LAKESIDE 


 
 THE LAKESIDE 
 
 FIRE MEMORIAL.
 
 THE 
 
 LAKESIDE MEMORIAL 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BURNING OF CHICAGO, 
 
 A. D. 1871. 
 
 // '/ 777 ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 NIVERSITY IT BUSH l\<; COMPANY 
 1872.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 CHICAGO BEFORE THE FIRE. 
 
 FIRST HOUSE BUILT IN CHICAGO. 
 
 CHICAGO WATER WORKS. 
 
 FIELD, LEITER & Co.'s STORE. 
 
 CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 
 
 BOOKSELLERS' Row. 
 
 SHERMAN HOUSE. 
 
 PALMER HOUSE. 
 
 DRAKE AND FARWELL BLOCK. 
 
 COURT HOUSE. 
 
 NEW ENGLAND AND UNITY CHURCHES. 
 
 TRIBUNE BUILDING.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. BEFORE THE FIRE. 
 
 CHICAGO'S HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, AND ARCHITECTURE . J. W. Foster. . i 
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE Charles Randolph. n 
 
 OUR .tSTHETICAL DEVELOPMENT jf. B. Runnion. l8 
 
 PART II. BURNING OF THE CITY. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT FIRE U'. S. Walker. 22 
 
 THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE H. R. Hobart. 40 
 
 PART III. AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE ; WHAT WAS DONE FOR THEM Andrew Shuman. 43 
 
 AMONG THE RUINS F. B. Wilkie. 50 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION W. A. Croffitt. 53 
 
 PART IV. THE LOSSES. 
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY Elias Colbert. 58 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS .... Frank Gilbert. 64 
 
 RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS . . E. O. Haven. 71 
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, AND LITERATURE . . G. P. Upton. 76 
 
 PART V. THE FUTURE. 
 
 WHAT REMAINS William Ah-in Barth-tt. 82 
 
 NEW CHICAGO - J. W. Foster. 83 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 THE FIRES OF HISTORY Egbert P helps. 86 
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES .... Elias Colbert. 90 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THK FIRE .... D. H. Wheeler. 96 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 CHICAGO ANU THK RELIEF COMMITTEE . . . Sydney Hou-ani Gay. 103
 
 THE 
 
 LAKESIDE MEMORIAL 
 
 THE BURNING OF CHICAGO. 
 
 PART I. BEFORE THE FIRE. 
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY ITS TOPOGRAPHY AND 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 THE Conflagration of Chicago, 
 October 8th and gih, Anno Dom- 
 ini 1871, will form a memorable event 
 in the future history not only of our own 
 country but of the world ; and there- 
 fore it is that we propose to embody in 
 a permanent and accessible form for 
 the benefit of the future annalist, the 
 principal incidents connected with this 
 tremendous event. This conflagration, 
 in the amount of property consumed, 
 is beyond the memory or example of 
 ancient or modern times. Other great 
 conflagrations, like those of London 
 and of Moscow, swept away districts 
 but imperfectly built, which subsequent 
 enterprise beautified and adorned ; but 
 this conflagration wiped out the most 
 substantially -built and beautifully- 
 adorned portion of the city structures, 
 which in their solidity and in their ar- 
 chitectural details commanded the ad- 
 miration of every beholder. 
 
 There are men yet living and in the 
 prime of manhood, who saw the site of 
 Chicago when it was but a wet prairie. 
 They have seen its fairest portions laid 
 in waste ; and they will live, very many 
 of them, to see every trace of this waste 
 obliterated. The same causes which led 
 to the rapid growth of this city are still 
 in operation ; and this conflagration, 
 disastrous as it was, will prove but a 
 temporary check in the development of 
 the great metropolis of the Northwest. 
 
 To comprehend the causes of the un- 
 precedented growth of the city, and at 
 the same time the magnitude of the dis- 
 aster, it may not be deemed inopportune 
 if we recur to her earlier history, and 
 trace her progress, step by step, from 
 small beginnings until she attained her 
 late commanding position the fourth 
 city in point of population, and the 
 third city in point of commercial im- 
 portance, in the United States.
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 As early as 1672, the French Jesuits 
 had explored and mapped the whole of 
 Lake Superior, and the upper portion 
 of Lake Michigan then known as 
 Lac des Illinois as far south as Green 
 Bay. They had established themselves 
 at various points, among which were 
 the Mission de Ste. Marie de Sault; 
 Mission du St. Esprit, at La Pointe ; 
 Mission de St. Fr. Xavier, at the head 
 of Green Bay ; and the Mission of St. 
 Ignace, at the outlet of Lake Michigan, 
 nearly opposite Mackinac, on the north 
 shore of the lake.* At that time the 
 English colonists skirted the Atlantic 
 Coast from Florida to Nova Scotia, 
 without penetrating far in the interior. 
 Elliot, in his missionary zeal, had ex- 
 plored only so far as Natick, six miles 
 out of Boston ; the Connecticut Val- 
 ley was still unoccupied. 
 
 Among these Jesuit missionaries was 
 James Marquette, a man of high cul- 
 ture but of meek and lowly disposition, 
 whose name is indelibly engraven in 
 the annals of the Northwest. He was 
 attached to the Mission of St. Ignace. 
 In his intercourse with the savage 
 tribes, he had heard of the existence 
 of a great river to the west, whose 
 banks were bordered by vast prairies 
 over which roamed countless herds of 
 buffalo. On the iyth of May, 1673, ac- 
 companied by Joliet, with two canoes 
 and five voyageurs, he embarked on a 
 voyage to explore the great unknown 
 river. Coasting along Green Bay to its 
 head, then ascending the Fox River 
 and descending the Wisconsin, one 
 month after starting he beheld the 
 mighty current of the Mississippi, on 
 which he floated as far south as Arkan- 
 sas. In returning, he paused at the 
 mouth of the Illinois, and instead of 
 proceeding on to the Wisconsin, as- 
 cended the latter stream, taking the 
 Des Plaines branch, by which he 
 passed by an easy portage to the Chi- 
 
 * To those interested in the early history of the 
 Northwest, we commend the map entitled " Lac 
 Svperievr et avtres lievx ou sont les Missions des 
 Peres de la Compaigne de lesvs comprises sovs le 
 le nom Dovtaovacs," published at Paris, 1672. 
 
 cago River. Having reached Lake 
 Michigan, he coasted along the west 
 shore, and thus reached, after a canoe 
 voyage of over 2,500 miles, the point 
 of his embarkation. 
 
 So cordial had been the reception of 
 the good father among the tribes in 
 habiting the valley of the Illinois, that 
 he resolved to return and erect 
 among them the standard of the Cross; 
 and the next autumn (1674) he ar- 
 ranged to carry out his design. It was 
 late in October when, with a canoe and 
 two voyageurs, he embarked. Reach- 
 ing the mouth of the Chicago River, he 
 ascended that stream for about two 
 leagues, where he built a hut and 
 passed the winter. Game was abun- 
 dant ; and from his hut, buffalo, deer, 
 and turkeys were shot. Originally of 
 a frail constitution, this voyage had 
 told fearfully upon the good father. 
 Cold winds swept the lake, and not- 
 withstanding the camp fires by night, 
 his limbs were chilled. A hemorrhage, 
 to which he was subject, returned with 
 increased violence; and he predicted 
 that this voyage would be his last. 
 With the return of spring, his disease 
 relented; when he descended to the 
 Indian village below Ottawa, and there 
 celebrated among the barbaric tribes 
 the mysteries of the Christian faith. 
 A few days after Easter, he returned to 
 Lake Michigan, where he embarked for 
 Mackinac, passing along the great 
 sand-dunes which line its head, and 
 thence along its eastern margin to 
 where a small stream discharges itself 
 into the great reservoir, south of the 
 promontory known as the "Sleeping 
 Bear." Marquette was so far debilita- 
 ted that he stretched himself in the 
 bottom of the canoe, and took little 
 heed of what was passing. The warm 
 breath of spring revived him not ; and 
 the song of birds fell listless upon his 
 ears. Here he desired to land ; and 
 his attendants bore him tenderly to the 
 shore, and raised over him a bark hut. 
 He was aware that his time was come. 
 Calmly he gave directions as to his 
 mode of burial ; craved the forgiveness
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 of his companions, if in aught he had 
 offended them; administered to them 
 the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; 
 and thanked God that he was permit- 
 ted to die in the wilderness, a witness 
 of His loving kindness. This event 
 happened May 18, 1675. 
 
 Upon the banks of a stream which 
 bears his name, they dug his grave and 
 consigned his remains to the earth ; but 
 this was not to be his final resting- 
 place. A year or two afterwards a 
 party of Ottawas disinterred his re- 
 mains, placed them in a birchen box, 
 and conveyed them to St. Ignace, 
 where, amid the priests, neophytes, and 
 traders assembled to do them honor, 
 they were consigned to a place beneath 
 the floor of the chapel in which the good 
 missionary had so often officiated. 
 
 Thus, then, Marquette was the first 
 white occupant of Chicago, and that 
 occupancy dates back nearly two hun- 
 dred years ago. But for the calamity 
 which has befallen her, it would be 
 proper for Chicago, in 1873, to celebrate 
 the two hundredth anniversary of her 
 discovery, with bonfires and illumina- 
 tions, and other evidences of public 
 rejoicing ; to go to St. Ignace and 
 gather up and transport, with pious 
 care, the ashes of Marquette, and erect 
 over them the most elaborate mauso- 
 leum.* 
 
 La Salle followed in the footsteps of 
 Marquette. Late in the fall of 1670, 
 in four canoes, he passed the mouth of 
 the Chicago River, circled the head of 
 the lake, and landed at St. Joseph, on 
 the opposite shore, whence he ascended 
 that stream to what is now South Bend ; 
 and by the portage of the Kankakee, 
 then called Theakiki, or Hankiki, he 
 entered the Illinois Valley. In the fall 
 of 1 68 1, he passed by the Chicago 
 
 * The name " Chicago " is a modified spelling of 
 " Chekagou " ; but this name was applied to a dif- 
 ferent stream from that of the Chicago River. In 
 the map by Franquelin (1684) of " La Salle's Col- 
 ony on the Illinois," the present Chicago River is 
 called " Cheagoumeinan " ; and " Chekagau " is 
 applied to a small stream heading near the lake 
 and entering the Des Plaines or " Peanghichia " 
 River, above the debouchure of the Kankakee, and 
 corresponding with Jackson Creek. 
 
 portage en route to the Mississippi ; 
 and while this portage was repeatedly 
 used by his followers, no permanent 
 settlement was made at the mouth of 
 the river. 
 
 By the treaty of Fontainbleau, in 
 1762, the vast territory east of the Mis- 
 sissippi passed into the possession of 
 the British Government ; and the 
 Declaration of Independence, July 4, 
 1776, transferred this country to the 
 dominion of the United States. In 
 1804, the Government established a 
 military post at the mouth of the Chi- 
 cago River, which was dignified by the 
 name of Fort Dearborn ; and a single 
 company of infantry was deemed a 
 sufficient garrison. In 1812, on the 
 declaration of war, the Indians gath- 
 ered about the fort and showed unmis- 
 takable signs of hostility. Captain 
 Heald, then in command, foreseeing 
 that his supplies might be cut off, and 
 availing himself of discretionary or- 
 ders, undertook to retreat with his little 
 command to Detroit, three hundred 
 miles distant ; but he had proceeded 
 less than two miles along the lake 
 shore, when he was ambuscaded, and 
 only three of his party escaped mas- 
 sacre. 
 
 In 1816, the fort was rebuilt and gar- 
 risoned by two companies of infantry. 
 It was not until the close of the Black - 
 Hawk War, in 1832, that the region of 
 Northern Illinois and Southern Wis- 
 consin was thrown open to settlement. 
 Emigration soon began to flow in with 
 an uninterrupted tide, which has con- 
 tinued up to the present hour. A ham- 
 let clustered around Fort Dearborn, 
 which took the name of Chicago. As 
 late as 1837, flour was shipped from 
 Ohio to supply the infant settlement ; 
 and in 1839 ti 16 fi rst shipment of 
 wheat, amounting to i ,678 bushels, was 
 sent from this port, which is now the 
 world's great market for breadstuffs and 
 provisions. In 1840, Chicago contained 
 a population of 4,470 ; in 1850, 28,269 '< 
 in 1860, 109,263; in 1870, 298,977; 
 and at the time of the fire hardly less 
 than 350,000 souls.
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 Nothing could have been more unin- 
 viting than the original site of the city. 
 Ridges of shifting sands bordered the 
 lake shore ; while inland, and stretch- 
 ing beyond the range of vision, was a 
 morass supporting a rank growth of 
 blue -joint grass, with here and there a 
 clump of jack oaks. Through this 
 morass wound a sluggish river, only 
 flushed by the spring and fall freshets; 
 and adjacent to its banks were pools 
 of water, which were the resort of wild 
 fowl. The river's mouth was barred 
 
 by shifting sands, but the bar once 
 passed, deep water was found within. 
 For a mile its course was east and west, 
 when it branched into two forks, run- 
 ning northerly and southerly. This 
 stream, so uninviting, forms the pres- 
 ent harbor of Chicago, and separates 
 the city into three divisions the North, 
 South, and West. The watershed be- 
 tween Lake Michigan and the Des- 
 Plaines River a tributary of the Illinois 
 was only eight feet in height; and 
 during flood time, communication could 
 
 FIRST HOUSE BUILT IN CHICAGO BY JOHN KINZIE, IN 181$, ON LAKE SHORE, NORTH OF RIVER. 
 
 be made in a canoe without disem- 
 barking. A well-marked channel can 
 be traced, through which, up to com- 
 paratively recent times, a portion of 
 the waters of Lake Michigan escaped 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. Such were the 
 topographical features of Chicago forty 
 years ago. How wonderfully have they 
 been transformed ! The city com- 
 menced its growth upon the original 
 surface ; and so saturated was the soil 
 with water, that cellars and basements 
 were from necessity dispensed with. 
 The streets in many places presented 
 an oozy mass of mud, and here poles 
 were thrust down bearing placards 
 " no bottom," The more frequented 
 thoroughfares were planked, and when 
 driven over the planks were subjected 
 
 to a churning motion which caused the 
 ooze to spurt up through the crevices. 
 The gutters at the sides were filled with 
 stagnant water, whose surface was cov- 
 ered with a green scum, the appropri- 
 ate nidus of the cholera and other 
 pestilential diseases. So fatal were 
 these pestilences, and so multifarious 
 their forms, that medical terms were 
 exhausted, and "canal" cholera was 
 applied to designate a peculiar and 
 fatal form of that disease; and the 
 victims were left by the roadsides near 
 Bridgeport, where they remained for a 
 long time festering in the sun, the 
 citizens being afraid to approach the 
 corpses, lest the disease be communi- 
 cated to their persons, and thus propa- 
 gated through the city.
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 The first impulse communicated to 
 Ihe growth of Chicago, was the passage, 
 by the State Legislature, of an act, 
 January i8th, 1825, for the construction 
 of the Illinois and Michigan Canal; 
 and in aid thereof, of the passage of 
 an act of Congress, Llnrch cd, 1827, 
 granting to the State alternate sections 
 of the public lands, embracing a zone 
 of six miles wide on either side of the 
 projected canal; but it was not until 
 1836 that the work was entered upon, 
 nor was it completed until 1848. 
 
 In 1831, Cook County, embracing 
 Chicago, was organized. In the spring 
 of 1833, Congress made an appropria- 
 tion of $30,000 for improving the har- 
 bor; and that same year a post office 
 was established John S. C. Hogan, 
 who occupied a "variety store" on 
 South Water street, being the first 
 postmaster. The mail was brought 
 weekly, on horseback, from Niles, 
 Michigan. That same year witnessed 
 the cession of all the lands in Northern 
 Illinois, amounting to about 20,000,000 
 acres, by the Pottawotamies, who re- 
 moved farther westward. Chicago was 
 incorporated as a town by a nearly 
 unanimous vote ; and to show the 
 number of voters, it may be said that 
 twelve were in favor of and only one 
 against the proposed measure. 
 
 In 1834, the poll list of citizens 
 amounted to one hundred and eleven, 
 and the amount of taxes reached forty- 
 eight dollars and ninety cents; but this 
 being inadequate for municipal pur- 
 poses, the trustees resolved to borrow 
 sixty dollars for the opening and im- 
 provement of streets. The next year, 
 however, grown bolder by the success 
 of the former loan, the treasurer, " on 
 the faith of the president and trustees," 
 was authorized to borrow $2,000, at a 
 rate of interest not exceeding ten per 
 cent., and payable in twelve months. 
 
 In 1837, Chicago became incorpo- 
 rated as a city, and William B. Ogden 
 was chosen as its first mayor. From 
 that time to the present, the history of 
 thje growth of the city becomes too 
 complex to be traced, except in a com- 
 
 prehensive form. A series of public 
 improvements was devised and exe- 
 cuted, mainly under the direction of 
 Mr. Chcsbrough, as City Engineer, 
 which made Chicago one of the pleas- 
 antest and healthiest cities in the Union. 
 A system of sewage was established 
 for underground drainage, which re- 
 quired that the original surface in many 
 places be raised eight feet. This change 
 of grade involved the necessity of rais- 
 ing many of the largest structures in 
 those streets, adjacent to the river. Such 
 structures as the Tremont and Briggs 
 Houses, the Marine Bank, and in fact 
 entire blocks, were lifted up, with little 
 or no interruption to business. Thus 
 the city became thoroughly drained, 
 the houses admitted of cellars, and the 
 streets became dry and solid. 
 
 The mouth of the river, in 1816, ac- 
 cording to the statement of Colonel 
 Long, of the Topographical Engineers, 
 was at Madison Street. It was a rippling 
 stream, ten or fifteen yards wide, and 
 only a few inches deep, flowing over a 
 bed of sand. In the summer of 1833, 
 the Government entered upon the im- 
 provement of the harbor, or rather 
 commenced the construction of one. 
 The north pier was extended a short 
 distance lakeward, a lighthouse estab- 
 lished, and an embankment thrown 
 across the old channel to divert the 
 water to the new course. An unusual 
 freshet during the next spring tore out 
 the sand and left a practicable chan- 
 nel into the river. The pier has from 
 time to time been extended, until now 
 it reaches a distance of about three 
 thousand feet ; and yet the problem of 
 getting rid of the shifting sands thrown 
 up by every northeaster, and leaving 
 an open ship channel into the river, is 
 far from being solved. 
 
 The river and its branches afford 
 nearly fifteen miles of wharfage in the 
 heart of the city ; and the Dock Com- 
 pany, on the North Side, along the 
 lake shore, have constructed works 
 which add immensely to the harbor 
 accommodations. The dock line is 
 seven and one -half feet above low
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 water mark. Thus, then, a tideless 
 river and a nearly level plain afford 
 almost unequalled facilities for receiv- 
 ing and distributing the immense 
 freights which accumulate here. 
 
 To supply the city with pure water, 
 Lake Michigan was resorted to as an 
 unfailing reservoir. In the old works 
 established on the North Side, the wa- 
 ter was taken out near the shore. There 
 were times . when the current of the 
 river, reeking with the sewage of the 
 city, the offal of slaughter houses, and 
 the slops of distilleries, was borne 
 against this portion of the shore ; and 
 the drainage from the cemetery, popu- 
 
 lous with the dead, was also in this 
 direction. Besides, during the winter, 
 multitudes of small fishes would collect 
 about the strainers and gain admission 
 to the pipes, so that when the faucets 
 at the houses were turned, out would 
 come scores of minnows, some alive 
 and some in various stages of decom- 
 position. A violent northeaster would 
 so roil the water that it became neces- 
 sary to filter it. To obviate all these 
 inconveniences, the novel, but as the 
 result proved perfectly practicable, 
 idea was conceived of drawing the 
 water through a tunnel from the lake 
 two miles distant from the shore. A 
 
 BUILDINGS OF THE CHICAGO WATER WORKS KRKCTKD 1867.
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 shaft was sunk on the land side to the 
 depth of twenty -six feet, and a " crib," 
 pentagonal in form, forty feet in height 
 and ninety -eight and one -half feet in 
 diameter, was floated to the site in the 
 lake and there anchored. It was then 
 filled with stone and made to settle to 
 its bed. An iron cylinder, nine feet in 
 diameter, occupies the centre of the 
 structure, and penetrates from the water- 
 line to the depth of sixty -four feet, and 
 thirty -one feet below the lake bed, 
 where the tunnel commences. This is 
 all the way excavated in a tough blue 
 clay which offered no serious obstacles 
 in the progress of the work. Its ^di- 
 mensions are five feet two inches in 
 heighth, by five feet wide ; and it is 
 lined with two courses of brick laid in 
 cement. Its capacity, under a head of 
 two feet, is 19,000,000 gallons daily; 
 under a head of eight feet, 38,000,000 ; 
 and under a head of eighteen feet, 
 57,000,000. A tower, one hundred and 
 thirty feet in height, contains an iron 
 cylinder three feet in diameter, through 
 which the water is forced by powerful 
 machinery, and thence by its own 
 pressure is distributed through the 
 mains to the different parts of the city. 
 Thus, at an expense of about two and 
 one -half millions of dollars, Chicago 
 has secured an ample supply of water, 
 always pure, cool, and sparkling. 
 
 The river, as we ha Tr e seen, was 
 originally in the nature .'f a lagoon 
 rather than a running stream. Into 
 this river was discharged one - half of 
 the sewage of the city, and upon its 
 banks were numerous packing houses 
 and distilleries, whose refuse added to 
 the pestiferous contents. The color of 
 its water varied all the way from inky 
 blackness to rich chocolate brown ; 
 and the nasal organs had no difficulty 
 in recognizing as many distinct stenches 
 as Coleridge did in the River Rhine at 
 Cologne. To remove this nuisance, 
 which had become unbearable, the city, 
 under authority of an act of the Legis- 
 lature, passed February 16, 1865, pro- 
 ceeded on the plan of cutting down the 
 canal for twenty - six miles to at least 
 
 six feet below the low water-level of 
 the lake. This plan was completed 
 only last year, at a cost of about 
 $3,000,000 ; and a current of pure lake 
 water now flows through the city and 
 discharges itself into the Mississippi, 
 through the Des Plaines and Illinois 
 rivers. 
 
 The intercourse between the three 
 divisions of the city, up to a recent 
 time, had been effected wholly by 
 swing -bridges, which at intervals of 
 two blocks spanned the river, whose 
 average width is less than two hundred 
 feet. These bridges were a serious 
 impediment to navigation ; and their 
 almost continuous turning proved an 
 equally serious impediment to vehicles 
 and pedestrians. To obviate this in- 
 convenience, a tunnel was constructed 
 under the river at Washington street, 
 arched for two hundred and ninety 
 feet, by which an uninterrupted com- 
 munication was established between 
 the South and West Divisions. This 
 tunnel proved so satisfactory that 
 another tunnel was constructed under 
 the river at La Salle Street, by which a 
 similar communication was established 
 between the North and South Divisions 
 of the city. 
 
 The streets of Chicago were for the 
 most part laid out on a liberal plan, 
 which admitted of sidewalks ten feet 
 wide and then of a grass plat in front 
 of the residences for the planting of 
 trees and shrubbery, with ample space 
 for vehicles in the centre. Twenty 
 years ago, to a stranger from an East- 
 ern city they seemed unnecessarily 
 wide ; but it was fortunate that this 
 plan had been adopted, for on the in- 
 troduction of the horse - railway the 
 people's mode of conveyance it was 
 found that on either side of the track 
 there was room for two teams to pass. 
 In the improvement of the streets, the 
 original surface was found to be ill- 
 adapted to roadways : the soil was 
 either sand or mud. Plank was first 
 resorted to, and in 1854 twenty -seven 
 miles had thus been laid ; but it was 
 found that with a mortar foundation and
 
 8 
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 the churning process performed by each 
 loaded vehicle in passing over, the 
 planks soon formed a barrier to easy 
 and safe locomotion. Macadamising 
 was then resorted to ; but the rocks in 
 the neighborhood, being limestone, 
 while they bedded themselves and 
 served to form a solid foundation, 
 crushed under the action of loaded 
 teams and gave rise to intolerable 
 clouds of dust. The same objection 
 applied to cobble-stones. It was not 
 until a system of drainage was estab- 
 lished that a really permanent road- 
 bed could be obtained. As far back 
 as 1856, the Nicolson or wooden - 
 block pavement was introduced ; the 
 cleanest, the neatest, and the least- 
 noisy of all of the devices for sustain- 
 ing the traffic of a great city. 
 
 The plat of the city with its several 
 additions, up to 1 870, occupied a space 
 of six miles long and a little more 
 than three miles broad. Along the lake 
 shore, however, the houses stretched 
 almost continuously from Hyde Park 
 to Lake View, a distance of more than 
 ten miles. In the area thus embraced, 
 there were few vacant spaces dedicated 
 to public use. To remedy this, the 
 boundaries of the city were greatly en- 
 larged ; tracts of land were secured in 
 the three divisions of the city for park 
 purposes, which were connected to- 
 gether by boulevards ; systematic plans 
 of landscape gardening were vigorously 
 entered upon ; and the citizens antici- 
 pated the day, by no means remote, 
 when these parks would become favor- 
 ite places of resort, and form the pride 
 and ornament of the city. 
 
 It is not surprising that a place built 
 up so rapidly as Chicago had been, 
 should present a somewhat incongruous 
 appearance. The pineries of the north, 
 which here found their principal dis- 
 tributing point, afforded materials for 
 cheap and rapid construction. The 
 accessions to the population of the city 
 in the early stages of its growth ex- 
 ceeded each decade six fold, while in 
 the latter stage it fell little short of 
 three. The population thus flowing in 
 
 required shelter, and landlord and 
 tenant alike concurred, the one in 
 erecting and the other in occupying, 
 tenements of the most unsubstantial 
 character. It is singular how airy 
 these structures were. In the days of 
 our boyhood, passed on the Atlantic 
 Slope, we recollect that the getting to- 
 gether of the materials of a house and 
 framing them, was a labor of no small 
 magnitude. There were to be the sills, 
 the studding, the joists, the braces, the 
 rafters, and the ridge-pole, all of di- 
 mension timber; and when the wholf- 
 was framed, the neighbors were called 
 together, and with spike -poles the) 
 carried up the successive sides. To 
 attend a " raising '' was a notable event. 
 But house - building in Chicago was a 
 very different affair. With the excep- 
 tion of the sills, not a stick of timber 
 entered into the construction which 
 tasked the efforts of two men to carry. 
 These structures received the very ap- 
 propriate name of " balloon " houses ; 
 or, in other words, the greatest superfi- 
 cial contents with the least amount of 
 material. As business increased and 
 more massive and less inflammable 
 structures were required, these houses 
 were moved to the less populous dis- 
 tricts ; and the streets were constantly 
 obstructed by these processions of old 
 and ricketty tenements. The school sec- 
 tion, in the heart of the city, was leased 
 on short terms, and the lessees covered 
 it with indifferent wooden buildings 
 which could be moved off on the expi- 
 ration of the leases. No policy could 
 have been more short-sighted, so far 
 as related to the substantial growth of 
 the city none so well calculated to 
 bring in a meagre revenue. Hence, at 
 an early day Chicago acquired the 
 sobriquet of " Shantytown ; " and well 
 did she deserve that appellation. At 
 the date of the fire there was no city in 
 Christendom which contained such a 
 vast mass of combustible materials. In 
 European cities the term " shin^> 
 roof" is unknown, and partition walia 
 of brick are universal in construction. 
 Hence, a single apartment may be
 
 A GLANCE A T CHICAGO 'S HTSTOR Y. 
 
 burned out, but the idea of a fire ex- 
 tending to a square is preposterous. 
 Chicago, throughout her whole munici- 
 pal history, had been cursed by a 
 Council and a Board of Public Works 
 who, through ignorance or self-will, 
 were utterly indifferent to the ordinary 
 precautions against wide - spread -con- 
 flagrations. They placed no restric- 
 tions on the erection of two -story 
 wooden buildings in the most valuable 
 portions of the city, and outside of a 
 limited area the taste or caprice of the 
 landlord could be indulged without any 
 control whatever. The cupola of the 
 Court House, far above the reach of the 
 water supply, was wood ; and while the 
 safes and vaults of every bank passed 
 through the fiery ordeal comparatively 
 unscathed, the records of every town 
 lot and farm, and of every judicial 
 
 decision, were consumed beyond the 
 power of recognition. The Water 
 Works, upon which the salvation of the 
 city in such an exigency depended, 
 were roofed with combustible materi- 
 als, and no appliances were provided 
 for putting out a fire. These events, 
 the happening of which could have 
 -been prevented by ordinary precau- 
 tions, argue a remissness on the part 
 of the public authorities amounting to 
 criminality. 
 
 In every city whose origin goes back 
 to centuries, very many portions of it 
 will be found to have been rebuilt. 
 This process had been entered upon in 
 Chicago, and the structures in the busi- 
 ness part of the city, for the most part, 
 were of enduring materials and almost 
 faultless in architectural arrangement. 
 Field, I.eiter & Co.'s store was a more 
 
 FIELD, LETTER & CO.'S STORE.
 
 10 
 
 A GLANCE AT CHICAGO'S HISTORY. 
 
 imposing structure than Stewart's, on 
 Broadway; the Tribune Building was 
 one of the best - appointed newspaper 
 offices in the world ; the First National 
 Bank Building, the Union Building, the 
 Chamber of Commerce, the Merchant's 
 Insurance Building, Drake's Block, 
 Honore's Block, the Pacific Hotel, the 
 Palmer House, the Bookseller's Row, 
 the great station houses of the Michi- 
 gan Southern and the Illinois Central 
 Railroads, and other structures which 
 might be cited, were models of archi- 
 tectural beauty. But the Court House, 
 costly as a structure, was an architectu- 
 ral abortion ; and every citizen, apart 
 from the destruction of its contents, 
 must rejoice that its walls are ruined 
 beyond the power of restoration. The 
 limestones from the line of the canal, 
 the olive - tinted sandstones of North- 
 ern Ohio, and the red sandstones of 
 Lake Superior, which had been em- 
 ployed in the facings of the better class 
 of structures, gave to the buildings a 
 warm and cheerful tint, not to be seen 
 in any other city in America. 
 
 Many of the private residences on the 
 North Side, and on Michigan and Wa- 
 bashA venues, attracted attention by rea- 
 son of their good taste and appropriate 
 surroundings. Side by side with such 
 structures were to be seen others which 
 would fail to ornament an insignificant 
 country village. With the best flagging 
 stone on the line of the canal, and 
 readily accessible to the city, yet in the 
 burnt district there were nearly thirty 
 miles of pine sidewalks which in the 
 great conflagration became excellent 
 conductors of flame, and forced the 
 
 fleeing inhabitants to betake them- 
 selves to the middle of the streets. 
 There was not, to our knowledge, a 
 rod of brick pavement in the city. The 
 tallest buildings, and of comparatively 
 incombustible materials, were decora- 
 ted with heavy wooden cornices, and 
 roofed with shingles or a coal tar cov- 
 ering. The river, winding through the 
 heart of the city, was lined with im- 
 mense lumber - yards, coal - yards, pla- 
 ning -mills, sash - factories, and other 
 combustible structures. Private greed, 
 reflecting itself in the public authori- 
 ties, looked only to the present, disre- 
 garding those precautionary measures 
 which long ago were adopted by every 
 considerable city in Christendom to 
 guard against the effects of desolating 
 fires. The cool-headed residents of 
 Chicago, then, are far less inclined to 
 attribute this overwhelming catastrophe 
 to the judgment of God than to the 
 folly of man. When human agency 
 lays the train and fires the match, it 
 evinces an overweening confidence in 
 Divine Providence to expect that it 
 shall intervene to prevent the explo- 
 sion. Throughout the world's history, 
 natural causes have been succeeded by 
 natural events ; and the destruction of 
 Chicago was the legitimate result of the 
 utter disregard of all precautionary 
 measures to stay the progress of a de- 
 structive conflagration. When we shall 
 have eliminated from this grand catas- 
 trophe all the elements chargeable to 
 private greed and public incompetency, 
 there will be left little or nothing to be 
 carried to the account of Divine Provi- 
 dence. . W. Foster.
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 ii 
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF CHICAGO IN WEALTH AND MATERIAL PROSPERITY. 
 
 THE growth of Chicago, in all 
 that pertains to a great commer- 
 cial metropolis, presents perhaps the 
 most remarkable instance of rapid and 
 uninterrupted progress of any city in 
 the world, either in ancient or modern 
 times. Going back to 1830, we rind 
 that the census of the United States 
 gave Chicago a total population of only 
 seventy souls; all, or nearly all, of 
 whom were dependent upon the gen- 
 eral government, which had established 
 an Indian agency at this point. When 
 it is remembered that this insignificant 
 nucleus had grown within one genera- 
 tion to over three hundred and thirty- 
 four thousand, as shown by a census 
 taken but a few weeks prior to the great 
 calamity, the question presses for solu- 
 tion By what magic has this marvel- 
 lous result been achieved? What 
 peculiar combination of forces or cir- 
 cumstances has wrought a progress so 
 wonderful and so entirely unparal- 
 lelled ? 
 
 While it cannot be denied that the 
 city has drawn largely upon the best 
 blood and most vigorous mental capac- 
 ities, not only of our own country but 
 also from foreign immigration, and to 
 an extent that has made it a city rep- 
 resenting by its people natives of 
 almost ever)' town and hamlet in this 
 country and of Europe, thus consoli- 
 dating into one homogeneous citizen- 
 ship, the thought and enterprise of 
 many and widely diversified intellects 
 and educations, still all these advant- 
 ages could not alone produce the results 
 that have been manifest, and that have 
 challenged the attention of the civil- 
 ized world. In fact, this flood of emi- 
 gration would not have set hithcrward 
 but for advantages of a permanent 
 character that were apparent to the 
 observing and inquiring mind. The 
 not infrequent reference, both at home 
 and abroad sometimes in candor and 
 
 sometimes in irony to the spirit of 
 enterprise and perseverance of the 
 people of Chicago, has to some extent 
 it may be feared done injustice to the 
 peculiar situation and business facilities 
 of the city. Men, however gifted in 
 the diversified qualities of the success- 
 ful and honorable merchant, cannot 
 build up and establish trade where no 
 trade is demanded or required to be 
 done ; and especially in this country 
 men- must seek the centres of business 
 if they would command success as 
 merchants: business will not to any 
 great extent be diverted in quest of 
 men. It is because Chicago has pos- 
 sessed remarkable advantages for the 
 development of trade and commerce, 
 that the remarkable results, now mat- 
 ters of history, have been attained. 
 
 Any review of the Trade and Com- 
 merce of Chicago, however hasty and 
 imperfect, would be essentially incom- 
 plete without some reference to the 
 basis of that trade, and the reasons 
 that may be adduced for its rapid 
 growth and development. First of all 
 may be noted the broad expanse ot 
 matchless agricultural territory, dotted 
 with farm-houses, villages, and cities, 
 stretching hundreds of miles northward, 
 westward, and southward, all more or 
 less (and the major part of it entirely) 
 dependent upon the city, both as a 
 market for its surplus productions and 
 a source of supply for those necessaries 
 and luxuries that tend to make life 
 enjoyable, and that are produced or 
 manufactured in other portions of this 
 or of foreign countries. But scarcely 
 less important than supply and demand, 
 because by it only can either exist, is 
 the means of speedy transportation 
 demanded by an extended commerce; 
 and this, nature and art have supplied 
 for Chicago to a degree unequalled by 
 any interior city in the land: so that, 
 with lines by water or by rail, the city
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 has come to be a centre from which 
 diverge in all directions ample avenues 
 for conducting an almost limitless traf- 
 fic, and through the influence of which 
 the commerce of the city has been 
 nourished and built up, and by means 
 of which the great Northwest has be- 
 come populous, and the hitherto cheer- 
 less prairie has been converted into a 
 paradise of happiness, prosperity, and 
 substantial wealth. 
 
 The early history ot the Trade and 
 Commerce of Chicago appears to have 
 differed but little from that of most 
 other Western settlements, consisting 
 at first of a small Indian traffic, but 
 gradually growing in proportions as civ- 
 ilization began to advance into the 
 then almost trackless prairie. Early 
 settlements in Illinois, as in other 
 Western States, was confined almost 
 exclusively to a proximity to such rivers 
 as could be made available for trans- 
 portation ; hence what of trade there ' 
 was, took the direction towards such 
 markets as it could be floated to. Chi- 
 cago was not one of these, for while 
 nature had provided a grand and free 
 highway for commerce from Chicago 
 to the eastward, there were no avenues 
 for it penetrating the interior, until they 
 were created by the necessities of the 
 situation. For the first eighteen years 
 of its settlement, the only trade of Chi- 
 cago was such as it drew from the im- 
 mediately adjoining country, with a 
 limited traffic in such commodities of 
 actual and pressing necessity as were 
 demanded by the settlers at a distance 
 of one hundred miles. All farm prod- 
 ucts were sold, when sold at all, at 
 comparatively low prices; and the en- 
 tire product of a wagon - load of the 
 most valuable available surplus of the 
 farmer, when converted into such arti- 
 cles as he must buy, was scarcely suffi- 
 cient to reward him for the time spent 
 in effecting the exchange, to say noth- 
 ing of the labor and capital employed 
 upon his farm in its production. But 
 notwithstanding the difficulties and 
 embarrassments of both the producer 
 and the merchant, the city had in 1848 
 
 increased in population to twenty thous- 
 and, and the taxable value of its real 
 and personal estate, which in 1840 
 was less than one million of dollars, 
 had risen to six million three hundred 
 thousand dollars. Numerous wholesale 
 establishments for the sale of all kinds 
 of merchandise were in successsful op- 
 eration, and already the trade in cereals 
 had grown to respectable proportions. 
 The attention of the State had at an 
 early day been drawn to the advant- 
 ages of connecting the waters of Lake 
 Michigan with those of the Illinois 
 River; and under liberal appropria- 
 tions of the public lands by the general 
 government in aid of the work, the 
 construction of a canal from Chicago 
 to La Salle, the head of steamboat 
 navigation on the Illinois River, had 
 been in progress for a number of years. 
 After protracted delays, incident to the 
 embarrassed financial condition of the 
 State, this great work was completed, 
 and opened for traffic in the spring of 
 1848. A new era in the commercial 
 prosperity of the young city now dawn- 
 ed upon it ; and with the rapid settling 
 and development of the territory con- 
 tiguous to this new line of transit, and 
 the facilities it gave for communication 
 with the whole Mississippi Valley, there 
 sprang up a greatly enlarged trade, 
 and an increased confidence in the 
 stability and future greatness of the 
 city. With the cheapened inland 
 transportation, was inaugurated on a 
 largely increased scale the trade in 
 lumber, which has from then till now 
 exhibited a uniformity of growth scarce- 
 ly less marked and noticeable than 
 that in breadstuffs and provisions. 
 Nature has seemed to especially desig- 
 nate the banks of the little bayou on 
 which man has built Chicago as a 
 proper and necessary place for the ex- 
 change of commodities; for at this 
 point, better than any other, can be 
 united the different modes of trans- 
 portation best adapted to the convey- 
 ance of those articles of commerce most 
 largely produced or required by the 
 people in whose interest the exchanges
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 are made. Here meet for exchange 
 the wheat, corn and stock of the farm- 
 er, and the product of the almost ex- 
 haustless forests of the peninsula of 
 Michigan; the latter comparatively 
 valueless but for the demand from the 
 vast and fertile prairie lands, where 
 there was scarce a native tree to break 
 the desert -like monotony, and which 
 in turn, but for the available supply of 
 this building material, would be subject 
 to an expense for a substitute that 
 would greatly reduce their value. Thus 
 each is dependent upon the other, and 
 each by aid of the other has come to , 
 be thriving and prosperous both 
 meantime very materially aiding in 
 the growth and advancement of the 
 city through which the exchanges have 
 been made. 
 
