they made to retain their hold upon them was as desperate as the clutch of death. " It was the crisis in the fate of Chicago. Whether it should ever recover from the terrible calamity that had swept over it, or whether the ruin should be utter and irrevocable, depended altogether upon MICHIGAN SOUTHERN R. R. DEPOT. (USE, STATE STREET. ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 325 the character of the men into whose hands should fall the essential government of the city at this mo- ment. That essential government would rest with those into whose control should come the care of the needy and suffering ; who should keep them in a condition for wholesome labor, and should provide it for them ; should keep away from them all temp- tation to desperate remedies for desperate circum- stances ; and who should use wisely and economi- cally the generous bounty in provisions and money which was pouring in from every quarter. Of that rich fund we should, without doubt, have seen the end ere this, had things gone on as they begun, and the laboring people of Chicago, instead of being cheerfully at work at good wages, would have been at this moment a starving, discontented, turbulent population, feeling that they were defrauded of that which an overwhelming sympathy for suffer- ing had given for their relief, that a gang of thiev- ing politicians might carry out their purposes in attaining or keeping political power, and grow rich upon the sustenance of the poor. But, fortunately, the Mayor of Chicago was a man of common sense, who would not give up to party what was meant for humanity. He recognized the distinction that the succor sent to Chicago was sent to the people, and not to the municipality ; that it no more fell by necessity and right under the control of the Board of Aldermen or the Common Council than under that of the Board of Trade, but that it ouffht to A history of the great Chicago conflagration would be incomplete without some allusion to the other great fires in the history of the world, by means of which comparisons in losses and extent may be made. The first which naturally occurs to the memory is the destruction of Rome, thus narrated by Tacitus : "There followed a dreadful disaster; whether fortuitously, or by the wicked contrivance of the prince (Nero), is not determined, for both are as- serted by historians — but of all calamities which ever befell this city from the rage of fire, this was the most terrible and severe. It broke out in that part of the circus which is contiguous to Mounts Palatine and Ccelius, where, by reason of shops, in which were kept such goods as minister aliment to fire, the moment it commenced it acquired strength, and being accelerated by the wind, it spread at once through the whole extent of the circus ; for neither were the houses secured by enclosures, nor the tem- ples environed with walls ; nor was there any other obstacle to intercept its progress ; but the flames (399) " 400 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. spreading every way impetuously, invaded first the lower regions of the city, then mounted to the highest; then again, ravaging the lower, it baffled every effort to extinguish it, by the rapidity of its destructive course, and from the liability of the city to conflagration in consequence of the narrow and intricate alley, and the irregularity of the streets in ancient Rome. Add to this the wailings of terrified women, the infirm condition of the aged, and the helplessness of childhood ; such as strove to provide for themselves, and those who labored to assist others; these dragging the feeble, these waiting for them ; some hurrying, others lingering ; altogether created a scene of universal confusion and embar- rassment ; and while they looked upon the danger in the rear, they often found themselves beset before and on their sides ; or if they had escaped into the quarters adjoining, these, too, were already seized by the devouring flames; even the parts which they believed remote and exempt, were found to be in the same distress. At last, not knowing what to shun or even where to seek sanctuary, they crowded the streets and lay along the open fields. Some from the loss of their whole substance, even the means of their daily sustenance, others from their afflictions for their relations, whom they had not been able to snatch from the flames suffered themselves to perish in them, though they had an opportunity to flee. Neither dared any man attempt to check the fire, so repeated were the menaces of many who forbade to extinguish it, and because others openly threw MOSCOW. 401 fire-brands, with loud declarations, ' that they had one who authorized them;' whether they did it that they might plunder with less restraint or with orders given. " At length, on the sixth day the conflagration was stayed at the foot of Esquilse, by pulling down an immense quantity of buildings, so that an open space, and as it were, void air, might check the raging element by breaking the continuity. But ere the consternation had subsided the fire broke out afresh, with no little violence, but in regions more spacious, and therefore with less destruction of human life, but more extensive havoc was made of the temples and porticos dedicated to amuse- ment. * * Nero seemed to aim at the glory of building a new city, and calling it by his own name ; for of the fourteen sections into which Kome is divided, four were still standing entire, three were levelled with the ground, and in the seven others there remained only here and there a few remnants of houses, shattered and half consumed." Moscow, 1812. It will be remembered that on the 15th of Sep- tember, 1812, the French Emperor entered the city, which the Russians had resolved to sacrifice. Allison says : "On the night of the 14th a fire broke out in the Bourse, behind the bazaar, which soon con- 402 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. sumed that noble edifice, and spread to a considera- ble part of the crowded streets in the vicinity. This, however, was but the prelude to more extended calamities. At midnight on the loth, a bright light was seen to illuminate the northern and western parts of the city ; and the sentinels on watch at the Kremlin soon discovered the splendid edifices in that quarter to be in flames. The wind changed repeatedly during the night, but to what- ever quarter it veered the conflagration extended itself; fresh fires were every instant seen breaking out in all directions, and Moscow soon exhibited the spectacle of a sea of flame agitated by the wind. The soldiers, drowned in sleep or overcome by intoxication, were incapable of arresting its pro- gress; and the burning fragments floating through the hot air, began to fall on the roofs and courts of the Kremlin. The fury of an autumnal tempest added to the horrors of the scene ; it seemed as if the wrath of Heaven had combined with the ven- geance of man to consume the invaders of the city they had conquered. 61 But it was chiefly during the nights of the 1 8th and 19th that the conflagration attained its greatest violence. At that time the whole city was wrapped in flames, and volumes of fire of various colors ascended to the heavens in many places, diffusing a prodigious light on all sides, and attended by an intoler- able heat. These balloons of flame were accompanied in their ascent by a frightful hissing noise and loud explosions, the effect of the vast stores of oil, resin, Moscow. 403. tar, spirits, and other combustible materials with which the greater part of the shops were filled. Large pieces of painted canvass, unrolled from the outside of the buildings by the violence of the heat, floated on fire in the atmosphere, and sent down on all sides a flaming shower, which spread the confla- gration in quarters even the most removed from where it originated. The wind, naturally high, was raised by the sudden rarefaction of the air produced by the heat, to a perfect hurricane. The howling of the tempest drowned even the roar of the confla- gration ; the whole heavens were filled with the whirl of the volumes of smoke and flame which rose on all sides, and made midnight as bright as day ; while even the bravest hearts, subdued by the sub- limity of the scene, and the feeling of human impotence in the midst of such elemental strife, sank and trembled in silence. * # # # " Meanwhile the flames, fanned by the tem- pestuous gale, advanced with frightful rapidity, devouring alike in their course the palaces of the great, the temples of religion, and the cottages of the poor. For thirty-six hours, the conflagration continued at its height, and during that time above nine-tenths of the city was destroyed. The re- mainder abandoned to pillage and deserted by its inhabitants, offered no resources to the army. Mos- cow had been conquered ; but the victors had gained only a heap of ruins. It is estimated that 404 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. 30,800 houses were consumed, and the total value of property destroyed amounted to £30,000,000." London, 1666. We must go back more than a couple of cen- turies to find a parallel to the terrible fire which has wrapped the city of Chicago in a sea of resistless flame. On the 2d of September, 1 666, the city of London was almost entirely destroyed by what has since been known as the Great Fire. This awful conflagration gained headway with the same terri- ble rapidity as that of Sunday night, and in five dreadful days of ruin and terror and panic laid two-thirds of the English metropolis in ashes. Like the fire at Chicago, it broke but upon a Sunday, though at a different hour — two o'clock in the morning. Nearly two-thirds of the entire city was destroyed. Thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches and many public buildings were reduced to charred wood and ashes. Three hundred and seventy-three acres, within, and sixty-three acres without the walls were utterly devastated. New York, 1835-1843. That great event in the history of New York, the " great fire," occurred on the night of the 16th of December, 1835. At between eight and nine o'clock of the evening above stated, the fire was dis- NEW YORK — PITTSBURGH. 