 The introduction of railroads, at a 
 later but not distant day, was but the 
 further development of transportation 
 facilities, the necessity and advantages 
 of which were made strikingly apparent, 
 by the acknowledged benefit resulting 
 from the completion of the canal line. 
 The first projected line the original 
 Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, 
 now a part of the consolidated Chicago 
 and Northwestern Railway, was in 
 its inception and during all its separate 
 corporate existence under the control, 
 in all respects, of citizens of Chicago ; 
 and although financial aid in its con- 
 struction and equipment was sought 
 and obtained of Eastern capitalists, it 
 was always essentially a monument to 
 the enterprise and faith of a few noble 
 names of Chicago's early citizens. This 
 line was, after hard struggles, opened 
 to the Fox River, some forty miles from 
 the city, in 1850; and although poorly 
 equipped, it soon demonstrated the 
 fact that although not furnishing as 
 cheap a means of transit as water 
 routes, it required but the construction 
 of sufficient lines of railroad to make 
 the great State of Illinois a very gar- 
 den for production, and the home of a 
 dense population. Other lines, which 
 cannot here be alluded to in detail, 
 were speedily projected and built ; un- 
 
 til, within a marvellously short space 
 of time, the city found itself the centre 
 of a system of railways diverging in 
 every direction, all doing a prosperous 
 and increasing business, eminently 
 satisfactory to their share -holders, and 
 conferring untold blessings upon not 
 only the communities directly inter- 
 ested but the world at large. It may 
 here be remarked, that although every 
 principal line centring in Chicago has 
 been built with special reference to 
 Chicago's trade, and has brought with 
 it increased commerce to the city, it 
 has not been necessary to pledge the 
 municipal credit or tax the body - poli- 
 tic one dollar in aid of their construc- 
 tion, nor has the accumulated capital 
 of the citizens been drawn on to any 
 great extent for their establishment. 
 Chicago lines of railway have, in view 
 of the wonderful past and prospective 
 growth of their traffic, been so emi- 
 nently profitable that capital from 
 abroad has been ever ready to embark 
 in their construction, sometimes even 
 when her own citizens could not readily 
 comprehend the necessity or prospec- 
 tive profit of the investment. The fact 
 that no drain of this kind has been 
 necessary, has left the citizens free to 
 invest in mercantile or other enterprises 
 of a local character, and has enabled 
 them to meet municipal taxation for 
 the extraordinary improvements neces- 
 sary in a city requiring so much ex- 
 penditure to make it convenient and 
 enjoyable, without being oppressively 
 burdened. 
 
 The subject of railroads may not 
 properly be dismissed without a pass-, 
 ing allusion to the great trans -conti- 
 nental lines built or in progress, and 
 their effect on the commerce of the 
 city. With the completion of the 
 Union Pacific and Central Pacific roads, 
 was demonstrated the fact that for the 
 trade between the Atlantic Slope of the 
 United States and the East Indies and 
 China, this route presents advantages 
 over every other, and especially so for 
 the transportation of valuable freight, 
 such as teas, silks, and the like ; and a
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 large and growing trade was at once 
 inaugurated over the line, which has 
 steadily increased, all or nearly all 
 passing through or stopping in the city 
 of Chicago. Our own merchants im- 
 port largely via San Francisco, and 
 find great satisfaction in the prompt- 
 ness with which they are enabled to 
 receive their consignments, and the 
 very favorable comparison they can 
 institute between the present and the 
 old way of receiving this class of goods. 
 The finger of destiny to-day strongly 
 points to Chicago as the great distribut- 
 ing-point for all Asiatic goods con- 
 sumed in the Mississippi Valley. With 
 the early completion of the Northern 
 Pacific Railroad, a remarkably rich and 
 inviting territory will be opened to the 
 emigrant, and in addition very greatly- 
 increased facilities for the Pacific trade 
 will result. That Chicago may, with 
 its numerous favorable connections, 
 reap great benefit therefrom, is not 
 doubted by the careful observer of the 
 course of trade. Already the trade 
 with the mining regions of the Rocky 
 Mountains is very large, and rapidly 
 increasing. This of itself is of great 
 value to our city, hardly appreciated by 
 the mass of the people not directly in- 
 terested or fully informed in regard to it. 
 Whatever may be said of the ad- 
 vantages to the Trade and Commerce 
 of Chicago resulting from her other 
 means of communication with the 
 world, it must be admitted that her 
 crowning glory as a commercial centre 
 is the great highway provided by God 
 himself for the free passage of her 
 shipping on the great chain of lakes, 
 one of the principal of which stretches 
 its magnificent proportions before the 
 eyes of her citizens, and by its pure 
 and invigorating breezes brings health 
 and joy to all within their influence. 
 Without the aid of this means of trans- 
 portation, her warehouses would be- 
 come overburdened and choked, and 
 her railroads could not be relieved of 
 their enormous tonnage ; in fact, but 
 for this natural highway, no city would 
 exist where now is so much of com- 
 
 mercial life and varied industrial ac- 
 tivity. But few, even of our commer- 
 cial community, are fully aware of the 
 extent of our lake commerce ; and 
 many will be surprised at the statement 
 that our Custom House returns show 
 very much the largest marine business 
 of any in the country. The compara- 
 tive statement of the different customs 
 districts is not now at hand ; but such 
 was an official statement promulgated 
 within the last few months. The num- 
 ber of entries of arrivals at our Custom 
 House during the season of navigation 
 for 1870, was 12,739 vessels; and of 
 clearances during the same time, 12,433 
 vessels. The navigation of the lakes, 
 though running through but about 
 seven months of the year, is the grand, 
 safety-valve by which all rates of 
 transportation eastward are regulated, 
 and by means of it nearly all our lum- 
 ber and vastly the largest share of our 
 farm products are moved, the former 
 to and the latter from the city. 
 
 Passing from theories of causes 
 touching the wonderful growth of the 
 Trade and Commerce of the city, and 
 the means by which these have been 
 developed, a brief reference to figures 
 representing the facts in the past his- 
 tory of the city may not be inappropri- 
 ate. Recognizing the agricultural in- 
 terests of the West as the basis of all 
 our commercial importance and pros- 
 perity, the trade in the products of the 
 farm will be first alluded to. The first 
 shipment of grain eastward f.om Chi- 
 cago occurred in 1838, and consisted 
 of seventy -eight bushels of wheat. 
 This shipment was somewhat experi- 
 mental in its character, and no more 
 was forwarded until the next season. 
 For several years subsequent, large 
 quantities of flour were received in the 
 city from New York State and Ohio, 
 for local consumption ; so that probably 
 not until 1842 was there any balance 
 of trade in favor of Chicago. In 1845 
 the shipments of wheat, and flour re- 
 duced to wheat (and in all the figures 
 following flour will be treated as re- 
 duced to wheat), exceeded 1,000,000
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 bushels. In 1848, the year of the open- 
 ing of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, 
 the grain shipments exceeded 3,000,000 
 bushels. In 1852, when the influence 
 of advancing lines of railroads began 
 to be felt, the shipments reached near 
 6,000,000 bushels. From this time for- 
 ward, the traffic assumed most remark- 
 able proportions, reaching in 1856 an 
 aggregate shipment of over 21,000,000 
 bushels; and in 1860, the year preced- 
 ing the outbreak of civil war, the grain 
 shipments of Chicago exceeded 3 1 ,000,- 
 ooo bushels. During the next five years, 
 the annual shipments ranged from 
 46,000,000 to 56,000,000 bushels. In 
 1866 it amounted to 65,486,323 bushels; 
 since which time it has been somewhat 
 less. In 1870 the shipments aggregated 
 54,745,903 bushels, the least since 1865 
 the article of wheat in the grain 
 being the largest of any previous year ; 
 while in corn, owing to a partial failure 
 of the crop, the shipments had fallen 
 to less than any of the previous ten 
 years except 1864. 
 
 The prospect for the business of 
 1871, up to the time of Chicago's great 
 disaster, was of a most flattering char- 
 acter, and promised for the year to be 
 larger in breadstuffs than ever before. 
 The shipments from January ist to 
 October ist aggregated over 55,000,000 
 bushels, being fully 15,000,000 bushels 
 in excess of that of the corresponding 
 period in 1870; and the current daily 
 receipts were larger than ever before at 
 the same time in the season. The 
 stocks of grain in store in the city at 
 the time of the fire was about 6,500,- 
 ODO, being much the largest ever held 
 here. A largely increased business 
 was being conducted with Canada, and 
 much more property had been pur- 
 chased in the city for direct export to 
 Europe than ever before. A line of 
 substantial steamers adapted to the 
 trade had been established between 
 Chicago and Montreal, and had not 
 only proved of great value to shippers, 
 but were understood to have demon- 
 strated the enterprise to be a wise finan- 
 cial investment. The enlargement of 
 
 the Canadian canals, which is hoped 
 for at an early day, will, it is believed, 
 very greatly increase this trade, and 
 will practically give to Chicago the ad- 
 vantages of a seaport, materially less- 
 ening the expenses of communication 
 between producer and consumer. 
 
 Next in rank of importance to cere- 
 als, in the products of the farm that 
 find a market in Chicago, may be 
 noted the trade in live stock. No re- 
 liable record of receipts and shipments 
 in this branch of trade appears to have 
 been kept until 1857, though for several 
 years previous a considerable business 
 had been conducted ; and as a point 
 for the packing of both cattle and hogs, 
 Chicago had taken a respectable rank 
 as early as 1850. The receipts of cat- 
 tle in 1857 amounted to 48,524 head, 
 increasing the following year to 140,534 ; 
 and thenceforward the growth of the 
 trade was steady and rapid, until in 
 1870 the receipts reached 532,964 head, 
 being near 130,000 in excess of the 
 previous year. In the first nine months 
 of 1871, the receipts were larger by 
 nearly 40,000 than for the correspond- 
 ing time in 1870 indicating a large 
 increase for the whole year. The re- 
 ceipts of live hogs, which in 1857 
 amounted to a little over 200,000, have 
 increased much more rapidly, though 
 with not the same regularity, as those 
 of cattle. The receipts in 1 870 amounted 
 to 1,693,158 head, being only about 
 13,000 less than the greatest number 
 ever received in one year. From 
 January ist to October ist, 1871, the 
 receipts were 1,393,274, being over 
 400,000 in excess of the corresponding 
 time in 1870, indicating a total of 
 receipts for the current year very greatly 
 larger than any previous year in the 
 city's existence. A large number of 
 hogs are sent to this market that are 
 slaughtered in the interior these ag- 
 gregated in 1870 over 260,000. The 
 larger portion of both cattle and hogs 
 are sold here and shipped eastward, 
 this being by far the largest shipping 
 point in the country ; but vast numbers 
 of both are packed in the city and its
 
 1 6 
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 suburbs. The packing of beef is car- 
 ried on much less extensively than a 
 few years since, the demand for the 
 product having very greatly declined, 
 and the business, what there is of it, 
 being transferred to points nearer the 
 feeding -grounds of cattle best fitted for 
 this purpose. The packing of hogs, 
 however, is conducted on a gigantic 
 scale, the number packed at this point 
 greatly overshadowing any other. The 
 number packed at Chicago during the 
 autumn and winter of i Syo-'y i , amount- 
 ed to 919,197 head, against 500,066 
 head packed in Cincinnati, the point 
 ranking next to Chicago in this line of 
 business. In addition to the packing 
 of the city, a very large amount of 
 pork -product manufactured in the in- 
 terior is marketed in the city, the re- 
 ceipts for 1870 aggregating over 40,000 
 barrels of pork and 52,000,000 pounds 
 of other provisions, so that the provis- 
 ion trade of the city amounts to an 
 enormous aggregate, and is increasing 
 quite as fast as any other branch of its 
 commerce. The articles of wool, seeds, 
 butter, and in fact all kinds of farm 
 produce, are largely marketed in Chi- 
 cago ; and the trade has assumed such 
 proportions that in many of them large 
 houses are exclusively engaged. 
 
 The trade in lumber in Chicago far 
 exceeds that of any city in the land. 
 In 1848 it amounted to 60,000,000 feet, 
 in 1870 to over 1,000,000,000, and in 
 all probability will considerably exceed 
 this in 1871. 
 
 The trade in coal, salt, and many 
 other leading articles, is in proportion 
 to the demands of a country so depend- 
 ent as is the Northwest for the importa- 
 tion of these articles. 
 
 Of the trade in general merchandise, 
 including dry goods, groceries, hard- 
 ware, drugs, paints, oils, boots and 
 shoes, and clothing, it is safe to say 
 that no city enjoys a larger or more 
 satisfactory business in proportion to its 
 population than does Chicago. Nothing 
 could better illustrate the truth of this 
 than the extent and magnificence of 
 her temples of trade prior to the calam- 
 
 ity which has laid the city in asnes. 
 No city could boast of more extensive 
 or elegant establishments for the trans- 
 action of business, or better adapted to 
 the purposes for which they were con- 
 structed. In the dry goods trade, there 
 were houses doing an annual business 
 exceeded in only one city in the coun- 
 try ; and in all branches of trade were 
 merchants whose capacity for business, 
 as well as the aggregate amount of 
 their transactions, made them the peers 
 of any either in the West or East. 
 
 In manufactures, Chicago was fast 
 assuming a prominent place, although 
 during her early years comparatively 
 little attention was given to this subject, 
 mainly owing to the fact that labor in 
 other pursuits yielded a larger remu- 
 neration. For many years, however, 
 the manufacture of agricultural imple- 
 ments, leather, highwines, and flour, 
 have been most successfully conducted ; 
 and later, all kinds of machinery and 
 castings, lead-pipe, shot, printing types 
 and presses, furniture, boots and shoes, 
 hats and caps, clothing, and many 
 other articles, have been extensively 
 manufactured ; while large establish- 
 ments for the manufacture of iron have 
 sprung into being, and given employ- 
 ment to many hundreds of operatives. 
 The amount of capital employed in 
 manufactures in the city is probably 
 not less than 4o,cco,cco, with annual 
 products amounting to at least 
 70,000,000, and furnishing means of 
 support to perhaps 6o,cco souls. No 
 very reliable data, however, can be ar- 
 rived at touching this important branch 
 of the city's business, but it is believed 
 the above may be regarded as approxi- 
 mately correct. 
 
 Intimately connected with the Trade 
 and Commerce of the city is the ques- 
 tion of Financial and Banking facili- 
 ties; and in this regard probably no 
 community has ever passed through so 
 checkered an experience as Chicago. 
 In the earlier days of the city it seems 
 to have been the chosen theatre for 
 financial adventurers, with little money 
 and much assurance ; though from the
 
 OUR TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 beginning very honorable exceptions 
 may be noted to the general rule. 
 Since the inauguration of the National 
 Banking Law, however, a marked 
 change has occurred ; and at the pres- 
 ent time no class of financial institu- 
 tions rank superior to those of Chicago. 
 There are seventeen banks doing busi- 
 ness under the National Banking Law, 
 and some ten to fifteen banking houses, 
 representing a combined capital of 
 nearly or quite $10,000,000. Universal 
 confidence exists in the soundness and 
 
 good management of these institutions, 
 and their business is conducted with 
 liberality, but with a wise discretion. 
 
 Such, briefly, has been the outlines 
 of Chicago's history in Trade and Com- 
 merce, and such was her situation as 
 regards business, present and prospect- 
 ive, when, in view of the past, feeling 
 cheerful, strong, and confident in con- 
 templating the future, beaming with 
 brilliant prospects and high hopes, 
 she is suddenly overtaken by the most 
 dire financial calamity the world has 
 
 THE CHICAGO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 
 
 ever witnessed ; in a day withering 
 those hopes, laying in ashes her lofty 
 and magnificent temples, both of wor- 
 ship and of trade, and utterly annihi- 
 lating her treasures of beauty and of 
 art ; dividing the fortunes of her citi- 
 zens by two, by four, by ten, or by 
 2 
 
 an hundred, and some, alas ! thrusting 
 from wealth and luxury to actual penu- 
 ry and suffering. What wonder that 
 for a moment her people stand appalled 
 as they contemplate the awful wreck ? 
 But it will be only a momen : whilet 
 some may find their burden greater
 
 IS 
 
 Ol'K <ESTHETICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 than they can ever stagger under, oth- 
 ers will gather together the fragments 
 that remain, and with the aid of the 
 outstretched helping hands from the 
 four quarters of the globe, will repair 
 the waste places, rebuild the levelled 
 landmarks, and raise from the ashes of 
 
 Chicago past, a city more grand, more 
 substantial, and in every way more 
 adapted to the needs of what the world 
 has come to recognize as the necessi- 
 ties of Chicago future. 
 
 Charles Randolph. 
 
 OUR yESTHETICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 IT is strange and sad to think of 
 Chicago as among the things of 
 the past. To rembember what Chica- 
 go has accomplished and thereby judge 
 what Chicago may accomplish ; to look 
 upon the massive walls that are already 
 rising from the ruins; to watch the 
 busy bees in great hives that have been 
 thrown together to accommodate the 
 trade which is as essential to the country 
 as it is to Chicago ; all this has some- 
 thing about it like the freshness of the 
 wind that comes from across Lake 
 Michigan, invigorating, exhilarating 
 and health -giving. This is to partake 
 of the true Chicago spirit which effaced 
 the foot -tracks of the Indian with brick 
 and mortar, and reared a magnificent 
 city upon the sides of a crooked creek 
 and in the marshes of the prairie. It 
 is exciting and inspiring to contemplate 
 the new growth ; it is depressing and 
 saddening to look back upon those 
 things that can never be restored. 
 
 In a purely material sense it is partly 
 true that 
 
 " One fire burns out another's burning, 
 One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish." 
 
 But in the products of genius, in the 
 artistic and scientific hoardings of time 
 in the development of culture the 
 law of compensation seems to lose all 
 its force. "Every day," said Robert 
 Collyer in his lecture on "Our Loss 
 and Gain," and it struck the writer 
 as the most sorrowful sentiment of the 
 evening's reflections, " Every day \vc 
 tread upon the cinders of things that 
 we would have touched before with the 
 greatest reverence." Could our old 
 
 friend Colonel Foster, whose scientific 
 attainments have received a national 
 recognition, bring to life the treasures 
 of the Historical Society or the wonders 
 of the Academy of Science ? The 
 buildings may be restored as well as 
 the Pacific Hotel ; but the theory that 
 absolute destruction is impossible be- 
 comes almost doubtful when we think 
 of the paintings, the books, the manu- 
 scripts, the curiosities, the thousand 
 and one things whose value was in 
 their intangible contents, all converted 
 into matter-of-fact carbon under the 
 resistless torrent of one turbulent, awful 
 sea of flame. 
 
 It is singular enougn that a city of 
 only thirty years' growth should now 
 send the relics of its ruins to all parts 
 of the world, but not more singular 
 perhaps than that the brief span of a 
 human generation should have served 
 to develop the culture of a great me- 
 tropolis. Those who doubt that Chi- 
 cago had all this are not familiar with 
 the story of its growth, and make the 
 universal mistake, when speaking of 
 Chicago, of comparing it with other 
 communities that have had no longer 
 existence. Its commercial life count- 
 ing scarcely more than thirty years, its 
 artistic life is, as a matter of course, still 
 shorter. It is actually not more than 
 ten years since the higher evidences 
 of culture began to show themselves. 
 Within that time, they have attained 
 a prominence that is wonderful, not 
 alone because of the briefness of the 
 intervening space, but because they 
 have forced a recognition in a com-
 
 OUR JSSTffETlCAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 munity that has been regarded as pure- 
 ly mercantile in spirit. It used to be 
 said that " Chicago is a good place for 
 making money, but you want to go 
 somewhere else to spend it;" it is not 
 probable, however, that this sentiment 
 has prevailed to any extent within the 
 last three or four years. 
 
 It would be both foolish and wrong 
 to hold that many of the character- 
 istics of a Western city have not 
 been retained, among them a certain 
 primitiveness of grammar, a broadness 
 of expression, and a freedom of action 
 that would frequently crop out to the 
 infinite disgust of prim New England 
 notions, and to the norror of " school- 
 marm" rigidity of syntax and disci- 
 pline. But along with all this, there 
 were the variety of the metropolis, a 
 cosmopolitanism in language and cus- 
 toms, an earnestness in the pursuit of 
 art and culture, in strange contrast 
 with the frigid and affected connoisseur 
 of older cities, and a discrimination that 
 was forming itself on the very best 
 model of independence. A Chicago art 
 criticism was apt to be somewhat con- 
 fused in technique, but there has been 
 no city to which artists would more glad- 
 ly send their best productions, none 
 other where they have been so certain of 
 securing kind appreciation and pat- 
 ronage. 
 
 Perhaps the first genuine impulse 
 given to art in Chicago was during 
 the great Sanitary Fair, not more than 
 eight years ago. Before that time, with 
 a few individual exceptions, the auc- 
 tion sales of bedaubed canvas by the 
 square foot were the sole and mortify- 
 ing evidences of a kind of art taste 
 " more honored in the breach than i' 
 the observance." The exhibition and 
 distribution of paintings in the Opera 
 House lottery was certainly an illegiti- 
 mate, but not the less useful, means of 
 developing the sentiment of art, for it 
 introduced new pleasures in this way, 
 and had peculiar facilities for popular- 
 izing them. From this time on, true 
 art became profitable ; and the moment 
 this point was reached there was a 
 
 constant advance in the supply and a 
 steady increase in the demand. The 
 art stores soon doubled in number; 
 four or five galleries were established ; 
 art -receptions became fashionable and 
 gorgeous; some of the most famous 
 modern pictures were attracted here ; 
 the private collections, of which there 
 were three or four that would compare 
 favorably with any in the country, in- 
 creased and improved ; a new and 
 better taste was developed, and the 
 time had come when mere ostentation 
 in art had given way largely to its en- 
 joyment. The merit of home produc- 
 tions grew in proportion. Men who 
 had been forced to subsist upon cheap 
 portraits and the coloring of photo- 
 graphs, found that such talents as they 
 had would meet encouragement and 
 remuneration in better work. The 
 younger artists made their way to Eu- 
 rope for wider culture ; the older form- 
 ed themselves into an association for 
 mutual improvement. The Academy 
 of Design, after a life of only three or 
 four years, had erected a handsome 
 and commodious building; and after a 
 number of superb collections, had, at 
 the time of the fire, its gallery and its 
 studios filled with choice and costly 
 works. 
 
 In the love and appreciation of mu- 
 sic, Chicago has advanced still more 
 than in the love and appreciation of 
 painting and sculpture. The taste had 
 greater age, and, like good wine, was 
 the better for it. While the public's 
 estimate of artists is according to their 
 merits, the artists' estimate of the pub- 
 lic is according to its money. It was 
 for this reason that Chicago has been, 
 for many years, second only to New 
 York in the favoritism of the musical 
 impressarii and their combinations. 
 Parepa, Nilsson, Kellogg, Theodore 
 Thomas, along with their less famous 
 companions and assistants, have al- 
 ways found so broad a sympathy and 
 so liberal a patronage from Chicago 
 people that, outside of any mercantile 
 considerations which, it must be con- 
 fessed, go hand -in -hand with art now-
 
 20 
 
 OUR ^ESTHETICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 a-days, they have conceived and ex- 
 pressed the most sincere attachments 
 to the city and its musical public. This 
 gauge of art by the interest on dollars 
 will attest the degree of culture in Chi- 
 cago still further by the extent to which 
 music had grown as a business. There 
 have long been five or six of the 
 largest piano and organ houses in the 
 country, and, among numerous music- 
 publishing firms, one at least compared 
 in the amount of its productions to any 
 other on the continent. The numer- 
 ous representation of the German na- 
 tionality among us has contributed 
 largely to our musical culture. They 
 have always had a great number of 
 musical societies, and notably two 
 the Germania and Concordia which 
 have frequently given public exhibitions 
 of their resources by the production of 
 operas, symphonies, orchestral and 
 choral concerts, which have contributed 
 equal satisfaction and pleasure with 
 many of the first-class entertainments 
 coming from abroad. In the attraction 
 of distinguishing musicians from other 
 cities to a permanent home in Chicago ; 
 in the large number and superior 
 quality of our church choirs ; and in 
 the excellence of purely amateur talent 
 in society, Chicago's musical culture has 
 been one in which the city and country 
 might take a legitimate pride. 
 
 The drama has grown apace with 
 the means for enjoying it, not always 
 in the right direction, but always far 
 superior to all other Western cities. 
 Four large theatres, two of which 
 Crosby's and McVicker's presented 
 a beauty and a convenience of arrange- 
 ment unsurpassed anywhere, provided 
 an incessant round of amusement, as 
 various in its character as the tastes of 
 a metropolis. For a time, the drama 
 in Chicago sank under the incubus of 
 meretricious performances, as did that 
 of the whole country ; but it had been 
 more recently freed from this foulness, 
 and was promising purer and more in- 
 tellectual enjoyment. It was only some 
 sixteen years ago that a gentleman, who 
 has since been mayor of Chicago two 
 
 successive terms, was playing three or 
 four parts in one piece, was changing 
 a corpulent man himself with an 
 unreliable leading actor a tall, thin 
 man in getting through with the 
 character of the ferocious Richard, all 
 in the same night, an instance which 
 curiously and humorously illustrates 
 the primitiveness of the time. And 
 yet, within this short lapse, gorgeous 
 temples of the drama had been 
 erected, and. one or two of the man- 
 agers were giving performances of the 
 most chaste and admirable character. 
 Such actors as Ristori, Janauschek, 
 Booth, Jefferson, Mrs. Bowers, Adams, 
 and others, played their most success- 
 ful and remunerative engagements in 
 Chicago, and attested their own con- 
 fidence in the city which treated them 
 so well by investing some of their large 
 profits in its famous " real estate." 
 
 In literature, Chicago was making 
 advances even beyond those in the 
 fine arts. It had three of the finest 
 and largest bookstores in the world, 
 and sacrificed them at a loss of not 
 less than a million of dollars. The 
 bookstores on State Street, known as 
 Booksellers' Row, comprised the three 
 great firms of the Western News Co., 
 S. C. Griggs & Co., and W. B. Keen & 
 Cooke, and in the magnitude of the 
 collections and in the variety of their 
 contents, were unsurpassed, either in 
 this country or on the Continent of 
 Europe. Their combined sales reached 
 $2,500,000 annually. In New York 
 there is a division of the trade ; and 
 he who would seek imported books, or 
 books of science and technology, or 
 books of current literature, must resort 
 to different establishments ; but here 
 were concentrated an assortment of 
 books which embraced the whole cir- 
 cuits of knowledge. Leaving out the 
 sites of the great public libraries, it 
 may be said that nowhere on the 
 surface of the globe, within an equal 
 area, were condensed such treasures 
 of knowledge as here. Chicago had 
 long been as large a distributing cen- 
 tre for literature as for grain or lum-
 
 OUR &STHETICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 21 
 
 ber ; it was fast becoming a most im- 
 portant productive point. The day is 
 not more distant when the New York 
 newspapers were sold in the streets of 
 Chicago, and looked for as the only 
 means for obtaining all the news, than 
 was that when our only stage was of 
 the backwoods description and drawn 
 by four horses. Yet the fame of Chi- 
 cago newspapers has already become 
 
 world -wide. In circulation, profits, 
 and influence, they are scarcely second 
 to any in the United States. Their 
 enterprise for news and their ability in 
 editorial management are of a kind to 
 satisfy the most exacting demands. 
 The time had already come, too, when 
 Chicago was beginning to make the 
 proper distinction between the news- 
 paper business and the art of literature. 
 
 BOOKSELLER'S ROW 
 
 THE LAKESIDE MONTHLY is one in- 
 stance of the fact, of which there were 
 many others. The publishing busi- 
 ness was rapidly developing into ex- 
 cellence and profit. There were about 
 one hundred publications in the city of 
 a periodical nature, besides the increas- 
 ing issue of books. Four public libra- 
 ries of considerable size and worth, and 
 probably fifty private libraries worthy 
 of mention for extent, variety, costli- 
 ness, or uniqueness, were contributing 
 to our literary improvement. 
 
 All this fails to give even the briefest 
 possible view of Chicago's develop- 
 ment in culture before the fire. The 
 material part is all gone, for the sever- 
 est sufferers by that great conflagration, 
 which rivers could not quench, were 
 the institutions of music, the drama, 
 literature, art and science. The rapid 
 growth of this development has re- 
 ceived a check which it may require 
 years to throw off. Yet in the memory 
 of what there was, there is great
 
 22 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T EIRE. 
 
 promise of what is to come. We shall 
 never have to begin over again in the 
 old, primitive fashion of half a genera- 
 tion ago ; we shall begin where we left 
 off, upon a surer and more healthful 
 basis, with perhaps a slower but a more 
 
 colossal growth. As to the abstract 
 and spiritual quality of this develop- 
 ment the burning of Chicago was as 
 " uneffectual as the glow-worm to the 
 matin." 
 
 . B. Runnion. 
 
 PART II. BURNING OF THE CITY. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT FIRE. 
 
 A DESPICABLE combination of 
 cow, kerosene, and baled hay, 
 was responsible for it all. 
 
 The fact that early in the history of 
 the blaze, and while its hot breath had 
 only withered to their foundations a few 
 of the rookeries in its immediate neigh- 
 borhood, historical Mrs. Leary admitted 
 that the fire had its origin in the man- 
 ner popularly understood, is answer 
 enough to the unreasonable doubts 
 which have been thrown upon the 
 story. Standing in the yard of her 
 house situated near the corner of 
 De Koven and Jefferson Streets this 
 lady held forth exasperatingly to police, 
 spectators curious, and reporters. Here 
 it was that she implored maledictions 
 dire upon the villainous bovine whose 
 wretched hoofs had snuffed out her 
 barn, and started the flames which 
 were now licking savagely toward the 
 rivei . 
 
 According to her statements in the 
 early stages of the fire, and the reitera- 
 ted assertions of her friends, she had 
 taken an ordinary kerosene lamp, at 
 about half- past nine o'clock in the 
 evening of the fatal Sunday of Octo- 
 ber 8 in order to look after her ail- 
 ing ruminant. Reaching the barn, she 
 placed the light upon the flooring, and 
 was on the point of putting a little feed 
 
 into the manger when the cow sprawled 
 out her heels in token of satisfaction. 
 
 An explosion ; a sharp, brisk spread- 
 ing of the burning oil ; hay and straw- 
 eager to hand the flames up to the roof, 
 in short, a barn on fire. 
 
 The woman hastened in feminine 
 frenzy from the ricketty structure to 
 alarm the neighbors; but before the 
 desired assistance could be laid hold 
 upon there had been consummated an 
 alliance of the riotous elements which 
 only He who holdeth a world in the 
 hollow of His hand could dissolve. It 
 was an alliance of fire and tornado ; a 
 joining of hideous natural forces in a 
 wild compact of destruction all the 
 more appalling when we remember the 
 contemptible means by which the union 
 was effected. To be sure, in the sadly 
 ludicrous fright of the succeeding days, 
 this account of the beginning of the 
 conflagration was stoutly denied by tlu- 
 wailing madame. But as a whimsical 
 fright, lest herself and her lord might be 
 compelled to foot the bill of some 
 hundred millions of dollars' worth of 
 incremated property, was acknowledged 
 to be behind these denials, her first ana 
 less -biased asseverations must be ac- 
 cepted as the more honest ones. 
 
 Yet if the commencement of the 
 giant conflagration was the result of
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 pitifully insignificant causes, so were 
 not the surrounding conditions by 
 which the subsequent accumulation of 
 horrors was entailed. 
 
 There had been a baking of earth, 
 trees and dwellings, in the dry air of a 
 rainless autumn, until everything had 
 been cooked to the crisp, igniting point. 
 There was a fire department, wearied 
 with the labor of subduing a conflagra- 
 tion which, twenty hours before, had 
 been thrown out as a skirmish line for 
 the mighty hosts of flame that were to 
 follow. Worst of all, a driving gale of 
 wind was surging up from the south- 
 west; a gale so steadily violent as to 
 threaten disastrous hurricane, and to 
 whip the waters of the lake into the 
 white frenzy of a fearful storm. Against 
 this combination of evils there was no 
 force at hand strong enough to prevent 
 the destruction of the sheds, dilapidated 
 houses and shaky structures that com- 
 prised the " built up " portion of that 
 part of the city in which the calamity 
 was conceived. That the fire must be 
 extensive in its reach, and completely 
 sweep away the many wooden build- 
 ings in that quarter of the town, was 
 obvious at the outset. But an earnest 
 combat was, nevertheless, maintained 
 against the enemy's encroachments. 
 The three alarms, which in our munici- 
 pal regulations denote a conflagration 
 of unusual magnitude, and which sum- 
 mon all our engines to the scene of 
 anxiety, had rung out inspiringly upon 
 the night. The fire department had 
 entered upon the customary battle with 
 the flames, as sanguine as ever of being 
 able to hold them within reasonable 
 confines; for an hour every one be- 
 lieved that nothing more serious than 
 another broad, blackened hole in the 
 West Division would result. 
 
 But the drenchings from the engines, 
 and the ripping away of fences and 
 out -houses, availed nothing toward 
 checking the progress of destruction. 
 The narrow streets and alleys were be- 
 ginning to overflow with people driven 
 from their homes. The flames sul- 
 lenly, but with an unequivocal certainty, 
 
 were taking to themselves mightier pro- 
 portions. They swung their lurid arms 
 still further toward the river, brushing 
 from existence every vestige of human 
 work that lay in their path. 
 
 Soon the word began to be passed 
 that the fire must reach the burnt dis- 
 trict of the night before, re any certain 
 barricading of its march could be 
 counted upon. A few only were reck- 
 lessly prophetic enough to aver that its 
 constantly augmenting wrath might 
 endanger the safety of other sections of 
 the city. Was there not a bare, 
 smirched area of several blocks, left by 
 the fierce blaze of the preceding night, 
 along the river's edge ? and who had 
 ever heard of a conflagration powerful 
 enough to stretch itself over such a 
 space and threaten property beyond ? 
 
 Such was the fair reasoning of those 
 whose hearthstones were not being 
 swiftly devastated. They saw only a 
 magnificent spectacle ; a spectacle al- 
 ready so grand as to dwarf from sight 
 the minor episodes of humble families, 
 wild with fright and the consciousness 
 of suddenly inflicted poverty. But on 
 swept the flames, and as they roared, 
 snapped, and crackled along, in ever- 
 growing fury, they seemed to be as 
 little mindful of the attempts at their 
 suppression as though men were but 
 pigmies, and their impotent engines 
 but the playthings of childhood. 
 
 A steady cutting away of human 
 habitations; an atmosphere so rarefied 
 by the intense heat as to cause the 
 cooler air from beyond to rush in witli 
 whirlwind fantasies; all the space 
 above dancing with swirling bits of 
 burning timber, and alive with flakes 
 of spinning fire; ithe thoroughfares 
 filled with half- dressed, frantic women, 
 dazed children, and powerless men, all 
 burdened with dear mementos of the 
 wasted home, and all pushing about in 
 pitiful uncertainty to find the resting- 
 place which was not to be found this 
 was the scene in the West Division as 
 the battalions of fire held on in victo- 
 rious array. 
 
 In something over one hour from
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 the commencement, the flames seized 
 upon the planing mills, furniture shops, 
 and other manufactories of similarly 
 combustible material situated a little 
 west of the river. From them it was 
 only a vigorous stride to several of 
 the largest elevators, and before mid- 
 night the conflagration had enwrapped 
 more in value in its hot embrace 
 than had ever before been sacrificed 
 in our brief history. 
 
 It had demolished, leaving hardly 
 one stone upon another, an extent of 
 thickly settled country more than 
 enough to form a city of respectable 
 dimensions. It had left in blistering 
 ruins the homes of thousands of poor 
 people. It had destroyed many places 
 of labor in which these people earned 
 bread for themselves and families. It 
 had blotted out of existence a large 
 number of the most valuable manufac- 
 turing interests of the West ; and it 
 had blown from sight forever several 
 enormous receptacles for the grain of the 
 world. 
 
 The conflagration now hung upon 
 the verge of the last night's work of 
 ruin, and it was hoped by wearied 
 fighters and victims of its anger that 
 here it would rest. Beyond the open 
 space of the old burnt area was the 
 river, and beyond that were the proud 
 stone edifices of the business heart of 
 Chicago. Here, all thought, the fire- 
 wraith would bow to circumstances too 
 powerful for its fury. With tender care 
 for the unfortunate ones, we would pro- 
 ceed to rebuild the devastated acres, 
 and in a few months would show a 
 pleased world, as we had so many, 
 many times shown it in the past, how 
 happy is Chicago in turning apparent 
 evils into unmistakable blessings. 
 
 But suddenly there fell upon the 
 sturdy complacency of the city an in- 
 cubus so appalling that all its troubles 
 in the past became insignificant. Hard- 
 ly pausing to take new breath, the allied 
 terrors of tempest and flame had leaped 
 in fell carnival over into the South 
 Division. 
 
 For a long time before the fire ob- 
 
 tained its foothold in this part of the 
 town, the savage blasts had been mad- 
 ly at work, dashing blazing emissaries 
 from the melting structures in the West 
 Division along the almost deserted 
 ways of the business centre of the city. 
 But with gravelled roofs, slate cover- 
 ings, stone fronts, and alert watchmen, 
 what was there of serious import to 
 apprehend ? Yet all this while Chicago 
 was being rapidly converted into an 
 enormous furnace. The materials were 
 all ready for the blast, and the air of 
 the furnace was already sucking through 
 the huge flues of streets and avenues. 
 The match only was wanting, and now 
 that was applied. 
 
 The bridges and shipping in the 
 river afforded a superb transit for the 
 flames, and the crossings at Van Bu- 
 ren, Polk, and Adams Streets were soon 
 frame - works of fire. From these, blaz- 
 ing in a raging wind, there was no 
 lack of communication from the West 
 to the South Side. 
 
 This latter was fired in two places, 
 at a few minutes before one o'clock, on 
 Monday morning; some three and a 
 half hours after the origin of the con- 
 flagration in De Koven Street. The 
 first of these was in a shed on the river 
 bank, near Polk Street. This fire was 
 extinguished with ease although the 
 structure was itself torn down, as the 
 only method of checking the work of 
 ruin. 
 
 At nearly the same time, the tar 
 works belonging to the South Division 
 Gas Manufactory, situated on Adams 
 Street, near the Armory, were ignited. 
 The firemen were well nigh exhausted ; 
 their engines were disabled, and the 
 buildings upon which the fire had now 
 fallen were of an excessively combusti- 
 ble nature. 
 
 In less than five minutes a square of 
 buildings was in flames; the Gas- 
 Works were attacked; the Armory, 
 Chicago's principal police station, was 
 toppling to the earth, and the legions 
 of ruin had effected a terribly curious 
 manoeuvre, with a military exactitude 
 savoring almost of reason. They divid-
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 ed their forces. One army of destruc- 
 tion marched swiftly toward the east, 
 and the other sped away to the north. 
 The first was soon across Fifth Avenue, 
 and from thence moved upon the archi- 
 tectural grandeur of La Salle Street. 
 The other dashed unchecked toward 
 the no less noble structures that lined 
 Monroe, Madison, and Washington 
 Streets. 
 
 A double column of fiery devastation 
 was abroad, and the core of one of the 
 fairest cities on the face of the globe 
 was doomed to yield to their imperious 
 power. 
 
 Following the track of the eastward 
 moving column of fire, or rather giving 
 way reluctantly to its hot encroach- 
 ments, the first great pang of sorrow 
 came to the despairing spectators, when 
 the flames stormed up to the Pacific 
 Hotel. 
 
 This superb edifice, a caravansary 
 built upon architectural precepts of the 
 most artistic order, was six deep stories 
 in height, and covered a full block of 
 ground. The roof had just been placed 
 upon it, and it was hoped that ere 
 another year should dawn the estab- 
 lishment would be in readiness to re- 
 ceive the approval of nations, as the 
 best hotel, all things considered, in 
 America. 
 
 The sight of the billows of fire buf- 
 feting in, above, and around its superb 
 lines, until it swayed and crashed in 
 indignant protestation to the earth, 
 was a proof against all imaginings 
 that man had any power to cope with 
 or mercy to hope from the terrific 
 elements which had obtained control 
 of Chicago. The intense heat was now 
 continually creating new wind centres, 
 by the rarefaction of the air, so that 
 although the main course of the tem- 
 pest was still toward the northeast, 
 whirlwinds of fire were formed, which 
 gave the conflagration abundant oppor- 
 tunities of beating up against the gale. 
 Thus it was that almost at the same 
 time the Pacific Hotel was consuming, 
 the vast railway depot of the Michigan 
 Southern road was burned. 
 
 The twin brawlers of fire and torna- 
 do, with their appetite sharpened by 
 the feast among the cheaper buildings 
 of the West Division, had gnawed to 
 ragged crusts these two imposing edi- 
 fices, and were now wild for a continu- 
 ation of the repast. Down La Salle 
 and across to Clark Street they rushed, 
 swallowing in turn the Chamber of 
 Commerce, Farwell Hall, and the rows 
 upon rows of elegant stone and marble 
 structures intervening. 
 
 Gunpowder was now called into use, 
 and as it fulminated from street to 
 street, substantial banking houses and 
 the most ornate of trade palaces were 
 hurled one by one into the air. Dark 
 chasms were thus frequently opened 
 before the path of flame in the lines of 
 swiftly disappearing blocks, but all to 
 no avail. A brief hesitancy, as if to 
 gather new energy, and then a million 
 sparks would dance over the abyss ; an 
 hundred tongues of fire would lap 
 across the intervening space, and with 
 melting shutters, cracking roof, and 
 yielding stone, another block would be 
 ablaze. 
 
 And now, while the heavens seemed 
 to be metamorphosed into realms Plu- 
 tonian, a curious study might have 
 been made of the powerless people, 
 around whom all this dire transforma- 
 tion was working. While a few men 
 were laboring with Trojan -like energy 
 to save something from the impend- 
 ing ruin, by far the larger proportion 
 seemed inclined to assume the charac- 
 ter of spectators. Men who in the face 
 of ordinary conflagrations would have 
 imperilled life and limb to preserve 
 their own goods and those of their 
 neighbors, stood calmly by, and passed 
 quaint, terse jokes upon the excellence 
 of the show. " It burns well ; " " Chi- 
 cago couldn 't have even a fire on a half 
 way scale;" " It lays over anything in 
 history," is the embodiment of the 
 comments that were bandied. It did 
 appear as if the consoling balm of local 
 importance and patriotism was drip- 
 ping into every wounded fortune, and 
 the fact that Chicago was bound to
 
 26 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 have a tip- top advertisement out of it, 
 somewhat compensated for the swift 
 entailing misery. 
 
 How a double column of blazing 
 destruction started at right angles from 
 the initial point of the South Division, 
 at the tar works, has been noted. As 
 they swayed along in search of further 
 prey, these two columns threw out 
 constant flanking lines of fire, filling 
 in the streets, avenues, and alleys, in 
 systematic order. 
 
 The northward moving line of ruin, 
 chasing hotly up Market, Wells, Frank- 
 lin and La Salle Streets, swallowed the 
 cheaper buildings on the river ends of 
 Jackson, Quincy, and Adams Streets ; 
 snuffed out the Nevada Hotel ; baked 
 to a crackling heat the stony approach 
 to the east end of the world-famous 
 Washington Street tunnel, and tottered 
 from existence alike the dingy sailor 
 boarding houses, the dens of dubious 
 repute, and the erstwhile durable di- 
 mensions of the banking, commercial, 
 and insurance houses that lay in its 
 way. The coal yards, in which the 
 winter's stores from Pennsylvania's ex- 
 haustless mine had just been heaped, 
 were also enveloped in flame ; and 
 presently half a dozen or more of the 
 grandest anthracite blazes of history 
 were adding their glare to the illumina- 
 tions of this new Eblis. 
 
 The destruction of the Nevada Hotel, 
 one of the most successful of the sec- 
 ond-rate hostelries, contributed no 
 little to the uniqueness of the oc- 
 casion. This establishment was over- 
 flowing with regular and transient 
 boarders. Of the former, a large pro- 
 portion were members of the drama- 
 tic profession, attaches of city journals, 
 and clerks in prominent positions in 
 the leading mercantile houses. The 
 feminine portion of the histrionic dele- 
 gation were particularly vehement in 
 their expressions of disgust at being 
 thus unceremoniously hustled from their 
 comfortable quarters. It was vastly 
 more dramatic than anything at which 
 they had been called upon to assist, in 
 their capacity of abstract chroniclers 
 
 of the times, and they did not relish it 
 at all. 
 
 The line of fire, with its flanking 
 supports, which was eating toward the 
 northeast, in a capricious spirit of 
 mercy spared the Madison and Ran- 
 dolph Street bridges, over which ran 
 the main city railways connecting all 
 portions of the West Division with the 
 South Side. A large five -story struc- 
 ture, just north of the last-named 
 bridge, was also omitted, in either scorn 
 or pity, and subsequently stood in ma- 
 jestic loneliness, the only unscathed 
 edifice in the South Division, north of 
 Harrison Street. 
 
 That thrifty thoroughfare of whole- 
 sale commerce, South Water Street, 
 having been reached, the omnipotent 
 angel of ruin who hovered over the 
 city permitted the track of fire to turn 
 again almost straight toward the lake. 
 And now were swept away mammoth 
 elevators, the Lumber Exchange, innu- 
 merable warehouses teeming with the 
 products of the world. The wines of 
 sunny France and Italy, the teas of 
 China, the coffees of the Indies, and 
 the staple viands of the Orient, were 
 quickly tossed in steaming radiance to 
 the zenith. 
 
 At the same time there perished 
 the substantial accumulations of Lake 
 Street, a business avenue which for 
 gorgeous trade palaces and the value 
 of their storied contents was abund- 
 antly capable of challenging any 
 equal extent of thoroughfare in the 
 land. Millions on millions of dollars, 
 represented in the products of every 
 quarter of the globe, fed the insatiable 
 maw of the fire. At the lake end of the 
 street there fell several excellent hotels, 
 including the Massasoit, Adams, and 
 Richmond, and that "good old inn," 
 so revered by the appreciative travel- 
 lers of the country, the Tremont House. 
 The grand rendezvous of railway trains, 
 that ganglion of tracks where centred 
 the roads of half a dozen great compan- 
 ies, the Illinois Central Depot, was, in 
 this quarter, the last seared monument 
 of ruin left crumbling in hot protestation
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE CREA T FIRE. 
 
 27 
 
 at the unmerited fury of the tempest. 
 Spinning along Randolph Street, the 
 conflagration fed heartily upon the 
 glories of the Briggs, Sherman, Metro- 
 politan, and Matteson Hotels ; upon 
 stately business homes, Wood's Mu- 
 seum, and a miscellany of trade edi- 
 fices that of themselves would have 
 formed the heart of a small city. 
 The scenes at the destruction of the 
 
 Sherman House were marvellously 
 thrilling. Upwards of three hundred 
 guests were lodged in the house. At 
 the time the fire approached there were 
 left in active charge only the night 
 clerk and an assistant. The night 
 clerk was not by any means the con- 
 sequential hotel -employe of the period, 
 but was a cool, energetic young man, 
 with a remarkable fund of good sense. 
 
 THE SHERMAN HOUSE. 
 
 Of the three hundred guests, a large 
 number were ladies, unaccompanied by 
 male escort; and of these, five were so 
 sick as to be confined to their beds. 
 The night clerk, having sometime be- 
 fore secured the valuable papers of the 
 place, proceeded, with his assistant, to 
 arouse every sleeper in the house. The 
 lone women were promptly conveyed 
 to the lake shore, and there placed in 
 charge of policemen who took them 
 
 beyond reach of further danger. The 
 sick ladies were placed in hacks by 
 the omnipresent night clerk, and were 
 being driven away, when, followed by 
 his assistant, and seized with a terrible 
 suspicion, he rushed after and stopped 
 them. An instantaneous counting of 
 thin, pallid faces, and lo ! only four 
 women were there. Five had certainly 
 been recorded in the sick book of the 
 house. It was then remembered that
 
 28 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 one poor lady was still remaining. 
 Back into the now trembling structure 
 dashed the two young men, one of 
 them snatching from a fireman an axe 
 as he passed. Up the stairways and 
 through the smoke -reeking halls they 
 groped, until the door desired was 
 reached. Two lusty blows, and in it 
 crashed, revealing the woman half 
 raised in terror from the bed. It was 
 the first intimation of the horrible dan- 
 ger that she had received. A word of 
 explanation, and she had directed them 
 to the cleset where hung a dress and 
 cloak of uncommonly heavy stuff. A 
 pitcher and basin, fortunately full of 
 water, served to drench these garments 
 and the main quilt of the bed, and in 
 them was quickly wrapped the invalid. 
 Portions of the soaked clothing were 
 then thrown over their own heads, and 
 in a space of time hardly longer than 
 it has taken to pen this episode, these 
 heroes, than whom no braver shine 
 upon the admired annals of the ages 
 agone, had instinctively found their 
 way through the familiar passages of 
 the house, into the streets. When the 
 writer saw them placing the fainting 
 woman in a carriage, portions of their 
 clothing had been burned into sieve- 
 like perforations, and the hand of one 
 was badly scorched. The hotel in a 
 moment after folded itself to the glow- 
 ing foundations, and was among the 
 most complete wrecks of the night. 
 
 The Court House, an incongruous 
 structure of mottled hues, and yet with 
 fair pretensions to attention, stood 
 alone in the centre of a large square, 
 while the fire was tumbling to the pave- 
 ment the stately edifices on two of 
 the streets around it. That it must es- 
 cape destruction was the generally- 
 granted theory. But if the acres of 
 flame could not lay fiery grip upon it, 
 they could, aided by the ever -howling 
 wind, send messengers of ruin hot and 
 fierce upon its roof and dome. Soon 
 a huge blazing timber flew against the 
 dome. Instantaneously the entire up- 
 per portion of the building shot into 
 flames. In the lower portion of the 
 
 structure, which did disagreeable duty 
 as the County Jail, there were con- 
 fined, on every kind of criminal charge, 
 more than one hundred and fifty pris- 
 oners. The jailer and an assistant 
 turnkey, at the last moment compatible 
 with safety, opened every cell and re- 
 leased each inmate. Happy in the 
 brute consciousness that the ill wind 
 which was showering extermination 
 upon Chicago, had, with consistent 
 ugliness, blown a precious boon to 
 themselves, garroters, thieves, debtors, 
 petty pilferers, and hardened murder- 
 ers, shot off into the crowds and were 
 seen no more. 
 
 Still " eating into the gale," the 
 course of the conflagration pushed 
 back upon itself until it had swept 
 away the block upon which stood 
 Hooley's Opera House, the Bryant and 
 Chase Business College, the Republi- 
 can office, and other hardly less noted 
 structures. It had already cut out the 
 northern part of this and the next ad- 
 joining block east, and was reaching 
 in feverish anticipation of the revel in 
 store for it at the St. James Hotel and 
 Crosby's Opera House. In this latter 
 building there were stored the instru- 
 ments of three of the largest piano 
 houses in the country, art treasures 
 almost invaluable, and the works of 
 decorators who had for several months 
 been laboring lavishly at the beautify- 
 ing of the auditorium. In the renova- 
 tions of this auditorium the sum of 
 $80,000 had just been expended, and 
 the place, at the breaking out of the 
 fire, stood complete, the finest temple 
 of Thespis and Thalia in America. A 
 luxury -loving public, who had anx- 
 iously read of its fair proportions, were 
 to have pronounced upon its beauties 
 on the night of its destruction. It was 
 to have been formally re -dedicated on 
 that same evening by the Thomas Or- 
 chestra, every seat having been sold 
 a week before. Many of the more 
 valuable paintings stored in this estab- 
 lishment were saved, but the number 
 of dollars consumed in choice pictures 
 alone stepped a long way into the thous-
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 ands ; while in the fall of the building 
 and the perishing of its contents, there 
 went down a valuation of over half a 
 million. 
 
 The fire had now reached State 
 Street, and was again working against 
 the course of the gale, and pushing a 
 trifle towards the south. This division 
 of ruin, before reaching the corner oc- 
 cupied by Held, Leiter & Co.'s grand 
 emporium, had laid in sweltering ashes 
 the newspaper offices of the Evening 
 Post, Evening Mail, Staats Zeitting, 
 and Chicago Times, besides destroying 
 the publishing places of many lesser 
 places and miscellaneous publications. 
 The office of the Journal was also 
 soon added to the sad list, and then 
 there remained not the home of any 
 journal of importance save the superb 
 structure belonging to the Tribune Com- 
 pany. The buildings on every corner 
 around it had gone, and nothing but 
 seething debris marked the sites of 
 Reynolds Block, the Dearborn Thea- 
 tre, and the store of Ross & Gossage, 
 with the adjacent mammoth carpet 
 warerooms belonging to other firms. 
 
 That even now a goodly portion of 
 the business centre of the place must 
 be left unharmed, was the almost uni- 
 versal theory. It was understood that 
 the eastward - moving line of fire, which 
 had broken from its companion column 
 near the gas works, had spent its vio- 
 lence. There was then only the latter 
 to subjugate, and with the advent of 
 day surely this could be accomplished. 
 
 Remaining intact was the east side 
 of Dearborn Street to the Tribtine 
 Building, and all of the fine property 
 lying east of State until Randolph was 
 reached. 
 
 But while this final glimmer of hope 
 came to the hearts of the more under- 
 standing watchers of the fire, it was all 
 too quickly shut out by the news that 
 the flames had crossed into the North 
 Division. This was at about four 
 o'clock in the morning, a little before 
 day - break. 
 
 Hardly had this announcement 
 closed despairingly around the souls 
 
 of those who had yet hoped against 
 hope that something of value in Chi- 
 cago might be saved, when the terrible 
 tidings were whispered that the Water 
 Works were in ruins, and that the only 
 friend man had found among the ele- 
 ments in this his hour of necessity 
 was taken from him. 
 
 There was now absolutely nothing 
 left but to stand by and trace the path 
 of accumulating devastation, biding 
 the destroying angel's pleasure that the 
 work of calamity should cease. 
 
 All along the east side of State Street, 
 where stood some of the loftiest marts 
 in the city, and on Wabash and Michi- 
 gan Avenues, it was considered that 
 comparative safety was insured. How- 
 ever, many of the dwellers on these 
 last thoroughfares, as well as those per- 
 sons who owned mercantile houses in 
 the vicinity, took the precaution to re- 
 move large quantities of their more 
 valuable goods to the open spaces of 
 Dearborn Park, the base ball grounds, 
 and the lake front. Here all was pre- 
 sumably safe, as even if the entire city 
 burnt up, open ground could not be 
 consumed. 
 
 And yet this very quarter was doomed 
 to be the converging point for the two 
 armiqs of fire that had parted from 
 each other near the tar works. The 
 march of the northward -striding line, 
 with its slight but steady inflection to 
 the east, has been shown. That which 
 hurried toward the lake from the south- 
 ern end of the Michigan Southern De- 
 pot had been slower in its labors, but 
 none the less vindictively accurate in 
 its work of ruin. It had swept from 
 existence the shabbier structures of 
 Third and Fourth Avenues, and had 
 crept unrelentingly onward until De 
 Haven Block and the towering grand- 
 eur of the Bigelow House and Honore's 
 two massive marble buildings had fallen 
 into ruin. 
 
 As the three noble structures last 
 named reeled to the ground, the day 
 was fully ushered in. But in the murky 
 sunlight the ruin still held on ; when it 
 would halt, who should now dare to 
 say?
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 From the Bigclow House to the Aca- 
 demy of Design was less than a block, 
 only a bagatelle of a stride for the 
 giant of conflagration that was abroad. 
 Within the walls were husbanded some 
 of the noblest works of art America 
 could boast. Among these were a 
 number of paintings which had just 
 arrived in the city, and which were in- 
 tended for display at the forthcoming 
 fall exhibition ; a new work by Bier- 
 stadt, valued at $15,000; dozens of 
 precious pieces by leading artists of 
 other cities ; and the studios, with most 
 of the contents, of more than twenty 
 home painters. Rothermel's great 
 canvas, "The Battle of Gettysburg," 
 the property of the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and the grandest historical pic- 
 ture in the country, was cut from its 
 frame and saved. It has been con- 
 veyed within the precincts of the com- 
 monwealth to whom it came so near 
 proving an irreclaimable and irrepar- 
 able loss. 
 
 The Palmer Hotel, one of the young- 
 est but already one of the most famous 
 of our world - famed public houses, fell 
 in at nearly the same time as the 
 Academy. 
 
 Here, near the corner of State and 
 Jackson Streets, and upon Wabash and 
 Michigan Avenues, was now to be wit- 
 nessed the frenzied stampede of thous- 
 ands. The many were breaking in 
 crazed haste to escape from the heat, 
 and from the sight of the horrible 
 scenes which had grown so terribly fa- 
 miliar. These swellers of the panic 
 had in most cases secured portables of 
 real or fancied value, and were madly, 
 selfishly eager to take themselves, their 
 families, and their chattels, beyond the 
 reach of the insatiable fire demon's 
 clutches. Some were on foot, stagger- 
 ing along under the weight of rich 
 packs, and tugging at the hands of 
 halting relatives. Others were piled, 
 with stock from their stores, furniture, 
 wives and children, into vehicles of ev- 
 er}- conceivable class, many of which 
 had been hired at fabulous prices froin 
 their contemptible owners. But to add 
 
 to the insanity of the scene, there were 
 men seeking to struggle in the opposite 
 direction. These were merchants who, 
 living in the extreme South Division, 
 and just learning of the night's disas- 
 ter, were dashing in on foot and in their 
 carriages, with a fierce determination 
 to know if they too had been beggared 
 while they slept. 
 
 The streets indicated were almost to- 
 tally impassable, and so frantic was the 
 struggle of teams and pedestrians that 
 there were often complete dead - locks, 
 during which not the least progress was 
 made by any one. But these tempo- 
 rary stoppages in the retreat were in- 
 significant in comparison to the fright- 
 ful scenes which were constantly occur- 
 ring in consequence of the choking of 
 their roads and walks. Old men were 
 thrown down and trampled upon ; 
 children were lost from their parents ; 
 and the parents were in many cases 
 parted from each other, never to meet 
 again. Women were knocked to the 
 pavement by the rearing, madly - gal- 
 lopping horses ; and several authenti- 
 cated cases of child - birth, in which 
 both mother and infant were instantly 
 killed, added their diabolical quota to 
 this newest of pandemoniums. 
 
 And all the time the fire was leaving 
 behind, in fantastic mould, the hot evi- 
 dences of its withering strength ; was 
 reaching ever forward for more of splen- 
 dor to level to the earth. By the con- 
 tinued blowing away of buildings in its 
 path, as it prowled swiftly east on the 
 line of Harrison Street, its course seenv 
 ed to be diverted to the north again. In 
 this was safety ; for all that lay in the 
 north must perish as it was now perish- 
 ing, and so in that direction to keep 
 the path of the burning storm was the 
 only hope. Up again it worked, smit- 
 ing down the blocks enclosed by State, 
 Harrison, and Madison Streets, and 
 Wabash Avenue. Here, as elsewhere, 
 it fed its unglutted appetite with the 
 richest of fare, and stately churches, 
 beautiful dwellings, and proud trade 
 palaces were alike devoured, walls, 
 roof, consents and foundation stones.
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 Before daybreak the thieving horror 
 had culminated in scenes of daring 
 robbery unparallelled in the annals of 
 any similar disaster. In fact, earlier in 
 the history of the flames, the pilfering 
 scoundrels had conducted operations 
 with their usual craft and cunningness 
 at evading observation. But as the 
 night wore on, and the terrors aggre- 
 gated into an intensity of misery, the 
 thieves, amateur and professional, 
 dropped all pretences at concealment 
 and plied their knavish calling un- 
 daunted by any fears of immediate ret- 
 ribution. They would storm into stores, 
 smash away at the the safes, and if, as 
 was happily almost always the case, 
 they failed to effect an opening, they 
 would turn their attention to securing 
 all of value from the stock that could 
 conveniently be made away with, and 
 then plough off in search of further 
 booty. The promise of a share in the 
 spoils gave them the assistance of ras- 
 cally express - drivers, who stood with 
 their wagons before the doors of stores 
 and waited as composedly for a load of 
 stolen property to be piled in as if they 
 were receiving the honestly - acquired 
 goods of the best man in the city. This 
 use of the express - drivers was a dou- 
 ble curse, in that it facilitated the ab- 
 stracting of plunder, while it also took 
 up the time of teams that might other- 
 wise have been used by the merchants. 
 The express - wagons once heaped with 
 the loot, were driven pell - mell through 
 the city, adding to trie dangers and the 
 accidents of the surcharged streets, and 
 the property was safely " cached " in 
 the country. 
 
 Remonstrances on the part of the 
 owner availed nothing. With no one 
 to aid him in the preservation of his 
 goods, or to assist in the apprehension 
 of the villains, the merchant was com- 
 pelled to stand quietly aside and see his 
 establishment systematically cleaned 
 out by the thieves, and then laid in 
 ashes by the flames. 
 
 Several cases occurred in which the 
 owners of stores came to the conclusion 
 that if their places must go and noth- 
 
 ing could be preserved, some decent 
 people should have the benefits accru- 
 ing therefrom. They accordingly threw 
 open their stores and issued a loudly - 
 delivered invitation to the crowd to 
 hurry in and take away all they might 
 be able to carry. 
 
 The scenes of robbery were not con- 
 fined to the sacking of stores. Bur- 
 glars would raid into the private dwell- 
 ings that lay in the track of coming 
 destruction, and snatch from cupboard, 
 bureau, trunk, or man tie -tree, anything 
 which their practiced senses told them 
 would be of value. Interference was 
 useless. The scoundrels hunted in 
 squads, were inflamed with drink, and 
 were alarmingly demonstrative in the 
 flourishing of deadly weapons. 
 
 Sometimes women and children, 
 and not infrequently men, would be 
 stopped as they were bearing from their 
 homes objects of especial worth, and 
 the articles would be torn from their 
 grasp by gangs of these wretches. 
 
 Reference has been made to the flow 
 of liquor. Up to three or four o'clock 
 in the morning there was a surprisingly 
 small percentage of intoxicated persons 
 to be counted in any quarter. But as 
 the physical and mental exhaustion 
 pressed heavier, and as the dull horror 
 began to settle upon each soul that per- 
 haps not one stone might be left stand- 
 ing upon another, the inexplicable seek- 
 ing for an assuage of trouble in potent 
 alcohol followed. Saloon - keepers rolled 
 barrels of the poison into the street, 
 and the owners of great liquor houses 
 threw open their doors to the over - 
 wrought and haggard populace. Men 
 drank then whose lips had never before 
 been crossed by alcohol ; while those 
 who had hitherto tasted of its Lethe - 
 draughts only on rare occasions, now 
 guzzled like veteran soakers. 
 
 This was a new accession to the woe 
 of the event. There were hardened 
 women reeling through the crowds, 
 howling ribald songs ; coarse men were 
 breaking forth with leering jokes and 
 maudlin blasphemy ; women of the 
 highest culture tossing down glasses of
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 raw whiskey ; ladies with cinder and 
 tear - begrimed faces, pressing the cups 
 with jewelled fingers ; while of rich and 
 poor, well-bred and boors, the high 
 and the lowly, there were few who did 
 not appear to have been seized with the 
 idea that tired nature must finally suc- 
 cumb unless the friendly stimulant was 
 used. All were not intoxicated ; all 
 were not drinkers. There were proba- 
 bly thousands who found in the taste 
 of wine, or stronger fluids, the nerv- 
 ing to new deeds of heroism and quiet 
 bravery. But the drunken phase was 
 a terribly prominent one, and one that 
 entailed an awful addition to the woes 
 of the conflagration. 
 
 At about eight o'clock on Monday 
 morning, the enormous branch of the 
 fire which had cut its way eastward, 
 with a pronounced deflection to the 
 north, and which a few hours before 
 was erroneously supposed to have been 
 checked, almost joined its resistless 
 power to its companion branch from 
 which it had been cleft at the gas- 
 works. This junction was not, how- 
 ever, quite formed, owing to a fitful 
 change in the artificial wind - currents 
 which sent the line of flame that had 
 destroyed the Bigelow and Palmer 
 Houses, Honore and other blocks, a lit- 
 tle to the westward, sealing the fate of 
 McYicker's Theatre building and the 
 block adjoining the Tribune Building 
 on the south. 
 
 Although taught by the cruel lessons 
 of the night that it was hoping against 
 hope to think to preserve any of the 
 buildings on which the fire demon had 
 turned 1 is baleful eye, there were still 
 a few undaunted workers ready to en- 
 gage in another combat with the foe. 
 Earlier in the night, a huge tar caul- 
 dron that had been left a few days be- 
 fore by some roofers in front of Mc- 
 Vicker's, had been laid hold of by sev- 
 eral young men and dragged where it 
 should be incapable of mischief. Much 
 of the combustibles stored in the alleys 
 was also removed, and then all was 
 done that could be done, save to hope. 
 At the Tribune Building, men for a 
 
 time occupied the roof, sweeping away 
 coals, while another force was alert for 
 similar duty at the doorways and win- 
 dows. 
 
 But, with exultant derision at all the 
 puny efforts put forth to cheat it of its 
 prey, the conflagration closed hope- 
 lessly around this block. McVicker's 
 naturally gave way first. The Tribune 
 Building was not long in following, and 
 although at first offering a stubborn 
 front, was eventually left a haughty 
 but none the less complete wreck. It 
 was a wreck doubly assured, in that 
 although presenting for days afterward 
 a more imposing display as a ruin than 
 most of its contemporaries, it was still 
 so insecure as to lead to the death of 
 men who trusted to its stability in seek- 
 ing to repair it. 
 
 The line of bookstores comprising 
 the celebrated " Booksellers' Row," a 
 handsomer congregation of houses de- 
 voted to the dissemination of universal 
 literature than existed in such friendly 
 neighborhood in any city upon the 
 globe, perished at nearly the same time 
 as the edifices whose fate has just been 
 described. 
 
 A little further to the north was the 
 elegant architectural pile occupied as a 
 dry goods store by Field, Leiter & Co. 
 During the previous hours, as the 
 waves of conflagration were beating 
 savagely around it, copious floodings 
 of water had been emptied over every 
 portion of this structure. Its internal 
 economy included an extensive system 
 of pipes, conduits, and hose, connected 
 with the water mains under ground. It 
 was through the aid of these that the 
 drenching was kept up ; and had it not 
 been for the sad failing of the Water 
 Works in the North Division, the un- 
 exampled furnace blasts which were 
 howling on nearly even- side of it could 
 not have materially affected this build- 
 ing. Smaller structures, including the 
 Cobb Library house, were demolished 
 with powder in hope of saving Field, 
 Leiter Co.'s building. But the same 
 weary story of unavailing labor, of 
 hasty firing and speedy destruction,
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 33 
 
 that had been repeated over and over 
 again, ensued here. At the final sur- 
 render of this edifice, the four walls of 
 which rolled in dismal thunder into the 
 basement at nearly the same instant, 
 there was seen a strangely attractive 
 gulf of glowing iron pillars, braces, and 
 columns, shimmering in the white and 
 red heat of the flames. 
 
 And now, with its forces joined to 
 the companion column of ruin which 
 had swept away so much of wealth 
 and beauty elsewhere, and had sent a 
 twin -demon of fire carousing in devas- 
 tating revelry through the North Side, 
 the battalions of flame that had just 
 accomplished the destruction of the 
 Field, Leiter & Co.'s building, moved on 
 toward the lake front. From Harrison 
 Street down a portion of State Street 
 and Wabash Avenue, a few blocks of 
 fine buildings had thus far been spared, 
 while a great desert of smouldering 
 waste was stretched far into the west 
 and north. 
 
 The allied army of flame threw out 
 its broad arms in the direction of the 
 lake the huge branches of fire some- 
 times streaming, borne upon the pin- 
 ions of the gale, for whole blocks. 
 Along the lake front and upon the 
 base ball grounds were huddled thou- 
 sands of people ; and, as has been 
 noticed, there were also stacked in that 
 neighborhood the richest of wares from 
 adjacent stores, and the rarest of fur- 
 niture and fittings from private houses. 
 The goods had here been stored under 
 the care of trusty watchers, as a spot 
 perfectly secure from destruction, while 
 ihe vast crowds of homeless people 
 had gradually centred here for the 
 same reason. 
 
 Suddenly it seemed that the fire had 
 for the first time discovered this as- 
 semblage of humanity and property. 
 The flames had feasted already upon 
 all that was rich and rare in commerce, 
 art, and literature; had been gorged 
 with the proud wonders of architecture, 
 and had tasted the sweet morsel of 
 roasting, suffocating men, women, and 
 children. And yet here had ventured 
 3 
 
 to congregate a crowd of human beings 
 with a few of the more precious of their 
 stores, as if to defy, in one place a'; 
 least, the omnipotent fury. 
 
 The conflagration swung its broad 
 tongues of fire for acres, lapping greed- 
 ily at the grand structures in the lower 
 ends of Wabash and Michigan Ave- 
 nues, and fairly pinning the terrified 
 concourse between two enormous lines 
 of fire which were steadily compressing 
 together from their right - angle diverg- 
 ence. The fire fattened upon what it 
 fed, and grew momentarily larger, lus- 
 tier, fiercer. It sent off a rain of brands, 
 burning timbers, and huge sparks, and 
 flecked the air with myriads of blazing 
 bits of material over the heads of the 
 affrighted thousands. 
 
 A panic as complete as any that had 
 reigned in other portions of the city 
 followed. The crowd leaped instinc- 
 tively for the south, and shot along the 
 strip of park by the lake in bare time 
 to escape the hurricane of fire that was 
 seeking to cut off their retreat at the 
 foot of Washington Street. The ac- 
 cumulated goods took fire, and in a 
 few minutes, with the fences, seats, and 
 pavilion of the base ball grounds, were 
 withered to ashes, and the ashes 
 swirled out into the wailing waters of 
 the lake. 
 
 Nothing remained for the fire to 
 finish the plumb line of ruin which 
 seemed to have been drawn along Har- 
 rison Street, but to turn back and chop 
 away at the few beautiful blocks which 
 were standing in a mournful fringe on 
 Michigan and a portion of Wabash 
 Avenues. These were several majes- 
 tic churches, the imposing proportions 
 of Terrace Row, and the numerous 
 costly dwellings of men who a little 
 time before might have been rated as 
 merchant princes, but who were now 
 alternating between a moderate com- 
 petence and stark beggary. Several 
 buildings were blown up, but it was the 
 same tale over again. The flames 
 would bridge the gap, and the ruin 
 would sweep on as before. 
 
 Terrace Row was the last to yield.
 
 34 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 It was a beautiful edifice, solidly con- 
 structed, and in the face of any com- 
 mon fire would have refused to submit. 
 But after burning some three hours, 
 during which time a large share of the 
 superb equipments of the many dis- 
 tinguished homes were transferred to a 
 safe place, the last wall of the building 
 reeled to the earth ; and in the South 
 Division there remained north of Har- 
 rison Street only the blocks of build- 
 ings east of Wabash Avenue and south 
 of Congress Street, the Wabash Ave- 
 nue Methodist Church, now converted 
 into a Post Office, standing on the 
 southeast corner of the Avenue and 
 Harrison Street, the five -story building 
 already named at the east end of Ran- 
 dolph Street bridge, and the Illinois 
 Central Elevator just north of the once 
 magnificent depot of the company. 
 
 Although the destruction proper did 
 not commence until shortly before six 
 o'clock in the North Division, the work 
 of ruin in that section of the city ante- 
 dated this time in that a part of Lill's 
 Brewery and the Water Works were 
 consumed between four and five o'clock. 
 
 That the Water Works should have 
 burned at so early a period, and before 
 the main body of the flames had 
 reached the North Side at all, has 
 given rise to a deal of very natural 
 wonderment. The fact of this deplor- 
 able phenomenon taking place pointed 
 the arguments and gave redoubled 
 force to the assertions of those who 
 were determined that incendiaries were 
 responsible for the whole city's incre- 
 mation. There is no reasonable ground, 
 and never was, for declaring that the 
 firing of the Water Works was due to 
 malice. For hours the roaring wind 
 had borne all the way from the perish- 
 ing buildings of the West and South 
 Divisions blazing messengers of ruin 
 in almost a direct course to the Water 
 Works. That many of the cheaper 
 buildings in the North Division did not 
 take fire an hundred times was much 
 more of a miracle than that one or two 
 edifices were prematurely consumed. 
 The fact that it was the Water Works 
 
 that burned so early of course attracted 
 particular attention, whereas had a 
 score of insignificant sheds elsewhere 
 blazed up at one time, it would have 
 been laid to the same causes that led 
 to the destruction of the brewery shed, 
 with its companion calamity. 
 
 The air of the North Division, at two 
 o'clock in the morning, was alive with 
 burning, flying wood; and these whirl- 
 ing brands, dropping upon a shed con- 
 nected with Lill's Brewery, shot the 
 flimsy structure into a sharp blaze. 
 From here the destruction was par- 
 tially extended to the Water Works, as 
 the attention of the engineer and his 
 assistant was drawn away from its 
 proper post, during which time a large 
 shower of larger sparks than usuai 
 came pelting upon the roof of a shed 
 close to the building in their charge. 
 W T ith the terrible gale which raged all 
 the higher near the open front of the 
 lake, it was impossible to stay the course 
 of destruction ; and soon the works 
 were so badly injured as to check the 
 working of the engines, and Chicago 
 was without water at the moment when 
 water was to her the one great thing 
 needful. 
 
 The full work of burning out the 
 North Division, as before stated, began 
 at a short time before six o'clock, or a 
 full two hours after the immolation of 
 the pumping works had stopped the 
 supply of water. 
 
 No less than four different spots have 
 been designated as the precise point at 
 which the destruction of the North Side 
 began. All of the assertions are to the 
 effect that the bridges were the con- 
 ductors of the flames, although a few 
 claim in addition that the shipping as- 
 sisted in ferrying the fire across. The 
 most reliable statements, and those 
 which are numerically the strongest, 
 assert that Rush Street bridge passed 
 the flames over the river, and that once 
 across they danced briskly up to the 
 Galena Elevator, which was soon en- 
 veloped in fire. 
 
 Here, as in other parts of the city, 
 was witnessed the strange spectacle of
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE CREA T FIRE. 
 
 35 
 
 the wind driving the body of flame in 
 one direction while flankers of fire ate 
 along almost against the gale. The 
 conflagration crept quickly west in an 
 almost due line along North Water, 
 Kinzie, and Illinois Streets, until a 
 solid barrier of flame two blocks in 
 thickness was created from the lake to 
 the river. 
 
 Every bridge on the main channel 
 had by this time been destroyed, and 
 when the end of La Salle Street was 
 reached, the heat created around its 
 narrow orifice a suction so vehement as 
 to pull through flames from the great 
 warehouses on its southern extremity. 
 The massive blocks of stone forming 
 the towers were shattered, while the 
 heavy masonry approaches and wind- 
 ing steps at either end were split, 
 seamed, and cracked, and in some 
 instances were burned to powder. As 
 a proof that the flam?s were sucked 
 through the greater portion of the tun- 
 nel, it was found, several days after, 
 when the' rubbish had been cleared 
 from its openings and transit once 
 more made convenient, that the wooden 
 wainscotting, extending waist -high 
 along its interior, had been calcined, 
 and was at the northern end in perfect 
 charcoal condition. 
 
 The wall of flame once built over the 
 river terminus of the North Side, its 
 previous tactics were abandoned, and 
 it held straight on until it had brushed 
 the North Division from existence. It 
 was an enormous phalanx of fire from 
 two to five blocks in thickness, extend- 
 ing from one side of the Division to the 
 other. To seek to pass through it and 
 strike for the main channel of the 
 river was as far from possibility as it 
 would have been to walk through a 
 smelting furnace a thousand fold hotter 
 than ever was made, to scale the 
 heavens, or to ford the lake. There 
 was time to think of doing but one 
 thing, and that one thing was to flee. 
 Those who yielded to the instinct of 
 self-preservation and rushed far to the 
 northward as fast as quaking limbs 
 would bear them, unmindful of friends, 
 
 of relatives, or of precious mementos 
 of their disappearing homes, were alone 
 certain of safety. 
 
 The lighter structures with which this 
 Division abounded gave the magnifi- 
 cently hideous legions of flame a glori- 
 ous opportunity of keeping their lurid 
 ranks unshaken, and the wall of fire 
 never presented an opening until the 
 wooded confines of the extreme north- 
 ern part of the Division were attained. 
 Sometimes a specially obdurate struc- 
 ture, as the Cathedral of the Holy 
 Name, or the monster breweries of 
 Sands, Huck, and others, would resist 
 for a brief moment, when a slight gap 
 would show on the face of the flaming 
 barrier. But ere the rear of the column 
 could pass, the ruin would be as com- 
 plete as if the building had disappeared 
 from view at the first attack. 
 
 From the expressions of some of the 
 more intelligent of those who were 
 making a push for the open country to 
 the far north, the sight must have pos- 
 sessed a certain terrible grandeur that 
 was not to be observed in the detached 
 work of devastation either in the West 
 or the South Divisions. Here it was 
 straightforward and unrelenting as 
 destiny. It was a phalanx of fire ex- 
 tending as far as the eye could reach 
 to the east and the west. Behind it 
 none could see, and as to what might 
 be its solid thickness the stricken ones 
 before it had no means of determining. 
 To them it appeared as if the world 
 itself must be on fire, and that the 
 flames were swiftly following their 
 course around the entire globe. 
 
 The conflagration in this Division 
 was more unforgiving than elsewhere, 
 for here it spared only the merest frag- 
 ment. In the other two portions of 
 the city it had been satisfied with eat- 
 ing away a monstrous cavity on one 
 side of the river, and with cutting the 
 head from the body of the second sec- 
 tion of the town. But in the North it 
 seemed to have determined that not a 
 house should be left to boast itself 
 luckier or more irresistible than its 
 humbled fellows. How one dwelling
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 was saved in the midst of the surround- 
 ing desolation, and how a little slice on 
 the northwest corner of the Division 
 was also spared, form two of the most 
 peculiarly interesting incidents of the 
 whole record of ruin. 
 
 The story of the preservation of Mah- 
 lon D. Ogden's residence, a large and 
 comfortable frame structure situated al- 
 most in the heart of the North Side, 
 has already been fully given by the 
 unwearying workers of the daily press. 
 Briefly reproduced, the truth and 
 marvel of the affair is that the build- 
 ing was in the middle of a block, all 
 the other lots of which formed its ele- 
 gant garden. On the streets upon its 
 four sides were not many large build- 
 ings; while just as the fire approached 
 it from the southwest there was a slight 
 lull in the fury of the wind. This al- 
 lowed the flames to shoot straighter in- 
 to the air, and before the storm had 
 again bent them forward in search of 
 further fuel, the structures upon which 
 they were immediately feeding had 
 been reduced to ashes, and a break 
 made in the terrible wall of fire. The 
 exertions of Mr. Ogden and his family 
 in covering the roof and walls of the 
 house with carpets, quilts, and blankets, 
 which were kept constantly wet with 
 water from a cistern which happened 
 to be in his place, also aided materially 
 in the salvation of their home, which 
 was the only unharmed building for 
 miles. But the brief cessation of the 
 tempest's violence was, after all, the 
 chief cause of this singular exception, 
 as even the fence which was on the 
 windward side of the dwelling was only 
 slightly scorched. 
 
 Precisely how the corner of the North 
 Division, lying adjacent to the river, in 
 the extreme northwest, was saved, has 
 not, it is believed, ever been made 
 public. 
 
 At about four o'clock in the afternoon 
 of the fatal Monday, Mr. Samuel Ellis, 
 an officer of the city detective force, 
 who will be favorably remembered as 
 Dixon's associate in the working up of 
 the celebrated Ziegenmeyer case, form- 
 
 ed a small company of his friends into 
 a preventive squad. Ellis and the 
 friends whom he summoned to his as- 
 sistancewere living in a long, handsome 
 block on Lincoln Avenue, between So- 
 phia and Webster Avenues. At the 
 corner of this block, and intervening 
 in the course of the rapidly approach- 
 ing flames, between the block and the 
 street, was a small frame house belong- 
 ing to a widow lady. Divining at once 
 that if this corner house could be saved 
 perhaps the block in which he lived 
 might also be spared, Detective Ellis 
 directed and aided his little company 
 with remarkable sagacity. There was 
 a cistern in the yard full of water, and 
 here was an invaluable ally able to 
 preserve the widow's house, if under- 
 standingly used, and if mortal fore- 
 thought and energy could preserve 
 anything in this most unsparing of 
 conflagrations. The roof of the build- 
 ing, as well as doorways and window- 
 sills, were covered quickly with a deep 
 coating of sand which was soaked with 
 water. Quilts, carpets, and blankets 
 were next procured, and the cottage 
 was fairly swathed in them, and again 
 the friendly water was called in until 
 they were thoroughly drenched. The 
 fences contiguous were ripped down, 
 and the wooden sidewalks torn up. 
 
 By this time the huge sheet of fire 
 was close upon the busy workers, and 
 they were forced to rush back and trust 
 that their efforts might not have been 
 in vain, as had been the no less ardu- 
 ous labors of thousands in other parts 
 of Chicago. The fire reached sharply 
 over and licked around the enshrouded 
 house, but before it could dry the cov- 
 erings of wet sand and cloth, the force 
 of its strength in that quarter was spent, 
 and a fresh gust of the tempest sent it 
 slanting toward the lake. 
 
 The corner house was saved ; so also 
 was the adjacent block, and by this 
 means a fragment of the North Divis- 
 ion enough to form of itself a village, 
 closely settled, of a very respectable 
 magnitude. 
 