405 covered in the store No. 25 Merchant street, a narrow street that led from Pearl into Exchange street, near where the post office then was. The flames spread rapidly, and at ten o'clock forty of the most valuable dry goods stores in the city were burned down or on fire. In all, 530 buildings were destroyed ; they were of the largest and most costly description, and were rilled with the most valuable goods. The total loss, estimated at about $20,000,- 000, was afterwards found to be about $15,000,000. Of the buildings destroyed the most important were the Merchants' Exchange, the Post Office, the offices of the celebrated bankers, the Josephs, the Aliens and the Livingstons, the Phoenix Bank, and the building owned and occupied by Arthur Tappan, then much despised for his anti-slavery sympathies. The second great fire in New York began on the morning of the 20th of July, 1843. Altogether about 300 buildings were destroyed, among which were the costly shrines of commerce and finance and the abodes of the poverty stricken. A liberal estimate of the total loss is made at $6,000,000. Pittsburgh, 1845. Pittsburgh, Pa., was visited by a most destructive conflagration the 10th of April, 1845. By it a very large portion of the city was laid waste, and a greater number of houses destroyed than by all the fires that had occurred previously to it. Twenty 406 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. squares, containing about 1,100 buildings, were burned over ; the loss was estimated at $10,000,000. Philadelphia, 1865. In 1865, Philadelphia was the theatre of a terri- ble conflagration. The loss of property amounted to about $500,000, and fifty buildings were de- stroyed. On Ninth street, from Washington to Federal street, every building was burned. San Francisco, 1851. The most disastrous conflagration in San Fran- cisco began on the 3d of May, 1851, and was not entirely checked until the 5th inst. The loss caused by it amounted to $3,500,000 ; 2,500 build- ings were destroyed. Another large fire devas- tated a great portion of San Francisco in June, 1851. It occurred on the 22d of that month, and 500 buildings were destroyed by it. The loss was estimated at $3,000,000. Portland, 1866. The terrible fire which laid in ruins more than half the city of Portland, Me., commenced at five o'clock on the afternoon of the 4th of July, 1866. Beginning in a cooper's shop at the foot of High street, caused by a fire- cracker being thrown among CHARLESTON — CEICAGO. 407 some wood shavings, it swept through the city with frightful rapidity. Two thousand persons were ren- dered homeless. In all the loss was estimated at $10,000,000. Charleston, 1888. Charleston, 8. C, was on the 27th of April, 1838, visited by one of the most destructive fires that has ever occurred in any city in this country. A territory equal to almost one-half of the entire city was made desolate. The fire broke out at a quarter past eight o'clock on the morning of the day mentioned, in a paint shop on King street, corner of Beresford, and raged until about twelve a. m. of the following day. It was then arrested by the blowing up of buildings in its path. There were 1,158 buildings destroyed, and the loss occasioned was about $3,000,000. The worst feature of the catastrophe was the loss of life which occurred while the houses were being blown up. Through the careless manner in which the gun powder was used four of the most prominent citizens of the city were killed and a number injured. Chicago, 1857, 1850, 1S66, 186 8. On the morning of the 10th of October, 1857, a fire occurred in Chicago which, though notable from the amount of property destroyed, was made awful 403 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. by the loss of human life which it caused. The fire broke out in a large double store in South Water street, and spread east and west to the buildings adjoining and across an alley in the rear, to a block of new buildings. All these were completely de- stroyed. When the flames were threatening one of the buildings a number of persons ascended to its roof to fight against them. Wholly occupied with their work, they did not notice that the wall of the burning building tottered, and when warned of their danger they could not escape ere it fell, crashing through the house on which they were, and carrying them into its cellar. Of the number four- teen were killed and more injured. The loss in property caused by the fire amounted to over half a million of dollars. A fire the most disastrous after that of October, 1857, took place on September 15th, 1859. It broke out in a stable, and, spreading in different directions, consumed the block bounded by Clinton, North, Canal, West Lake and Fulton streets, on which the stable was situated. From this block the fire was communicated to Blatchford's lead works and to the hydraulic mills, whence it passed to another block of buildings, all of which were destroyed. The total loss was about $500,000. Property to the amount of $500,000 was destroyed by fire on the 10th of August, 1866. The fire origi- nated in a wholesale tobacco establishment on South Water street, and passed to the adjoining buildings occupied by wholesale grocery and drug firms. The I OTHER GREAT FIRES. 409 first two buildings and contents were utterly, while the other was but partially, destroyed. A fire, which destroyed several large business houses on Lake and South Water streets, took place November 18th, 1866. It originated in the tobacco warehouse of Banker & Co., and the loss caused by it was about $500,000. The fire which occurred on the 28th of January, 1868, was the most destructive by which Chicago had ever been visited. It broke out in a large boot and shoe factory on Lake street, and destroyed the entire block on which that building was situated. The sparks from those buildings set fire to others distant from them on the same street, and caused their destruction. In all the loss was about $3,000,- 000. * Other Great Fires* The other great fires of the world have been as follows : Norfolk, Va., destroyed by fire and the cannon balls of the British. Property to the amount of $1,500,000 destroyed. January 1st, 1776. City of New York, soon after passing into pos- session of the British ; 500 buildings consumed. September 20th and 21st, 1776. Theatre at Richmond, Va. The governor of the State and a large number of the leading inhabitants perished. December 26th, 1811. 410 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. City of New York; 530 buildings destroyed; loss $20,000,000. December 16th, 1835. Washington City. General post office and patent office, with over ten thousand valuable models, draw- ings, &c, destroyed. December 15th, 1&36. Philadelphia ; 52 buildings destroyed ; loss, $500,- 000. October 4th, 1839. Quebec, Canada; 1,500 buildings and many lives destroyed. May 28th, 1845. Quebec, Canada ; 1,300 buildings destroyed. June 28th, 1845. City of New York; 300 buildings destroyed; loss §6,000,000. June 20th, 1845. St. John's, N. F. ; nearly destroyed ; 6,000 people made homeless. June 12th, 1846. Quebec, Canada ; theatre royal ; 47 persons burned to death. June 14th, 1846. Xantucket; 300 buildings and other property destroyed; value, $800,000. July 13th, 1846. At Albany; 600 buildings, steamboats, piers, &c, destroyed; loss, $3,000,000. August 17th, 1848. Brooklyn, 300 buildings destroyed. September 9 th, 1848. At St. Louis, 15 blocks of houses and 23 steam- boats ; loss estimated at $3,000,000. May 1 7th, 1 849. OTHER GREAT FIRES. 411 Frederick ton, N. B. ; about 300 buildings de- stroyed. November 11th, 1850. Nevada, Cal. ; 200 buildings destroyed; loss $1,300,000. March 12th, 1851. At Stockton, Cal. ; loss, $1,500,000. May 11th, 1851. Concord, N. H. ; greater part of the business portion of the town destroyed. August 24th, 1850. Congressional library, at Washington. 35,000 volumes, with works of art destroyed. December 24th, 1851. At Montreal, Canada, 1,000 houses destroyed ; loss, $5,000,000. July 8th, 1852. Harper Brothers' establishment, in New York ; loss over $1,000,000. December 10th, 1853. Metropolitan hall and Lefarge house, in New York. January 8th, 1854. At Jersey City, 30 factories and houses de- stroyed. July 30th, 1854. More than 100 houses and factories in Troy, N. Y ; on the same day a large part of Milwaukee, Wis., destroyed. August 25th, 1854. At Syracuse, N. Y., about 100 buildings de- stroyed; loss, $1,000,000. November 8th, 1«56. New York Crystal Palace destroyed. October 5th, 1858. 