 Cheated of its purpose in ploughing
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 away every vestige of the North Divis- 
 ion, the fire drove wickedly onward in 
 the direction of Lincoln Park and 
 Wright's Grove, and ceased not in its 
 work of ruin until Fullerton Avenue, 
 the extreme northern limit of the city, 
 was attained. 
 
 Here, with nothing further upon 
 which it could riot, it at last died away 
 into the second night of its carouse ; 
 and, just as a long - prayed - for rain 
 came pattering coolly down, the Chi- 
 cago fire passed into history. 
 
 By nightfall of Monday, a great num- 
 ber of refugees had collected in the 
 cemetery at the south end of Lincoln 
 Park, and many had endeavored to 
 dispose themselves as comfortably as 
 possible until the light of another morn- 
 ing should enable them make their 
 final escape. But the fire -wraith hes- 
 itated not at the pollution of the 
 quiet homes of the dead, and was soon 
 curling the leaves and snapping the 
 brush at the cemetery's entrance. An- 
 other stampede was all that was left to 
 the heart -sick multitude of living ones, 
 who had vainly thought to catch a few 
 hours of fitful rest upon the graves of 
 the sleepers below, whom even this ty- 
 rant conflagration could not touch. 
 Out from the cemetery swarmed the 
 stricken ones, and into the park, from 
 which they were again routed by the 
 untiring pursuit of the wind and the 
 flames. 
 
 The only rest was upon the chilly 
 margin of the lake and the bleak wil- 
 derness of the open prairies. The edge 
 of the lake was lined with its dreary 
 quota of those who, twenty-four hours 
 before, had gone to rest in happy homes 
 at the close of a Sabbath differing to 
 them from no other Sabbath which had 
 preceded it, but which was the dividing 
 line between prosperity and utter ruin. 
 
 Only a few of the incidents of the con- 
 flagration can be added to those previ- 
 ously given. 
 
 Mr. J. H. McVicker, proprietor of 
 McVicker's . Theatre, going into his 
 building by a side door from the alley, 
 just as the flames had fully closed upon 
 
 the structure, was driven back by the 
 heat and the smoke. But on reaching 
 the open alley, he was placed in a still 
 more dangerous plight, being caught in 
 one of the howling currents of air, cre- 
 ated by the heat, which were whirling 
 through in an exactly opposite direction 
 from the main course of the gale. 
 This brought a shower of sparks and 
 burning bits of timber upon him, and 
 before he could escape a tongue of fire 
 was swaying through the alley. Throw- 
 ing himself upon his hands and knees, 
 he crawled out to the next street as rap- 
 idly as possible ; but when he reached 
 a place of comparative safety, he found 
 himself almost blinded by the heat 
 and the smoke, so that he did not re- 
 gain the full use of his eyes for weeks. 
 At the burning of the Oriental Block 
 on La Salle Street, opposite the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce, a man remained in the 
 third story long after the building had 
 fired, composedly carrying his goods to 
 a window and dropping them out, when 
 they were thrown into an express wagon 
 by his partner and two friends. A rope 
 was all the while dangling from the 
 window; and when his companions 
 and the crowd implored him to de- 
 sist from his work and leave the 
 doomed building, he would shout back, 
 pointing to the cord, " That is my stair- 
 way, now don't you fret for me ! " At 
 length, after every staircase in the 
 house was in flames, and escape by the 
 ordinary avenues was impossible, he 
 came to the window with some books 
 and money from the safe which he had 
 opened. Throwing the books to his 
 friends, he quietly shoved the money 
 into his bosom and proceeded to crawl 
 out and let himself to the ground by 
 the rope, hand over hand in the most 
 approved sailor fashion. He was with- 
 in a few feet of the pavement, when the 
 flames, breaking through a window 
 from an apartment under which he had 
 been at work, burned the rope instantly 
 to a snapping condition. It parted, 
 and the brave fellow tumbled upon his 
 side, dislocating his shoulder. He 
 scrambled up and was lifted into the
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 wagon by his friends, muttering be- 
 tween his shut teeth as he patted the 
 money in his breast with his sound arm, 
 "Three thousand dollars all safe! I 
 guess that '11 settle the doctor's bills." 
 
 In the West Division, just before the 
 Van Buren Street bridge, the steam fire 
 engine " Fred Gund " had been sta- 
 tioned, and with but a short stretch of 
 hose, and a perfect salamander of a 
 pipeman, was endeavoring to do its lit- 
 tle share toward checking the further 
 advance of the foe. But soon the heat 
 grew too savage for even the case- 
 hardened firemen. The hose pipe from 
 which the water was still shooting was 
 leaned upon a fence, and, as the horses 
 had been taken away, the pipe and 
 engine men were forced sadly to relin- 
 quish their beloved "tub," and sorrow- 
 fully retire across the bridge. But there 
 stood the " Fred Gund," with steam up, 
 jumping to its work as merrily as ever, 
 while a little way in front the stream 
 was sputtering as briskly into the flames 
 as though it was playing only upon 
 the flickering shed of a reporter's " in- 
 cipient fire," or was engaged in the 
 friendly rivalry of a peaceful "muster" 
 with some brother engine. The steam- 
 er, rattling in every joint, was heard 
 shaking and blowing long after the 
 flames had shut it from sight. 
 
 The burning of the Van Buren Street 
 bridge immediately after, led to a pecu- 
 liarly picturesque scene. As the fire 
 approached its western end, the men 
 whose duty it was to swing the struc- 
 ture, warned everybody to leave, by an 
 energetic tug at the bell. They then 
 applied the turn -lever, and, giving two 
 or three hasty spins as a starter, darted 
 to the south side and squeezed through 
 to the street. The bridge, by the im- 
 pulse thus given, slowly swung open, 
 but not in time to prevent the western 
 end from catching fire. In a moment 
 it was a grand, fantastic frame -work 
 of flames, and in the eddies of the tem- 
 pest and the artificial currents of heat 
 was kept swinging to and fro, a huge 
 specimen of grotesque pyrotechnics, 
 which but for the overshadowing im- 
 
 portance of preceding and subsequent 
 events would have furnished a charm- 
 ing theme for description by skilled 
 reportorial pens. 
 
 The old perverse absurdity, so com- 
 mon in seasons of great excitement, 
 which leads frantic humanity to fritter 
 away the priceless moments in the per- 
 petration of deliberate stupidities, had 
 a thousand illustrations during the fire. 
 Those who threw the looking glass out 
 of the window, and laboriously tugged 
 the feather bed down stairs, had innu- 
 merable representatives and counter- 
 parts. A prominent legal gentleman, 
 whose office was in Reynolds' Block, 
 was guilty of solemnly enwrapping a 
 wash basin, pitcher, spittoon, and two 
 imitation bronze statuettes, in a table- 
 spread, and dropping them over the 
 banister of the twisting stairway at the 
 northern end of the building, after 
 which he shuffled back and groped 
 around until he had loaded his amis 
 with substantial law books, which he 
 enthusiastically bore in safety to the 
 sidewalk. 
 
 The Thomas Orchestra, stopping at 
 the Sherman House, met with adven- 
 tures numerous. The more interesting 
 ones, in the present connection, were 
 that nearly every member grasped a 
 linen coat, a pipe, a piece of portable 
 furniture, or something of like impor- 
 tance, and bore it proudly into the 
 street, leaving the musical instruments 
 with which their fame and daily bread 
 were to be earned, behind them. The 
 accomplished Miss Marie Krebs, the 
 pianiste of the party, emerged from the 
 blazing pile in a condition of complete 
 tranquillity. She had covered her per- 
 son with a dingy morning wrapper, and 
 had secured, at the last instant, about 
 half the score of one of Strauss' waltzes, 
 and she clung to that bit of sheet music 
 with all the persistency of a woman who 
 had saved her mo~ i sacred heirloom 
 from destruction. 
 
 Mention has been made of the fierce 
 rain of sparks that fell in the South and 
 North Divisions, borne from the burn- 
 ing edifices of the West Side, long
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE GREA T FIRE. 
 
 39 
 
 before the fire had reached the South 
 Branch of the river. These sparks 
 pelted down in a shower so sharp that 
 it is a marvel the igniting of the other 
 two divisions was so long delayed. As 
 an evidence of the intensity of this 
 blazing rain, it is recalled that the 
 clothing of those in the streets and of 
 the watchers upon the house tops were 
 often burned full of holes, and in some 
 instances were actually started into 
 flame. 
 
 Another incident must close the list 
 here given, although the remembrance 
 of others is well-nigh interminable, 
 and the temptation to recount them is 
 difficult to resist 
 
 At the destruction ot the St. James 
 Hotel, a gentleman, whose wife was 
 bed - ridden at that establishmenti after 
 a wearying search commenced an hour 
 before, had secured the services of a 
 hackman and his team for the lady's 
 removal. The driver had demanded 
 the outrageous sum of sixty dollars, 
 and not only refused to abate a penny 
 from that amount, but was not inclined 
 to stop and dicker, preferring to drive 
 around the city, sure of meeting some- 
 body whose necessities would ensure 
 him as much, if not more, than his 
 modest demand. The gentleman, how- 
 ever, was only too glad to obtain a com- 
 fortable conveyance at any figure ; and 
 the bargain was closed, and the carriage 
 driven to the hotel. The lady was 
 then brought down to the door, and a 
 break was made in the crowd upon the 
 walk to allow of her being carried to 
 the hack. 
 
 Just at this moment up ran the pro- 
 prietor of a leading jewelry house, 
 whose richly -stored building was but a 
 few blocks away. Justice to him re- 
 quires it be observed that he did not 
 understand the status of affairs. He 
 only saw an unemployed carriage. 
 Breathlessly addressing the tender- 
 hearted driver, he said : 
 
 " Here, my man ! I 've tried for two 
 hours to get hold of an express wagon, 
 and it 's no use. I can make your hack 
 do as well, I guess. I '11 give you a 
 five hundred dollar note to let me pack 
 it full of my goods, as many times as I 
 can between now and the time the fire 
 gets to the store." 
 
 " Good enough," answered the hu- 
 manitarian of a Jehu. " Five hundred 
 dollars is the word," and slamming the 
 hack door, he was on the point of leap- 
 ing upon the box and driving away. 
 A howl of anger went up from the 
 throng upon the walk, but save for the 
 presence of a certain trio of young 
 men it is more than probable that the 
 poor invalid would never have been 
 removed, unless carried in the arms of 
 her husband and friends. 
 
 This trio was made up of three Bo- 
 hemians of the press, who, having giv- 
 en their valuable benediction to the 
 office in which they had been employ- 
 ed, as it crashed to the ground, had 
 concluded that a choice quantity of 
 time was now left upon their hands in 
 which to achieve bright acts of benev- 
 olence. Here was an unmistakable 
 opening. A dozen quick words passed 
 between them, and in a twinkling their 
 coup was effected. 
 
 Two of them stepped up to the faith- 
 less knight of the whip, and ere his 
 astounded senses could exactly grasp 
 the situation, they had lifted him over 
 the curbstone into the middle of the 
 street, and were applying a judicious 
 kicking to his perturbed physique 
 The other burst open the door of the 
 hack, motioned to the husband of the 
 sick lady, and in half the time it will 
 take to read this had seen them com- 
 fortably stowed in the carriage, received 
 their instructions as to their destination, 
 mounted the box, seized the reins, and 
 starting at a tearing pace around the 
 corner, was soon out of sight. 
 
 William S. Walker.
 
 THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE. 
 
 THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE. 
 
 HOW can pen describe the scene 
 the wild flight of half a city- 
 full of people from their burning 
 homes ! The awful experience is writ- 
 ten with a pen of fire in the memories 
 of those who participated in the flame- 
 urged exodus, but the aggregate of fear, 
 of bewilderment, of despair, of mental 
 agony, of physical pain, can never be 
 adequately pictured ; nor can there be 
 properly recorded the courage, the self- 
 possession, the generosity, the mutual 
 helpfulness which also marked the 
 astonishing scene. 
 
 The exodus began on Sunday even- 
 ing in a little cluster of humble dwell- 
 ings, and increased in volume and 
 area and rapidity, as a mountain 
 stream swells into a resistless river, 
 until it had swept its scores of thou- 
 sands of unhappy victims out to the 
 great sea of the prairie and left them 
 to perish or float with the tide. At 
 first the few poor wretches whose hum- 
 ble abodes the fire was actually closing 
 upon, picked up their effects and hur- 
 ried them out to friendly doors close at 
 hand, while the indifferent spectators 
 looked on, strong in faith of the power 
 of steam and iron over fire, and 
 thoughtless of any danger to their own 
 homes. But as an hour went on, the 
 area of the flames had increased to a 
 fearful degree, and hundreds of idle 
 spectators had been converted into 
 panic-stricken householders, frantically 
 engaged in saving their own effects and 
 transferring them to the places of 
 safety which still abounded. The fire 
 crossed the river and laid its devouring 
 hand upon a broad margin of the 
 South Division, while its pillar of flame 
 and smoke led the way far ahead and 
 began to waken the entire city to a 
 sense of its peril. But still the scene 
 to those whose homes were being con- 
 sumed had only the ordinary terrors 
 of a city fire, for there were still thou- 
 sands of hands ready to assist in 
 
 saving the occupants and their effects, 
 vehicles were easily obtained, and 
 places of shelter were close at hand. 
 
 But the fire rushed on into the heart 
 of the city, and then the full horrors 
 began. Then the instinct of self- 
 preservation, that makes men blind 
 and deaf to the needs of others, took 
 possession of the frantic multitude. The 
 whole city seemed doomed, and men 
 began to look out only for themselves. 
 The fiend had licked up the vile haunts 
 along the river and on to Wells and 
 Griswold Streets and similar neighbor- 
 hoods, and sent the shameless women 
 and half drunken men flying for their 
 lives, no one caring for them. It had 
 reached the solid business blocks, and 
 their thousands of lodgers were added 
 to the frantic throng. Then it knocked 
 furiously at the many doors in the 
 great hotels, and the terrified guests 
 strangers in a strange city rushed 
 about in the mazes of the halls, drag- 
 ging great trunks and brandishing 
 carpet-bags, seeking the doors, and 
 disappearing into the pandemonium 
 without. Meantime, too, it had swept 
 over to the great residence avenues 
 and served its writ of ejectment on the 
 rich men's mansions, and reduced their 
 delicately nurtured occupants to the 
 unaristocratic level of the now shelter- 
 less inmates of tenement houses a 
 panic-stricken, heterogeneous mob of 
 men, women, and children, fleeing from 
 the fire. 
 
 Then, when the consternation be- 
 came general, the demon Selfishness, 
 that is within us all, asserted his su- 
 premacy, and the scene took on its 
 worst features. The inmates of threat- 
 ened houses with wild haste conveyed 
 such valuables as they could into the 
 streets, and then found the work of 
 salvation scarcely begun. Assistance 
 could not be obtained for love or for 
 money, each man being busy with his 
 own losses, or heedless of individual
 
 THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE. 
 
 needs in viewing the immensity of the 
 ruin. And so those who had nothing 
 to lose too often stood by and saw men 
 and women and children distractedly 
 trying to save their treasures, and gave 
 no helping hand ; or, worse yet, drew 
 near only to pillage. Vehicles rose to 
 an astonishing value, and hackmen 
 and express-drivers were eagerly offered 
 fabulous sums to convey person and 
 property to safety. Fifty and one hun- 
 dred dollars a load was a common 
 reward. The streets were filled with 
 an indescribable mass of fugitives forc- 
 ing their way through the chaos. The 
 dust rolled in stifling clouds in their 
 faces, often making it impossible to see 
 a wagon's length ahead, and the fall- 
 ing fire-brands burned the clothing of 
 the fugitives and maddened the horses, 
 so that danger to life and limb was 
 added to the other terrors. As the 
 night waned a night that needed no 
 candle, lit as it was for miles around 
 with the lurid light of the fire, the 
 flames kept crowding back, up the 
 streets and avenues of the South Divi- 
 sion, and the morning found them still 
 eating their way, almost against the 
 wind, devouring other palaces of trade 
 and other dwellings with their luxurious 
 furniture, their costly works of art, their 
 countless treasures, hallowed by assor 
 ciation, and possessing values that 
 money cannot represent. Lake Park, 
 fronting Michigan Avenue, was sought 
 by thousands as a place of refuge, and 
 millions of dollars' worth of goods were 
 deposited there only to be devoured by 
 the falling fire, while their owners fled 
 for their lives. When at length the 
 southward progress of the conflagration 
 had been stayed at the irregular line 
 formed by Congress, Harrison, and 
 Polk Streets, the population of the 
 South Division for miles above were 
 still frantically moving their effects 
 southward, or had gathered together 
 such as they could possibly hope to 
 save, and stood ready to fly with them 
 when the destruction could not be 
 averted. 
 
 But the scene in the South Division, 
 
 where the fire moved comparatively 
 slowly, and, over a large area, ate its 
 way eastward and southward against 
 the wind, giving gradual warning of 
 its approach, was almost tame com- 
 pared with the spectacle in the North 
 Division. There the inhabitants were 
 fleeing with the wind the wind in- 
 creased to a tornado by the terrible 
 heat, and whirling the fire-brands be- 
 fore it like chaff. If the fire walked 
 through the solid blocks of brick and 
 stone in the business centre, it ran 
 through the rows of frame structures 
 that constituted the most of that part 
 of the town. On the one hand was 
 the lake, on the other the river with its 
 scattered bridges quickly choked and 
 blockaded v/ith fugitives ; and so most 
 of the scores of thousands had noth- 
 ing to do but fly right before the des- 
 truction that pursued them. Daylight 
 had dawned, but the sun was blotted 
 out by the dense pall of smoke, and 
 hope too was well nigh obscured. Be- 
 hind rolled the awful billows of that 
 sea of fire whose extent they could 
 only imagine, and here and there be- 
 fore them a flying brand had lighted a 
 new fire that might ere long cut off 
 their retreat. " To the lake ! " was the 
 instinctive cry of thousands, and soon 
 the beach of that great but now almost 
 useless reservoir was lined with the 
 frantic multitudes and such effects as 
 they could save. But the relentless 
 demon pursued even here, showering 
 upon them his rain of fire, and many 
 preserved themselves from actual burn- 
 ing alive only by covering their bodies 
 with blankets, frequently removed to 
 be soaked in the water. Farther up 
 the shore many sought refuge in the 
 old burying -ground, hiding themselves 
 in the vacant graves ; and many 
 wretched hearts, weighed down with 
 the loss of every earthly possession and 
 fearing that they had looked their last 
 upon dear ones from whom the frenzy 
 of the flight had parted them, earnestly 
 wished for the peace of the new - made 
 grave and the protection of the grassy 
 mound which fire cannot penetrate
 
 THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE. 
 
 and beneath which the trampling hoofs 
 of flame are never heard. 
 
 Ere long Lincoln Park, the resort of 
 gayety and fashion, was thronged with 
 the fleeing multitude ; and here some 
 security was found, the walls of green 
 keeping back the tide of fire, though 
 falling brands flashed momentarily 
 among the distracted groups and set 
 fire to treasures painfully brought 
 hither, after repeated removals, only to 
 be consumed. Thousands and thou- 
 sands more stopped not to trust them- 
 selves even here, but pushed on, miles 
 to the northward, to the open prairie 
 beyond the city ; and there night over- 
 took them, homeless, foodless, illy- 
 clad, exhausted, almost broken hearted. 
 That night of cold and rain, by the 
 lake shore, among the tombs, in the 
 dark woods, and upon the desolate 
 waste, with neither fire nor food nor 
 shelter, formed a fitting close of the 
 horrors of that awful day. 
 
 If amid woes like these, strong men 
 who had met death on the ocean and 
 the battle-field, the young and health- 
 ful who still had life to hope for, the 
 wealthy who still had an abundance 
 left if these should sink in despair, 
 what were the woes of tender children, 
 dragged from their beds to meet the 
 flames, separated from their protectors, 
 tortured by fears that their little minds 
 could not comprehend ; of delicate 
 women many, alas ! in that supreme 
 moment when other lives are wrapped 
 up in their own ; of the sick, the bed- 
 ridden, the dying, hurried from their 
 chambers into the wild street and 
 borne helplessly hither and thither with 
 the fever breath of the fire upon them ; 
 of the aged the gray- haired fathers, 
 the mothers bowed with years and 
 cares, for whom life, even with the 
 pleasantest surroundings, had lost 
 every charm, and whose only wishecl- 
 for boon was a quiet death -bed, sur- 
 rounded by those for whose happiness 
 they had spent their lives ; how can 
 we picture the appalling aggregate of 
 
 these bitter sorrows ? Let us drop the 
 curtain over the tear -compelling pic- 
 ture, thanking God that somehow men 
 and women live through such tremen- 
 dous scenes as we have faintly de- 
 scribed, and that most of the flying 
 thousands, escaped from the furnace 
 and from the jaws of famine and des- 
 titution, still survive, and with recov- 
 ered courage and more of thankful- 
 ness than they ever knew before, are 
 joining hopefully to repair their ruined 
 fortunes and rebuild our well-nigh 
 ruined city. 
 
 But some, alas ! found in the flames 
 their fiery winding-sheet. Sleeping in 
 isolated buildings or in lofty stories of 
 great blocks, or foolishly risking their 
 lives to save their gold, some were 
 stifled by the smoke, or burned alive as 
 they fled, or fell with falling floors into 
 seething pits of flame. The number 
 of these unhappy victims can never be 
 known, but it is certainly less than the 
 appalling magnitude of the devastation 
 would render probable. About one 
 hundred and ten bodies have thus far 
 been found, some scarcely scorched, 
 and some charred and blackened and 
 roasted into horrible, unrecognizable 
 fragments of humanity. As the ruins 
 of great buildings are removed, other 
 remains will probably be found, and 
 many others were doubtless so com- 
 pletely consumed as to leave no trace 
 of their existence. Not a few of the 
 lost, it is to be feared, brought their fate 
 upon themselves by yielding to the 
 stupefying influences of drink. One 
 man at least was sacrificed on the altar 
 of Mammon, for he was last seen 
 climbing into an upper window of his 
 burning house to rescue his secreted 
 treasure of money, and in company 
 with his lucre he perished. That the 
 reader and those whom he loves better 
 than himself escaped from the grasp 
 of this fiery death, is a cause for grati- 
 tude that ought to make all his ma- 
 terial losses seem unworthy of a 
 moment's regret. //. R. Hobart.
 
 THE nVRNT- OUT PEOPLE. 
 
 43 
 
 PART III. AFTER THE FIRE. 
 
 THE BURNT -OUT PEOPLE, AND WHAT WAS DONE FOR THEM. 
 
 EVEN as, during those hours of fu- 
 rious burning, Panic and Terror, 
 twin sisters in the family of the Furies, 
 reigned supreme throughout the strick- 
 en city, so, immediately after the Great 
 Fire, Chaos and Despair, the brothers 
 of Death, became the ruling powers of 
 the desolated town. The flames which 
 had consumed the stores, offices, shops, 
 and homes of thousands, had died out ; 
 but the dread consequences of their 
 ravages remained. All was confusion 
 and horrible uncertainty. The streets, 
 alleys, houses, and doorways of the 
 unburned sections of the city, as well as 
 the parks and the prairies on the out- 
 skirts, swarmed with sad, terrified mul- 
 titudes. Where to go, or what to do, 
 they knew not. Some who, more for- 
 tunate than the many, had friends re- 
 siding in the saved parts of the town 
 or in the suburbs, took refuge with them, 
 and were hospitably welcomed ; others 
 sought shelter in sheds, barns, and 
 churches ; others, having saved noth- 
 ing but a few dollars, hastened to the 
 railway stations and left for other cities. 
 But there was still the homeless, food- 
 less, unsheltered, destitute multitude 
 men, women and children, at least an 
 hundred thousand of them who knew 
 not whither to turn, or whence to ex- 
 pect food, help or comfort. The streets 
 and the lake and river shores beyond 
 the limits of the smoking ruins, were 
 thronged with moving, mingling masses 
 of anxious wanderers some with ve- 
 hicles laden with a few articles of res- 
 cued household goods, but many on 
 foot, walking about with uncertain pur- 
 pose. Here and there, exhausted and 
 in despair, lay or sat on sidewalks, lum- 
 ber piles, or door -steps, grim-visaged 
 men, weeping women, and sleeping 
 children, as homeless as, and much 
 
 more haggard than, the Gypsies or the 
 Arabs. And, as if the troubles and 
 anxieties of the unfortunates from the 
 loss of their homes and property by the 
 conflagration were not enough, evil- 
 minded and desperate men took ad- 
 vantage of the virtual state of anarchy 
 existing, to plunder such helpless ones 
 as chanced to take refuge in out-of- 
 the-way places, in courts and alleys; 
 and the city was filled with terrifying 
 rumors of incendiarism and murder and 
 the summary execution of guilty ones 
 Night came, and Darkness reigned 
 queen of the hours, for the gas supply 
 had been cut off and the fears and 
 anxieties of the homeless wanderers 
 were almost unendurable. The police 
 force was disorganized, demoralized, 
 and powerless. There was no Power 
 to control the confused elements, to 
 protect the weak against the strong, or 
 to enforce law, order or justice. That 
 first night after the fire that fearful 
 Monday night of the Qth of October in 
 Chicago was as complete a picture of 
 social, moral, and municipal chaos as 
 the wildest imagination can conceive. 
 No water supply, no light, no police 
 protection, no security anywhere 
 drunken men reeling recklessly about 
 and uttering coarse blasphemy thieves 
 prowling around the temporary refuge 
 of the unfortunates alarms of fires 
 and wild rumors of assaults and shoot- 
 ings and, more terrible still, the gen- 
 eral fear that the wind would change 
 from the southwest to the north, north- 
 west, or east, and by blowing the heat 
 and cinders of the burning coal -yards 
 and the smoking ruins in the direction 
 of the still standing parts of the city, 
 cause another great conflagration, and 
 consume what remained of the afflicted 
 town : the reader can try to imagine
 
 44 
 
 THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE. 
 
 the scene ; and when, as he contem- 
 plates the terrible picture, a shiver of 
 horror runs through his frame, he may 
 in a measure appreciate the sensations 
 which tens and hundreds of thousands 
 of human beings experienced all through 
 that dreadful night, and which many of 
 them experienced for even a whole 
 week of days and nights. 
 
 How to bring order out of this chaotic 
 condition of affairs, was the problem of 
 the hour. The Mayor had telegraphed 
 to other cities for help, and issued proc- 
 lamations for the regulation of the police 
 and the relief of the destitute. The first 
 proclamation was as follows : 
 
 PROCLAMATION. 
 
 WHEREAS, In the providence of God, to whose 
 will we humbly submit, a terrible calamity has be- 
 fallen our city, which demands of us our best efforts 
 for the preservation of order and the relief of suffer- 
 ing: 
 
 Be it known, That the faith and credit of the city 
 of Chicago are hereby pledged for the necessary ex- 
 penses for the relief of the suffering. 
 
 Public order will be preserved. The police and 
 special police now being appointed will be responsi- 
 ble for the maintenance of the peace and the pro- 
 tection of property. 
 
 All officers and men of the Fire Department and 
 Health Department will act as special policemen 
 without further notice. 
 
 The Mayor and Comptroller will give vouchers 
 for all supplies furnished by the different relief com- 
 mittees. 
 
 The headquarters of the City Government will be 
 at the Congregational Church, corner of West Wash- 
 ington and Ann Streets. 
 
 All persons are warned against any act tending 
 to endanger property. Persons caught in any dep- 
 redation will be immediately arrested. 
 
 With the help of God, order and peace and pri- 
 vate property will be preserved. 
 
 The City Government and the committees of 
 citizens pledge themselves to the community to pro- 
 tect them, and prepare the way for a restoration of 
 public and private welfare. 
 
 It is believed the fire has spent its force, and all 
 will soon be well. R. B. MASON, Mayor. 
 
 October 9, 1871, 3 p. m. 
 
 This document, distributed through- 
 out the city, had an instantaneous ef- 
 fect in bringing the police and those of 
 the citizens who were helpfully disposed 
 to the support of the Mayor and his 
 subordinates in authority. His call for 
 help was also promptly and generously 
 responded to by the officers and people 
 of other towns and cities. Car - loads of 
 cooked food arrived by every train, and 
 
 many wagon -loads were sent in from 
 the surrounding country. These were 
 distributed among the needy. The 
 hungry were fed, so that the more ter- 
 rible fate of starvation did not follow 
 the destruction of the people's homes. 
 The citizens organized a system of pa- 
 trols, which, co-operating with the 
 police force, guarded what remained of 
 the city from the torch of the incendi- 
 ary, and protected the persons and 
 property of individuals against thieves 
 and robbers. But these means of pro- 
 tection and security, though effective, 
 were not deemed sufficient. It was felt, 
 both by the Mayor and the citizens, that 
 in the midst of such an extraordinary 
 emergency, extraordinary measures 
 were required. Fortunately the head- 
 quarters of Lieutenant -General Philip 
 H. Sheridan, of the U. S. Army, com- 
 manding the military Division of the 
 Missouri, were established in Chicago. 
 That distinguished officer and his offi- 
 cial aids had been active and energetic, 
 both during and after the conflagration, 
 in efforts to save the city and restore 
 order. By their valuable services they 
 demonstrated their appreciation of the 
 emergency, and drew to themselves the 
 gratitude and the confidence of the mu- 
 nicipal authorities and the people. On 
 Wednesday, October nth, the second 
 day after the fire, a conference between 
 the Mayor, the Police Commissioners, 
 and the Lieutenant -General, resulted 
 in an arrangement by which the latter 
 was entrusted with the superintendence 
 of the city's peace. The Mayor pro- 
 claimed this fact to the public as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 PROCLAMATION. 
 
 The preservation of the good order and peace of 
 the city is hereby entrusted to Lieutenant - General 
 P. H.Sheridan, U.S. Army. 
 
 The Police will act in conjunction with the Lieu- 
 tenant -General in the preservation of the peace and 
 quiet of the city, and the Superintendent of Police 
 will C6nsult with him to that end. 
 
 The intent hereof is to preserve the peace of tin: 
 city without interfering with the functions of the City 
 Government. 
 
 Given under my hand, this nth day of October., 
 1871. R. B. MASON, Mayor. 
 
 The Lieutenant -General entered 
 upon his charge on the following day,
 
 THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE. 
 
 45 
 
 having already telegraphed orders for 
 the transfer of companies of his troops 
 from Omaha and other points to Chi- 
 cago. These arrived on Thursday 
 night, and, together with the police and 
 the volunteer military companies that 
 had reached the city from Springfield, 
 Champaign, Bloomington, Rock Island, 
 and Sterling, were placed on guard 
 duty in various parts of the city, as 
 also was a regiment of volunteer patrol- 
 men that had been organized by Gen- 
 eral Frank T. Sherman, a citizen, who 
 had been an officer of the Volunteer 
 Army of the United States during the 
 late war of the Rebellion. Thus was 
 the peace and security of the city 
 restored. A feeling of safety was 
 inspired throughout the community. 
 Lawlessness and disorder were prompt- 
 ly suppressed, and those guilty of crime 
 or attempted violence were arrested 
 and locked up. This system of mili- 
 tary protection was continued for sev- 
 eral days, when, all serious danger 
 having passed, and the police efficiency 
 of the city government having been 
 re-established, the Lieutenant -General 
 was relieved of his charge, his com- 
 panies of regulars were sent away, and 
 the volunteer patrolmen were dismissed 
 from service. 
 
 It is amazing how soon and how 
 completely the indescribable confusion 
 and chaos consequent upon the great 
 conflagration were systematized and ad- 
 justed into order and regularity. And 
 yet this restoration of order and this 
 submission to authority were but the 
 outward aspect of the situation. All 
 was still dread uncertainty painful 
 anxiety. Even those whose faces 
 'smiled and who spoke words of cheer 
 and encouragement to their friends 
 and neighbors, carried in their breasts 
 heavy, anxious hearts. The merchants, 
 who had lost their stores ; the capital- 
 ists, whose buildings had been reduced 
 to ashes ; the bankers, whose treasure- 
 filled vaults were covered with the de- 
 bris of crumbled and fallen walls ; the 
 lawyers and physicians, whose offices 
 had been swept completely out of ex- 
 
 istence ; the publishers, editors, and 
 printers, whose types and presses were 
 destroyed ; the manufacturers, whose 
 machinery and tools had been trans- 
 formed into molten masses of rubbish ; 
 the preachers, whose stately churches 
 were now ghastly ruins ; the thousands 
 of clerks and mechanics, whose occu- 
 pation was utterly gone ; the hotel pro- 
 prietors and their guests, who were 
 now in a common condition of home- 
 lessness ; the managers and artists of 
 the theatres and opera houses, whose 
 temples now lay flat with the earth ; 
 and the thousands of families, rich 
 and poor, whose homes had been thus 
 quickly devoured by the insatiate and 
 unsparing fire -fiend; all alas, how 
 many there were of them ! were in a 
 common agony of suspense and des- 
 pair ; and the wonder is that, under 
 such a strain of nervous excitement, 
 mental anxiety, and physical exhaus- 
 tion, continuing for days and nights, 
 the entire population did not become 
 a community of lunatics. Million- 
 aires had become beggars; merchant 
 princes and landed lords had become 
 bankrupts ; none knew how it was 
 with them, or how it would be ; now 
 they were thankful if they could find 
 bread to eat, water to drink, or where 
 to lay their fevered heads. Men were 
 like ships which had lost their anchors, 
 adrift in mid -ocean, without chart, 
 compass, or destination. Painful un- 
 certainty was reflected from every face, 
 while utter despair was so plainly ap- 
 parent in some countenances that one 
 could read their sorrowing thoughts as 
 on a printed page. 
 
 But as every storm is succeeded by 
 a calm, and as every dark night is fol- 
 lowed by the light of a new morning, 
 so were the hopelessness and despair 
 of those first few days immediately 
 succeeding the Great Fire followed by 
 rays of cheer and promise, dim and 
 fitful at first, but gradually growing 
 brighter and steadier in their effulgence, 
 until the entire community became, as 
 it were, illuminated with hope and 
 encouragement. The discovery that
 
 4 6 
 
 THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE. 
 
 the contents of the bank vaults and of 
 many of the iron safes in business 
 houses were uninjured, removed a 
 heavy burden from many anxious 
 minds ; and the announcement that 
 at least some of the great insurance 
 companies that had Chicago risks 
 would pay their full losses, and that 
 probably the rest would pay a goodly 
 percentage, also bad a cheering effect. 
 The repair of the City Water Works 
 and the restoration of the water supply, 
 after ten days' suspension, was another 
 element of relief, as a few days sub- 
 sequently was the restoration of the 
 gas supply to the unburned portions 
 of the afflicted divisions of the city. 
 The prompt re - appearance of the daily 
 newspapers, eloquent with cheering 
 words and timely counsels, and filled 
 with the blessed tidings that the whole 
 country and the world at large had 
 been moved, as if by magic, to a sym- 
 pathetic response to Chicago's great 
 disaster, and were contributing vast 
 quantities of food and clothing, and 
 even vaster amounts of money, for the 
 relief of the destitute thousands, in- 
 spired the sad and stricken people with 
 new courage and hopefulness ; and 
 this effect was hastened not a little by 
 scores of sympathizing visitors and 
 helpers from abroad, and by a flood 
 of letters to citizens from friends, credit- 
 ors, and capitalists, proffering not only- 
 words of sympathy but acts of gener- 
 ous assistance. 
 
 In the mean time, many who at first 
 supposed that they had lost everything, 
 found that they still had enough left 
 for a new " start in life," and some 
 were even so fortunate as to discover, 
 after examination of bank vaults, safes, 
 and insurance, that they had much 
 left ; these, however, were rare excep- 
 tions to the rule. A large number of 
 small dealers, manufacturers, profes- 
 sional men, and others, had lost every- 
 thing but their wits, courage, and 
 energy, which, in most cases, were 
 their original capital in business, and 
 which, it is hoped, will again serve 
 them to good purpose in their efforts at 
 tecuperation. 
 
 The re -opening of the banks of the 
 city was one of the marked events of 
 the emergency. In ten days after the 
 fire, all the banking institutions, hav- 
 ing found new locations, opened their 
 doors for business, and instead of an 
 exhaustive and panicky " run " upon 
 them by depositors, general surprise 
 was occasioned by the fact that few 
 depositors wished to take their money 
 out of the banks, while many offered 
 funds for deposit. There was no ex- 
 citement, no panic, no " run." This 
 remarkable fact was especially unex- 
 pected as regards the savings banks, 
 in which many of the poorer classes 
 had placed their savings, which, it was 
 anticipated, they would now be anx- 
 ious to take out, both because of their 
 actual necessities and for the reason 
 that they were fearful of the ability of 
 the banks to weather the sudden storm. 
 This feature of the city's after -the -fire 
 experience was most gratifying and 
 stimulating. It was felt that the banks 
 being safe, solvent, and able to resume 
 their legitimate business, confidence 
 would be effectually restored, and the 
 trade and commerce of the city be 
 speedily re-established. And this was 
 the effect. The grain trade, the cattle 
 trade, and the lumber trade, in their 
 respective marts, were in full and suc- 
 cessful progress within a fortnight after 
 the fire. The dry goods, grocery, and 
 other merchants, some of whom con- 
 structed temporary wooden buildings 
 for their accommodation on the lake 
 front or in the burnt district, and many 
 others of whom secured new quarters 
 in the unburned districts, ordered new 
 stocks of goods, and in less than three 
 weeks many of them resumed business. ' 
 At the same time general preparations 
 were making for rebuilding ruined 
 houses and blocks. The scene at the 
 ruins was gradually enlivened by 
 throngs of busy workmen engaged in 
 clearing away the debris, taking out 
 and piling up bricks and building 
 stones, and in laying the foundations 
 and walls of new buildings. " Never 
 say die 1 " was the motto of all in 
 acts as well as in words.
 
 THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE. 
 
 47 
 
 But to return to the scenes of cha- 
 otic confusion immediately after the con- 
 flagration how about the multitude 
 of families who had lost their homes 
 and were driven out to the parks, 
 prairies, and temporary places of re- 
 fuge in the streets, sheds, and houses 
 beyond the limits of the fire ? Who 
 cared for them ? and what became of 
 them? 
 
 There were Good Samaritans abroad 
 in those sad, distressful days. Agents 
 and officers of the city government did 
 what they could, and private individ- 
 uals humane and thoughtful ladies 
 and gentlemen of our city and of other 
 cities volunteered their kindly efforts 
 to relieve and care for the houseless 
 and foodless thousands. Churches, 
 school -houses, and other public and 
 private buildings, were suddenly trans- 
 formed into barracks and hospitals, 
 and tents were pitched in various 
 places. Into these the unfortunates 
 were invited for shelter, and there their 
 necessities of food and clothing were 
 supplied as best they could be. Many 
 citizens opened the doors of their resi- 
 dences to friends and strangers alike, 
 and provided for their comfort. Not a 
 few of the refugees had either gone or 
 been transferred from the parks and 
 prairies to the suburban villages and 
 farm-houses a few miles distant, and 
 there found hospitable welcome. Thus, 
 gradually but surely, was the great 
 multitude of the destitute and suffering 
 provided for. It was an herculean 
 work to gather them all in and render 
 them even tolerably comfortable, for 
 they were many in number, of all ages 
 and conditions, and the majority of 
 them, as the result of the terror and 
 exhaustion of their desperate flight 
 from the threatening flames, were at 
 first as helpless almost as infants, and 
 all were in despair and nearly heart- 
 broken. How could it have been 
 otherwise, when they had lost their 
 sacred homes, with all their household 
 treasures, and been driven forth pell- 
 mell to seek refuge they knew not 
 where ? How could it have been other- 
 
 wise, when, with nothing to shelter 
 them but the broad canopy of the sky, 
 and nothing left to inspire them with 
 hope or cheer but their faltering trust 
 in that Providence which they felt, in 
 their hours of despair, had completely 
 deserted them and left them to a des- 
 perate fate ? How could it have been 
 otherwise than crushing and heart- 
 breaking to those who, whether yester- 
 day rich or poor, to-day absolutely 
 had nothing left but their own weary 
 frames and the smoke and dust -cov- 
 ered clothes on their backs ? The spec- 
 tacle of an hundred thousand human 
 beings thus quickly driven, terror- 
 stricken and destitute, to seek refuge 
 from peril and death, and gathered in 
 trembling and disconsolate groups in 
 fields and along roadsides men des- 
 pairing, women agonizing, and little 
 children crying for something to eat 
 and to drink is anew one in this 
 country ; and even in the older coun- 
 tries of earthquakes, plagues, or other 
 terrible visitations, just such an one as 
 this at Chicago after the Great Fire, 
 with its attendant horrors, has probably 
 never been witnessed. 
 
 But when the great work of gather- 
 ing in and caring for these suffering 
 people was once fairly begun, as it was 
 only a few hours after the conflagration 
 had burned itself out, it was not long 
 before in the hearts of even these hope 
 and courage were inspired ; and even 
 they, notwithstanding their terrible 
 straits, discovered that, though they 
 had lost much, all was not lost. They 
 discovered and it did their hearts 
 good that there is a truer brotherhood 
 in the common family of mankind 
 than they had ever before supposed 
 a brotherhood which only needs to be 
 made to feel and to see that we are 
 all poor, helpless, miserable creatures 
 when the Great Father of us all with- 
 draws His protection from us even for 
 a moment, to impel it to the adop- 
 tion of the Christian rule, that as we 
 would be helped when in need, so must 
 we help others when they need our 
 help. They discovered that charity
 
 4 8 
 
 THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE. 
 
 not only began at home, but came in 
 from abroad came to their relief, 
 kept them from starvation, and helped 
 to lift them up out of that " slough of 
 despond " into which they had been 
 plunged as if by the strong arm of the 
 Lord. 
 
 After a few days of official and pri- 
 vate effort for the relief of the home- 
 less sufferers, the Mayor, perceiving the 
 vast extent of the work to be done and 
 the necessity that it should be done 
 systematically, judiciously, and thor- 
 oughly, determined to turn over the 
 entire care and responsibility of the 
 city relief to the Chicago Relief and 
 Aid Society an incorporated organ- 
 ization of citizens, which had previously 
 had charge of the dispensation of chari- 
 table aid and comfort to the worthy poor 
 in the city. The officers and agents of 
 this Society, being experienced in the 
 work of caring for the needy, and being 
 gentlemen and ladies of acknowledged 
 benevolence, good judgment, and in- 
 tegrity, the Mayor acted wisely when 
 he transferred this great and compli- 
 cated business of practical relief to them. 
 The Society at once entered upon the 
 discharge of its sacred and arduous trust. 
 It receipted for and took into custody 
 the vast contributions of food, cloth- 
 Xing, and money that poured in from 
 all parts of the country, Canada, and 
 Europe, and adopted a comprehensive 
 system of distribution of aid to those 
 needing it. At the same time the citi- 
 zens of Cincinnati established and sup- 
 ported, and by their own agents con- 
 ducted, a free soup - house for the 
 benefit of the hungry, at which hun- 
 dreds were daily fed ; and it is the 
 intention to continue the same through 
 the winter. The Relief Society at first 
 fed daily about 80,000 people, but the 
 number soon diminished to about 
 60,000, many having secured remuner- 
 ative employment, and others having 
 taken advantage of the generous 
 liberality of the railway companies, 
 who, on application of the proper 
 officers of the Society, granted free 
 passes to all wishing to go to other 
 
 parts of the country. The Society has 
 also issued to several hundred heads 
 of families sufficient quantities of lum- 
 ber with which to build frame houses 
 for themselves. The relief work is 
 carried out with a degree of system- 
 atic regularity, care, and good judg- 
 ment, that insures help for all worthy 
 persons who are sufferers by the fire, 
 and at the same time rejects the appli- 
 cations of imposters and of able- 
 bodied persons who can, if they will, 
 find employment and earn their own 
 living. We are well assured that the 
 contributed stores and funds the re- 
 sults of the world's generosity are 
 being carefully and faithfully applied, 
 and that the desires of the donors are 
 being conscientiously carried into effect. 
 The spontaneous and general re- 
 sponse of the people of various parts of 
 our own country and of other countries, 
 when the startling tidings of Chicago's 
 great calamity were received by them, 
 was one of the most remarkable and 
 significant features of the event. Chi- 
 cago was one of the nerve centres of 
 the world's social and commercial sys- 
 tem, and the blow that fell upon it 
 thrilled and excited the whole of Christ- 
 endom. The electric wires that flashed 
 the startling news to the uttermost parts 
 of the earth, brought back, as if in a 
 return wave, great throbs of sympathy 
 and sorrow, which told us in eloquent 
 language that wherever civilized man 
 dwelt, our overwhelming disaster was 
 the subject of grief, and our people the 
 objects of pity and benevolent regard. 
 First and foremost of the towns and 
 cities that responded with sympathetic 
 words and tears and with generous offer- 
 ings of help and relief were those which 
 had been Chicago's most jealous rivals 
 in Western commercial ambition 
 Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. 
 Each of those cities was shocked as if 
 by an earthquake by the news of Chi- 
 cago's sudden and terrible calamity, 
 and instantly hastened to her assist- 
 ance. Milwaukee and St. Louis sent 
 fire engines and car-loads of provisions 
 by the same trains, reaching us in " the
 
 THE BURNT- OUT PEOPLE. 
 
 49 
 
 nick of time." Cincinnati sent provis- 
 ions, clothing, and money, without stint 
 or measure, and noble "angels of mer- 
 cy " were sent with them to administer 
 comfort and relief in our hour of an- 
 guish and despair. How suddenly 
 every feeling of rivalry or unfriendli- 
 ness between these cities vanished, and 
 was followed by the sweet and gentle 
 spirit of charity ! How the bruised and 
 heavy heart of stricken Chicago throb- 
 bed out its thankfulness and its deep 
 gratitude to its humane neighbors ! 
 How quickly rivals in commerce be- 
 came rivals in magnanimity ; and how, 
 in a feeling of common sorrow, enemies 
 became friends, and bitterness was 
 changed into loving kindness ! 
 
 Nor was the " humanity of man " 
 confined to those three cities. The 
 small towns and the country people 
 adjacent to Chicago were first heard 
 from they did what they could for 
 us, for they were of us ; and every 
 town and city in the West and in the 
 East, some of those in the South, a 
 number of those in the New Dominion 
 of Canada, even many of those in 
 Great Britain, France, Germany, and 
 Austria, and the city of Havana in 
 Cuba, speedily and generously sent us 
 welcomed sympathy in sweet words 
 and needed help in substantial gifts. 
 Municipal governments voted money 
 
 some a hundred thousand dollars, 
 others less, but many very liberal sums 
 
 for the " Chicago relief fund." The 
 cities of San Francisco, Memphis, In- 
 dianapolis, Louisville, Cleveland, Pitts- 
 burg, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, 
 Utica, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, 
 Baltimore, Washington, Providence, 
 Boston, Portland, Montreal, Hamilton, 
 London, and others and so many 
 others that we have not room to give 
 the entire list offered to us handsful 
 of money and food, and were eager to 
 bring more if we should need more. 
 Up to the last day of November, the 
 cash contributions received by the Chi- 
 cago Relief and Aid Society, amounted 
 to about $3,000,000. 
 
 Smarting under the crushing blow 
 4 
 
 of our affliction, we first groaned and 
 wept with very pain ; but when the 
 sympathies and treasures of other cities 
 and of the country and the world at 
 large came pouring, like the oil of heal- 
 ing, in upon us, our tears of sorrow were 
 changed to tears of gratitude and joy, 
 and with reddened eyes looking heav- 
 enward from amid our ruined metrop- 
 olis, we thanked God for the nobility 
 of human nature. Our sorrow was a 
 new one and a great one, but its bur- 
 den was greatly alleviated and its pangs 
 mitigated by the new revelation that it 
 caused to break in upon our tearful vis- 
 ion that grandest revelation of the 
 humanity of man that has ever bright- 
 ened the history of our race a reve- 
 lation at once so surprising and so glo- 
 rious that it has filled us with a stronger 
 faith that there is much that is divine 
 in the nature of mankind. It has been 
 a general supposition that man is nat- 
 urally and essentially a selfish being 
 that, for the sake of self, he will sacri- 
 fice friends, principles, and honor, 
 and that genuine charity is a rare 
 treasure that can be found only by- 
 digging down deep into the human 
 soul. But the blow which struck down 
 Chicago also struck that chord of hu- 
 manity which vibrates with the sympa- 
 thetic thrill of a common brotherhood 
 the chord which unites us all, and 
 makes the great family of man a grand 
 unit in impulse, sympathy and a sense 
 of dependence. Men who had labored 
 for, and garnered and watched with a 
 miserly vigilance, the accumulations of a 
 life - time, suddenly tore loose from the 
 cold, clutching grip of avarice, and emp- 
 tied their treasured thousands into the 
 hands of Bounty, for Chicago's relief in 
 her hour of sore distress. Opulent and 
 grasping corporations, to which gene- 
 ral sentiment had denied the possession 
 of souls, astonished the world by their 
 munificence in gifts and favors to the 
 afflicted city. Competing and rival 
 towns and cities no sooner heard of 
 our overwhelming disaster than they 
 poured out their wealth for our relief. 
 England, forgetting the old-time prej-
 
 AMONG THE RUINS. 
 
 udices against American ways, institu- 
 tions and pretensions, fairly turned her 
 " horn of plenty " upside down over 
 the lap of ruined and suffering Chicago. 
 Germany, flushed with her freshly - 
 earned triumphs in the land of the 
 vanquished Gaul, for the moment lost 
 sight of her occasion for rejoicing in 
 her sympathy with the grievous calam- 
 ity that had come upon this youngest 
 of the great cities of the Republic across 
 the sea. Austria, debt -burdened and 
 tyrant -tied, was moved to make offer- 
 ings for our help ; and even France, 
 paralyzed and impoverished after her 
 stunning defeat at the hand of the Teu- 
 ton, drew forth a ready hand from her 
 almost empty pocket, and sent to us 
 what she could hardly spare. The 
 close-fisted Yankees of New England, 
 the slow -plodding capitalists of Cana- 
 da, the lavish spendthrifts of the Pacific 
 Coast, and the "peculiar people" of 
 Utah all contributed with liberal 
 hands. And what was least expected 
 of all, cities in the lately rebellious 
 South, which owed Chicago no friend- 
 ship, were among the first and most 
 generous in their benevolence in a time 
 when " friends in need were friends in- 
 deed." Surely it is true, as Shakespeare 
 human nature's faithful interpreter 
 makes Ulysses say, that 
 
 " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 
 
 And we verily believe that the world 
 
 has been made better by Chicago's 
 fiery ordeal. The hearts of men had 
 long been growing hard and cold, and 
 needed just such a shock to soften and 
 warm them to generous impulses. 
 Whatever brings soberness to the 
 wild and reckless spirit; whatever 
 tames the rash and dashing steeds of 
 worldly ambition ; whatever draws out 
 our thoughts and loves from within 
 ourselves and away from the follies of 
 the world, and opens up and enlarges 
 our sympathies and regard for our 
 brother man, has the effect to make 
 better men and women of us. Heavy 
 and grievous as this blow has been to 
 us, it has not been without its benefits, 
 both to ourselves as the suffering vic- 
 tims and to the rest of mankind as our 
 sympathizers. It has made us less 
 presuming, less proud, less boastful, 
 and taught us humility and the uncer- 
 tainty of all earthly things ; and it has 
 broken the iron shell of the world's av- 
 arice, stimulated and developed its hu- 
 mane impulses, and enriched it by the 
 discovery of treasures of benevolence 
 and " sweet charity " before hidden and 
 unknown. Fire destroys, but it also 
 purifies. Affliction and sorrow are hard 
 to bear, but they also develop the real 
 heroism of the human soul. " Man 
 proposes, but God disposes," is the 
 grand lesson of the history of the ages. 
 Andrew Shuman. 
 
 AMONG THE RUINS. 
 
 GRAND as was the tumult of the 
 fire, with its motion, its omnipo- 
 tent energy, its unsurpassed colorings, 
 and its human agony, it scarcely ex- 
 celled in this direction the contrasts 
 that were developed in the ruins. 
 There, was no life, color, motion, or 
 strength. As that seemed the embodi- 
 ment of vast, resistless force, this 
 appeared the incarnation of pitiable 
 weakness. The one swelled, roared, 
 
 surged, towered ; the other was silent, 
 sombre, dull, inanimate. 
 
 The four or five days which immedi- 
 ately succeeded the Dies Irce the 
 Black Monday of Chicago's life were 
 the period in which th^ ruins presented 
 their most effective character. During 
 that time, stupefaction prevailed among 
 the people ; and men neither attempted 
 to measure nor repair the calamity. 
 Walls lay as they fell ; the debris were
 
 AMONG 7WE RUINS. 
 
 untouched ; yawning walls, broken col- 
 umns, shattered chimneys, and slender, 
 smoke - stained arches extended every- 
 where in a wilderness of undisturbed 
 profusion. 
 
 It was at this time that one could 
 best appreciate the character of the 
 catastrophe. Standing upon Madison 
 Street bridge, one had a coup d'cetl 
 beneath which desolation reigned su- 
 preme. The air was curtained with 
 an apathetic smoke, through which 
 grotesque and distorted remnants were 
 revealed, and whose prevailing hues 
 were the pallor, the ashiness, the pres- 
 ence of all the tints characteristic of 
 death. Even the strong sunlight gave 
 no brightness to the smoking area, 
 but, on the contrary, seemed to inten- 
 sify its ashen complexion, and to make 
 more conspicuous its leaden character- 
 istics. Gray, the white of cheeks 
 emaciated with disease, funereal black, 
 and an uncleanly, sickly red ; these 
 were the tints that made up the picture, 
 and which were all in harmony with 
 its sadness and its depression. 
 
 Not one look, not a score of exam- 
 inations, would enable one to compre- 
 hend what extended before him. The 
 sadness, the extent, the desolation, 
 grew with each inspection. Each 
 study brought out new features, that 
 never lightened but which always in- 
 tensified those already discovered. All 
 the characteristics of chaos and des- 
 truction seemed present, and none 
 failed to present themselves as a 
 reward for patient and extended study. 
 
 One remarkable feature was that 
 found in the complete obliteration of 
 all recognizable characteristics of places 
 and localities. There seemed a reso- 
 lute purpose on the part of the spirit 
 of destruction to sweep from existence 
 even the suggestions of the proud piles 
 of marble. Whole blocks were hurled 
 to the ground so evenly that street, 
 alley, or this or that land -mark had 
 disappeared as completely as did Her- 
 culaneum under the ashes and lava of 
 Vesuvius " Somewhere yonder was 
 my building," was a frequent remark ; 
 
 and it was only when the work of clear- 
 ing away in recognizable localities had 
 been commenced, that many a citizen 
 was able to establish points of observa- 
 tion whereby the location of his tum- 
 bled walls could be discovered. 
 
 In squares which had been occupied 
 by wooden structures, the work of de- 
 struction was as complete as if the 
 whole had been caught up and borne 
 away. Here, absolute annihilation 
 was the rule. Block after block would 
 reveal no evidences of there having 
 existed civilization, save the excava- 
 tions of the cellars and a thin layer 
 of ashes. Nothing unconsumed re- 
 mained. The very air seemed to have 
 been on fire ; and, under the enormous 
 heat, wood was reduced to an impalpa- 
 ble dust, and all metals shrank away 
 in liquid rivulets and disappeared. 
 
 A stranger, ignorant of the occur- 
 rence of the fire, might have travelled 
 over acres without scarcely meeting a 
 single thing to even suggest that the 
 areas through which he was passing 
 had ever been inhabited ; in many in- 
 stances, he would hardly suspect even 
 that there had been a fire, so complete 
 was the work of annihilation. So con- 
 suming was the fire that, in many 
 cases, it not only obliterated every- 
 thing constructed by man, but even 
 licked clean the usual traces of its 
 progress. 
 
 The great contrasting effects of the 
 conflagration did not occur between 
 the fire and the ruins although there 
 was, as has been noticed, the differ- 
 ence between the potent, resistless 
 energy of the one, and the quiescent 
 weakness of the other but between 
 the city as it was on Sunday, and the 
 same as it appeared twenty -four hours 
 later. Strong as was the contrast be- 
 tween the vividness of the fire, with 
 its crimson banners blazing athwart 
 the whole sky, and the ashen desola- 
 tion, the ineffable sadness and quietude 
 of the ruins, there was a more notice- 
 able contrast between the white and 
 shapely marble acres of one day, and 
 the dull, prostrate, sullen remnants of
 
 AMONG THE RUINS. 
 
 the day which followed. This was a 
 contrast whose effects and character- 
 istics men had leisure to observe ; but 
 that which the fire afforded them was 
 so hurried in birth, so awful in its pro- 
 gress, and so stupefying and prostrat- 
 ing in its existence, that no man had 
 leisure or presence of mind or inclina- 
 tion to make it a study. 
 
 But of the nature of the stately piles 
 which reared themselves so superbly 
 skyward on Sunday, and of the char- 
 acter of the disordered and smoking 
 mass which represented them on Mon- 
 day, men have had ample time for the 
 study. To the citizen, the fire is no 
 more than an incident, a terrific light- 
 ning flash, which had scarcely time to 
 impress itself on the memory. The 
 desolation, then, does not recall the 
 sublime occurrence of a world aflame, 
 of stars foundered in a crimson ocean, 
 of a vast population, frenzied, despair- 
 ing, flying ; but brings back only our 
 beautiful city as it was, and invites an 
 almost hopeless interrogation of the 
 future. 
 
 There was one single feature of the 
 ruins that almost approached the char- 
 acter of an amelioration. This one 
 feature came into existence during the 
 moonlight nights that soon after suc- 
 ceeded the calamity. Even then there 
 was nothing of a nature to lessen the 
 severity of the affliction ; but there was 
 something to soften it, somewhat as 
 a wreath of flowers takes something 
 from the horror which is born of the 
 pallor and the rigid immobility that pos- 
 sess the face of the dead. 
 
 Nature seemed desirous of affording 
 such relief as lay in her power ; and 
 thus it happened that, during the day, 
 the genial sun, his rays inspired with 
 warmth and kindness, flooded the ruins 
 in golden profusion, while at night the 
 pitying moon silvered over the harsher 
 features of the desolation, and gave 
 them a tinging of softness and quiet 
 repose that at least rendered their ex- 
 amination less a labor of sad depression. 
 At such times, a journey through the 
 ruins, in place of giving birth to sinis- 
 
 ter suggestions, awoke the artistic na- 
 ture of the observer, so that what before 
 seemed a monotonous and afflicting 
 calamity, became a softened and pleas- 
 ing study. One could forget the dollars 
 burned, the families homeless, the ma- 
 terial consequences of the fire, and 
 entertain himself with the artistic beau- 
 ties of the scene. 
 
 True it is that in these inspections 
 there was nothing exhilarating. It was 
 somewhat of the nature of a stroll 
 through the well - trimmed walks, hand- 
 some monuments, and green surround- 
 ings of a cemetery. One admired its 
 beauty, while there weighed upon him 
 the conviction that he was in the midst 
 of a dread influence that repressed 
 everything that approached hilarity or 
 even exaltation. 
 
 And thus men and women wandered 
 through the burnt district by moonlight, 
 fully appreciative of the spirit of the 
 calamitous influence, and soberly and 
 silently pervaded with the artistic beau- 
 ty of the picture. 
 
 Nothing could be more novel and 
 finer than these moonlight effects. Ev- 
 erywhere were contrasts shorn of 
 harshness, and pervaded with harmony 
 and interests. Banks of deep shadows 
 lay behind walls, and met beyond, and 
 united everywhere with masses of sil- 
 very light. The moon seemed to touch 
 all with a gentle, pitying hand. Infi- 
 nite softness and gentleness pervaded 
 the silvery pall, as if nature understood 
 that it rested upon something whose 
 snfferings entitled it to a forbearing 
 consideration. 
 
 One of the most noticeable effects 
 developed at night was connected with 
 the burning of the small coal piles in 
 the basements or yards of what had 
 once been dwellings. For many days 
 after the fire, these continued burning, 
 but not with a hasty, devouring flame. 
 From the rounded surface of each of 
 these small piles, there rose spires of 
 flame a few inches in height and of a 
 pale blue color. These agitated by the 
 breeze, bent and swayed, and seemed 
 like buds of violet waving in the wind.
 
 RECONSTR ACTION. 
 
 53 
 
 Everywhere these fairy -like flower - 
 buds of flame met the view, and added 
 to the scene a wierd and indescribable 
 beauty. In the chastened demi-jour 
 character of the light, the black surfaces 
 of these flame flower beds came dis- 
 tinctly into view, and afforded an ex- 
 quisite contrast with the lurid, lanceo- 
 late spires which waved tremulously 
 above them, and which, although add- 
 ing no light to the landscape, came into 
 brilliant distinctness, and merged har- 
 moniously with the brighter light of the 
 moon. 
 
 Another noticeable moonlight feature 
 was the thousands of blackened trees 
 that were met at almost every step. 
 All of these had their branches point- 
 ing rigidly to the northeast, the direc- 
 tion in which went the gale that bore 
 the torrents of fire over the city. Black, 
 rigid, lifeless, bent, and pointing to- 
 wards the quarter where went the storm, 
 they seem murdered victims whose last 
 effort before dissolution was to arrange 
 
 themselves so as to fix a thousand mo- 
 tionless and accusing arms to point 
 out the hiding place of their destroyer. 
 Already have the Ruins of Chicago 
 become almost a thing of remembrance. 
 Brick walls have risen like an exhala- 
 tion from among their disorder, and 
 whence the smoke struggled up sullenly 
 and where the moon flung a pitying 
 veil, there now are thronged the tem- 
 porary structures which are the over- 
 ture to Chicago's architectural resurrec- 
 tion. The grand, far-reaching ruins 
 are narrowed into scars, and, in a little 
 time, under the healthful operations of 
 the circulation of Chicago blood, even 
 these will be obliterated. Gone already 
 is the first hideousness of the destruc- 
 tion ; and scarcely before the world 
 shall have recovered from the moral 
 shock of the event, the Ruins of Chi- 
 cago will exist only in remembrance, or 
 upon the canvas of the artist. 
 
 F. B. Wilkie. 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 FROM that windy night when the 
 first prophetic flame shot into the 
 clouds and leaned like a crimson Pisa 
 to the northeast, till the last building 
 fell and the destroyer had crept sullenly 
 away into coal piles and garbage heaps, 
 there was a helpless acquiescence on 
 the part of spectators that was pitiful. 
 But when the raging fiend had died of 
 plethora, the old energy again came 
 forth. Rigidity returned to the weak- 
 ened spine and vigor to the flaccid 
 hand, and the eye of enterprise was light- 
 ed up once more with its undying flame. 
 When the fire was baffled, citizens who 
 had cowered and fled before it in awe 
 arose bravely and said, " We can con- 
 quer everything else." 
 
 On every one of the hundred squares 
 that had been laid in ashes on the 
 South Side, men straightway attacked 
 the smoking embers, extinguishing the 
 
 lingering flames in order to build anew. 
 Pieces of iron, writhing in a thousand 
 fantastic forms, and scarcely revealing 
 under their strange disguises the origi- 
 nal gas and water pipes, safes, scales, 
 chandeliers, stoves, mantels and col- 
 umns they had been, were pulled out 
 while still warm, and carried away for 
 foundry purposes. Ashes and broken 
 bricks were carted to the lake, and 
 dumped, to make more land for an 
 already opulent railroad corporation. 
 Walls were pulled down, and an army 
 of men were employed to completely 
 clear away the debris and clean and 
 square with a trowel such bricks as 
 could be made available for rebuilding. 
 The first merchants who returned to 
 the burnt district were, of course, the 
 newsboys, peripatetic of habit and in- 
 sinuating of demeanor. After the news- 
 paper nomads, came an apple -woman
 
 54 
 
 KECONSTR UCTION. 
 
 on Tuesday morning, who, with an air 
 of mingled audacity and timidity, sta- 
 tioned her hand -cart at the corner of 
 State and Randolph Streets, half a 
 mile within the ashen circle. She was 
 the pioneer of all the trade of the future. 
 On Tuesday morning the last house 
 burnt, away at the north. By Tuesday 
 afternoon, a load of new lumber had 
 crept into the South Division. On 
 Wednesday morning, that lumber was 
 thrown into the form of a box to cover 
 a merchant's wares. This was the in- 
 auguration of Slabtown. Thencefor- 
 ward there were innumerable cartings ; 
 heaps of charred rubbish were briskly 
 exchanged for heaps of fresh pine ; 
 carpenters multiplied like locusts ; the 
 air assumed a resinous odor, and the 
 clatter of hammers echoed as if the 
 ruins were being knocked down to relic- 
 hunters by an enraged auctioneer. 
 
 By far the most grotesque phase of 
 the calamity is the manner in which 
 the vast business of the city, suddenly 
 driven into the street, instantly accom- 
 modated itself to new locations and 
 conditions. When the crimson canopy 
 of Monday night merged into the dawn 
 of Tuesday morning, it was found that, 
 besides personal property, some thous- 
 ands of loads of merchandise had been 
 saved stowed away in tunnels, buried 
 in back alleys, piled up all along the 
 lake shore, strewn in front yards 
 through the Avenues, run out of the 
 city in box cars, and even, in some in- 
 stances, freighted upon the decks of 
 schooners off the harbor. And, far 
 more than this, five thousand merchants 
 had saved their Good Name that im- 
 perishable entity, that " incorporeal her- 
 editament," which resists burglars and 
 all the assaults of the elements, and 
 carries an invisible treasury for him 
 who wears its badge. Two hundred 
 thousand people in the city, and ten 
 times that number out of the city, were 
 in immediate need of goods and com- 
 pelled to buy. 
 
 It was at this juncture that the terri- 
 ble descent of the barbarians upon our 
 aristocratic thorough fares began. Down 
 
 Wabash and Michigan Avenues, hith- 
 erto sacred to the " first families," 
 rushed the Visigoths of trade in a wild, 
 irresistible horde, with speculation in 
 their eyes. West Washington Street 
 
 prim and stately West Washington 
 
 was the next victim ; then followed 
 West Lake, Randolph, Madison, Mon- 
 roe. Block after block was swallowed 
 up by the invaders Trade walked into 
 the houses with a yard - stick for its stil- 
 letto, and domestic life took up its pack 
 and retreated. 
 
 Many a man who has done a busi- 
 ness of half a million a year, has in- 
 vaded his own front parlor on the 
 Avenue ; has whisked the piano, the 
 gorgeous sofas, the medallion carpet 
 and the clock of ortnolu into the ca- 
 pacious upper stories, and has sent his 
 family to keep them company ; while 
 show-cases have been arrayed through 
 drawing and dining rooms, and clerks 
 now serve customers with hats, furs, 
 shoes, or jewelry, where they formerly 
 spooned water ices at an evening party. 
 The burnt district looks as if Cheyenne 
 had waltzed across the alkaline prairies 
 and bestridden our poor disreputable 
 river ; but the city for a mile west and 
 south of the fire district looks like Van- 
 ity Fair. The carelessness, even reck- 
 lessness, with which Commerce has 
 dropped down into dwelling-houses 
 hap - hazard, is grotesque and whimsical 
 to the last degree. Three or four kinds 
 of business, moreover, are crowded 
 under ever) 7 roof. A shoe store is in the 
 basement, with long strings of gaiters 
 and slippers hanging where the hat- 
 rack was, a bench for customers impro- 
 vised from an inverted box where the 
 sideboard stood ; fertile boxes of shoes 
 are in the kitchen and coal-hole. And 
 over the front windows five yards of 
 outstretched cotton cloth bears the sim- 
 ple legend " SHOOES." Up stairs is 
 a button factory, with pendulous and 
 fascinating strings of buttons festooned 
 across the aristocratic windows. The 
 bed -rooms higher up are lawyers', doc- 
 tors', insurers' offices; and into the 
 dormer windows of the roof shoot a
 
 RECONSTR UCTION. 
 
 55 
 
 large quiver full of telegraphic wires. 
 The next building is a stylish structure 
 with a bow front ; a bank president 
 occupied it in September, and is per- 
 chance still an exile in some of the 
 upper stories but the bow window in 
 the parlor, scene of what countless sly 
 flirtations and pleasant family siestas, 
 is now garnished with ladies' stockings 
 hung up in graduated array ; while a 
 brown balmoral, swinging, a silent sen- 
 tinel, at the door, and the variety of 
 feminine toggery here and there dis- 
 played, complete the story of Mammon's 
 invasion. Further on is a pretty cream- 
 colored cottage, the obvious creation of 
 a pair who were at once lovers and 
 artists. It is set a little distance from 
 the walk ; it has the angles and wings 
 that are so charming and picturesque ; 
 a veranda runs cosily around it, and 
 along and about it climbs a vine 
 a cool and delightful summer trellis. 
 Here, too, the barbarians have effected 
 an entrance and broken up the nest. 
 Barrels of molasses and vinegar and 
 flour lie impudently and lazily in ' the 
 yard. A greasy looking man goes into 
 the door with a kerosene can, and a 
 boy sidles out giving his undivided 
 attention to candy. In the bay-win- 
 dow is a symmetrical cob -house, con- 
 structed of bars of soap ; and brooms, 
 mops and codfish are disclosed through 
 the leafless trellis. 
 
 A little further down the block a bevy 
 of school -girls issue chattering from a 
 ladies' fancy store ; laces, collars, cuffs, 
 velvet ribbon, and all the more delicate 
 furniture of the female form, are dis- 
 played in the window and revealed 
 through the door ajar. A month ago 
 this was a blacksmith shop, and the 
 sparks flew in a fountain from the an- 
 vil and the hammer clattered upon a 
 horse's shoe. Scrubbing-brush and 
 whitewash -brush have completely dis- 
 guised the parvenu. 
 
 Down State Street to Twentieth 
 and here is the largest dry goods store 
 in the city or the West : Field, Leiter 
 & Co.'s. Here are hundreds of clerks 
 and thousands of patrons a day, busy 
 
 along the spacious aisles and the vast 
 vistas of ribbons and laces and cloaks 
 and dress -goods. This tells no story 
 of a fire. The ladies jostle each other 
 as impatiently as of old, and the boys 
 run merrily to the incessant cry of 
 " Cash." Yet, Madam, this immense 
 bazaar was six weeks ago the horse- 
 barn of the South Side Railroad ! After 
 the fire, the hay was pitched out, the 
 oats and harness and equine gear were 
 hustled into another building, both 
 floors were garnished, and the beams 
 were painted or whitewashed for their 
 new service. Here, where ready- 
 made dresses hang, then hung sets of 
 double - harness ; yonder, where a 
 richly -robed body leans languidly 
 across the counter and fingers point- 
 laces, a manger stood and offered 
 hospitality to a disconsolate horse. A 
 strange metamorphosis ! yet it is but 
 an extreme illustration of the sudden 
 changes the city has undergone. 
 
 All up and down Wabash and Michi- 
 gan Avenues on the South Side, and 
 Monroe, Madison, Washington, Ran- 
 dolph, and Lake Streets on the West 
 Side, the fronts of the houses have 
 been suddenly adapted to new uses ; 
 extensions have shot out from the base- 
 ment to the sidewalk, resinous with the 
 smell of new pine ; and signs have ap- 
 peared in all sorts of uncanny places 
 spiked to the handsome front door 
 that servants in livery used to swing 
 open upon its bronze hinges, sticking 
 awkwardly from the oriole window 
 where the canaries used to sing, and 
 even sprouting strange arborescent 
 growths from the bit of greensward 
 between the sidewalk and the street, 
 multicolored, huge, and cruciform, on 
 duty like so many bucolic warnings to 
 " look out for the locomotive." Ever 
 since the fire, Chicago has been the 
 Mecca of sign - painters ; and every 
 man commanding a brush and paint- 
 pot was sure of constant employment 
 at high wages, whether he could spell 
 or not. Pine boards have become ex- 
 hausted, and broad bands of white 
 cotton have been introduced instead;
 
 RECONSTR UCTIOJV. 
 
 and by such wrinkled insignia did some 
 of the wealthiest of the National Banks 
 first indicate their retreat. 
 
 The churches that are spared have 
 been curiously appropriated several 
 of them by the Relief Societies, others 
 by institutions that are of the earth 
 earthy. Here is one overrun and ut- 
 terly deluged by Uncle Sam's mail 
 given up in all its parts to the exigen- 
 cies of the city postal service. One is 
 divided up for offices : a lawyer offers 
 to defend your title ; an insurance man 
 volunteers to save you from the next 
 fire ; and in the recess that used to 
 hold the choir, a dentist holds the 
 heads and examines the mouths of his 
 victims. Another church is turned 
 into a watch factory ; and still another 
 is possessed by an express company 
 and over the official desks in the ves- 
 try-room vaults in a painted bow is the 
 suggestive legend, " Come unto me, all 
 ye that tire heavy laden." 
 
 As already intimated, the work of 
 rebuilding began the instant the fire 
 withdrew. Indeed, for weeks before 
 the flames were extinguished, while 
 fierce volcanoes smoked and glowed in 
 every block, and the vast heaps of an- 
 thracite threw forth angry pink and 
 purple tongues, like the geysers of the 
 Yellowstone, thousands of men were 
 finding the old dimensions of the cel- 
 lars and building up the stone founda- 
 tions anew. 
 
 The burnt district in the South Di- 
 vision the square mile bounded by the 
 lake, river, and Harrison Street is too 
 valuable per front foot to furnish hos- 
 pitality to sheds, barracks and wooden 
 warehouses like those that have found 
 room elsewhere among the ashes. 
 The real estate market, as far as there 
 is a market, shows no great diminution 
 below the prices asked and paid before 
 the fire, and taxes over all these hun- 
 dred blocks are still so heavy as to 
 render prompt rebuilding imperative. 
 So it happens that at the date of writ- 
 ing more than half the cellars again 
 present the form of rectangular excava- 
 tions swept and garnished for the 
 
 builder s force. On ea<-h side of every 
 square, eager teams drag up the inclines 
 into the street great loads of brick, 
 stone, iron, and ashes, and the founda 
 tion walls rise in their places again to 
 the cheery cry of "Mort!" as, wooed 
 by the strains of Amphion's lute, rose 
 the conscious walls of Thebes Jn the 
 cellars of warehouses, where great 
 masses of iron were kept, in stove 
 stores, scale stores, and wholesale 
 stores of hoop -iron, men, armed with 
 drills, crowbars, huge sledge-hammers 
 and blasting powder, are toiling to dis- 
 engage the mass. Even the iron was 
 as straw in the furnace -blast of that 
 awful morning, stoves, and sheet and 
 pig iron, all melted miserably and ran 
 helplessly down, roaring with rage, to 
 the ground, and there it cooled in all 
 fantastic attitudes and shapes. Here 
 is a hillock of solid iron, as large as an 
 omnibus ; there is a platform as large 
 as Table Rock it once was moulded 
 into kitchen stoves ; yonder are upright 
 masses, some of them rearing like a 
 centaur, and others writhing like the 
 group of the Laocoon ; further down 
 the ruins is a building where the lower 
 stratum of the flowing metal has 
 cooled first, and subsequent cascades 
 of iron have dashed over it and trickled 
 through it like so much molasses ; and 
 beneath, the drippings hang in iron 
 crystal stalactites, from an inch to six 
 feet long, like the lime drippings of a 
 cave ! As these are the most marvel- 
 lous of the relics, so they are the most 
 difficult to dispose of, and the owners 
 of the lots are now quarrying the pon- 
 derous masses with huge levers, blast- 
 ing powder, and all the arts of engineer- 
 ing. 
 
 The walls of more than three hun- 
 dred of the better class of brick and 
 stone buildings are already rising in 
 the South Division rising even in 
 mid -winter, when masons are driven 
 to cover in every other city north of 
 35. Who thinks of using a trowel all 
 through the winter months in New 
 York, Boston, St. Louis, or even Cin- 
 cinnati ? Yet three thousand masons
 
 RECONSTR UCTION. 
 
 57 
 
 and bricklayers and mortar makers 
 and carriers are regularly employed in 
 Chicago all the week through, as we 
 write. Many builders have halted 
 at the top of the cellar wall to wait for 
 March, but hundreds of others are 
 pushing vigorously upwards in spite of 
 every obstacle presented by an extreme 
 climate. It is December, but an arti- 
 ficial summer is created to keep the 
 work from freezing up ; a bonfire is 
 blazing before the mortar bed where 
 the compound is prepared as the 
 housewife prepares her dough ; and 
 other and smaller fires blaze briskly all 
 around within the rising wall a fire 
 on every mortar-board, which keeps 
 the mortar plastic and the blood of the 
 brick-layer uncongealed. Thus is the 
 smitten city rising again at New 
 Year's rising, as she fell, by fire. 
 
 The number of brick and stone 
 buildings in process of erection on the 
 first day of December, on each street 
 in the South Division, was as follows: 
 
 River street 
 
 8 
 
 Polk street 
 
 i 
 
 South Water street 
 
 12 
 
 Michigan avenue 
 
 3 
 
 Lake street 
 
 IO 
 
 Wabash avenue . 
 
 17 
 
 Randolph street . 
 
 6 
 
 State street 
 
 24 
 
 Washington street . 
 
 6 
 
 Dearborn street . 
 
 6 
 
 Madison street 
 
 29 
 
 Clark street 
 
 . 16 
 
 Monroe street . 
 
 26 
 
 La Salle street 
 
 4 
 
 Adams street 
 
 2 
 
 Fifth avenue . 
 
 . 6 
 
 Quincy street . 
 
 I 
 
 Franklin street 
 
 9 
 
 Jackson street 
 
 I 
 
 Market street . 
 
 3 
 
 Van Buren street 
 
 I 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 21 
 
 Harrison street 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 It is probable that a thousand stone 
 and brick buildings will be in process 
 of erection by May. 
 
 After the fire, the Board of Public 
 Works issued one -year permits for 
 wooden buildings, which virtually ab- 
 rogated the ordinance forbidding them 
 within prescribed limits. In four 
 weeks thereafter, the North Side 
 was covered with wooden buildings so 
 
 thickly that it was difficult to see across 
 the blocks, and a row of similar struc- 
 tures in the South Division soon 
 stretched along the hitherto unoccupied 
 Park, on the east side of Michigan 
 Avenue, a mile and a half, from the 
 river's mouth to Twelfth Street. Two 
 stories only were allowed, but some 
 became very capacious warehouses, 
 adapted to the largest demands of a 
 wholesale traffic. 
 
 The gravest peril of the city now 
 lies in the prolonged existence and 
 ceaseless multiplication of these com- 
 bustible piles of lumber. Fire limits 
 were prescribed by a timid Common 
 Council in the hour of its dissolution, 
 but the ordinance is openly violated in 
 every part of the city with perfect im- 
 punity. The first man has yet to be 
 arrested or annoyed for furnishing food 
 for the next great conflagration. It 
 would seem that Chicago could scarcely 
 afford an encore of the performance of 
 October 8-9; but a repetition of that 
 tragedy is just as certain to follow the 
 persistence in our clapboard and 
 shingle madness, as is any given effect 
 to succeed an adequate cause. 
 
 There is scarcely any city on the 
 continent so exposed to prolonged and 
 terrible winds as Chicago. Our con- 
 stant imminent menace is that au- 
 tumnal southwest hurricane which 
 sweeps up from the wide prairie to the 
 lake, eager to seize upon a spark and 
 nurse it into a conflagration. Let a 
 block get well on fire towards the 
 Stock Yards in some densely settled 
 locality, in the face of such a gale, and 
 all the apparatus of the fire department 
 must prove futile. Nothing but acres 
 of solid brick or stone buildings that 
 are virtually fire -proof can stop it. 
 
 W. A. Croffut.
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 PART IV. THE LOSSES.' 
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 THE extent of the devastation was 
 so great, and the wreck so wide- 
 spread, that a description of the area 
 burned over and of the pecuniary losses 
 entailed, can scarcely convey an idea 
 of its magnitude, more than a state- 
 ment of the distance of a fixed star 
 enables us to bridge the gulf between 
 it and the earth. And though we may 
 apply the measuring rod to the scene 
 of the carnage, and reduce into dollars 
 and cents the value of the property 
 destroyed, there are many and compre- 
 hensive losses not susceptible of a 
 pecuniary classification. There are 
 tens of thousands of material things 
 that elude the attempt to assign them 
 monetary worth ; much less can we fix 
 a value on the sum total of human 
 happiness lost and human life de- 
 stroyed by the dread visitation. 
 
 Grave difficulties exist, too, in the 
 way of ascertaining the extent of even 
 'the more tangible losses, though sev- 
 eral weeks have now elapsed since the 
 event. The destruction was so com- 
 plete that it not only obliterated the 
 property itself, but swept out of exist- 
 ence the records of its value and the 
 evidences of proprietorship. And in 
 the last - named fact we have another 
 most perplexing element introduced 
 into the previously complicated prob- 
 lem, which if not rightly treated would 
 involve us in the most inextricable con- 
 fusion. The loss of title to real or per- 
 sonal property does not necessarily in- 
 volve the loss of that property to the 
 community. What is lost to one in 
 this way, may be gained by another. 
 