412 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. City of Charleston, S. C, almost destroyed. Feb- ruary 17th, 1856. At Quebec, Canada, 2,500 houses destroyed ; loss $2,500,000. For comparison with these data are the following facts connected with the Chicago fire. The area of Chicago, including the recently annexed terri- tory west of Western avenue, and also including streets, etc., is over 23,000 acres. Of this the South Division embraces 5,363, arid the North Division, 2,5 3 3 \. The total number of buildings in this city was about 60,000, of which about 17,000 were on the south and 10,500 on the north side of the river. On the north side there were many elegant dwelling houses, but they were nearly all east of Wells street and north of North avenue, those lying near the river being of a very inferior class. There were also large sections on the north side on which there were no houses. The district between the North Branch and the Ogden Canal on one side, and Lincoln Park and the Old Cemetery on the other, were unoccupied, and there was much vacant ground further up on the North Branch. On the south side the fire destroyed nearly every- thing in the First and Second Wards, and a light por- tion in the northwest corner of the Third. Its southern limit on Michigan avenue was Congress street; on Clark, Harrison, and on Wells street, a point a little below Polk. The area of the burned district is 450 acres. There were destroyed 3,600 METHODIST CHURCH BLOCK. ST. JOSEPH'S PRIORY-GERMAN CATHOLIC. OTHER GREAT FIRES. 415 buildings, including 1,600 stores, 28 hotels, and 60 manufacturing establishments. On the north side, 1,300 acres were burned over out of the 2,500 in that division. The total num- ber of buildings destroyed was 1^,000 including over 600 stores and 100 manufacturing establish- ments. While the amount of ground burned over in the West Division was not great, not exceeding 150 acres — and while much of that was occupied by lumber yards, etc., those who did live there were very closely packed together, so that between one and two thousand people must have dwelt in the burned district. The value of the houses destroyed was comparatively small, they being nearly all frame buildings. The whole immense area of the West Division, with its miles of dwelling houses, its stores and business blocks, is almost intact, while the south side retains the great mass of its dwelling houses of the better class, many manufactories, some of its finest churches, and the innumerable manufactories of the better class. A city of 290,000 inhabitants is still in existence, with the energy to rebuild the burned district, and once more make it the scene of active labor and business enterprise. 24 416 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. Fire in the Air— A Remarkable Tlieory. A writer in the New York Evening Post sets up a remarkable theory in regard to great fires. He says: On the night of the 27th of December, 1835, I was sitting with a literary friend, about 9 o'clock, in one of the private boxes of Hamblin's magnifi- cent Bowery Theatre. Suddenly the big bell of the City Hall boomed loud and long over the metropo- lis, and " Fire ! " "Fire! " echoed around and within the theatre. We were all, in an instant, rushing out of the slamming doors, and onward toward the scene of the conflagration, which was "glaring on night's startled eye" away down town. When we reached Wall street, near Water, the Tontine Coffee House had caught, and dark smoke in huge masses, tinged with flickering flashes of bright flame, was bursting from all the upper win- dows. The night, as all who were out in it will remember,* was intensely cold. There was but little wind, but as the fire advanced there was plainly per- ceptible the " food of fire " in the air, as I firmly believe there always is in all great conflagrations ; something mysterious as yet, and unexplainable. It was so in our great fire, for I saw its evidences myself, and I see that reports of the same evidences are mentioned as features of the still more terrible and vastly greater conflagration in Chicago, which has "roused the world." Science, there is but little doubt, will find out, by-and-by, what this mysterious power is, and tell us how it is worked and how it FIRE IN THE AIR. 417 may be guarded against if not conquered. Whether it is atmospheric or electric, or whatever else it may be, is yet to be determined. A word or two more concerning this a little further on. Our great fire travelled south and west faster than a man could walk. Water froze in all the gutters ; thick ice coated all the hydrants, crunched in the hose pipes that encumbered the streets, and lay in "floes" where there was a shadow from the heat and the flame. But in a little while no water was wanted. Engines were soon useless ; and no ener- getic " Sykesy " was required to " take the butt." Clouds of smoke, like dark mountains suddenly rising into the air, were succeeded by long banners of flame, rushing to the zenith, and roaring for their prey. Street after street caught the terrible torrent, until over acre after acre there was rolling and booming an ocean of flame! "All of this I saw, and part of it I was." The printing office of the Knickerbocker, at first in South William street, was moved three times far beyond the prevailing fire, but was gradually followed by the raging enemy, and finally devoured. As we were standing upon the roof of the Ex- change, looking down upon the scene when in mid- progress, buildings far beyond the line of fire, and in no contact with it, burst into flames from the in- terior. The same thing, I observe, happened in Chicago, and was attributed to incendiaries ; but there was no incendiaries suspected in our great fire. What latent power enkindled the inside of these 418 THE GREAT FIRES OF THE WORLD. advanced buildings, while externally they were un- touched? A scientific writer at the time contended, I think in the old Daily Advertiser, that at a certain period there is what he called an "inflammable vacuum" in the air, which is self-igniting and irre- sistible. Perhaps a hundred years or so from now, some safeguard against this mysterious element, now lying latent and sleeping in nature, may be dis- covered. It is not so very long since the old tea- kettle first lifted its lid to the science of steam, and talking round the world under water is a much younger wonder. APPENDIX. The Origin of the Fire. Just as our volume is about to go to press an official investigation as to the origin and progress of the fire has commenced in Chicago, and we ap- pend the most relevant portions of the testimony thus far (Nov. 27) taken, as it throws some addi- tional light upon the commencement of the great conflagration. The Fire-alarm Operator. ' William J. Brown, the operator in the fire-alarm office, testified that he was on duty in the fire-alarm office, in the court house, on the night of the 8th of October. Mr. Schaffer, the watchman in the tower, notified him, about half-past nine o'clock, that there was a fire, and told him to strike Box No. 342. He sent that box over the wires to the engine houses, and then looked out of the office window facin<>- south, and saw the reflection in the sky. In a short time the watchman pulled him again, and said he had been mistaken — that the fire was not so fat off as he had thought when he gave him Box No. 342, which is located on the corner of Halsted street and ♦ (410) 420 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: Canal port avenue. As the box was on the line of the fire, Brown thought the firemen would not be misled, so he did not strike a nearer box. If he did so, confusion might ensue. About ten minutes after the first alarm he struck a second, giving the same box. A few seconds afterwards several boxes were turned in, and thinking they were for the same con- flagration, he did not pay any attention to them, as a second alarm had been given. Observing from the window that the fire was increasing, he sounded a third alarm, but did not cause the court house bell to be rung. He was relieved by Mr. Fuller, about quarter after twelve o'clock, and left the office. He went to the corner of Randolph and Canal streets, and, after remaining there a few moments, started down Canal to Madison street. He crossed the bridge and went south on Market street and saw that a number of shanties near the gas works were on fire. The gas works were not ignited up to that time. He saw one steamer at work near the corner of Monroe and Market streets, the pipemen having their hose lead into an alley near FarwelPs ware- house and playing on some wooden buildings which were ablaza He saw another engine, the Coventry, he thought, while he was going through the blocks to get to Madison street. He could not tell whether she was working or not. When he reached La Salle street, near Madison, he saw that the rear of the Oriental Block was all on fire. The air wa sfull of cinders and burning -material, and he made his way to the court house, where he remained until the APPENDIX. 421 watchmen were driven out of the cupola, and the office was on fire. The Court House Watchman. Matthias Schaffer, watchman in the court house, corroborated the statement of Mr. Brown in regard to the alarms given. After he told Brown to strike Box No. 342, he took another look at the fire, and was satisfied that he had located it about a mile south of where it really was, and he informed the operator of it. He was relieved at eleven o'clock by Dennis Denene, but he remained in the cupola. Sparks in large numbers and burning material of different kinds were blown over the court house within half an hour after he had given the first alarm. The wind was " terribly strong." He con- tinued watching the fire until twelve o'clock. Twice before that hour the cupola of the court house caught fire, and he got on the roof and stamped out the fire with his feet. This occurred before the fire fiend had crossed to the South Division. Some men had been fixing up the clock in the cupola and left a lot of shavings on the floor. The glass in the win- dow had been broken, and the sparks went through the openings. There was a window on the south side of the cupola that never had any glass in it since he had been on duty in the tower, and sparks were blown into the cupola there and set fire to the wood- work. He crawled in and tried to stop the spread of the flames, but was driven out by the smoke. He 422 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: had no way of putting it out, and had to let it burn. Between ten and eleven o'clock, he could not tell the exact tim8, but thought it was ten o'clock, he descried what appeared to be a new fire, four or fife blocks north of the one he had given an alarm for ; about twelve o'clock he left the court house, and went to look at the south side fire. The wind was so strong that he could hardly stand up. He returned to the court house, and helped put out two more fires in the roof. His clothes caught fire several times, and he was obliged to keep constant watch to pre- vent being burned up himself. He and the other men thought they could save the court house, but after the sparks went through the open window al- luded to and set the under side of the roof on fire, he knew it could net be done. He halloed to Denene, who was then on watch in the tower, to come down or he would be cut off. He could not get. down the stairs, but had to slide down the banisters, his whiskers being scorched, and his hands and face badly burned during his progress. Every one had to leave the building then to save their lives. When he was driven out of the building he notified the jailor in the basement that the court house was going " sure," and that he must take care of the prisoners, and not let them burn up. From seven to ten minutes after this the cupola fell in. APPENDIX. 423 Mrs. O'Leary, The owner of the cow, now so famous, which it was claimed, kicked over the lamp and started the fire, testified, that she and her family — her husband and five children — were in bed, but not asleep on that Sunday night. They knew nothing of the fire until Mr. Sullivan, drayman, who lives on the south side of DeKoven street, awoke them and said their barn was on fire. She took a look at the barn and saw that it could not be saved. She became almost crazy on account of losing all her property — a barn, wagons, harness, six co'ws and a hor>e — and was very much excited. There were three barns — two besides her own — on fire at the same time. A family named McLaughlin lived in the same house with her, and she understood they were having a "social time" on that Sunday night; that they had an oyster supper, and a Mrs. White had told her that one of the family went into the barn to milk one of the cows. She had no knowledge of it and could not say whether it was true or not. The first she saw of the fire engines was one playing on Tur- ner's Block, on the corner of Jefferson and DeKoven streets. She thought it was a good while between the time the fire broke out and when she saw the steamer, but it might have been working some time before she saw it. She was so excited in looking after her family and property that she didn't take notice of much else. 424 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: Catharine Sullivan, Who lives on DeKoven street, east of Jefferson, was washing dishes when she saw a bright reflection on the window panes of her dwelling. She ran into the street, and saw that O'Leary's barn and two others east of it were on fire. She had heard that the O'Leary's were asleep at the time, and that somebody- awoke them. Her house caught fire several times, and citizens threw pailsful of water on it. Her son and Dennis Eogan woke the O'Leary's. She did not know of her own knowledge, whether there was a party in O'Leary's dwelling, but she had heard that there was. Pat. McLaughlin, the fiddler, lived in the front part of O'Leary's house. "Ton her word," she could not tell how long a time elapsed after she saw the fire until the engines made their appearance. Dennis Rogan, Of No. 112 DeKoven street, was in O'Leary's house about half- past 8 o'clock on Sunday night. O'Leary and his wife were in bed. He asked the woman why she went to bed so early, and she said it was because she had a " sore fut." He went home, and after he had gone to bed — sometime after 9 o'clock- — he heard a neighbor say that O'Leary's barn was on fire. He jumped up and ran around to the barn and tried to save a wagon that was there, but be could not. The heat drove him away. There was company at "McLaughlin, the APPENDIX. 425 fiddler's" and he heard music in there. He did not know who was present. It was a quarter of an hour, he thought, before the engines came. There was a high wind at the time, and the sparks were blown away some distance. Catharine McLaughlin, Of No. 137 DeKoven street, testified that she had lived in the front part of O'Leary's house, but did not reside there now. She knew nothing about the origin of the fire. Some one cried out " Fire," and she looked around the side of the house and saw O'Leary's barn was burning, and the rear part of Mr. Dalton's house was just igniting. There were five young men and two young women at her house that night. A "greenhorn" cousin of hers, had just arrived from Ireland and her friends and cousins came in to see him. Her husband played two tunes on his fiddle, and one of the women danced a "bout" and another a polka. That was all the dancing that was done. One of the company went out once or twice during the evening, and brought in half a gallon of beer. They didn't eat anything, and she didn't cook anything — did not start the stove. "Before God, this day," she didn't cook anything. The company was in the house at the time the fire broke out. She got along pleasantly with Mrs. O'Leary, and assisted in saving the house from being destroyed. Boys could go into the alley near the barn, as there was nothing to prevent 426 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: them. She did not notice any engines when she went to look where the fire was ; but a few min- utes afterward there was a steamer on the corner of Jefferson and DeKoven streets. She could not tell exactly how long a time elapsed between the dis- covery of the fire and the arrival of the engines ; but she thought about ten minutes. She did not know whether Mrs. O'Leary was in the habit of milking her cows at night. She lived in the front part of the house, and the barn could have been turned upside down and she would not have known it. Mrs. O'Leary generally did the milking about 5 o'clock. The barn was about forty feet from the house. None of the company went out to get milk for punch. She never had such a thing in the house, khe did not know, of her own knowledge, that Mrs. O'Leary had saved a calf from the barn. Patrick O'Leary, whose wife owned the alleged kicking cow, said he was in bed and didn't know anything about the start of the fire. When he saw it, only his barn w T as ablaze. He got on the roof of his house to protect it, but not " before his barn and the whole city was burned down." Dan Sulli- van called him out of bed, and told him his barn was on fire. He put his children into the street, and then threw water on his little house until after one o'clock in the morning. He didn't see any engines for a little while. One fireman, with a stream, asked him if he was insured, and he said "No," and the water was taken away from his house. He could not tell what time the engines APPENDIX. 427 arrived. Water was thrown on his house by the pipemen. " They had enough to do beside that." He did not know how the fire started. He had no knowledge of it. " If he was to be hanged for it he couldn't tell. He didn't blame any man in America for it." His " woman" went to bed about eight o'clock, and he followed her half an hour afterward. He was asleep when Sullivan woke him, or he would have saved a cow. Both doors of the barn were open — the alley door and the one on the south side of the building. The latter was nailed back so that it could not be shut. On the right hand side of the barn, going north, there were some shavings and wood, and in a shed out- side were some coal and more wood. He some- times sprinkled shavings in the barn for his horse to stand on. He thought the neighbors had shav- ings in their dwellings. The wind was very high, and the fire spread very rapidly. Daniel Sullivan, of No. 134 DeKoven street, was in O'Leary's house about eight o'clock in the even- ing, and remained there about one hour. O'Leary, and all his " young ones," except two, were in bed. He asked the " old woman" why she went to bed so early, and she said she didn't feel well. While he was there O'Leary told the two children who were up to <*o to bed. He left the house, and, while on the opposite side of the street, at twenty or twenty-five minutes past nine o'clock, he saw fire in O'Leary's barn. He ran across the street as fast as he could— he has a wooden leg — and cried out " Fire" as loud 428 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: as he could, which was very loud, as he has strong lungs. He entered the barn, intending to cut the ropes with which the cows were tied. He cut two of them loose, but as they did not seem inclined to leave, and the fire was increasing, he thought he had better depart. As he was making for the door, his wooden leg went between two boards, and he half fell over, catching himself on his sound leg. He caught hold of the wall and pulled himself out, and just then saw a calf with a rope around its neck. The hair on its back was on fire, and when he caught hold of the rope it jumped six feet into the air. He pulled it out of the barn ; and, when he reached the yard, he looked back and felt like a " whipped dog," because he hadn't saved the cows. O'Leary's house was, by this time, on fire, and a man named Kagin came along and shoved in the door, and awoke the inmates. Leary came to the door, and scratched his head as " if there was a foot of lice in it." His wife came out also, and clapped her hands for grief on account of her cows being burned up. The fire appeared to be on the right side of the barn [where O'Leary said the shavings were kept — Rep.] He did not notice any one leaving McLaughlin's house. If *any one had left he would have seen him. His mother kept a cow, and he frequently went to O'Leary's barn to get feed; and thus knew how the cows were tied. He had never noticed shavings on the right side of the barn. Wood and shavings were kept in the shed adjoin- ing the barn. There was no fire in the shed when APPENDIX. 