 In this article we shall try to answer 
 the questions, What was burned up ? 
 and What was the amount of loss to 
 the community as a whole ? leaving 
 
 untouched the equalization of the nu- 
 merous differences arising between in- 
 dividuals as a result of the catastrophe. 
 Hence we make no allowance for the 
 loss of evidences of title or indebted- 
 ness, because those documents simply 
 indicate in whose hands the property 
 in question shall rest. Yet it would be 
 unfair to include bank notes under this 
 head, for, though really nothing but 
 certificates, they were actually accepted 
 and used as money, and it will be some 
 time before the place of those bills will 
 be supplied by others : though not in 
 existence, they are still recognized as 
 liabilities by the banks that issued 
 them. 
 
 For the same reason, we disregard 
 the item of insurance on property 
 burned. It was very consoling to the. 
 policy holder to find that he was in- 
 sured in companies that would pay a 
 hundred cents on the dollar. But this 
 only settled the question as to how 
 widely the loss should be distributed, 
 and who should bear it. In the case 
 of many of those who were the most 
 wealthy before the fire, the question 
 was even less important than this. 
 Their property was insured, but they 
 were also large stockholders in the in- 
 surance companies ; so that if the 
 insurance were good, it would simply 
 amount to an offset of one loss against 
 another. 
 
 Neither would it be fair to swell the 
 total with allowances for expenses in- 
 curred in caring for property during 
 the fire, or the increased cost of replac- 
 ing it, owing to the higher price of 
 labor and material ; because these in- 
 curred expenditures inure to the bene- 
 fit of the persons receiving the money, 
 which is not, therefore, lost to the com
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 59 
 
 munity. In regard to losses on the 
 rental of property, an allowance ought 
 probably to be made, but these are 
 largely counterbalanced on the general 
 account, by the enhanced rentals se- 
 cured on property not touched by the 
 fire. The most important allowance 
 in this direction will be that due to the 
 interruption to the trade and commerce 
 of the city the temporary suspension 
 of the productive energies of the 
 people. 
 
 The questions to be answered are, 
 then, How much property was de- 
 stroyed ? and What was the value of 
 the property consumed by the flames ? 
 
 In the West Division, where the fire 
 originated, the number of acres burned 
 over was 194, including sixteen acres 
 which were laid bare by the fire of the 
 previous evening. This district con- 
 tained 'about 500 buildings, inhabited 
 by 2,250 persons. These buildings 
 were generally of the poorer class, and 
 comprised a great many boarding- 
 houses, saloons, and minor hotels, with 
 a few factories. They were not of 
 much value, but were closely packed 
 together. This district contained also 
 several lumber and coal yards and 
 planing mills, one grain elevator, with 
 the union depot of the Pittsburg and 
 Fort Wayne, and the St. Louis Rail- 
 roads. This depot was much the least 
 valuable of all those destroyed. 
 
 The burned area in the South Divi- 
 sion comprised about 460 acres. With 
 the exception of the Lind Block, on 
 the river bank, between Randolph and 
 Lake Streets, it included all north of 
 an irregular line running diagonally 
 from the intersection of Polk Street 
 with the river, to the corner of Con- 
 gress Street and Michigan Avenue. 
 This district, though comparatively 
 small in extent, was by far the most 
 valuable in the city ; it was the very 
 heart and head of Chicago as a com- 
 mercial centre. It contained the great 
 majority of all those structures which 
 were at once costly in themselves, and 
 filled with the wealth of merchandise 
 that made the city the great emporium 
 
 of the Northwest. All the wholesale 
 stores of any considerable magnitude, 
 all the daily and weekly newspaper 
 offices, all the principal banks, the 
 leading hotels, many extensive factor- 
 ies (principally of clothing, boots and 
 shoes, and jewelry), all the offices of 
 insurance men, lawyers, produce bro- 
 kers, etc., the Custom House, Court 
 House, Chamber of Commerce, all the 
 principal public halls and places of 
 amusement, many coal yards, the 
 monster Central Railroad' Depot, with 
 its numerous buildings for the transac- 
 tion of business of the Illinois Cen- 
 tral, Michigan Central, and Chicago, 
 Burlington and Quincy Railroads, the 
 Central Elevator A, the Union Depot 
 of the Michigan Southern ( Lake 
 Shore), and Rock Island and Pacific 
 Railroads, many public storehouses, a 
 large number of fine residences on the 
 Avenues ; in short, the great bulk of 
 the wealth of the city was located in 
 this district. The 3,650 buildings de- 
 stroyed in the South Division included 
 i, 600 stores, twenty -eight hotels, and 
 sixty manufacturing establishments, 
 and were the homes of about 21,800 
 people. 
 
 In the North Division, the flames 
 swept not less than 1,470 acres, de- 
 stroying 13,300 buildings, the homes 
 of 74,450 people, and leaving but. 
 about 500 buildings unharmed. These 
 structures included more than 600 
 stores and 100 manufacturing estab- 
 lishments. Most of the latter were 
 situated in the southwest part of this 
 division, in a few blocks lying east of 
 Kinzie Street bridge ; but there were 
 also many on the north bank, towards 
 the lake shore, including McCor- 
 mick's Reaper factory, a sugar refinery, 
 box mills, etc. The lake shore, from 
 Chicago Avenue north, was lined with 
 breweries. The river banks were piled 
 high with lumber and coal, three grain 
 elevators stood near the fork of the 
 river, and near them the Galena depot, 
 its freight buildings further to the east 
 Many hotels and private storehouses 
 for produce and other property also
 
 6o 
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 existed in this neighborhood, and the 
 wholesale meat markets on Kinzie 
 Street were a busy centre of trade. 
 North Clark, Wells, and North and 
 Chicago Avenues, were principally oc- 
 cupied by retail stores. The region 
 south of the Water Works and east of 
 Clark Street was at one time the most 
 aristocratic part of the city. It con- 
 tained a great number of fine buildings, 
 occupied principally by the earliest 
 settlers or their families. This district 
 included many churches, the Rush 
 Medical College, the Historical Society 
 building, with its treasures, etc. Out- 
 side of this section the buildings in the 
 North Division had been, till recently, 
 of the poorer class ; but the establish- 
 ment of Lincoln Park, and the closing 
 of the old cemetery, had caused a radi- 
 cal change in this respect within the 
 five years preceding the fire. A large 
 number of very fine residences had 
 been erected in the neighborhood of 
 the Park, and a great improvement 
 was apparent in the architecture of the 
 whole North Division, except one or 
 two small sections, which seemed to 
 have been tacitly given up to poverty 
 and its accompaniments. 
 
 The total area burned over in the 
 city, including streets, was 2,124 acres, 
 or nearly three and one -third square 
 miles. This area contained about 73 
 miles of streets, and 17,450 buildings, 
 the homes of 98,500 people. The fol- 
 lowing were some of the most important 
 structures burned : 
 
 Among Public Buildings were, the 
 Court House, consisting of a central 
 portion erected in 1853 and enlarged 
 in 1857, and two wings, each 80 by 130 
 feet, and three stories high besides the 
 basement ; a handsome stone structure, 
 costing altogether about $1,100,000. 
 The Custom House and Post Office, 
 erected in 1858-9, by the General Gov- 
 ernment, cost $650,000. The Chamber 
 of Commerce, erected in 1864-5 at a 
 cost of #235,000, besides a building on 
 the south used for offices, the total cost 
 being $384,000. The principal building 
 was constructed of Athens marble, and 
 
 covered an area of 91 by 180 feet ; the 
 basement and first floor were occupied 
 by banks, insurance offices, and promi- 
 nent produce dealers. Above these 
 was the Exchange Hall, 88 by 143 
 feet, with a 44 - foot ceiling, in which 
 the 1,250 members ot the Board of 
 Trade used to transact business. With 
 these we may note the city property 
 other than the Court House ; the Ar- 
 mory, Huron - st. and Larrabee - st. 
 police stations, five fire-engine houses, 
 several hook and ladder buildings, and 
 eight bridges ($200,000). The public 
 schools burned were the Jones, Kinzie, 
 Franklin, Ogden, Pearson -st., Elm- st., 
 LaSalle- st., and North Branch schools, 
 with several adjunct buildings. 
 
 The railroad property destroyed in- 
 cluded the Central Depot, at the foot of 
 Lake Street, with several other build- 
 ings, occupied as offices for the Illinois 
 Central Land Department, the Michi- 
 gan Central and Chicago, Burlington 
 & Quincy general offices and freight 
 depots, besides which the dockage of 
 the Illinois Central Railroad Company 
 was considerably damaged ; the depot 
 of the Rock Island and Michigan 
 Southern Railroads, the Galena depot, 
 and some wooden structures belonging 
 to the West Side Union depot. 
 
 The Grain Elevators burned were, 
 the Central A, National, Galena, Hi- 
 ram Wheeler's, and the Munger and 
 Armour. These contained 1,642,000 
 bushels of grain. Considerable quan- 
 tities of grain were also burned up in 
 several smaller warehouses (private) in 
 the North Division. 
 
 The halls, theatres, etc., included the 
 Opera House, built in 1864, with Beet- 
 hoven Hall, in the State Street front ; 
 Farwell Hall, the home of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association ; Metro- 
 politan Hall Block, occupied by the 
 Young Men's Library Association ; the 
 Museum Block; McVicker's Theatre, 
 rebuilt in 1871, and reopened only a 
 short time before the fire ; Dearborn 
 Street Theatre ; Hooley Aiken's 
 Opera House, on the former site of 
 Bryan Hall; Academy of Design;
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 61 
 
 Olympic Theatre ; German Theatre ; 
 and Turner Hall. 
 
 The Hotels burned included the 
 Sherman, Trcmont, Bigelow, Palmer, 
 Briggs, Adams, Metropolitan, St. 
 
 Matteson, City, Clifton, Hatch, Ander- 
 son's, Burke's, Central, Eagle, Eu- 
 ropean, Everett, Garden City, Girard, 
 Hess, Orient, Schall's, Hotel Garni, 
 Howard, Hutchinson's, New York, 
 
 James, Revere, Nevada, Massasoit, Washington, and Wright's. 
 
 THE PALMER HOUSE. 
 
 The daily newspaper buildings were 
 those occupied by the Tribune ; Times ; 
 Journal ; Republican ; Staats Zcitung, 
 and Post ; Mail, and Union , and Volks 
 Zeitung. The offices of THE LAKESIDE 
 MONTHLY were in the Tribune Build- 
 ing. 
 
 The list of church property burned is 
 an extensive one ; it comprises the fol- 
 lowing: Baptist North, Second, Ger- 
 
 man and Swedish, North Star, and 
 Lincoln Park Mission. Congregational 
 New England and Lincoln Park. 
 Episcopal Ascension, St. Ansgarius, 
 St. James, and Trinity. Jewish North 
 Side, Sinai, Kehilath Benai Sholom, 
 and Hospital. Methodist Episcopal 
 First (business block), Grace, Van Bu- 
 ren Street, Clybournc Avenue, First 
 Scandinavian, Bethel 'colored), Ouinn's
 
 62 
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 (colored), and $85,000 worth of Garret 
 Biblical Institute property. Scandina- 
 vian Lutheran First Norwegian, and 
 Swedish. Presbyterian First, and 
 Mission, Fourth, Bremer Street Mission, 
 Erie Street Mission, and Clybourne 
 Avenue Mission. Roman Catholic 
 Holy Name, St. Mary's, Immaculate 
 Conception, St. Michael's, St. Joseph's, 
 St. Louis', St. Paul's, Convents of Sisters 
 of Mercy and Good Shepherd, St. Jo- 
 seph's Orphan Asylum, Christian Broth- 
 ers' College, Alexian Hospital, and 
 Bishop's Palace. Swedenborgian 
 Temple, and North Mission. Unitarian 
 Unity. Illinois Street Mission, and 
 Mariners' Bethel. 
 
 Among business blocks the following 
 were the most prominent, each being 
 worth $50.000 or over : Arcade, on 
 Clark, near Madison ; " Booksellers 
 Row," on State, near Madison ; Bow- 
 en's, on Randolph, near Michigan 
 Avenue ; Bryan, corner of La Salle and 
 Monroe ; Burch's, on Lake, near Wa- 
 bash Avenue ; City National Bank ; 
 Cobb's, corner of Lake and Michigan 
 Avenue ; Commercial Building, corner 
 of La Salle and Lake ; Commercial 
 Insurance Company's, on Washington, 
 near La Salle ; Depository, on Ran 
 dolph, near La Salle ; Dickey's, corner 
 of Dearborn and Lake ; Drake & Far- 
 well, corner of Wabash Avenue and 
 
 DRAKE AND FARWELL BLOCK. 
 
 Washington ; Ewing, on North Clark, 
 near Kinzie ; Exchange Bank, corner 
 Lake and Clark ; First National Bank, 
 corner State and Washington ; Fuller- 
 ton, corner Washington and Dearborn ; 
 Field, Leiter & Co. (Palmer's), corner 
 
 State and Washington ; Honore (two), 
 on Dearborn, near Monroe ; Illinois 
 State Savings, on La Salle, near Wash- 
 ington ; Keep's, on Clark, near Madi- 
 son ; Kent's, on Monroe, near La Salle ; 
 Link's, corner Lake and La Salle ;
 
 REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. 
 
 Lill's Brewery ; Lloyd's, corner Ran- 
 dolph and Wells; Lombard, corner 
 Monroe and Custom House Place ; 
 McCormick's, corner Lake and Michi- 
 gan Avenue ; McCormick's, corner 
 Randolph and Dearborn ; McCormick's 
 Reaper Factory, near Rush Street 
 bridge ; Magic's, corner La Salle and 
 Randolph ; Major, corner Madison and 
 La Salle ; Marine Bank, corner Lake 
 and La Salle ; Masonic, on Dearborn, 
 near Washington ; Mechanics', on 
 Washington, near La Salle ; Mercan- 
 tile, on La Salle, near Washington ; 
 Merchants' Insurance Company, cor- 
 ner Washington and La Salle ; Monroe, 
 corner Clark and Monroe ; Morrison, 
 on Clark, near Monroe ; Newberry, 
 corner Wells and Kinzie ; Newhouse, 
 on South Water, near Fifth Avenue ; 
 Oriental, on La Salle, near Washington ; 
 Otis, corner Madison and La Salle ; 
 Pope's (two), Madison, near Clark ; 
 Portland, corner Dearborn and Wash- 
 ington ; Purple's, corner Clark and 
 Ontario ; Raymond's, corner State and 
 Madison ; Republic Life Insurance 
 Company, corner La Salle and Arcade 
 Court ; Reynolds, corner Dearborn and 
 Madison ; Rice's, on Dearborn, near 
 Randolph ; Scammon, corner Ran- 
 dolph and Michigan Avenue ; Shep- 
 hard's, on Dearborn, near Monroe; 
 Smith & Nixon's, corner Washington 
 and Clark ; Speed's, on Dearborn, near 
 Madison ; Steele's, corner La Salle and 
 South Water ; Sands' Brewery ; Tur- 
 ner's, corner State and Kinzie ; Tyler's, 
 on La Salle, near South Water ; Uhlich's, 
 on Clark, near Kinzie ; Walker's, on 
 Dearborn, near Couch Place ; Wicker, 
 corner State and South Water. 
 
 The following valuation of losses 
 was prepared by the writer for Colbert 
 & Chamberlin's " History of Chicago 
 and the Great Conflagration ": 
 
 BUILDINGS. 
 
 Eighty business blocks, enumerated, - f, 8,515,000 
 Railroad depots, warehouses, and Board 
 of Trade, - - - - 2,700,030 
 
 Hotels, ------- 3,100,000 
 
 Theatres, etc., - 865,030 
 
 Daily newspapers ("offices and buildings), 888,000 
 One hundred other business buildings, 1,008,420 
 Other taxable buildings, ... 28,880,000 
 
 Churches and contents, 
 Pub'.ic Schools and contents, 
 Other public buildings, not taxed, 
 Other public property (streets, etc.), 
 
 Total, - ... 
 
 PRODUCE, ETC. 
 
 Flour, 1 5 ,000 barrels , - 
 
 Grain - 
 
 Provisions (4,400,000 Ibs), - 
 
 Lumber, - 
 
 Coal, - 
 
 Other produce, 
 
 Total produce, - 
 
 2,989,000 
 
 249,780 
 
 3,121,800 
 
 - 1,763,000 
 
 ^53,000,000 
 
 $ 97,5oo 
 
 1,245,000 
 
 340,000 
 
 1,040,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 i ,940,000 
 
 ^5,262,500 
 
 BUSINESS WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. 
 
 Dry goods, - $ 13,500,000 
 
 Drugs , - i ,000,000 
 
 Boots, shoes, leather, etc., - - 5,175,000 
 
 Hardware, iron, and other metals, 4,510,000 
 
 Groceries and teas, - 4,120,000 
 
 Wholesale clothing, 3,650,000 
 
 Jewelry, etc., 1,300,000 
 
 Musical Instruments, etc., - - 900,000 
 
 Books on sale, 1,145,000 
 
 Millinery, 1,610,000 
 
 Hats, caps, and furs, - 1,060,000 
 
 Wholesale paper stock, - - - 700,000 
 
 Shipping and dredges, - 800,000 
 Manufactures (stock, machinery, and 
 
 product), 13,255,000 
 
 Other stocks, and business furniture, 25,975,000 
 
 Total Business loss, - - - $78, 700,000 
 
 PERSONAL EFFECTS. 
 
 Household property, - $ 41,000,000 
 
 Manuscript work (records, etc.), - 10,000,000 
 
 Libraries, public and private - - 2,010,000 
 
 Money lost (Custom House $2,130,000), 5,700,000 
 
 Total personal effects - - $58, 710,000 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 Improvements (buildings, etc.), - $ 53,000,000 
 
 Produce, etc., 5,262,500 
 
 Manufactures, ----- 13,255,000 
 
 Other business property, 65,445,000 
 
 Personal effects, - 58,710,000 
 
 Miscellaneous, - 378,000 
 
 Grand total, - $196,000,000 
 
 In the first table the contents of 
 churches and schools and of news- 
 paper offices are included in the foot- 
 ing of #53,000,000. Placing these 
 where they belong, we shall have the 
 following distribution of loss : 
 
 On Buildings, etc., - - $ 52,000,000 
 
 On Business Property (besides bldgs.), 85,000,000 
 On Personal Effects, ... 59,000,000 
 
 Total burned, 
 
 - $196,000,000 
 
 On this there was a salvage of about
 
 6 4 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 $4,000,000 in foundations, and bricks 
 available for re-building, making the 
 actual loss $192,000,000. 
 
 The assessed value of the land in 
 the city, just previous to the fire, was 
 $176,931,900, which was about sixty 
 per cent, of the actual cash value. 
 Hence the real value of the land within 
 the city limits was $294,836,000. On 
 this we estimate an average deprecia- 
 tion of about thirty per cent, since the 
 fire, though much of this can be but 
 temporary. This gives a loss of $88,- 
 000,000 on the selling value of real 
 estate in consequence of the fire. 
 
 Even yet the total of loss is not com- 
 plete. We must allow for the inter- 
 ruption of business and manufacturing 
 operations. This would average about 
 six weeks, or one -eighth part of the 
 whole vear. We estimate that the tire 
 
 diminished the receipts of the city to 
 the extent of $50,000,000 worth of 
 goods, which interrupted business to 
 the extent of $125,000,000 worth of 
 trading, at wholesale and retail. The 
 very moderate estimate of eight per 
 cent, profit would give a further loss 
 of $10,000,000, and we shall then have 
 the following as the exhibit : 
 
 On Property burned up, - - $192,000,000 
 
 On depreciation of Real Estate - 88,000,000 
 
 On interruption to business, - 10,000,000 
 
 Grand total, - $290,000,000 
 
 We estimate the value of property 
 in the city the day before the fire, real 
 and personal, taxed and untaxed, at 
 $620,000,000. The loss by the fire 
 was, therefore, nearly forty -seven per 
 cent, of the whole of the property 
 owned in Chica"o. Ellas Colbert. 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 
 
 DURING the terrible Monday, to 
 the question, " In what company 
 are you insured ?" the uniform answer 
 was, " It makes no difference now ; in- 
 surance is worthless." That was the 
 almost universal feeling. Gradually 
 the sober second thought came, and 
 men began to hope. The distrust of 
 insurance companies was not a con- 
 viction, it was rather a part of the 
 general smoke. As soon as men be- 
 gan to reason, the rays of hope began 
 to shine. It was seen at once that all 
 underwriters had some assets, and 
 every one must pay in full or be put 
 into the hands of a receiver. Suffer- 
 ers then began to cast about, to look 
 up their papers if not destroyed, and 
 if they were to ask if they could not 
 be restored. And so by degrees this 
 second stage of uncertainty gave way 
 to definite knowledge of what to expect. 
 A bird's-eye view of the situation 
 showed that insurance was good, as a 
 rule, in proportion as it was a good 
 ways from home. The foreign risks of 
 
 Chicago amounted to only $6,000,000. 
 Those were all " placed " originally in 
 a few very heavy English companies. 
 Then, too, it is the custom across the 
 water to distribute risks among neigh- 
 boring companies. But even without 
 this prudent system of distribution, all 
 those policies would have been paid, 
 dollar for dollar. It was equally ob- 
 vious at a glance that home insurance 
 was next to worthless ; that every com- 
 pany doing any considerable amount 
 of home business had vastly larger 
 losses than capital. One home com- 
 pany, the Great Western, was an 
 exception, owing to its youth ; and 
 another, the American, escaped the 
 general crash because it had no local 
 risks. Still another, the Republic, after 
 being in a peculiar " dead and alive " 
 condition for several weeks, finally an- 
 nounced that its losses would be paid 
 in full an assessment upon its stock- 
 holders having been made to supply 
 the deficiency between its assets and 
 losses by the fire. With these excep-
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 tions, all home companies went down 
 in the common wreck. 
 
 The following table shows the aggre- 
 gate loss of the companies by States, 
 the number of companies in each 
 State, and the number suspended : 
 
 TOTAL 
 LOSSES 
 
 \O CO * O IOOO f ^ fO O Ox w 0* M 
 
 i-" ^- * " ro d\ " M" 
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 c* \r> 
 
 ** 
 
 
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 CO O t^^O O Ox O ^OO \O ^t" " CO u-. in 
 
 "8 
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 i 
 
 SO OxOO in O 1^ CO N I^\C ox cr > M *-t 
 
 dx 
 
 * - 
 
 8 
 
 K9. 
 
 
 
 'A 
 
 
 ysllJ^ii !? 
 
 5 ' 
 
 AGGREG/ 
 CAFITA 
 
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 O "^00 u^ N ^" M \ON-' ri ^ 
 
 % 
 
 OX 
 
 ox 
 t^ 
 
 * 
 
 4O "OS 
 
 ? &S *!? SEES* *""" 
 
 ro 
 
 STATE. 
 
 s 
 i-a ? -I 
 
 2 -sP -2.1>.l^fl -S2S 
 
 > lllifpSJlalP 
 g| 1 ill !* 1111.11 Is 
 
 zoSiSSS-j^^'-j^s^sz 
 
 ai 
 
 D 
 
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 3 ci 
 
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 r^ JH 
 
 The failure of the Prince Albert of 
 London, a few years ago, and of the 
 Home of Hartford, shook public con- 
 fidence in distant companies. The 
 general feeling was, in Chicago at least, 
 that a home company was safer be- 
 cause its affairs were open to full inspec- 
 tion. The adoption of our present 
 system of State supervision, by the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of 1868-69, strength- 
 ened the confidence in all fire risks. 
 
 It is always easy to find fault, and 
 after any great disaster point out blun- 
 ders. Much unjust censure has been 
 heaped upon Chicago insurance com- 
 panies. No one is to blame for not 
 anticipating such a sweeping conflag- 
 ration, and our companies were quite 
 as sound as the average of the three 
 hundred and thirty- five in the country. 
 They all have manifold greater liabili- 
 ties than capital. If they did not, 
 there would be no profit in the business. 
 The underwriting system is based upon 
 the supposition that it is safe to have 
 
 about thirty dollars of risks to one dol- 
 lar of capital. The losses of United 
 States companies by this one fire ex- 
 ceed their aggregate 'capital by nearly 
 $8,000,000; and eighty -seven of them 
 were not affected at all, and only fifty- 
 seven have suspended. The grand 
 mistake made was in taking such vast 
 risks in one city. A great conflagra- 
 tion is always possible ; and had the 
 Chicago fire been one -tenth its actual 
 proportions, it would have been no 
 less fatal to our local companies. Home 
 policies are the least desirable of any, 
 because the flames which destroy the 
 property insured may destroy the assets 
 of the insurer. Hartford is the in- 
 surance capital of the country ; and it 
 is noticeable that while the entire losses 
 of Connecticut were only $9,325,000, 
 those of New York were $21,637,500, 
 and those of Illinois foot up $33,- 
 878,000. The policy of distribution 
 seems to have been adopted by the 
 older companies before this latest and 
 plainest lesson was given. 
 
 The especial insurance lesson of the 
 Great Fire is this : Distribute risks. If 
 one city can burn up, any city can. In 
 no one place should a company assume 
 liabilities beyond its power to pay, in 
 case of a general conflagration. State 
 legislation should guard against this 
 grand mistake of our insurance system 
 as at present conducted. 
 
 The solicitude in regard to the in- 
 surance companies was absolute indif- 
 ference in comparison with the anxiety 
 about the banks. There are twenty - 
 seven of these institutions in Chicago, 
 counting only those belonging to the 
 Clearing House Association. In what 
 condition their vaults would be found, 
 no one could tell ; and in most cases 
 the valuables were all stored in those 
 repositories. It was known that the 
 vaults of the Court House and Custom 
 House were not fire proof, and the 
 wildest rumors were rife about this and 
 that bank. For several days the heat 
 was so intense that no examination 
 was possible. That was a terrible sus-
 
 66 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 pense. All the buildings and goods 
 destroyed were of less value than the 
 currency, notes, bonds, bills of ex- 
 change, and other papers, in the vaults 
 of those twenty- seven banks. Squads 
 of soldiers guarded them day and 
 night. In the meanwhile the bankers 
 met to discuss the situation. A com- 
 mittee- was appointed to draw up a 
 programme. The President of one 
 National Bank stood alone in simply 
 saying, " Gentlemen, there is only one 
 way : go ahead as usual, paying dollar 
 for dollar. If we cannot do that, we 
 must wind up." The others were either 
 silent, or said, " Even if our vaults are 
 all right, we cannot pay in full at 
 once." The committee agreed upon 
 recommending that they should re- 
 sume by paying an instalment of twen- 
 ty-five per cent. When that report 
 was made, the president of another 
 bank a man whose wealth was reck- 
 oned by millions protested that the 
 figure was too high, and insisted upon 
 its reduction to ten per cent. The 
 final agreement was upon fifteen per 
 cent. The Comptroller of the Cur- 
 rency at Washington, Hon. H. R. Hurl- 
 burd, at once telegraphed to the Na- 
 tional Banks to await his arrival before 
 resuming. He arrived on the Satur- 
 day following the fire. By that time 
 the vaults had been opened, and all 
 but one bank was unscathed. The 
 only exception was the Merchants 
 Savings Loan and Trust Company ; 
 and it was only the account -books of 
 that bank which perished. On Sun- 
 day the Comptroller met the bankers, 
 and the whole subject was discussed. 
 That official insisted that the true policy 
 was to resume in full. In this opinion 
 he was inflexible. His ultimatum was 
 that if any National Bank failed to 
 resume in full as early as three o'clock 
 of the following Tuesday, he should 
 put a receiver in charge of its affairs. 
 The consequence was that every bank 
 announced that it would resume busi- 
 ness as usual, Tuesday, October lyth. 
 
 The effect of bank resumption was 
 more than magical. Not a single bank- 
 
 ing house in all Chicago, small or great, 
 failed. The solvency of our banks 
 was the first positive assurance the 
 country had that Chicago would rise 
 from her ruins. Talk is cheap, whether 
 of the tongue or the types. What the 
 press said needed the substantial in- 
 dorsement of the banks. Board of 
 Trade circulars, mercantile encylicals, 
 and all that sort of thing, were useful , 
 but the leverage of finance was indis- 
 pensable to raise the fallen prestige of 
 desolated Chicago, and convince the 
 world that the City of Ashes had vital- 
 ity enough to recover itself. 
 
 There were two things accomplished 
 by the bank policy : First, the capital 
 and capacity already here were induced 
 to remain ; no business deserted the 
 city ; it was only the flies upon the 
 coach wheel which flew off; stalwart 
 men took heart, and nerved themselves 
 for the work of reconstruction. Sec- 
 ond, outside capital and enterprise 
 were drawn hither at once ; and the 
 men who came here did not come as 
 wreckers to pick up the waifs of the 
 storm, but, hopeful for Chicago's fu- 
 ture, they came to cast in their fortunes 
 with its regeneration, by aiding to 
 repair the ravages of the fire. 
 
 In looking back at this terrible or- 
 deal, the close observer sees that it was 
 a severe test of the soundness of our 
 National Bank system. In 1857, the 
 failure of one bank in Cincinnati 
 brought our whole monetary institu- 
 tions to the brink of ruin ; and a host 
 of them actually passed over the cata- 
 ract and were lost. There was a fatal 
 defect in the system. It was an arch 
 without a key -stone. One of the loose 
 bricks gone, and the whole pile fell. 
 Now we have a system so compact that 
 it can stand any conceivable shock. 
 The fire test of last October was 
 severer than any " hard times." We 
 need have no fears hereafter that our 
 financial system will come crashing 
 down upon us. Whatever else may 
 befall, we may dismiss all apprehen- 
 sion of such a disaster. The real se- 
 cret of the solvency of our banks is
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 67 
 
 that our monetary interests are so indis- 
 solubly interlinked, that a common 
 necessity was bound to hold them up. 
 
 Of the public buildings destroyed, 
 one of the most important was the 
 Water Works, which was one of the 
 first points on the North Side reached 
 by the fire. The wind was in exactly 
 the right direction to cover the roof of 
 that structure with cinders. The mas- 
 sive walls were fire - proof, but the roof 
 was of " composition," tar, gravel, and 
 paper. The direct damage sustained 
 was $200,000 ; but the indirect was 
 vast beyond computation. It cut off 
 our water supply, and thus rendered 
 our fire department useless. Some 
 buildings in the heart of business 
 would otherwise have been saved. The 
 terrible anxiety of the fire week was 
 largely due to the fact that the usual 
 means for stopping a conflagration 
 were powerless. Not making the build- 
 ing which sheltered the Water Works' 
 engines absolutely fire -proof, was a 
 monstrous blunder. 
 
 The city lost no less than one hun- 
 dred and twenty and three - fourths 
 miles of sidewalk, to replace which 
 would cost at least $1,000,000. It is to 
 be hoped that a fire -proof material 
 will be used in the future. The Nicolson 
 pavement suffered but slight damage. 
 
 The total loss to our Public School 
 department amounts to $502,600, of 
 which $297,800 represents the value of 
 reference books, libraries, etc., on which 
 there was no insurance. Of the build- 
 ings destroyed, two, the Kinzie and 
 Jones, were very old and dilapitated, 
 and would soon have been torn down 
 to give place to better structures. The 
 following is the list : 
 
 SCHOOLS. LOCATION. 
 
 Jones, . Cor. Harrison and Clark, 
 
 Kinzie, . Cor. Ohio and La Salle, . 
 
 Franklin, Cor. Division and Sedgwick, 
 
 Ogden, . Pearson near Dearborn. 
 
 Pearson, . Cor. Pearson and Market. 
 
 Elm, . Cor. Elm and North State, . 
 
 La Salle, . Cor. La Salle and North Ave. 
 N. Branch, Vedder, near Halsted . 
 
 Value of buildings. 
 Value of libraries, etc., . . 
 
 Total, . 
 
 VALUE. 
 $ 9,OOO 
 16,800 
 73.OOO 
 35.OOO 
 12,250 
 12,750 
 , 23,000 
 23,000 
 
 $204,800 
 297,800 
 
 $502,600 
 
 The Fire Engine and Police Station 
 losses figure up $196,350. There were 
 seven bridges burnt. Instead of rebuild- 
 ing them, there should be tunnels ex- 
 cavated in some cases if not in all. In 
 a thrbnged city, a swing -bridge is an 
 insufferable nuisance, and should give 
 place as soon as possible to a tunnel. 
 
 By far the greatest loss of the city 
 and county was the Court House. 
 That massive piece of botch -work, 
 with its two wings, was a sham ; and 
 could its contents only have been 
 saved, the loss of the building itself 
 would not have been deplored. It will 
 it is thought take about $2,000,000 to 
 erect such a structure as the needs of 
 the county and city require. The Gen- 
 eral Assembly, at its Fire Session, con- 
 vened by the Governor immediately 
 after 5 the conflagration, assumed the 
 debt contracted by Chicago in the con- 
 struction of the Illinois and Michigan 
 Canal, amounting to nearly three mill- 
 ions of dollars it being stipulated 
 that the money should go to rebuild 
 the Court House and other public 
 structures. To this proposition there 
 was no hostility whatever in the Legis- 
 lature or the press of the State. 
 
 As even the Court House vaults were 
 a sham, the incalculably valuable re- 
 cords of the city and county were de- 
 stroyed. The loss of those archives 
 was a disaster which no human intel- 
 lect can so much as apprehend, not to 
 say comprehend. There were the 
 official records of all the real estate 
 transfers in Cook County ; of all the 
 mortgages on real and personal prop 
 erty ; the archives of all the courts, 
 including the papers on unfinished 
 probate business; the official minutes 
 of the proceedings and final actions 
 of all county and city legislation. In 
 fine, everything of a public document- 
 ary character which was in the keep- 
 ing of the city or the county, went to 
 feed the ravenous flames. 
 
 The greatest immediate evil is the 
 delay in settling probate business, and 
 the utter impossibility of proving many- 
 valid claims in favor of heirs. The
 
 68 
 
 COAfMERClAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 irretrievable loss to widows and orphans 
 will be millions. In ordinary judicial 
 proceedings, old cases will, if renewed 
 at all, have to be conducted largely 
 upon equity principles and in accord- 
 ance with chancery practice. It is safe 
 to say that fully one -half the cases on 
 the several dockets at the time of the 
 
 fire will never be renewed. Litigation 
 will gradually extricate itself from the 
 present dilemma; and it is quite likely 
 that the average result, except in pro- 
 bate business, will be as equitable as it 
 would have been had the records been 
 preserved. At least there is no general 
 solicitude on that score. 
 
 THE COURT HOUSE. 
 
 The loss of the official records of 
 deeds and mortgages was appalling. 
 The great value of a city is its real 
 estate. The ground of the burnt district 
 is to-day worth hardly less than all the 
 property destroyed. To unsettle titles 
 would be terrible. Indeed, the city 
 would not rise again had that actually 
 occurred. But, fortunately, there are 
 three complete unofficial abstracts of 
 records which were preserved. To look 
 up titles in the records as kept by the 
 county would have been a very tedious 
 job. To economise time, private enter- 
 
 prise had made out abstracts of all 
 those official records, from which any 
 one could in a short time find out the 
 validity of any given title. So reliable 
 are those abstracts that it was very 
 rare for any one to go beyond them 
 in the investigation of a real estate 
 title. Practically, therefore, we have 
 left a complete chain of evidence to 
 prove even- land title in the county 
 which was unclouded before the fire. 
 These books are the salvation of Chi- 
 cago. Had they been destroyed, titles 
 could not be substantiated without the
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 69 
 
 delay of a chancery trial, and in the 
 meanwhile building operations would 
 have been suspended and commerce 
 would have sped away to other local- 
 ities. As it is, it only remains to pur- 
 chase or, if the owners value them 
 too highly, " condemn" under the 
 State's sovereign right of eminent do- 
 main, all those records ; through a 
 competent commission compare them 
 and make out a certified copy, and 
 then legalize, or make official, said cer- 
 tified copy. In that way the loss can 
 be retrieved and the peril of insecure 
 real estate titles be averted. 
 
 The Water Works was one of the first 
 public buildings reached by the fire, the 
 Custom House the last. The former 
 was farthest from the origin of the fire, 
 the latter nearest. All the United 
 States officials in Chicago had offices 
 in that building, except the Pension 
 Agent, the Internal Revenue Assessor, 
 the Register in Bankruptcy, and the 
 Steamboat Inspector. The third floor 
 was wholly given up to the judiciary. 
 All the official papers of both the Cir- 
 cuit and District Courts, and of the U. 
 S. District Attorney, and of the Mar- 
 shal, were destroyed. Nothing was 
 taken from that floor, and everything 
 was a total wreck. Fortunately, Judges 
 Drummond and Blodgett have both 
 been in the habit of making out ab- 
 stracts of all the cases tried before them, 
 which they forwarded to Washington. 
 These will be of great service in straight- 
 ening out federal court business. The 
 official papers in the office of Judge 
 Hibbard, the Register in Bankruptcy, 
 wore a very serious loss. Congress will 
 probably pass a measure for bringing 
 order of the chaos of the federal judici- 
 ary business at Chicago. 
 
 The second floor of this building was 
 mainly devoted to impost business. 
 The Collector of the Port, Hon. Jas. E. 
 McLean, had general charge of the 
 whole building, and besides the tariff 
 affairs was custodian of the federal 
 funds at Chicago. At the time of the 
 fire he had in his keeping $400,000 in 
 coin and $i ,800,000 in currency. There 
 
 were vaults on the second floor which 
 were supposed to be absolutely fire - 
 proof. In them all these moneys were 
 stored. They also contained all the 
 books and accounts of the office, besides 
 private papers and memoranda of the 
 employes and attaches of the establish- 
 ment, the actual value of which will 
 depend largely upon the honesty of the 
 various debtors. 
 
 When the debris was cleared away, 
 nothing remained but charred ruins. 
 The coin was found to be fused, and 
 had to be forwarded to the Philadelphia 
 mint for re -coinage. The Collector of 
 Internal Revenue had his office on the 
 same floor. The actual loss from the 
 destruction of his papers will be slight, 
 as nearly all of importance had been 
 duplicated and the duplicates sent to 
 Washington. The same is true of the 
 Assessor's papers. An act of Congress 
 will be necessary to relieve both col- 
 lectors of balances standing against 
 them on the books at Washington, it 
 being the practice of the Treasury De- 
 partment to charge the collection of all 
 taxes, internal and impost, to the Col- 
 lectors. The passage of such an act 
 will hardly meet any opposition, as the 
 honesty and efficiency of both collec- 
 tion offices are undisputed. 
 
 The number of vessel arrivals at the 
 port of Chicago annually exceed those 
 of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
 New Orleans, San Francisco, Mobile, 
 and Savannah combined. The amount 
 of bills of sale, ship mortgages, and 
 general evidences of vessel property, 
 which were recorded upon the books of 
 this Custom House, were consequently 
 immense. Their destruction will entail 
 upon the owners a vast deal of trouble, 
 although the duplicates forwarded to 
 Washington will be of incalculable use 
 in straightening out these tangles. 
 There was, however, the period of three 
 months just previous to the fire, the 
 transactions of which had not been re- 
 ported. 
 
 The first floor and the basement of 
 the Custom House were wholly given 
 up to the postal service. As there is
 
 7 o 
 
 COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 always a corps of workmen in that de- 
 partment, day and night, and mail 
 teams in stables near by, if not on the 
 spot, the letters of which there were 
 probably no less than 150,000 in the 
 building were all taken out and carted 
 to a place of safety. It is due to the 
 postal service to add that although the 
 Postmaster, Hon. F. A. Eastman, was 
 himself a victim of the fire, as well as 
 one hundred of the three hundred men 
 in his employ, he and they made the 
 public interest supreme, and in an in- 
 credibly short space of tune had the 
 machinery of the mails in good running 
 order, making up and distributing let- 
 ters with almost the usual promptness. 
 It is a remarkable fact that in a vast 
 number of cases friends at a distance 
 received letters from Chicago before 
 they did the telegram of the same date. 
 Had it not been for the Gre. t Fire, the 
 completeness of our postal machinery 
 and the efficiency of this branch of the 
 service would not have been appreci- 
 ated by the public. The letter-carrier 
 system was eminently useful hi facilitat- 
 ing business. On the old system of 
 box deliver)-, postal business would have 
 been hopelessly confused. 
 