429 he got there. Quite a time elapsed before the engines arrived — from ten to fifteen minutes. There was any quantity of shavings in the houses of the Bohemians in the vicinity. The barn door was open. The fire did not spread very rapidly. Two barns were on fire when the engines came. There might have been more, but he was positive two were burning. The O'Leary barn was 16x20 feet and 14 feet high. There was a vacant shed, fronting on the alley, opposite O'Leary's barn, in which the boys of the neighborhood were in the habit of congre- gating. In front of it, facing Taylor street, was a vacant house, which, he understood, was often occu- pied by vagrants and loafers as a lodging place. The alley between the shed and barn was about twelve feet wide. The above testimony is from those who lived im- mediately adjacent to the locality where the fire commenced, and although it does not give any very definite idea concerning the origin of the fire, it is quite evident that a drunken orgy of some descrip- tion was going on, which undoubtedly had much to do with the more immediate cause of the fire. Be- low we append the testimony of one or two firemen, which will give the^eader some idea of the fire as firemen regarded it, and of some of the difficulties under which they labored^ Michael W. Conway, the pipeman of the steamer " Chicago," testified that he worked on the Saturday night fire until half-past 4 o'clock on Sunday after- noon, and his eyes being full of cinders and his 430 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: physical condition such as to render him unfit for duty, he went home and retired to rest. About 11 o'clock his wife awoke him, and said she was afraid they would be burned out. He went over to the engine house, and saw the steamer in front of the building. The fire was then near the corner of Harrison and Jefferson streets. The Chicago's house is on Jefferson street, near Van Buren. Some one told him the fire was on the south side, but he did not believe it, as he thought it was the reflection from the west side fire. The engine was short of hose, so he took the cart and went down Desplaines street to see if he could find any that had been left behind by the engines. He found two or three lengths, and went back to the house. The engine was not working. The company had had a full reel — 600 feet — of hose on Sunday afternoon, but it had been lost. The Titsworth was at that time drawing water from a plug on Jefferson, south of Van Buren street. He did not know where the Chicago had been. He asked the foreman what he intended to do with the engine, and he replied that he was " played out," and he (Conway) could take charge of her. He told the foreman it was "all right," and that he would go on the south side. There was no one present to give him directions. He started and attempted to cross Madison street bridge, but could not. He crossed Randolph street bridge and went east. He saw one engine at Wells and Madison streets, another at La Salle and Madison streets, and another at Clark and Madison streets, and when he APPENDIX 433 reached the corner of Clark and Washington streets he concluded that a line was being formed on Madi- son street to cut off the fire, and, as there was no engine on Franklin street, he thought he would get a plug there. While passing the court house, he noticed a fire on the roof, and asked the engineer if he thought water could be thrown up there. The reply was "Yes," and he was about to attach the suction to a plu<*, when he noticed several men come out of the cupola with buckets and brooms. As the fire was very small, he thought they could manage it, and he continued on his way to Franklin street. He took a hydrant on Franklin street, near Washington, and led south into an alley near Bar- ber's building. lie had then about five hundred feet of hose, having procured a lead from the fire- escape hose, and worked two streams. He remained at work there until Marshal Williams ordered him to pick up and go to Schuttler's building. He led up Randolph street, and threw water on the build- ings on the south side of the street. The flames came from the basements of the stores, while there was no sign of fire in any other part of the build- ings. Once while going from the engine to the pipemen he saw a woman with a "duster" on her head looking out of a fourth story window. He threw up a stone or piece of wood to attract her attention, and told her if she did not leave the build- ing at once she would be burned up. She had hardly got into the street before the flames burst out of the basement windows. The fire came from 25 434 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: the east down Randolph street. The light of the lire in the cellars was a strange one. It looked as if whiskey or alcohol was burning. He heard a great many loud reports during the night, but thought they were caused by falling walls. He did not know of any buildings being blown up that night. The only marshal he saw until Tuesday afternoon was Williams. He wont from Schuttler's to the corner of Randolph and Market streets, and remained there until the rear walls of the Wash- ington house fell in, and the shanties on the north- east and southeast corners were burned down. He saw the Metropolitan Hall burned, and did not think it remained standing a minute after the fire took hold of it. The dome in the Briggs House caught fire. While the engine was working at Franklin and Randolph streets, he took a walk down to South Water street, and saw the Wil- liams at work on the .corner oi Fifth avenue and that street. The air was oppressively warm and full of sparks, and there was a perfect gale. His eyes were in a wretched condition. While working on Barber's building the window frames of the upper floor caught fire, and, after be had kicked open the door, two policemen went up and subdued the flames. He was familiar with many of the build- ings that were burned. Their roofs were generally of felt, saturated with tar and covered with pebbles. The cornices were generally of wood. Now and then there was a tin roof. Tin made the best roof if people did not walk on it. After he left the foot APPENDIX. 435 of Randolph street he went across the bridge and to the foot of Washington street. There he saw the Richard's engine throwing water on the iron works. They hadn't enough hose, so he let them have two or three lengths, by order of the chief marshal. The buildings were not on fire, but were being cooled off. He afterwards went to the foot of Franklin street, on the north side. This was about daylight on Monday morning. He went first to Ohio and Wells streets, but as he could obtain no water he went to the river. The Coventry was there when he arrived, and the Winnebago came up soon after. He threw water on the east elevator, and the pipemen of the other engines paid attention to the Galena depot, by order of Marshal Williams. The fire at that time was east of Wells street, and as far north as he could see. He was not at work on the south side over four or five hours, and did not fail to obtain plenty of water while there. The fire went diagonally from the river east, and then eat its way w r est. He kept a look-out to the west, so as to prevent being cut off. In case of an emer- gency he intended to run the engine into La Salle street tunnel. He did not see a member of the Fire Department drunk, but saw several citizens with firemen's hats on who were. The citizens £ot the hats from the hose carts. In a hot fire, such as that, a slouch hat was preferable to a fire hat, as the eyes and lace could be shielded from the heat. A man stole his fire hat, and a policeman shoved the thief into the river, and the hat sunk. [Marshal 436 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION CHICAGO: Williams stated that he took fire hats from two citi- zens who were drunk.] While Conway was at the Chicago's house, he saw no liquor. A citizen who was there was intoxicated, but he did not re- main Ions: at the house. No extra hats were carried on the hose carts. He did not know of any money being paid to firemen for special services. Christopher Schimtnels, foreman of the steamer Chicago, said the first he knew of the fire was the striking of the gong. He thought it was about 9.30. Box No. 34'2 was struck. This box is about a mile southwest of where the fire was. He went directly to the blaze, and took a hydrant on the corner of Forquar and Jefferson streets, and led the hose south. His was the only stream there. After working from three to five minutes, the engine was w shut down," and upon making inquiry as to why it was done, the engineer told him that a spring in the pump had broken. He told the engineer to start up again, and run the risk of breaking the pump to pieces. He did not see the marshal or the assistants, and he asked the foreman of the Illinois, which had come up, which side of the fire he would take. He replied " north," so Schimmels remained on the south line. He worked there until Assistant Marshal Benner ordered him to move and cut off the fire in the rear of some buildings. The next thing he knew, a row of buildings on Jefferson street, a little south of Tay- lor, were on fire. After working on them ten minutes, orders came to move and put on two APPENDIX. 