 We have said that the State will vir- 
 tually be at the expense of rebuilding 
 the Court House. The United States 
 will of course erect another Custom 
 House. The old structure was alto- 
 gether too small to meet the demands 
 of federal business at this centre. The 
 old site must be enlarged, and a build- 
 ing put up that shall be commensurate 
 xvith the importance of the city. Every 
 federal office should be under its roof. 
 The expense will be a very small item, 
 as compared with the means at com- 
 mand. It is expected that Congress 
 will early pass an appropriation for the 
 purchase of additional ground and the 
 erection of a suitable building. The 
 old one really had hardly room enough, 
 all told, for the Post Office alone, or for 
 the Custom House proper. For mail 
 distribution, Chicago is second only to 
 New York ; and its growing importance 
 as a port of entry may be inferred from 
 
 the fact that the receipts of coin duty 
 during last September were three hun- 
 dred per cent, greater than they were 
 during the corresponding period of 1 870. 
 There are two reasons for this the 
 establishment of a line of steamers run- 
 ning in connection with ocean steamers 
 at Montreal, by which imports come 
 through without the vexatious delay 
 attending shipments by way of New 
 York ; and the passage of the direct 
 importation act of July 14, 1870. The 
 fire has not lessened our imports. On 
 the contrary, the receipts of customs 
 since the great calamity have been 
 larger than ever. 
 
 At present the High School Buildings, 
 located in the West Division, are made 
 to take the place of the Court House, 
 so far as possible. The federal offices 
 are all located in the South Division, as 
 near as possible to the centre of the city. 
 The Custom House proper is at Con- 
 gress Hall where it will probably remain 
 until the erection of the new Custom 
 House. The Wabash Avenue Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church, on the southern 
 edge of the burnt district, has been 
 fitted up for the Post Office. It will 
 doubtless be three or four years before 
 it will return to its old locality. 
 
 Chicago has had enough of huge 
 tinder boxes. There is such a thing 
 as absolutely fire -proof building struc- 
 tures, and such without doubt even- one 
 of our new public buildings will be. 
 Then they will stand the shock of con- 
 flagration, let the flames rage never so 
 fiercely, and hold fast their sacred 
 trusts against the most desperate bur- 
 glary of fire. 
 
 Hardly had the rills and rivers of 
 charity began to flood our city, when 
 landsharks put in an appearance, offer- 
 ing to buy real estate at " fire prices." 
 Dealers also advertised to sell at " fire 
 prices. " The first class went away 
 without investing, and the offers of the 
 latter class were mere pretence. After 
 careful investigation, we are satisfied 
 that in the aggregate there was very 
 little if any depreciation in the value
 
 RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 of real estate, at least in the market 
 price. The unclouded faith of all in 
 the early reconstruction of the burnt 
 district accounts for this fact. 
 
 While the aggregate value of real 
 estate has not been affected by the fire, 
 some changes have already been 
 effected, and others may be expected. 
 Particular localities which had been 
 rendered specially valuable by some 
 fortuitous accident have lost their ad- 
 vantage. Others, cursed by evil sur- 
 roundings, have gained, making a 
 " stand off." The most notable change 
 of this kind is in the value of real 
 estate near the river. Until last sum- 
 mer the river was so foul that it " poi- 
 soned " the property within smelling 
 distance. Changing the current of the 
 stream cleaned it, and rendered the 
 banks habitable. But they were 
 skirted with a class of buildings which 
 repulsed mercantile houses. The fire, 
 supplementing the change in the cur- 
 rent of the river, paved the way for 
 the wholesale business to push farther 
 west than before, taking possession of 
 a tract hitherto given up to fourth rate 
 business. On the South Side, this will 
 be the marked real estate peculiarity of 
 
 the fire, viewed from the present stand - 
 point. 
 
 To the superficial observer, it would 
 seem that the value of the North Di- 
 vision real estate must have been de- 
 preciated. The improvements which 
 made some of those streets the pride 
 and beauty of our city have been 
 swept away ; but with the lake and 
 Lincoln Park, it has its chief attractions 
 left. It is secluded from the heart of 
 business, yet not far off. It has now 
 lost forever the old rookeries and riff- 
 raff population near the river which 
 were formerly such serious drawbacks 
 upon the North Division. Then, too, 
 those who had elegant grounds before 
 the fire were interested in keeping 
 down the value of real estate so as to 
 escape heavy taxation. A man whose 
 homestead occupied a whole block was 
 necessarily a " bear " in the market. 
 Now that part of the city will be built 
 up as becomes residence property 
 within a few minutes' walk of the heart 
 of the city, and the " bears " will all 
 turn " bulls." This change will be in- 
 evitable. These are the only changes 
 in the value of Chicago real estate 
 which have developed themselves. 
 
 Frank Gilbert. 
 
 RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 THE fire was impartial in its de- 
 structiveness. Breweries and 
 grain-elevators, saloons and banks, in- 
 surance offices and churches, all dis- 
 appeared before it. Greenbacks passed 
 beyond redemption, "fire -proof" 
 safes melted, stones were shattered. 
 The cold and passionless page is a 
 poor medium to give any adequate 
 conception of its power. 
 
 But some things proved indestructi- 
 ble. Even the wooden streets, so 
 called, were more than equal to their 
 purpose. The imaginations of persons 
 at a distance pictured them as canals 
 
 of flame, into which the terrified in- 
 habitants leaped from the falling 
 buildings ; but art in their composition 
 seems to have imitated nature, which 
 makes her most substantial structures 
 out of a happy combination of frail 
 materials. The gravel and tar and 
 wood together bade defiance to the 
 heat. Had the sidewalks been made 
 of the same material, and the houses, 
 the sirocco which preceded the fire 
 would have been soon forgotten. 
 
 Another imperishable thing was the 
 soul of the city ; not the absurdly 
 vaunted energy of the people, but that
 
 RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 combination of material and yet invisi- 
 ble forces which make Chicago a ne- 
 cessity. In the councils of eternity, 
 the rivers, lakes, and prairies, when 
 they assumed their proportions and re- 
 lations, determined here the site of a 
 large city. Chicago is where the water 
 and land - carriages meet ; in the heart 
 of a country teeming with abundant 
 products of air, earth, and soil, where 
 streams of wealth must converge and 
 again distribute themselves. It is a 
 predestination that so long as that sec- 
 tion of country called the Northwest 
 has life, here must be its heart. There 
 must be here a great concourse of hu- 
 man beings ; and so long as the morals 
 and habits of men and women are as 
 now, this city will have its hovels and 
 temples, its roughs and saints, and all 
 the varieties which poverty and luxury 
 and ignorance and both unbalanced 
 and harmonious culture can produce. 
 Vanity has claimed that it was due to 
 the remarkable and almost preter- 
 natural sagacity and enterprise of a 
 few men that Chicago grew so rapidly 
 and awakened the astonishment of 
 the world. "Scratch a Russian, and 
 you find a Cossack." Unstrip the 
 cockney Chicagoan, and you find an 
 average white man (with few excep- 
 tions) parallelled by the great mass of 
 human beings who pride themselves 
 rather on their circumstances than on 
 their merit. Chicago was originally a 
 wet prairie, skirted on one side by 
 dunes and gravel by the lake shore. 
 There is certainly nothing in the at- 
 mosphere, pure though it be, from 
 the lake and prairie, that should make 
 its inhabitants superior to their neigh- 
 bors. We do not hear that the few 
 thousands who were driven away by 
 the fire have started anywhere any new 
 Chicagos. The thousands who have 
 come in are fully equal to those who 
 ran away. It may be seriously doubted 
 whether, if all the three hundred 
 thousand, not excepting its wonderful 
 banking men, should betake them- 
 selves to Dogtown or Brush Four Cor- 
 ners, they would there reproduce the 
 
 Garden City. They would soon scatter 
 or starve. But if ten thousand young 
 men and women could be selected by 
 chance, out of the Caucasian or even 
 the Mongolian race, and placed alone 
 on the blackened bones of this Chicago, 
 where the streets now project upward 
 from the ground, like a huge skeleton, 
 along the tri- river whose sluggish cur- 
 rent still obeys the will of its late mas- 
 ters and flows inward rather than out- 
 ward, it would not be many days 
 before the streams of grain and timber 
 and coal and iron uniting there, on 
 this heaven -made convergence of 
 highways, would stimulate these 
 strangers to seize their opportunity 
 and exact the ordinary toll, put forth 
 the required labor, and rise into wealth 
 and power. Snow is found on the top 
 of the mountain, flowers at its base, 
 pearls in the oysters, and whales in 
 the ocean ; and cities, where alone so 
 long as the world retains its present 
 configuration they can be, and while 
 the world abounds in men they must 
 be, in the natural centres of industry 
 and trade. To destroy a Babylon, the 
 very people of the nation must perish. 
 Art simply assists nature, and acts 
 obediently to her laws. 
 
 In accordance with this theory, 
 already buildings are arising on the 
 burnt district by the thousand and by 
 the mile, and it is to be hoped that, 
 profiting by experience, there will be a 
 better distribution and classification of 
 the various kinds of industry than be- 
 fore. Painful as was the disaster, pro- 
 ducing a shock both physical and 
 mental that will prove fatal to many 
 individuals, and beautiful as Chicago 
 was, it is probable that five years 
 hence the city will be, both as a place 
 of residence and business, stronger 
 and more pleasant than it would have 
 been had the fire not occurred. And 
 it is to be hoped that the public opinion 
 of the city will exhibit in a larger de- 
 gree the modesty that accompanies 
 merit, and will waste no energy in 
 boasting and no passion in useless sen- 
 sitiveness to external criticism.
 
 RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 73 
 
 There is a large class of people in 
 Chicago who are far more anxious about 
 its intellectual and moral prospects than 
 about its population or material re- 
 sources. Great masses of humanity 
 are not necessarily of much value to 
 themselves or to the world. Babylon 
 was not Athens ; Constantinople is not 
 Berlin. The cockneyisin which leads 
 an insignificant cipher of humanity to 
 estimate his own value according to the 
 long row of figures which the census of 
 the state or nation employs where he 
 lives, and in which he counts only one, 
 is contemptible though common. A 
 true man is of as much worth in a 
 country village as in London, in Rhode 
 Island as in New York, in Switzerland as 
 in China. There have been cities which 
 dying have left no sign, and whose in- 
 fluence when living was only that of 
 dead weight. There have been country 
 hamlets, single families, nay, individual 
 men, worth more than a city full of trash. 
 Intellectual and moral vitality, at least 
 in the opinion of some, is of chief value. 
 Chicago ought to be to the great North- 
 west what Boston is to New England 
 a centre and fountain of intellectual 
 and moral power. In its short history, 
 this city has had a fair proportion of 
 men and women who have believed 
 this doctrine and shown their faith by 
 their works. Many of their enterprises 
 have been arrested and destroyed by 
 the fire. 
 
 The great rapidity with which the 
 population here has been gathered, has 
 rendered it impossible to provide means 
 for the mind and heart commensurate 
 with the demand, or equal to older 
 cities of the same size. The public 
 schools, admirable in their plan and 
 actual character, yet left about a third 
 of the children and youth without the 
 means of public instruction. An incon- 
 siderable proportion of the young men 
 could withstand the temptations of the 
 city and devote themselves to liberal 
 study. Intemperance and vice de- 
 stroyed thousands annually. The grad- 
 uates of the high school were few com- 
 pared with those of the same age sent 
 
 to houses of correction and the state 
 prison. No city should boast of its 
 schools so long as a single child is de- 
 prived of their privileges for want of 
 ample public provision. Five large 
 public school houses were destroyed. 
 As dwellings arise no matter what 
 may be the expense school houses 
 should be built at once, adequate to 
 accommodate all the children. Let 
 them, if need be, be less costly, and let 
 the experiment be tried, if necessary, 
 of having two schools accommodated 
 in the same room at different hours of 
 the day ; but let no children be doomed 
 to ignorance for want of free tuition. 
 The various private schools that per- 
 ished will undoubtedly be speedily re- 
 established, as the motives that created 
 them abide, and will easily find means 
 of organization. 
 
 The museums, galleries of art, and 
 libraries, must start again from the 
 bottom. They had really produced 
 but little effect on the public mind. 
 Churches and mission schools abounded 
 in the burnt district, though not in so 
 large numbers as in the older cities. 
 The great London fire two hundred 
 years ago, though spreading over less 
 than a fourth as large a space, and 
 destroying a smaller number of dwelling- 
 houses, yet consumed about three times 
 as many church edifices as the Chicago 
 fire. 
 
 It would be uncharitable to under- 
 value what the advocates of education, 
 sobriety and religion have done and are 
 doing in Chicago. This would betray 
 a cynicism based on ignorance or prej- 
 udice. The deficiencies result from the 
 rapidity of its growth. In the rank 
 crop which springs up in a single sea- 
 son, there is always a predominance of 
 weeds. Careful and persevering culture 
 alone matures the most valuable 
 growths. Magnificent wholesale pal- 
 aces, with their stone and iron fronts, 
 spring out of the percentage of profits 
 which the streams of wealth that roll 
 through the city leave behind. They 
 are not extraordinary monuments of 
 the sagacity or courage of their builders,
 
 74 
 
 RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 any more than the tall corn of our 
 prairies is an indication of extraordi- 
 nary science and skill in our farmers. 
 Why should not our capitalists build 
 six or eight story stores and hotels of 
 rock and iron ? They are able, and 
 obtain their reward in kind. But to 
 found schools and museums and libra- 
 ries and churches, and to use them 
 according to the ideal of such institu- 
 tions, implies patient thought and intel- 
 lectual and moral culture, not necessa- 
 rily engendered by a scramble for 
 wealth or an ostentatious display of it. 
 The Pilgrims built their meeting -bouse 
 with their first dwellings. Chicago, if 
 it has their spirit, while stores, hotels, 
 breweries and saloons again arise, will 
 give libraries, museums, schools and 
 churches also a better resurrection. 
 The aggregate of the Roman Catholic 
 
 losses in churches and schools seems 
 to have been a little short of $i ,500,000 ; 
 and no mention is made of any insur- 
 ance. The aggregate actual losses of 
 the various Protestant denominations, 
 after deducting all the insurance which 
 will be received, is about $1,500,000. 
 The various denominations suffered not 
 according to their relative strength in 
 Chicago, but according to the property 
 which they happened to have in the 
 compact business part of the city and 
 on the North Side. The Catholics lost 
 their cathedral, several convents, and 
 many of their best churches and schools. 
 The Methodists also lost very heavily 
 in their branch Book Concern, their 
 Church Block which was a business 
 house embracing a free church building 
 and the property of Garrett Biblical 
 Institute, and churches, in all amount- 
 
 UN1TY AND NEW ENGLAND CHURCHES.
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, LITERATURE. 
 
 75 
 
 ing to not much less than half a million 
 dollars. The Presbyterians also lost 
 heavily in several elegant churches 
 worth at least $350,000. The Episco- 
 palians lost about $350,000, the Unita- 
 rians $175,000, and the Universalists 
 about $80,000. The Baptists, fortu- 
 nately, with their valuable University 
 property and their best churches, 
 escaped the fire, though their loss was 
 not less than $100,000. Others swell 
 the aggregate to the sum above men- 
 tioned. Three millions of dollars de- 
 voted to religious uses swept out of 
 existence in twenty -four hours! And 
 this, too, contributed voluntarily by 
 men and women now for the most part 
 impoverished ! Many of them now 
 doubt whether they will ever again be 
 able to make another donation for such 
 a purpose. 
 
 Is not the church a solidarity ? Is it 
 not the mother of democracy and self 
 government ? Has not Christianity 
 produced the marvellous sympathy and 
 aid which came from all parts of the 
 world before the flames had completed 
 
 their work, and continue to come in a 
 steady stream ? If not, it is somewhat 
 marvellous that this aid comes only 
 from Christendom, and that it makes 
 such a liberal use of the pulpit and 
 Christian press. 
 
 But shall Christians aid Chicago and 
 not directly help the brotherhood to 
 maintain the same cause which inspires 
 them with charity ? This might be 
 deemed amiable ; it could scarcely be 
 called wise. 
 
 But we have no fear for the future of 
 the schools and churches of Chicago. 
 Even if left to themselves, with no aid 
 from abroad, the half million of people 
 that will soon fill these streets and dwell 
 in this reconstructed metropolis will see 
 to it that ample provision is made for 
 intellectual and religious culture ; but 
 it will be accomplished slowly and with 
 singular difficulties, and not without 
 much serious loss, unless the commu- 
 nity of Christendom proves in this 
 emergency something more than an 
 abstract theory or a vapid sentimental- 
 ism. E. O. Haven. 
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, LITERATURE. 
 
 THE loss to Chicago in places of 
 amusement, libraries, and art- 
 galleries, both public and private, will 
 be realized much more keenly in the 
 future than at present. The public 
 mind is just now too closely occupied 
 with the computation and restoration 
 of the material values of trade and 
 commerce, to give much thought to 
 aesthetic losses. These once regulated, 
 the loss of the latter will make itself 
 apparent. To make any computation 
 of the number of books, pictures, 
 statues, and articles of costly ornament 
 destroyed, is simply impossible. It could 
 only be accomplished by personal re- 
 ports from every one of the thousands 
 of sufferers who were driven from their 
 homes in the South and North Divi- 
 sions. An approximate idea, however, 
 
 may be formed, when it is considered 
 that nearly 30,000 houses were burned, 
 and that many of them, on the ave- 
 nues of the South Division and on the 
 lake front of the North Division, were 
 among the most elegant in the city and 
 occupied by citizens whose wealth and 
 culture had combined in the accumula- 
 tion of rare treasures of literature and 
 art 
 
 The chief places of amusement de- 
 stroyed in the city were Crosby's Opera 
 House, Hooley's Opera House, Mc- 
 Vicker's Theatre, the Dearborn Thea- 
 tre, and Wood's Museum. The last 
 four had just been re-fitted and re-orna- 
 mented, and opened for the regular fall 
 season ; while Crosby's Opera House 
 was to have been opened on Monday 
 evening, October Qth, the second night
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, LITERATURE. 
 
 of the fire, by the well-known Theo- 
 dore Thomas' Orchestral Combination. 
 During the winter of 1870, Mr. Crosby 
 had hesitated for some time whether to 
 continue in the amusement business, 
 and had even employed his architect 
 to draw plans for changing the audito- 
 rium into commercial offices. The per- 
 suasion of friends, however, and the 
 brilliant operatic and otherwise musical 
 prospects for the season of 1871 -'72, 
 induced him to abandon the idea of 
 change. Early in the summer the 
 house was closed and the work of 
 adornment commenced. Eighty thou- 
 sand dollars were expended in seating, 
 upholstery, frescoing, painting, and 
 gilding, in luxurious carpets, superb 
 bronzes, and costly mirrors. It was 
 finished on Saturday, October 7th ; and 
 when, on Sunday evening, October 
 8th only an hour or two before the 
 fire commenced the house was lit up 
 that its effect might be seen under gas- 
 light, not one of the few who were 
 present but pronounced it to be the 
 most gorgeous auditorium in America. 
 A few hours after, when Theodore 
 Thomas and his Orchestra arrived, a 
 pile of smoking bricks, stones, and iron, 
 strewn in wild confusion, was all that 
 was left of this beautiful temple of art. 
 It was formally dedicated to art in April, 
 1865 ; and during the six years of its 
 existence had been the locus in quo of 
 some of the most memorable seasons 
 of English, French, German, and 
 Italian opera, Chicago ever enjoyed. 
 It were useless now to consider what 
 we should have enjoyed in that brill- 
 iant auditorium, the nights of Nilsson 
 and Parepa and Thomas and the long 
 array of concerts during the coming 
 winter ; but the memories of the past 
 will always be pleasant. 
 
 McVicker's Theatre had also been 
 not only ornamented anew, but com- 
 pletely remodelled. Nothing remained 
 of the old theatre but the outside walls, 
 and these were raised an additional 
 story by means of a lofty Mansard 
 roof. The entire interior of the thea- 
 tre was removed, and a new one sub- 
 
 stituted upon an entirely different mo- 
 del. There are other theatres in the 
 country more brilliant, but in point of 
 ventilation, acoustics, sight, and gen- 
 eral convenience, and especially in the 
 mechanical workings of the stage, it 
 was superior to all. It had been in 
 operation but a few weeks when the 
 fire occurred, having opened to " stock 
 business" in the most successful man- 
 ner. Mr. Jefferson (Rip Van Winkle) 
 was to have commenced a season on 
 October Qth, and, like Mr. Thomas, 
 arrived here just in time to witness the 
 destruction of the theatre. 
 
 Hooley's Opera House, as our read- 
 ers will remember, was constructed by 
 remodelling the old Bryan Hall, which, 
 prior to the erection of Fanvell Hall, 
 and after Metropolitan Hall had gone 
 into disuse, was the locale of nearly all 
 the concerts in the city notably those 
 of the Philharmonic Society, which for 
 many years were the fashionable rage. 
 The building was in no respect an 
 opera house, although, like many others 
 in the country, it had been dignified 
 with this high-sounding name. Mr. 
 Hooley, a gentleman of taste, and great 
 wealth, much of which had been ac- 
 quired in the business of Ethiopian 
 minstrelsy, purchased the Bryan Hall 
 property and converted it into a thea- 
 tre, which, during the first year of its 
 existence, was devoted to burnt -cork 
 minstrelsy. Chicago, however, could 
 not support two places of this kind ; 
 and during the summer, the house was 
 refitted, the stage enlarged and thor- 
 oughly equipped with scenic and me- 
 chanical appliances, and in September 
 it was regularly opened as a comedy 
 theatre, under the management of Mr. 
 Frank Aiken, who, a month or two 
 later, associated with himself Mr. 
 Frank Lawlor, and leased the building 
 for five years. It had been in opera- 
 tion but a few weeks when the fire 
 swept it away. 
 
 Unlike Hooley's Opera House, the 
 Dearborn Theatre first opened as a 
 dramatic house, under the management 
 of Mr. Frank Aiken, who after a few
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, LITERATURE. 
 
 77 
 
 months took the management of 
 Wood's Museum. The Dearborn then 
 changed colors, and was, up to the 
 time of its destruction, known as the 
 home of the Dearborn Minstrels, 
 under the management of Messrs. 
 Brant & Van Fleet. It was the most 
 elegant minstrel hall in the United 
 States, and possessed what none other 
 can boast a thoroughly appointed 
 theatrical stage, capable of bringing 
 out the most elaborate scenic spectacles. 
 
 Wood's Museum which combined 
 the attractions of a theatrical stage and 
 curiosity department was one of the 
 old established institutions of the city. 
 During its long existence, it had met 
 with many vicissitudes, and was rapidly 
 going from worse to worse under differ- 
 ent managers, when Colonel Wood, 
 who for many years had been associated 
 with Barnum, and was a master of the 
 " outs and ins " of " show business," 
 assumed the management, and for 
 many years carried it on prosperously. 
 Two or three years since, he retired to 
 his large stock farm at Adrian, Michi- 
 gan ; and Mr. Aiken, to whom we have 
 already alluded, took the management, 
 under a lease from Judge Fuller. It 
 did not succeed, however, under the 
 new management, and Mr. Aiken re- 
 tired. Once more Colonel Wood was 
 induced to step in. He completely 
 refitted it, enlarged the Curiosity De- 
 partment, and had just opened with an 
 entirely new theatrical company under 
 the management of Mr. J. S. Langrishe, 
 when it was burned. The Curiosity 
 Department, although large, possessed 
 little of real value. The paintings were, 
 without exception, worthless daubs. 
 The geological cabinet was small ; also 
 the cabinet of shells. The collection 
 of birds and insects, however, which 
 formerly belonged to the old St. Louis 
 Museum, was a very choice one ; and 
 in addition to these the Museum was 
 in possession of the monstrous saurian 
 unearthed in Alabama some years ago 
 by Dr. Koch. 
 
 In addition to these regularly organ- 
 ized places of amusement, three public 
 
 halls were burned in the South Divi- 
 sion Farwell, Metropolitan, and Cros- 
 by's Music Hall ; and Uhlich's and 
 North Market Halls, and the German 
 House, in the North Division. Of 
 these, Fanvell Hall the home of the 
 Young Men's Christian Association 
 was the largest and much the most 
 elaborate. Its seating capacity was for 
 3,200 persons ; and its adornments 
 were of the most elegant description. 
 Metropolitan Hall, latterly known as 
 Library Hall, was an old structure, and 
 was mostly used for lectures and the 
 meetings of the Young Men's Library 
 Association. The Music Hall was on 
 the State Street side of the Crosby 
 Opera House property, and was a sort 
 of tender to that house, taking the 
 smaller concerts and now and then 
 billiard and sparring matches, which 
 were somewhat undignified for a full- 
 blown temple of art. Uhlich's and 
 North Market Halls were both small, 
 and were the respective homes of the 
 Germania and Concordia Maennerchors, 
 before these two organizations consoli- 
 dated. The German House was known 
 to but few Americans, but to the Ger- 
 mans it was specially dear as the home 
 of the German drama. We had almost 
 forgotten to mention the Turner Hall, 
 the home of the North Side Turn- 
 Vereins, and on Sabbath evenings 
 devoted to Gambrinus and Polyhymnia 
 in about equal parts. 
 
 To replace the opera houses, theatres, 
 and halls, as they were before the fire, 
 would probably involve an outlay of 
 between two and three million dollars. 
 Our managers, not a whit discouraged 
 by their severe losses, are already pre- 
 paring to build again. Mr. Crosby has 
 decided to build an opera house again 
 on the old site. Mr. Hooley will re- 
 build his theatre on Clark Street, com- 
 mencing in the spring ; and has also 
 leased the Hadduck property on the 
 northeast corner of Monroe Street and 
 Wabash Avenue, where he will erect a 
 grand opera house during another year. 
 Mr. McVicker has also decided to re- 
 build his theatre on the old site. Col-
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, LITERATURE. 
 
 onel Wood has not yet decided upon 
 anything definite. Messrs. Brant and 
 Van Fleet will restore the Dearborn 
 Theatre, although the site is not yet 
 determined upon. As matters look at 
 present, we shall have to skip one win- 
 ter of amusements, contenting our- 
 selves with our whist -packs and home 
 pianos and social gatherings, and re- 
 sume in the old places, in the winter 
 of 1 87 2 -'7 3, with an appetite for 
 amusements all the sharper for the 
 long abstinence. 
 
 The principal public galleries of 
 paintings were three in number, viz., 
 the Opera House, Academy of Design, 
 and Historical Society's collections. 
 The paintings in the Opera House 
 Gallery had remained without any im- 
 portant change as they were at the last 
 annual reception in the winter of 1870. 
 The most noted picture in the Gallery 
 was Bierstadt's " Yo Semite Valley," 
 the personal property of Mr. Albert 
 Crosby, which had been in the Gallery 
 many years and had become an old 
 
 THE TRIBUNE BUILDING. 
 
 familiar friend to every lover of art in 
 the city. Nearly every picture in this 
 collection was saved, through the ener- 
 gy of the Superintendent, Mr. Aitken ; 
 and they are now in Boston on exhibi- 
 tion as " relics " of the fire. The 
 managers of the Academy of Design 
 were not so fortunate. The Gallery 
 was a large one, containing some two 
 
 hundred and fifty or three hundred 
 pictures, nearly all of which were 
 choice. Rothermel's large historical 
 painting of the Battle of Gettysburg 
 was on exhibition at the time of the 
 fire, and was saved ; also some pic- 
 tures by Bierstadt and the Harts, and 
 a large family group painted by Mr. 
 Pine, the Chicago artist. But aconsid-
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF AR T, SCIENCE, LITERA TURE. 79 
 
 arable number were lost, as the artists 
 had no means of carrying them away. 
 The Academy included within its 
 province not only the exhibition of 
 works of art, but also the teaching of 
 its principles and practice ; and one of 
 its schools, the Antique, had been 
 most liberally provided, by the munifi- 
 cent liberality of Hon. J. Y. Scammon, 
 with a superb collection of casts from 
 the most celebrated antiques, selected 
 in Rome, by Volk, the Sculptor. All of 
 these were destroyed. The larger 
 number of the artists of the city had 
 studios in this building. Two or three 
 of them succeeded in saving a few 
 pictures, but the most of them were 
 involved in the common ruin. The 
 collection at the rooms of the Histori- 
 cal Society was known as the Healey 
 Collection, and was composed, with 
 the exception of Couture's masterly 
 picture, " The Prodigal Son," of that 
 eminent artist's works. It consisted 
 mainly of portraits and groups, among 
 them "Webster before the Senate re- 
 plying to Hayne," " Franklin before 
 the Court of France," portraits of 
 Clay, Webster, Louis Phillippe, Mar- 
 shal Soult, Miss Sneyd the English 
 belle, Calhoun, and several portraits 
 of the founders and officers of the 
 Society. 
 
 Of the private galleries in the city, 
 it is impossible to speak in any detail. 
 Messrs. Scammon, Johnson, Arnold, 
 Sheldon, McCagg, and others, had 
 valuable collections which were irre- 
 coverably lost. Among other works of 
 art lost by Mr. McCagg, were Powers's 
 fine Statue of Pocahontas and Healey's 
 historical picture of the Hampton 
 Roads Conference. 
 
 The principal scientific institution 
 of Chicago was the Academy of Sci- 
 ences, situated on the South Side, and 
 enclosed in walls supposed to be fire- 
 proof. Within were contained the re- 
 sults of many expeditions in distant 
 seas and distant lands. The large 
 collection of Invertebrates, comprised 
 in ten thousand alcoholic jars, each 
 
 jar containing from eight to ten speci- 
 mens, made by Wilkes, Ringold, and 
 other navigators, originally consigned 
 to the custody of the Smithsonian In- 
 stitution, but transferred here for study 
 and elucidation by Dr. Stimpson ; his 
 own MSS., prepared for publication, 
 and illustrated by numerous drawings 
 and engravings, descriptive of the 
 fauna of the Japan Expedition ; the 
 Cooper collection of shells, one of the 
 best in the country, and purchased by 
 Mr. George Walker ; the library of 
 conchology, embracing the best works 
 on that science, also secured by the 
 munificence of the same individual ; 
 the collection of the game birds of 
 America, made by the Audubon Club, 
 together with a copy of Audubon's 
 magnificently illustrated work an al- 
 most complete collection of the mam- 
 mals and birds of the continent and 
 the most characteristic foreign speci- 
 mens ; two skeletons of the mastodon, 
 besides the crania of many other ex- 
 tinct forms ; a cabinet of minerals 
 peculiarly rich in crystalline specimens, 
 secured through the exertions of Mr. 
 Chesbrough ; a magnificent collection 
 of Mexican antiquities, the gift of Mr. 
 Scammon ; a large collection of the 
 implements of the mound -builders, 
 together with an elaborate MS. by 
 Colonel Foster, descriptive of the 
 same ; the collections of Robert Ken- 
 nicott in the Arctic Regions, which 
 served as the foundation of the Mu- 
 seum ; the botanical collections of Dr. 
 Scammon, made during his life -time, 
 embracing many specimens of plants 
 which now have nearly disappeared 
 from their former habitats ; the collec- 
 tions of Dr. Veille on the plains and in 
 the mountains, embracing years of 
 toil and active exploration ; these 
 are among the treasures offered up in 
 the great holocaust of fire 
 
 Chicago had no great public libraries, 
 as compared with the libraries of New 
 York, Boston, and other Eastern cities. 
 The energies of her citizens, as in all 
 young places, have been devoted to
 
 8o 
 
 INSTITUTIONS Or ART, SCIENCE, LITERATURE. 
 
 the establishment of trade and com- 
 merce, the organization and equipment 
 of railroad and steamboat lines, and 
 the devising of means to conduct the 
 exchanges of the vast Northwest with 
 the seaboard. Material growth always 
 comes first ; and the luxuries of litera- 
 ture and art only follow after the accu- 
 mulation of wealth, and result from 
 culture, which in its turn results from 
 the leisure which wealth gives. 
 
 And yet Chicago was not without 
 libraries prior to the fire, which were 
 accumulated for the public benefit. 
 The Young Men's Library numbered 
 20,000 volumes, of a rather hetero- 
 geneous character, and principally no- 
 ticeable for a complete set of the 
 British Patent -Office Reports which, 
 by-the-bye, have proved, notwith- 
 standing their importance to the 
 mechanical classes, both a literary and 
 financial elephant of the most unman- 
 ageable description. The only striking 
 result of this rather costly gift from the 
 English Government was the entail of 
 a debt, which hung upon the Associa- 
 tion like an incubus, and was tenderly 
 handed down from one administration 
 to another, constantly growing with 
 the handling. But very few of the 
 books were saved, and the salvage is 
 scattered far and wide. 
 
 The library of the Historical Society 
 was one of great historical value, and 
 embraced 17,500 bound volumes, 
 145,000 pamphlets, a large collection 
 of manuscripts, and several complete 
 newspaper files. Incidentally we may 
 tsate that the Society also possessed 
 the original draft of the Emancipation 
 Proclamation of President Lincoln. 
 The importance of this library cannot 
 be too highly estimated. Its volumes 
 represented the documentary history, 
 not only of Chicago, but also of the 
 Northwest; and what adds to the 
 weight of the disaster is the fact that 
 the largest part of this loss is total. It 
 will be next to impossible to duplicate 
 any considerable portion of it. Since 
 the fire, the members of the Society 
 have met and elected Rev. Wra . Barry. 
 
 who was its founder, their Secretary. 
 His untiring skill and patient industry 
 will undoubtedly do much towards the 
 formation of another library, but it 
 must be from small beginnings. It 
 seems to us that it would be eminently 
 proper, as soon as the Society has once 
 more secured rooms, to seek first to 
 restore as far as possible the history of 
 Chicago. This may be accomplished 
 in part by correspondence with similar 
 institutions in other States, many of 
 which may have duplicate copies of 
 works pertaining to Chicago ; by manu- 
 script donations from our older settlers, 
 covering their personal reminiscences ; 
 and by an urgent appeal to the public 
 at large to donate whatever pamphlets, 
 documents and books they may have, 
 concerned with our history as a city. 
 Above all, this one plan should be kept 
 steadily in view for the present : viz., 
 the restoration of the history of Chi- 
 cago. To attempt the history of the 
 Northwest or of the United States 
 would only involve the members in 
 useless expense and the library in 
 chaotic confusion. The fire, by con- 
 suming a good deal of chaff, has given 
 the Society a golden opportunity' to 
 establish a systematic library of 
 reference. 
 
 The library of the Academy of Sci- 
 ences numbered 5,000 volumes, devoted 
 to the specialties of that association. 
 The Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion during the past two or three years 
 had accumulated 10,000 volumes, 
 mostly of a theological character. The 
 Union Catholic Library, although com- 
 menced quite recently, numbered 5,000 
 volumes, mostly of a sectarian char- 
 acter. The Franklin Library, which 
 pertained to the " Art preservative of 
 arts," was organized two or three years 
 since by a printer, and had already 
 reached the handsome number of 3,000 
 volumes, many of which were exceed- 
 ingly old and rare. Cobb's Library, 
 on Washington Street near State, was 
 a circulating library numbering about 
 5,000 volumes. Placing the libraries 
 of smaller associations at 10,000 vol-
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, LITERATURE. 
 
 81 
 
 umes, we have in all a loss of over 
 100,000 volumes in our public libraries. 
 
 It is impossible to speak with any 
 certainty of the loss of private libraries 
 or the number of works destroyed. 
 Horace White, Esq., the editor of the 
 Chicago Tribune, lost a valuable politi- 
 cal library ; likewise Hon. I. N. Arnold. 
 Perry Smith, Geo. L. Dunlap, Obadiah 
 Jackson, and numerous other residents 
 of the North Division, lost large and 
 valuable miscellaneous libraries. E. B. 
 McCagg lost one of the finest philolog- 
 ical libraries in the United States, and 
 J. Y. Scammon one of the most exten- 
 sive collections of Swedenborgian works 
 in the country. When we consider that 
 there is not a house in the city, whose 
 occupants make any pretensions to 
 taste, which did not have its library, 
 large or small, and not a hovel so poor 
 but that some book could be found in 
 it, we can form some slight idea of the 
 wide - spread destruction of literature in 
 our homes alone. Fifteen or twenty 
 clergymen were burned out, and their 
 libraries in most cases were a total loss. 
 The sanitary department has a list of 
 nearly two hundred physicians who 
 were burned out. Many, if not most, 
 of these, lost their offices, instruments, 
 and books ; and Judge J. M. Wilson 
 reckons the number of lawyers whose 
 libraries were burned, at five hundred. 
 It is probably a fair estimate to set the 
 loss of theological, medical and law 
 libraries alone at half a million dollars ; 
 while the accumulations in the book- 
 stores would swell this amount into the 
 millions. 
 
 It may be considered absurd to at- 
 tempt to form any estimate of the num- 
 ber of books destroyed by the fire, but 
 estimating moderately we should be in- 
 clined to think that it would reach be- 
 tween two and three millions a lite- 
 rary holocaust compared with which 
 the destruction of the Alexandrian 
 and Strasburg libraries seems insignifi- 
 cant. 
 
 Readers of THE LAKESIDE will hardly 
 need to be reminded of the number or 
 the character of the great bookstores 
 6 
 
 of Chicago. The English press, in 
 commenting upon the buildings, inva- 
 riably speak of the stores of Booksell- 
 ers' Row, on State Street, as the finest 
 in the world. In convenience of ar- 
 rangement, elegance of finish, and va- 
 riety of stock, they were unrivalled. 
 Messrs. S. C. Griggs & Co., in addition 
 to a full stock of the books of the day 
 and educational works, had given much 
 attention to books of a higher class ; 
 and their stock included many of the 
 richly illustrated foreign works. Their 
 loss in stock and fixtures was about 
 $225,000; of which about one-half is 
 insured. The Western News Company 
 dealt largely in newspapers and period- 
 icals, and yet always kept on hand a 
 large stock of the current books of the 
 market. Their loss on stock was about 
 $200,000, on which there is an insurance 
 of $160,000. W. B. Keen, Cooke & 
 Co., in addition to their large stock of 
 books, always kept a full line of station- 
 ery. Their loss was about $175,000; 
 insured for $130,000. Cobb, Andrews 
 & Co. lost $80,000, insurance $66,000 ; 
 Woodworth, Ainsworth & Co., $8,000, 
 insurance $6,000 ; the agency of A. S. 
 Barnes & Co., of New York, $40,000, 
 insurance $39,000; Hadley Brothers, 
 $75,000, insurance in full; and Ivison, 
 Blakeman, Taylor & Co., $15,000, 
 fully insured. 
 
 The list of newspapers and maga- 
 zine offices burned out is a formidable 
 one. Not having a reference at hand, 
 we append the list from memory: 
 
 DAILY PAPERS IN ENGLISH. Tribune, Times, 
 Republican, Journal, Post, and Mail. 6. 
 
 DAILIES AND WEEKLIES (foreign). Augustana, 
 Union, Die Freie Presse, Fremad, Gamla och 
 Nya, Staats Zeitung, Volks' Zeitung, Ameri- 
 kanische Farmer, Missionaren, Nya Venden, 
 Landewerth, Haus Freund. Die Deutsche Arbeiter, 
 Catholische Wochenblatt, Svenska Amerikanaren, 
 Tuxbruder, Skandinavien, and Westliche Unter- 
 haltungs Blaater. 19. 
 
 JUVENILE PUDLICATIONS. Little Men, Young 
 Pilot, Young Folks' Rural, Young Messenger, 
 Bright Side, Our Boys, Little Corporal, Child's 
 Paper, Child's World, Young Reaper, Amateur's 
 Guide, Youth's Cabinet, Young Hero, Scholar, and 
 Little Folks. 15. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL. Western Rural and Prairie 
 Farmer. a.
 
 82 
 
 WHA T REMAINS. 
 
 RELIGIOUS WEEKLIES. Western Catholic, Sun- 
 day-School Helper, New Covenant, Interior, Cath- 
 olic Weekly, Present Age, Choir, Northwestern 
 Christian Advocate, Song Festival, Sunday-School 
 Teacher, Lyceum Banner, Heavenly Tidings, 
 Standard, Progress, Advance, Restitution, Religic- 
 Philosophical Journal, and Bethel Banner. 18. 
 
 MONTHLY MAGAZINES. LAKESIDE MONTHLY, 
 Arts, American Builder, Examiner, Bureau, Man- 
 ford's Magazine, Chicago Magazine of Fashion, 
 Congregational Review, Homoeopathic Magazine, 
 Medical Times, Journal of Microscopy, Lens, Art 
 Review, Bench and Bar, Pharmacist, Medical Ex- 
 aminer, Mystic Star, and School Master. 18. 
 