437 streams. An order subsequently came to go further north, and try to cut off the fire. It was impossi- ble to go up Jefferson street, so he went over to Halsted and up to Harrison, and took a plug on the corner of that street and Jefferson. He led the hose south, but was driven from his position by the heat, and nearly lost his hose in retreating. He attached another lead of hose to the engine, and l;ept the ground near her cool. He then started for a plug on Jefferson street, between Harrison and Van Bureti , but the Tits worth was there, and he went around to Jackson and Jefferson streets. After being there three or five minutes, he saw that the fire was not coming that way, so he sent his men over to the south side. He went to his engine bouse, as he was completely played out, having had no sleep for thirty hours. He had worked eighteen hours on the Saturday night fire, and four of his men were nearly blind. When the alarm came in, these men, who had been at home, ran around to the engine house, but as they were useless on account of the condition of their eyes, he took three volunteers and started for the fire. None of his men were intoxicated. They all worked faithfully. He did not know what time the fire crossed to the south side, but thought it was about k 2 o'clock on Monday morning. His engine was in good order at the Saturday night fire, but they had to knock her suction from a plug to prevent her being burned up, and the "goose neck" being out of order, she 4 438 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I could not draw water very well on Sunday. He was short of hose. Two lengths were lost on Har- rison street, and there was none in reserve. There were eigteen lengths in the engine house on Satur- day night, but some companies had taken it all out. His engine was also on the north side. The engi- neer, who had charge, came back to the house about 7 o'clock on Monday morning, and said lie came near losing her three or four times. He met the Chief Marshal about 11 o'clock on Monday morn- ing, and told him he had no hose. He was told tli at there was some expected at the Milwaukee depot, and went there to get it, but none had come. When he returned to the engine house, a small boy came in and said there was a Springfield steamer at the foot of Taylor street, and the men with it wanted to know w T here to go, as they could not see any fire. He brought them up to the house, and asked them for half of their hose — they had 1,000 feet — and the foreman said he would let him have it, if he would bring his engine out and work with him. He said "all right," and hitched the truck horses to the Springfield engine, and with his own steamer, started for the north side, crossing Division street bridge. The two engines worked on the gas works from 6 o'clock that evening until 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning, when the Springfield steamer gave out. The fire was then so as it would not spread any more, and they returned to the house, finding two strange companies in possession when they arrived. The steamer was fixed up, and he slept until noon, APPENDIX. 439 when orders came to go to the foot of Taylor street and throw water on some coal. He was not offered any money to play on any building, and did not think anything more conld have been done to stop the fire. If there had been plenty of hose on at first it would have made a difference. Coal was scarce, and the citizens tore up the sidewalks to furnish his engine with fuel. All the hose he had had for three months previous to the fire was very poor. Mayor Mason. At the meeting of the Common Council of Chi- cago, held on the 4th of December, for the purpose of inaugurating the Mayor elect, the retiring Mayor, It. B. Mason, in his address, said : The appalling calamity which has befallen our city made it necessary for the Mayor to assume re- sponsibilities entirely unexpected and unprece- dented. Plis sole object and aim was to secure means that would be the most effectual, and the soonest available, to meet the emergency, and it is believed this was done without lowering the dignity of his office or abrogating any of its powers. Our great misfortune has called forth universal sympathy and aid from almost every city and town in our own land, and to a large extent in foreign lands. And, to show our wants, it is simply necessary to state that some 15,000 families are being aided, more or less, at the present time. But all are sheltered, and their most pressing wants are being supplied. 440 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: All of the funds which have been sent here for the relief of our suffering citizens have been turned over to the Chicago Aid and Relief Society, who are operating under a charter from our State, and have had ten years' experience in aiding the poor and destitute of our city. This society is composed of some of our best and most reliable citizens, and it is confidently believed that the expenditure of this world-wide bounty will be more judiciously done, and accomplish more good, than under any other organization, and that all will be satisfactorily ac- counted for. Our citizens will not soon forget the great exertions made by the Aldermen and other city officers, and that is now being made by the Chicago Aid and Eelief Society, to give shelter and food to the tens of thousands of sufferers by the great fire, and I tender to each and all of you my thanks for the counsel and assistance rendered to the Mayor at that trying time. Message of May or Me dill. At the municipal election held since the fire, Joseph Medill. the editor and one of the leading proprietors of the Chicago Tribune, was elected to the office of Mayor. His inaugural message delivered on the 4th of December, contains the following statement and su£2:estions : DO I have been called to the head of the City Gov- ernment under extraordinary circumstances. A few weeks ago our fair city, reposmg in fancied security, APPENDIX. 441 received a fearfully tragic visitation from fire, which in a few brief but awful hours reduced a large por- tion thereof to ashes, cinder and smoke, consuming one grand division, leaving but a fragment of another, and inflicting an ugly wound on the third. In a single night and a day 125,000 of our people were expelled from their homes and compelled to flee for their lives into the streets, commons, or lake, to avoid perishing in the flames. Many lost their lives from heat, suffocation, or falling walls — how many may never be known ; and the multitudes who escaped were fain to seek shelter and food at the hand of charity. The greater part of our citi- zens, not burned out of their homes, lost their stores shops, offices, stocks of goods, implements, books, accounts, papers, vouchers, business, or situations, and it is difficult to find any citizen who has not; suffered directly by that fearful conflagration. Of the total property in Chicago created by labor and capital, existing on the 8th of October, more than half perished on the 9th. The money value of the property thus suddenly annihilated, it is impossible accurately to ascertain, but it can hardly fall short of $150,000,000, a comparatively small part of which wid be reimbursed by the insurance com- panies. Such a tremendous loss cannot befall the people at large without seriously affecting their municipal affairs. The city ,as a corporation has lost in property and income precisely in the same proportion as have individuals in the aggregate. The municipal government has no income except 442 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO! what it derives from the citizens of Chicago, in the form of taxes, licenses, and rents, or obtains on their credit ; and to the extent that their property and business are diminished by the terrible misfortune that has smitten them, so is the revenue of the city diminished; and, as our citizens are retrenching expenses to meet the exigencies and keep within their means, so must the municipal government do likewise. Financial Condition of the City. Heavy as the blow has been that has struck us, I am not discouraged. Our municipal losses, like those of the citizens, will soon be repaired, and by judicious management of our city affairs, the people will the sooner recover from their losses, and thus be able, in a short time, to bear the burdens of taxation without oppression. I shall proceed to state, in brief form, the present fiscal condition of the city, as I gather it from official sources : Bonded debt, December 1st, 1871, . . . $14,103,000 From this may be deducted bonds held in the sinking fund, 55T,000 Outstanding bonds, $13,546,000 This debt is composed of the following items: Funded debt — old issues, $342,000 Funded debt— new issues, 2,192,500 School bonds ' . . . 1,119,500 APPENDIX. 443 School construction bonds, $53,000 Sewerage bonds, 2,680,000 River improvement bonds, 2,896,000 Water bonds, 4,820,000 In addition to the bonded debt, it is officially re- ported to me that there is a floating debt consisting of: Certificates of indebtedness, $138,707 Unsettled claims for deepening the canal in excess of the $3,000,000 authorized by law, 253,000 Current expenses for November, about, . 250,000 Tunnel balance, and other items, . . . 45,000 Total, about . . $686,707 The Comptroller estimates the general expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year at $1,141,000. There stands to the credit of various special funds the following unexpended balances: Water fund, from sale of bonds, . . . $897,262 School building, from sale of bonds, . . 148,152 Special assessment, collected, .... 435,467 Bridewell fund, 45,451 Reformed School fund, 30,000 Total, $1,556,338 From these funds the City Government has temporarily drawn for payment of current expenses, to be replaced when needed, 1,144,186 Balance on hand December 1st, 1871, $412,152 444 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: The Common Council, at a late meeting, appro- priated $140,000 of the water fund for repairs of the water works and extensions of mains, which, when expended will reduce the water fund to $757,262. By the former mode of doing business with the banks, nothing was paid by them to the city on its deposits, while high rates of interest were paid by the city for temporary accommodations — the money loaned actually being the city's own funds. The interest thus absurdly paid, amounted to a very large item in the annual expenditure of the city. Municipal Losses by the Fire. As near as I can ascertain, the loss of city prop- erty by the fire, as estimated by the different boards, is as follows : In Care of Board of Public Works. City Hall, including furniture, .... $47 0,000 Bridges burned 171,000 Damage to street pavements, 270,000 Damage to sidewalks and crossings, pay- able out of general fund, 70,000 Damage to water works, 35,000 Damages to lamp posts, ........ 15,000 Damage to fire hydrants, reservoirs, sewers, water service, etc., 60,000 Total, $1,085,000 APPENDIX 445 To this must be added 121| miles of sidewalks destroyed (the replacement of which should be by special assessment) valued at $941,380. The Fire Department Loss. Buildings worth, $60,000 Furniture, 7,500 Damage to engines, 8,200 Damage to hose, 10,000 Damage to fire-alarm telegraph, .... 45,000 Total, $130,700 Police Department Loss. Buildings worth, $53,600 Furniture, fixtures, etc., 32,500 Total, $86,100 Board of Education Lost. Buildings, furniture, etc., worth, .... $251,000 Board of Health lost property worth, . . 15,000 Total losses $1,567,800 Add sidewalks, 941,380 Grand total, $2,509,180 All these burnt structures, machines, bridges, sidewalks, fixtures, and furniture, must be rebuilt and replaced at the earliest practical moment, as they are indispensable to the city and citizens. 44:6 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO*. Other Municipal Losses by the Fire. But the destruction of this property is not the only loss suffered by the corporation. The burning of records, vouchers, books, papers, tax warrants, assessment-rolls, etc., will necessarily occasion much loss, confusion and embarrassment to the city gov- ernment. But it is believed that a large part of the apparent loss of official knowledge and data can be supplied from other scources. Still, the pecuniary loss to the city will be considerable in the destruction of the evidence of delinquent taxes and special assessments. The Records. This list of destroyed records and papers may con- vey an exaggerated idea of the actual damage done. The system of keeping the city accounts was such that but little loss will be sustained by the city by reason of the destruction of the Comptroller's re- cords. To illustrate : The appropriation for the Board of Public Works is nearly one-third of the total annual appropriation, and, including special assessments, is more than half of all the money ex- pended on city account. The board make out a voucher for an expenditure and send it to the Comp- troller's office, keeping a duplicate in their own office. The board also keep books of account, show- ing the expenditures of appropriations for and vou- APPENDIX. 447 chers issued by the board. The Board of Public Works saved their books, records, vouchers, etc., and to this extent the records of the Comptroller's office can be replaced. So that it will be impossible for claimants to defraud the city by false claims. The appropriations for the Police and Fire De- partments, amounting to about $900,000, are largely made up of the pay rolls of policemen and firemen, and they were paid on Saturday preceding the fire, except a few who were on special duty. The usual course of business in the Comptroller's office, combined with the personal recollections of the Comptroller and his clerks, will enable that office to prevent double payments, or fraudulent pay- ments, and the danger of such will be over with when the payments for the month of November are completed. It is in the destruction of the records, rolls and warrants of the City Collector's office that I appre- hend the city will suffer the greatest loss. The City Collector, when an assessment is made, or a tax levied, receives a warrant for its collection, gives the notices required by law, and reports once in each year, generally in March, to the court, the delin- quents upon all real property and special assessment accounts which come into his hands, the latter prior to flhc 31st of October, and of the real property war- rants prior to the preceding second Sunday of De- cember. 448 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO Combustible Character of the City. No more important questions can engage your at- tention than those of the future fire limits, and a re- liable supply of water for the extinguishment of fires. The first is in the nature of prevention, and the second of cure ; and I shall briefly discuss them in the order of their importance. On the 9th of October more than 20,000 habitations and business places were destroyed by fire in a single day. So enormous a loss of property in so incredible short space of time, finds no parallel in the history of con- flagrations. It is not difficult to explain the cause of this sudden and tremendous destruction of prop- erty. There was no other city upon the face of the earth where all the conditions for such a disaster could be found in equal perfection. To begin with, the city of Chicago is situateu on the lake border of a boundless prairie, swept continually by high winds. It contained 60,000 pine-built structures, and a few thousand of brick or stone. The prevailing winds of the autumn are invariably from the west and southwest. The solidly built parts of the city, and containing the most values, lay to the eastward of the combustible portions and were completely flanked and commanded by them. Each year the wooden parts of the city have filled up thicker and thicker with the most inflammable of all building materials, viz. : pine. For miles square there was little but pine structures, pine sidewalks, pine plan- APPENDIX. 451 ing mills, manufactures of pine, and pine lumber yards. A hot, parching, southwestern gale of many clays duration had absorbed every particle of moisture from the vast aggregation of pine, of which the city was mainly constructed, and reduced it to the con- dition of tinder. A fire broke out in the night in the heart of this combustible material, the furious wind spread it quickly and swept it onward resist- lessly. When the storm of fire reached the South Branch it had acquired such strength and volume as to leap over it as though it were a tiny rivulet. It fed on the dry pine tenements on its line of march, and spreading right and left, swept everything before it with the besom of destruction, until it died out for lack of more pine to devour. What lesson should this cruel visitation teach us ? Shall we regard it as one of fortuitous occurrence, which only happens at long intervals and is beyond human foresight or control 1 ? Such a conclusion constitutes our great future danger. A blind, unreasoning infatuation in favor of pine for outside walls, and pine covered with paper and tar for roofs, has possession of many of our people, It is thought to be cheaper than any other building material, when, in point of fact, it is the dearest stuff, all things considered, that can be used. It is short- lived ; rots out in a few years; rapidly becomes shabby in appearance, and of all building substance s is the most incendiary. There is no economy what- ever in erecting tenements of pine. The difference 26 452 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: in first cost between it and brick is not to exceed 15 or 2 ;) per cent., and this saving at the outset is soon lost in higher rates of insurance ; larger consumption of fuel ; more doctors' bills ; incessant repairs, and greater discomfort. The value of real property is reduced, and its advance retarded by the presence of unsightly, decaying, and combustible wooden struc- tures, and the owners are unable to procure loans on such property on terms satisfactory, either as to time, amount, or rates of interest. If we rebuild the city with this dangerous mate- rial, we have a moral certainty, at no distant day, of a recurrence of the late catastrophe. The chances of future destruction increase exactly in proportion to the multiplication of combustible structures on a given space. The sirocco blast from the southwest visits us every year. We have strong winds at nearly all times from the west. All the conditions for great fires are, therefore, constantly present in the dry season. With our present mode of supply- ing water, there is never an adequate quantity at the point of need to combat and properly overcome a great fire. But no supply is sufficient to quench a fire with twenty minutes' start, among thousands of tinder-box structures, and propelled by an autumn gale in time of drought. What the Future Fire-Kr)%its should he. Can there be any doubt as to our duty in view of these conditions and considerations 1 it seems to me APPENDIX. 453 it is obvious and imperative. Those who are intrusted with the management of public affairs should take such measures as shall render the recur- rence of a like calamity morally impossible. The outside walls and roof of every building, to be here- after erected within the limits of Chicago, should be composed of materials as incombustible as brick, stone, iron, concrete or slate. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. So the preservation of the city is the highest duly of its rulers. Except for the most temporary uses, I am unalterably opposed, from this time forward, to the erection of a single wooden building within the limits of Chicago. The fire limits, in my opinion, should be made co-extensive with the boundaries of the city, and when the latter are extended, so should be the for- mer. There is no line that can be drawn with safety within those limits. Any inner fire line would occasion endless dis- content, and will forever be assailed and broken. Draw it an> where inside the city limits, and it will be continually forced inward, and shrink back toward its old and useless boundaries. No satisfac- tory or logical reason can ever be given to interested persons why those next to and within the line should be prohibited from erecting incendiary struc- tures, while their neighbors on the opposite side of the street or alley are permitted to indulge in that dangerous luxury. Either let us forbid the construc- tion of those buildings which tend to jeopardize the city, or allow all citizens an equal privilege toburn 454 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: down their neighbors. This is a land of equal rights and privileges, and the rule in regard to incendiary structures should also be equal and uni- form. I can see no other way of securing the safety of the city, and satisfying the citizens, than by treating all alike, and extending the fire limits to the city boundaries. Special privileges are odious in a re- publican country. In view of all the circumstances, I recommend that your honorable body proceed to frame and perfect a tire ordinance that will give security and perma- nence to the future city. The existing wooden structures will gradually disappear by the ravages of fire and decay, and the desire to replace them with permanent edifices. In a few years we can have a city solid and safe, durable and beautiful. The enactment of a fire limits ordinance, compre- hending the en? ire city, will add tens of millions to its credit abroad, and greatly appreciate the value of its realty at home. It is the widest financial mea- sure that can be enacted. An Independent Supply of Water for Fires. The future safety of the city demands a better and more reliable supply of water for the extin- guishment of fires than is afforded by the existing system. This fact was painfully demonstrated in the late calamity. When the pumping works suc- cumbed, not a gallon of water could be procured by the Fire Department or the citizens with which to APPENDIX. 455 fight the fire, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of houses perished in consequence thereof. The city should not be left wholly dependent on those ma- chines, because they are subject to many contingen- cies in addition to that which disabled them. Boil- ers may explode and ruin the engines, or cut off the supply of steam ; some of the machinery may give way while the other engines are idle, awaiting re- pairs ; valves may fail; a main may burst from over- pressure, or other cause ; fire may again invade the works, or something else may happen at the critical moment, which may again leave the Fire Depart- ment helpless and the city a prey to the unpitying element. The topography of the city forbids an elevated reservoir of capacity and pressure sufficient for the extinguishment of serious fires, such as they have in Montreal, New York, Pittsburgh, and other cities. But a simple, cheap, and reliable substitute can be found in the construction of a system of subterranean reservoirs, one at every street crossing in the densely built portions of the city, and at greater distances apart in the more sparsely built parts. These reservoirs may be connected by ear; hen pipes such as are us d for sewerage purposes, of adequate diameter, and supplied with water by artesian wells placed at proper distances apart. The water from all the wells in each division of the city would thus be connected and made to flow into any reservoir from which the fire engines might be drawing water. A dozen artesian wells in cither division of the city 456 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO I would supply water faster than the whole depart- ment in action could consume it. The stock of water in the reservoirs themselves would be invalu- able in great emergencies. Only one engine can draw water from a fire hy- drant, and the others usually have to go long dis- tances to find hydrants, and their delivery power is greatly diminished by distance and friction of water in the hose, while the hose itself is burst and de- stroyed in great quantities at every severe combat with fire. But from each of the proposed reservoirs several engines could draw water, and thus, at short range, concentrate an irresistible discharge upon the fire and quickly master it. Artesian water is so warm that it would never freeze in the pipes, however shallow they were laid, nor in the reservoirs, because the perpetual influx of the warm water would always keep the temperature above the freezing point. The outflow of this water to the North Division and in the northern part of the West Division could be conducted into the North Branch of the Chicago river, and materially aid in its purification, without expense to the city. In other portions of the town, surplus water could be run into the street sewers, thereby saving the ex- pense of "flushing" them, as now practiced. In the season of street sprinkling, the watering wagons could obtain water from the artesian fountains, thereby leaving a larger supply for domestic pur- poses. There are various other uses to which the APPENDIX. 457 waste water might advantageously be put, not ne- cessary here to enumerate. The cost of the proposed supply of auxiliary water would be insignificant when compared with its value in preserving property and adding to the safety of the city. The animal saving of insurance^ resulting from this independent water supply, would probably exceed the hist cost of procuring it. Bounteous Nature has placed under our feet, within easy reach, this fountain of water, awaiting our bidding to pour forth. Have we the enterprise and sagacity to util- ize it? But I refer the further consideration of this important subject to the wisdom of your honor- able body. Perhaps some better plan to accomplish the end in view — the safety of the city from destruc- tion by fire — will be suggested by yourselves and carried into effect. But we must be admonished by the. bitter and terrible experience of the past never again to depend exclusively on our pumping works for a sure and adequate supply of water for the re- duction of a great conflagration. Conclusion. In concluding I point with pride and admiration to the gigantic efforts our whole people are putting forth to rise from the ruins and rebuild Chicago. The money value of their losses can hardly be calcu- lated. But who can compute the aggregate of anguish, distress and suffering they have endured and must yet endure 1 These wounds are still sore 458 THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION — CHICAGO: and agonizing, though they have been greatly alle- viated by the prompt, generous, and world wide charities that have been poured out for their succor and relief; and I claim in their behalf that they are showing themselves worthy the benefactions re- ceived. They have faced their calamity with noble fortitude and unflinching courage. Repining or lamentation is unheard in our midst, but hope and cheerfulness are everywhere exhibited and expressed. All are inspired with an ambition to prove to the world that they are worthy of its sympathy, confidence and assistance and to show how bravely they can encounter disaster, how quickly repair losses and restore Chicago to her high rank among the great cities of the earth. Happily there is that left which fire cannot con- sume ; — habits of industry and self-reliance, personal integrity, business aptitude, mechanical skill, and unconquerable will. These created what the flames devoured, and these can speedily re-create more than was swept away. Under free institutions, good government, and the blessings of Providence, all losses will soon be repaired, all misery caused by the fire assuaged, and a prosperity greater than ever dreamed of will be achieved in a period so brief, that the rise will astonish mankind even more than the fall, of Chicago. 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