 BUSINESS PERIODICALS. Chicago Advertiser, 
 Board of Trade Report, Chicago Collector, Com- 
 mercial Bulletin, Commercial Express, Dry Goods 
 Price List, Journal of Commerce, Railway Review, 
 Railroad Gazette, Commercial Report and Market 
 
 Review, Northwestern Review, Real Estate and 
 Building Journal, Chicago Ledger, Chicago Mer- 
 cantile Journal, Insurance Chronicle, Detector, 
 Land Owner, Spectator, Western Railway Guide, 
 Rand & McNally's Railway Guide, Bryant & 
 Chase's Review, and Druggists' Price Current. 22. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. Bouquet Programme, Balance, 
 Lorgnette, Chicago Democrat, Home Journal, 
 Happy Hours, Legal News, Chicago Cynosure, 
 Evening Lamp, Everybody's Paper, Gem of the 
 West, Soldiers' Friend, Home Circle and Temper- 
 ance Oracle, Life Boat, National Prohibitionist, 
 Chicago Weekly, Family Circle, Herald, Independ- 
 ent, Mechanic and Inventor, National, People's 
 Weekly, Reporter, Workingman's Advocate, Daily 
 Law Record, Inside Track, Western Odd Fellow, 
 and Voice of Masonry. 28. 
 
 Total number of publications burned out, 128. 
 
 G. P. Lpton. 
 
 PART V. THE FUTURE. 
 
 WHAT REMAIN.S. 
 
 THE sensations of that committee 
 of intelligent gentlemen from 
 Boston, on their recent visit to our city, 
 may be taken as representative. They 
 trailed through the long avenues of 
 ruin, saw a desolation so complete that 
 neither shrub nor roof, and scarcely an 
 exceptional wall, remained three 
 thousand acres sown with ashes ; and 
 their impression was frankly given 
 that Chicago was blotted out, that 
 there was no nucleus around which to 
 build, that if ever reconstructed only 
 the outside demand for a city must be 
 consulted, for there was absolutely 
 nothing left inside to justify restoration. 
 Our ruins challenge such a verdict. A 
 gentleman of large interests in the city 
 invited them to drive with him. He 
 conveyed them to Lake View, beyond 
 Lincoln Park, and swept them over 
 the broad expanse of the West Side, 
 whose thoroughfares are crammed as 
 though for a holiday. Their eyes 
 picked up the magnificent churches, 
 
 the miles of homes of every order, the 
 great lumber yards stretching far 
 south and west, the Stock Yards with 
 their clatter of hoofs and jostle of 
 horns, the business pushing south 
 along the avenues, past Douglas 
 Place to the Boulevards, and they ex- 
 claimed, " You have no need of re- 
 building. You have now standing one 
 of the busiest, most populous cities of 
 the nation." These counter impressions 
 are inevitable. Desolation unprece- 
 dented, thrift unprecedented, destruc- 
 tion and useful power, lie side by side. 
 The black patch is the blackest and 
 the bright patch the brightest. Be- 
 tween live Chicago and dead Chicago 
 there is no purgatorial mediation, no 
 twilight of convalescence. 
 
 These sensations represent the feel- 
 ings of the people. On Tuesday morn- 
 ing after the fire, all was lost. To- 
 day, to the sanguine, the opportunities 
 afforded for improvement in reconstruc- 
 tion have made a gain of the loss. It
 
 WHA T REMAINS. 
 
 has been estimated that $400,000,000 
 of property and 200,000 people were 
 undisturbed in their residences. The 
 vast lumber interest, on which we are 
 to depend so largely for material, was 
 unharmed. The packing houses, rep- 
 resentatives of Chicago commerce, 
 were not singed. The Stock Yards, 
 marvels in extent and perfection, were 
 left to serve the world's provision 
 market. Only five of the grain elevat- 
 ors out of the seventeen which the city 
 contained were destroyed. 
 
 Though more miles of sidewalk 
 have been burned than would reach 
 from the Lake to the Mississippi, yet 
 twice that amount remains. The 
 three tunnels, which mark an era in 
 engineering skill, giving us connection 
 with fresh water under the lake, and 
 roadways that are fire -proof, uniting 
 our three - sectioned city, are all intact. 
 Highways, so long a desiderata of our 
 rapid growth, with their accompanying 
 sewerage, water, and gas, are without 
 serious damage. The railways still 
 point their unintermitting tide to this 
 focus. The business which energy 
 and capital have catered for through- 
 out the West and Northwest, with 
 hardly an exception remained true to 
 its habit. The rivers are very few 
 whose source and mouth you can 
 transpose as our engineers did the 
 Chicago River. It is a poor satisfac- 
 tion that we have our ruins left, with- 
 out ivy or owl or bat, as vicing with 
 the curiosities of the world. 
 
 Fire chiefly destroyed material 
 things, not character though there 
 were a few mental and moral shaving 
 piles that burned up. That night, 
 when the social and the civil frame- 
 work were shattered, bloody riot and 
 chaotic law -breaking did not seize our 
 masses. Calmness, earnest resignation 
 and heroism stood out to dignify de- 
 struction. Even fire is better than 
 some emasculating corruption which 
 saps the integrity of the inhabitants. 
 
 It is the champion fire. That 
 stands in history. The best time 
 upon record that fire ever made 
 
 four and a half miles in eighteen 
 hours. Chicago has not remaining the 
 pusillanimity of having been slain by 
 an insignificant catastrophe, but by a 
 conflagration that would have pros- 
 trated London or New York. She has 
 been reminded by a benevolence 
 which is the most majestic feature of 
 the age, that her commercial and social 
 relations with the whole world still 
 stand. 
 
 Like the bed of some mighty river 
 suddenly licked dry, the fountain and 
 the streamlets and the clouds remain. 
 The channel is clear. All agencies 
 are busy filling its banks again. The 
 men remain those selected for forty 
 years, out of all the nations on the 
 earth, as best fitted for this mercurial 
 life. Compared with the laws that 
 work to assort such an army, and the 
 expense of pain and purse to root them 
 here, the burned buildings are but rub- 
 bish and twopence. The only cities 
 that are built of marble and mortar 
 are cemeteries and mausoleums. A 
 city means men and women. 
 
 How much folly and selfishness we 
 have left, will be displayed in the 
 scrabble to locate official and business 
 centres. It has been supposed that the 
 government and municipal buildings 
 were on wheels, and that the strongest 
 team of selfish influence would deter- 
 mine their unloading. We trust that all 
 greed so monstrous perished in the 
 fire without insurance. Aside from 
 one hypochondriac maiden whom the 
 sudden fright restored, we have heard 
 of no credits entered up to the fire of 
 diseases cured. Our friend with the 
 crutches did not lose his rheumatism 
 with his supports, and the cough of 
 our consumptive neighbor was better 
 protected than were greenbacks in the 
 safes. Fires would be useful if they 
 would burn up only nuisances, dis- 
 eases, weaknesses and wood. If that 
 enemy of childhood could have caught 
 the fever heat and scarlet color from 
 the occasion, and made it a cremation, 
 all infanthood would have paid the 
 insurance with a smile. The man who
 
 NEW CHICAGO. 
 
 dug down to find whether the mortgage 
 was burned off with the buildings, dis- 
 covered that mortgages are the only 
 fire -proof structures you can place 
 upon a lot. 
 
 All the bores and scolds, most of the 
 drunkards and thieves, are slightly 
 disarranged, but are eddying to their 
 centres. It is singular that when so- 
 ciety takes to itself wings and flies 
 away, it will fly back and alight, like a 
 migratory bird, in its old locality. 
 
 There remains as the delicate and 
 permanent crystal precipitated by this 
 
 disaster, an exquisite and lustrous 
 gratitude in every Chicago heart. 
 Such a remnant is like a mountain 
 clarified and chemicalized to a dia- 
 mond. It shall be the jewel in the 
 casket of the New Chicago. We con- 
 fidently believe that in the records of 
 the work of the " Relief and Aid So- 
 ciety" and of tributary and supple- 
 mentary charities, a monument of 
 system, judicious expenditure and in- 
 tegrity will be built, which will be a 
 credit to the city and a model for the 
 world. 
 
 William Alvin Bartlett. 
 
 NEW CHICAGO. 
 
 IN the opening paper of this number 
 we have shown how forbidding was 
 the aspect of the original site of Chica- 
 go, and what a series of public works 
 were executed to make it one of the 
 most attractive cities in the Union. So 
 overpowering was the commercial ne- 
 cessity that here should be a great en- 
 trepot, that one would have been con- 
 structed, even if the ground had had 
 to be reclaimed from Lake Michigan. 
 The same causes which led to this 
 wonderful development, still exist in 
 full force. The resources of Chicago 
 are but slightly impaired. Her geo- 
 graphical position is on the water-shed 
 between two great systems of inland 
 navigation, the St. Lawrence and the 
 Mississippi, by which she can commu- 
 nicate with the Atlantic and the Gulf 
 of Mexico. The navigable waters of 
 these river systems exceed 12,000 miles, 
 and they afford a transportation which 
 for cheapness can never be superceded 
 by any artificial mode of conveyance. 
 The differences of climate, soil, and 
 products along the line of these two 
 river systems, lie at the foundation of 
 the extensive exchanges which must for 
 all time be maintained between regions 
 thus widely separated. Chicago is also 
 
 the centre of a network of railways 
 which have cost not less than $300,- 
 000,000. Not a mile of track will be 
 abandoned in consequence of the fire ; 
 nor will their transporting capacity be 
 in the least diminished. The proprie- 
 tors of the great pineries of the North 
 will continue to make use of this port 
 for the sale and transfer of their im- 
 mense cargoes of lumber so extensively 
 used in the Mississippi Valley, and the 
 beef and pork and breadstuffs of the 
 West will still continue to accumulate 
 here, preparatory to their distribution 
 throughout the markets of the world. 
 Some of our business men who wielded 
 these vast interests, may be compelled, 
 to succumb to their misfortunes ; but 
 other men with other means will come 
 in to take their places. Capital instinct- 
 ively flows to the most profitable chan- 
 nels ; it requires no legislation to direct 
 it. When a vessel founders at sea, the 
 waves close over her and the surface 
 almost instantly assumes its wonted 
 aspect. So the void created by this 
 calamity will soon be filled by capital 
 flowing in from other cities the world 
 over. The great volume of commerce 
 will continue to move in its accustomed 
 channels. There will be found men
 
 NEW CHICAGO. 
 
 enough and means enough for all its 
 requirements. 
 
 It is a singular fact in political econ- 
 omy, that a nation whose government 
 is stable and whose laws are judicious 
 and well administered, rapidly recovers 
 from apparently overwhelming misfor- 
 tune. The Northern States are far 
 richer to - day than before the Rebellion. 
 England rapidly recovered from the 
 immense drain upon her resources 
 during her continental wars, and for 
 half a century has been the richest 
 kingdom in Christendom ; and France 
 bears up wonderfully under the terrible 
 defeats inflicted upon her by Prussia. 
 Ten years, it is estimated, is sufficient 
 for a nation to recuperate from the 
 effects of the most desolating war ; and 
 five years, we predict, will be sufficient 
 to obliterate from Chicago all traces of 
 the Great Conflagration. Taught by 
 this terrible example, her people will 
 realize the necessity, for the first time 
 in her history, of discarding inflamma- 
 ble materials in the construction of ex- 
 ternal walls. Without the enforcement 
 of such a policy, insurance will demand 
 exorbitant rates, capital will seek safer 
 investments, and business men will live 
 in constant dread of wide -spread con- 
 
 flagrations. It will be found that no 
 policy could be adopted more fatal to 
 the permanent prosperity of the city, 
 than to allow the burnt district to be 
 rebuilt in the same reckless and im- 
 provident manner as before the fire. 
 If the greed of speculators, in this re- 
 spect, overmasters the judicious public 
 sentiment, let the authority of the Leg- 
 islature be invoked. We have yet two 
 considerable cities left one on the 
 South Side and one on the West ; but 
 both of them are liable to the same visi- 
 tation which reduced to ashes the cen- 
 tral portion and the Northern Division. 
 
 We believe, then, that in this con- 
 test for it has already assumed that 
 position the judicious, public senti- 
 ment will triumph ; and instead of long 
 streets of shanties, we shall have sub- 
 stantial tenements of brick and stone. 
 
 As the burnt districts of London, 
 Moscow, and New York rose from their 
 ashes more substantially built, more 
 beautifully adorned, and better adapted 
 to the wants of commerce, so will it be 
 with the burnt district of Chicago. Al- 
 ready from out the depths of her deso- 
 lation she proclaims as her motto 
 " RESURGAM." 
 
 J. W. Foster.
 
 THE FIRES OF HISTOR Y. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 THE FIRES OF HISTORY. 
 
 VIEWED from the standpoint of the 
 Chicago fire, the great fires of history 
 are few and far between. The magnitude 
 of the present calamity, in respect of area, 
 value of property destroyed, number of 
 people rendered homeless, and consequent 
 extent of suffering entailed, is such that 
 most of those conflagrations of the past 
 which are deemed of sufficient importance 
 to find a place upon the page of history are 
 dwarfed by comparison. The situation of 
 Chicago, its commercial importance, and 
 intimate connection with all the great inter- 
 ests, not only of the West, but of the New 
 World itself, render its destruction probably 
 more noticeable and startling, and its results 
 more widely felt, than those of any other 
 similar calamity on record. Chicago was, 
 and is, one of the wonders of the world. 
 The unparalleled rapidity of its growth 
 springing in the brief space of thirty years 
 from a mere hamlet to an immense com- 
 mercial metropolis the third in size of the 
 Union has awakened the wonder and 
 admiration of the world; spreading its 
 fame to the remotest corner of civilized 
 life, not only as the proudest manifestation 
 of the concentration of all Anglo - Saxon 
 energy and enterprise, but also as the 
 shining type of the progress of the Nine- 
 teenth century. Hence its loss has aroused 
 the sympathy of mankind to an extent 
 unequalled in the annals of profane his- 
 tory, and rendered this awful 8th and pth 
 of October memorable for all time. Not 
 even the Franco - German war has so mark- 
 ed this year of 1871 as the great Chicago 
 fire, which henceforth creates a new start- 
 ing point for the memories of the rising 
 generation. 
 
 But, however the magnitude of this ca- 
 lamity may have dwarfed out of sight many 
 of those which were heretofore considered 
 among the great fires of the past, there are 
 still left many ineffaceable spots upon the 
 
 tablets of history, where this most destruc- 
 tive of the elements has scorched its record 
 upon the ages, here and there, at long in- 
 tervals, marking in flame the story of hu- 
 man suffering wrought by man's destructive- 
 ness, Divine vengeance, or the inevitable 
 accident common to all human affairs. 
 
 The earliest recorded fire is the destruc- 
 tion of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and 
 Zeboim, the "cities of the plain," now 
 slumbering eternally beneath the Dead Sea 
 waters, a mark to all earthly generations of 
 the wrath of an offended Deity. The burn- 
 ing of these cities, recorded only in Holy 
 Writ, took place about the year 1897, B.C., 
 and is only known as a great fact of the 
 world's history, all the details being forever 
 lost. 
 
 Sardis, the once famous capital of Lydia 
 in Asia Minor, the residence of Crsoeus of 
 fabled wealth, the " Hyde " of Homer, and 
 seat of one of the seven churches mention- 
 ed in the Book of Revelations, was burned 
 by the lonians and Athenians in the year 
 504, B. C., its destruction resulting in the 
 famous wars of the Greeks and Persians, 
 which culminated some twenty - four years 
 later in the defeat of Xerxes the Great, 
 whose chief motive for his Greek campaign 
 is said to have been his indignation at the 
 wanton destruction of this wealthy and 
 beautiful city. 
 
 The next great flame of history which 
 startled the ancient world, was the burning 
 of the magnificent temple of Diana at Eph- 
 esus, in the year 356, B. C. This temple 
 was one of the " Seven Wonders of the 
 \Vorld." It was 425 feet in length and 220 
 feet high its roof of cedar resting upon 
 a marble entablature and supported by 128 
 columns, 60 feet in height, each the gift of 
 a king. It contained an ivory statue of 
 Diana,the master-pieces of the most eminent 
 artists, and enormous wealth of ornamenta- 
 tion, chiefly of the precious metals. It was
 
 THE FIRES OF HISTOR Y. 
 
 fired by one Erostratus, otherwise unknown 
 to fame, whose only motive for the act was 
 expressed in his dying words, " A yearn- 
 ing for immortality " ; an immortality of 
 infamy which the deed secured in spite of 
 Grecian enactments by which his country- 
 men strove to bury even his name in obliv- 
 ion. As the flames of the temple ascended 
 to heaven, a flaming scourge of humanity 
 descended upon earth in the person of 
 Alexander the Great, whose birth on that 
 same night was heralded by the triumph of 
 the fiery element, as the death of Napoleon 
 was, in later years, by the war of the ele- 
 ments of the air. 
 
 Twenty - eight years lajer, in the year 
 328, B. C., this same Alexander, in a drunk- 
 en frolic, and at the behest of a courtesan, 
 fired the palace of Persepolis, which was 
 consumed, with a large portion of the city, 
 startling the world with horror at the results 
 of the twin vices of drunkenness and sen- 
 suality. 
 
 Thus Divine vengeance destroyed the 
 cities of the plain human wrath and ven- 
 geance the piled wealth of Sardis a fool- 
 ish yearning for notoriety Diana's gorgeous 
 temple, and wine and women the beautiful 
 palace and city of Persepolis. 
 
 But none of these conflagrations so 
 shook the world and so deeply burned their 
 memory upon the pages of history, as did 
 that of Rome in the year 69. This act has 
 generally been attributed to Nero, in the 
 tenth year of whose reign it occurred. By 
 some historians, however, it was attributed 
 to the Christians, and by others to a sect of 
 so - called Galilaeans, followers of Judas 
 the Gaulonite. The story of Nero's guilt, 
 and of his " fiddling while Rome was burn- 
 ing," is now generally considered a myth, 
 so unreliable and conflicting are the state- 
 ments of historians ; and the question of 
 the authorship of the calamity is involved 
 in doubt which can never be cleared away. 
 The conflagration raged for eight days, to- 
 tally destroying three of the fourteen dis- 
 tricts of the city, and leaving only a few 
 half -ruined houses standing in seven oth- 
 ers, only four districts remaining unharmed. 
 In this destruction perished an immense 
 treasure of Greek and Roman art tro- 
 phies of their wars and temples and cost- 
 ly palaces innumerable. Rome was then 
 
 bnt little past the zenith of her power and 
 glory. The city must have contained a pop- 
 ulation of 2,000,000, and was crowded 
 with the captured and imported wealth of 
 all nations. She was then the metropolis 
 of the world, and the total destruction of 
 five - sevenths of her entire area must have 
 involved incalculable loss and untold mise- 
 ry to her teeming population, though of the 
 details of loss and suffering history pre- 
 serves no record. The result of the fire, 
 however, was in the end advantageous to 
 the city itself, since it was immediately re- 
 built in far better style, of more durable 
 materials, and upon a more regular plan. 
 Heeding the lesson of the conflagration, 
 the Emperor prohibited the use of wood in 
 its reconstruction. 
 
 The next year after the burning of Rome 
 in the year 70 occurred the destruction 
 of Jerusalem by Titus, in which the mag- 
 nificent temple of the Jews, together with a 
 large portion of the city, was given to the 
 flames, in spite of the frantic efforts of Ti- 
 tus himself to stay the wanton destruction. 
 The wealth of the city was enormous, and 
 its size may be appreciated from the fact 
 that, according to Josephus, 1,100,000 peo- 
 ple perished in its siege and destruction. 
 As almost the entire Jewish race was assem- 
 bled in the city to celebrate the feast of 
 unleavened bread when all egress was cut 
 off by the besieging army, it may well be 
 believed that the loss of life from the con- 
 flagration itself, aside from the slaughter by 
 the Romans, must have been such as the 
 world never saw before or since. Indeed 
 the historian relates that 6,000 people, men, 
 women, and children, were burned in a 
 single building in which they had sought 
 refuge. 
 
 In the year 642 was burned, by order of 
 the Caliph Omar, the Alexandrian Library, 
 the most enormous collection of books the 
 world has ever seen, containing at one time, 
 according to some writers 400,000, accord- 
 ing to others 700,000 volumes. The Ca- 
 liph's reason for its destruction was curious 
 enough. " If," said he, " these Greek 
 books agree with the Koran, they are use- 
 less ; if not, they should be destroyed," 
 and accordingly, without stopping to settle 
 the question, the torch was applied, and the 
 stored wealth of classic lore, the work of
 
 THE FiRES OF HISTORY. 
 
 men's brains for ages, and which had con- 
 sumed centuries in their collection, went up 
 to heaven in smoke and flame, and in their 
 destruction were forever lost the works of 
 some of the world's greatest minds ; and 
 many an author of once towering fame, 
 was by a single fire consigned to oblivion. 
 Descending to riiore modem times,we find 
 the first really great fire on record to be that 
 of London, in the year 1666. Like most 
 large cities, London has had more than one 
 contest with the fire fiend. In the year 6l, 
 it was burned by the Britons ; in the years 
 893 l77 1086, 1132, and 1136, it was 
 nearly consumed. At these times, however, 
 it was but an inconsiderable city, its popu- 
 lation in 1 141 being only 40,000. The fire 
 of 1666 broke out on September 3d, in a 
 baker's shop, and owing to the narrow 
 streets, wooden buildings, an extremely dry 
 season, and a violent east wind blowing at 
 the time, spread so rapidly that it resisted 
 all efforts to extinguish it. Four days and 
 nights it raged incessantly, and was only 
 checked at last by the free use of gunpow- 
 der, blowing up whole blocks in the line of 
 its path. Five - sixths of the entire city 
 within the walls was destroyed, the confla- 
 gration extending over an area of more 
 than 400 acres, and destroying 400 streets 
 and 13,000 houses. King Charles II. and 
 his brother the Duke of York afterwards 
 James II. were on the scene in person, 
 directing the efforts of the firemen, and do- 
 ing yeoman's service in fighting the flames. 
 In its incidents and results, this fire was 
 more similar to that of Chicago than any 
 other on record. The frightened people 
 were driven in crowds from street to street, 
 and from one refuge to another, families 
 being separated, parents and children, hus- 
 bands and wives, seeking each other in 
 vain, and finally the whole panic - stricken 
 multitude were driven to sleep in the fields 
 beyond the city, in the midst of a shower 
 of rain. The misery and suffering of rich 
 and poor alike were immense. The public 
 storehouses were thrown open, and thous- 
 ands were fed by charity. Parliament im 
 mediately voted a levy of ^1,800,000 to 
 relieve the necessities of the suffering. And 
 as in the present case, one of the first great 
 questions which agitated the public mind 
 was that of the titles to real estate, and Par 
 
 liament was forced to appoint commission- 
 ers to decide all questions arising from the 
 loss of deeds and records. 
 
 The results, however, as is generally the 
 case in such calamities, was in the end ben- 
 eficial. The city was, within four years, 
 rebuilt in far better style. Wooden mate- 
 rial, which before had been almost univer- 
 sally used in building, was now absolutely 
 prohibited; the streets were made wider 
 and more regular, and the whole plan of 
 the city improved; and, best of all, the 
 plague, which for centuries before had peri- 
 odically ravaged the city, was thereafter 
 unknown. 
 
 Constantinople from its faulty construc- 
 tion and inflammable material, has so fre- 
 quently been the victim of fire that a con- 
 flagration in that city rarely attracts the 
 attention of the world. In 1778 and 1782 
 large portions of this city were consumed. 
 In 1852, in a single night, seven fires des- 
 troyed 3,500 houses; and no longer ago 
 than 1870 a great fire swept away 7,000 of 
 its houses, entailing a loss of ^25,000,000 
 or 1 1 25 ,000,000 of our money ; a loss which 
 in magnitude approaches that of Chicago. 
 
 Next to the Great Fire of London, the 
 most shining mark of flame upon the tablets 
 of history was the burning of Moscow, 
 startling as well by its own magnitude and 
 extent of loss and suffering, as by its indi- 
 rect consequence in the immense privation 
 and loss of human life which it entailed 
 upon the French army. Moscow was nearly 
 consumed by fire in 1536, 1547, and again 
 in 1571, when it was fired in the suburbs 
 by the Tartars, and a large portion of the 
 population perished in the flames. In 161 1 
 it was again partly burnt by the Poles. 
 Some idea of the magnitude of its last con- 
 flagration in 1812 may be obtained from 
 the facts that it was then a city as large as 
 Chicago, containing 4,000 stone and 8,000 
 wooden buildings, with a population of 
 300,000, and covering an area at that time 
 larger than the city of London, being eight 
 miles in diameter and twenty - four miles in 
 circumference. It was built in four concen- 
 tric circles, each surrounded by a strong 
 wall. It was the capital and metropolis of 
 the Russian Empire, crowded with the 
 \vealth, luxury, and refinement of the great 
 Empire of the North. Prior to its evacua-
 
 THE FIRES OF HISTOR K 
 
 tion by the Russian army, its inhabitants 
 were ruthlessly driven out, 100,000 of them 
 to perish in the barren and inhospitable 
 fields, in the most frightful suffering and 
 privation. A long drought had prevailed. 
 A tempest of wind sprang up the day be- 
 fore the fire, as if on purpose to aid in its 
 destruction. The fire engines had been 
 destroyed, and all means of extinguishing 
 the flames cut off. The city was fired in 
 five hundred places, and soon, in spite of 
 the frantic efforts of the French soldiery, 
 became an " ocean of flame." The scenes 
 that transpired in its streets were too horri- 
 ble for pen to depict. Thirty thousand of 
 the Russian sick and wounded were burned 
 to death, and Napoleon himself almost mi- 
 raculously escaped. When at last the flame 
 fiend departed, but 200 stone and 500 
 wooden buildings remained standing. The 
 French army, which left the smoking ruins 
 over 100,000 strong, was nearly annihilated 
 in its retreat. Directly and indirectly, 200,- 
 ooo human lives .were sacrificed by this 
 barbarous act of Rostopchin. 
 
 On May 5th, 1842, a fire broke out in 
 the city of Hamburg, which raged for foui 
 days, destroying one - third of the entire 
 city. And with this we close the record of 
 the Old World. 
 
 On our own continent, the first conflagra- 
 tion of note, and the greatest before that of 
 Chicago, was that of New York city in 
 1835, which swept the first ward east of 
 Broadway and below Wall Street, destroy- 
 ing 648 stores, the Merchant's Exchange 
 South Dutch Church, and property valued 
 at over $18,000,000. 
 
 On July i gth, 1845, New York was again 
 visited by fire, which raged between Broad- 
 way, Exchange Place, Broad and Stone 
 Streets, destroying $5,000,000 worth of 
 property. 
 
 In Charleston, S. C.,on April 27th, 1838, 
 1.158 buildings were destroyed by fire, over 
 an area of 145 acres. 
 
 Pittsburg was visited by flames on April 
 loth, 1845, her entire business quarter, to 
 the extent of sixty acres and 1,000 build- 
 ings, being consumed, at a loss of $5,000,- 
 
 000. 
 
 The same year two terrible fires occurred. 
 
 in Quebec, at a month's interval, destroy- 
 ing in all 3,000 buildings and over $8,000,- 
 ooo worth of property, making a loss in that 
 disastrous year of some $ 1 8,000,000 in four 
 conflagrations. 
 
 In September, 1848,50016 twenty - four 
 acres of the city of Albany,' containing over 
 300 buildings, were burned over, the loss 
 being over $3,000,000. 
 
 St. Louis, in July, 1849, l st 35 build- 
 ings, and property valued at $3,000,000. 
 
 San Francisco, from its crowded con- 
 struction and combustible materials, has 
 been peculiarly subject to fires. Her great- 
 est losses from this cause have been on 
 December 24th, 1849, $1,000,000; May 
 4th, 1 850, $3,000,000, June 14^,1850, $3,- 
 000,000; May 2d, 1851, $7,000,000, inclu- 
 ding 2,500 buildings; June 22d, 1851, $2,- 
 000,000; making within eighteen months 
 a total loss by fire of $16,000,000, in a city 
 of 30,000 inhabitants, or over $500 for ev- 
 ery living soul within her limits. 
 
 The greatest single calamity by fire, be- 
 tween the great fire of New York and that 
 of Chicago, was the burning of Portland, 
 Maine, on July 4th, 1866. This conflagra- 
 tion arose from so simple a matter as a fire- 
 cracker in the hands of a careless boy. A 
 gale of wind was blowing from the south, 
 which carried the flames in spite of every 
 effort, sweeping as with the besom of des- 
 truction a space a mile in length and a 
 quarter of a mile in width, and destroying 
 nearly one - half the city, including the busi- 
 ness portions. Even gunpowder failed to 
 check the flames, over fifty buildings being 
 blown up in vain. The loss was estimated 
 at over $10,000,000. More than a quarter 
 of the entire population of the city was ren- 
 dered homeless, and thousands of them 
 lived for weeks in tents and huts, supported 
 by the contributions of money, food, and 
 clothing which poured in from the other 
 cities of the Union, to the value of half a 
 million dollars. It may well be said that 
 the Portland youngster's fire cracker was 
 the costliest one ever fired in America. 
 " Ten cents a bunch," is the usual price; 
 but this one cracker cost Portland $10,000,- 
 ooo. 
 
 Egbert Phetys.
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES. 
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES. 
 
 THE comprehensive plan of the " Fire 
 proof" number of THE LAKESIDE 
 would be scarcely complete without some 
 reference to the effects of the great confla- 
 gration upon the general, conditions of the 
 Earth's surface, and the vegetable and ani- 
 mal forms that exist upon it. Of course 
 such a topic could not be treated exhaust- 
 ively within the limits of a magazine arti- 
 cle; we simply propose to take a brief 
 glance at the subject, and to close with an 
 attempt to show the primary causes of the 
 terrible phenomenon. 
 
 It will be necessary, however, in this dis- 
 cussion, to take in with the mind's eye a 
 much larger area than that of the burned 
 district in Chicago. The wholesale devas- 
 tation of our fair city was but an item in 
 the wide spread ravages of the fire fiend 
 during the first half of October, 1871. At 
 the time the fairest portion of our city was 
 being laid in ashes, the devouring flames 
 were making havoc almost all over the Uni- 
 ted States of America. On that fatal night 
 the fires were sweeping over the lum- 
 bering regions of Wisconsin, Michigan, 
 and Minnesota, laying bare many thousands 
 of acres of timber land, and burning up 
 every organic substance on a vast range of 
 improved land in those States. And about 
 the same time, New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, California, Ne- 
 vada, and the Rocky Mountain regions, 
 were alike visited by destructive conflagra- 
 tions. Many scores of thousands of peo- 
 ple were rendered homeless, hundreds were 
 killed, and the property accumulations of 
 several years were ruthlessly swept out of 
 existence. 
 
 In the chemical and meteorological 
 
 changes evolved by these fires, the Chicago 
 
 conflagration really acted but a subordinate 
 
 part ; though immense in itself, it was but 
 
 small in proportion to the whole. 
 
 It is yet too early to make an accurate 
 estimate of the area traversed by the fire in 
 the forests of the Northwestern States. 
 That can only be done after the whole 
 ground has been re - surveyed. But the 
 very lowest estimate we can make places 
 
 the amount of timbered land actually burned 
 over, at not less than 480,000 acres, of 
 which 200,000 acres are in Michigan. This 
 is equal to 750 square miles of territory, 
 containing the material that would yield a 
 product of 1,800,000,000 feet of lumber 
 for the market, or very nearly as much as 
 Chicago has received during the past two 
 years. 
 
 At least an equal extent of other than 
 timbered land was burned over including 
 what are technically called " clearings," 
 where the trees have been cut down, leav- 
 ing vast quantities of combustible material, 
 and many hundreds of farms, some of 
 them a long way removed from the lumber 
 regions. The total area of country burned 
 over, wooded and open, cannot be less than 
 one thousand square miles, and is probably 
 very much more than that amount. 
 
 And this vast tract of country was com- 
 pletely denuded. The ordinary fire in the 
 woods only burns up the brush, and the 
 boughs of trees, leaving the trunks stand- 
 ing, with a mere char on the. outside ; they 
 can still be utilized for lumber, provided 
 they are cut down and thrown into the wa- 
 ter before the well-known borer has a 
 chanoe to attack them. But in the fires of 
 last October a large proportion of the trees 
 were burned through to the core, and fell 
 to the ground, little better than attenuated 
 sticks of charcoal. It was a destroying 
 fire, that literally burned up, " root and 
 branch," while the fences, hay, buildings, 
 etc., on the farming lands were so com- 
 pletely licked up that not even the ashes 
 were left to indicate the places where they 
 had formerly existed. 
 
 It is manifestly impossible to tell exactly 
 the quantities of wood, hay, straw, and 
 other combustibles burned up in those fires. 
 Could we do so, it would be easy to calcu- 
 late the precise number of pounds of car- 
 bon set free in the process ; because the 
 science of Chemistry enables us to say, to 
 an ounce, how much of each of the ele- 
 ments enters into the composition of a ton 
 of any named material. Thus, we know 
 that straw and dry pine wood each contain
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES. 
 
 thirty - eight per cent, of carbon, and hay 
 nearly forty -one (40.73) per cent. But 
 we can make a sufficiently close approxima- 
 tion to answer our present purpose. Taking 
 the minima of estimated area of country as 
 a basis, the writer has made a careful cal 
 culation from averages of the quantities of 
 material destroyed on those areas, and has 
 computed, in a similar way, the products of 
 the combustion in the city of Chicago, with 
 the following conclusions : 
 
 As a chemical result of this immense 
 burning, we have not less than three mill- 
 ion tons of carbon from the country, arid 
 three hundred thousand tons from the city, 
 liberated from its union with other elements, 
 and carried up into the air. Every three 
 pounds of this would take up eight pounds 
 of oxygen, forming eleven pounds of car- 
 bonic acid gas. Here we have an addition 
 of twelve million tons of free carbonic acid 
 gas to the quantity already existing in the 
 atmosphere. Knowing as we do how much 
 the conditions of animal and vegetable ex- 
 istence depend upon the constitution of the 
 aerial envelope of our globe, it becomes 
 important to ascertain the extent of disturb 
 ance from the normal state, produced by 
 this phenomenon. 
 
 The quantity of carbonic acid gas nor- 
 mal to the atmosphere at the present day is 
 estimated to be about one part in two thou- 
 sand ; the weight will, therefore, be a little 
 less than twenty thousand million tons. 
 Hence its proportion in the atmosphere has 
 been increased by about one part in sixteen 
 hundred. The total weight of atmospheric 
 oxygen being a little over nine million mill- 
 ion tons, its proportion has been decreased 
 to the extent of nearly o.ne part in a million. 
 Accepting Liebig's estimate that the annual 
 consumption of oxygen by the lower ani- 
 mals and by combustion is double the quan- 
 tity consumed by human beings in breath- 
 ing, we arrive at the astounding result that 
 the oxygen taken up by the Northwestern 
 fires was equal to the amount required to 
 supply the consumption of ten months all 
 over the globe. 
 
 So far as we are able to judge, the vege- 
 table kingdom was intended by the Creator 
 to act as an exact counterpoise to the animal 
 world, the former returning to the atmos- 
 phere just as much oxygen as is taken by 
 
 the latter. This does not seem to be the 
 case with carbon, the atmospheric propor- 
 tion of which appears to have slowly de- 
 creased ever since the Carboniferous era. 
 At that time the quantity of carbonic acid 
 gas in the atmosphere was probably three 
 hundred times greater than now, holding in 
 combination one - half of the oxygen, and 
 forming fifteen to twenty per cent, of the 
 total weight of the air (Brogniart estimates 
 seven or eight per cent.). The amount of 
 free carbonic acid gas has diminished, ap- 
 proximately, at the rate of about one part 
 in five thousand each century since then. 
 In this respect, therefore, the Northwestern 
 fires have restored the atmospheric condi- 
 tions of three hundred years ago. 
 
 A glance at the characteristics of the Car- 
 boniferous era will enable us to appreciate 
 the importance of this fact. We know that 
 if we replace eight per cent, of the oxygen 
 in the atmosphere of the present day with 
 an equal volume of carbonic acid gas, the 
 mixture is alike fatal to animal life and to 
 combustion. Even the lower orders of an- 
 imal life could only exist when the atmos- 
 phere had been partially cleared of its su- 
 perabundant carbon. And this was accom- 
 plished by the vegetable kingdom, which 
 then flourished with a luxuriance of which 
 we can form but a faint conception, though 
 the immense coal deposits unearthed in the 
 present century tell the tale of primeval 
 vegetable growth proportionate in its exu- 
 berance to the abundant presence of the 
 acid that formed its food. Further along 
 the stream of time, many scores of thou- 
 sands of years nearer to the commencement 
 of our written history, when these gigantic 
 ferns had done their work and fixed a large 
 proportion of that carbon into the shape in 
 which it is now utilized, animal existence 
 became possible, and the same conditions 
 that had previously ministered to immense 
 vegetable forms now made possible the 
 elimination of a mammoth bony framework 
 to support the muscular tissues of animals, 
 giant - like even as compared with the ele- 
 phant of our own day. There is no doubt 
 that the human race appeared upon the 
 earth just as soon as human -'respiration be- 
 came possible, neither can there be any 
 doubt that the " first families " lived in what 
 was a genuine "Garden of Eden" when
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES. 
 
 compared with the more sparse vegetation 
 of the present epoch, or that the peculiar 
 facility afforded to the formation of carbo- 
 nate of lime justified the assertion of Holy 
 Writ, that " There were giants in those 
 days." 
 
 The abstraction of carbonic acid gas from 
 the atmosphere is still progressing, though 
 not so rapidly as in the days of yore. Its 
 appropriation by the vitalized forms that 
 exist upon the land surface is not a perma- 
 nent loss, as all thus taken away from the 
 general fund by the one, is restored by the 
 compensating activities of another, or yield- 
 ed up in the disintegration that follows the 
 death of organic forms. But it is not so 
 with life in the sea. The immense quanti- 
 ties of carbonic acid taken up in the secre- 
 tion of the bony coverings of shell fish, 
 mostly sink to the bottom of the ocean, 
 where they lie forever undisturbed, except 
 when upheaved by a kypothalassic volcano. 
 At the immense depths to which they sink 
 there is no wind, no current, but eternal 
 stillness reigns, and not even the play of 
 organic affinities finds room to operate ; it 
 is even more than the stillness of death, for 
 there no disintegration follows the departure 
 of the vital principle from its material en- 
 casement. The lower coral formations are 
 subject to but little more disturbance. 
 
 These fishy processes diminish the amount 
 of carbonic acid in the atmosphere at the 
 rate of about four million tons per century. 
 The process is, however, counteracted to 
 some extent by the tremendous activity of 
 manufacturing fires within the past few 
 years. Indeed, it is not improbable that 
 the last named process will yet attain to such 
 a magnitude as to form an effectual coun- 
 terbalance to the secretory powers in the 
 restoration of carbonic acid, though the 
 compensation may not be effected without a 
 decrease in the relative proportion of free 
 oxygen in the atmosphere. 
 
 We see, then, that the Northwestern con- 
 flagrations have carried us back to nearly 
 the same atmospheric conditions as those 
 which existed three centuries ago. And 
 this brings out another important thought. 
 We see that in the history of the past, the 
 elimination of carbonic acid from the at- 
 mosphere has been accompanied by a grad- 
 ual development of animal life, and an 
 
 equally gradual retrocession of vegetable 
 abundance. While the vegetable kingdom 
 is less royal in its proportions than in the 
 Carboniferous era, the immense interval be- 
 tween then and now has witnessed the up- 
 growth of all the animal orders above the 
 reptilian, and the successive development 
 of the highest order man from a state 
 of savage ignorance to one of high intel- 
 lectual culture and moral accountability. 
 Knowing, as we do, the intimate physio- 
 logical connection of the mental with the 
 physical, in man's nature, and the almost 
 abject dependence of that physical nature 
 upon its surrounding conditions except 
 those of temperature we can scarcely 
 resist the thought that the progress of the 
 race towards the highest limit of perfection 
 attainable by humanity, has been retarded 
 not less than three centuries, while we esti- 
 mate that the commercial status of the city 
 of Chicago has been set back barely four 
 years, by the Great Conflagration. 
 
 Still another and even more startling idea 
 suggests itself in this connection. What if 
 these fires should be but one of a series of 
 events, designed by the Great Ruler of the 
 Universe, to prevent man from progressing 
 too fast, or too far, in his forward march 
 towards the perfection of knowledge, and 
 of that power which knowledge confers 
 upon its possessor ? Our study of the his- 
 tory of the past teaches us nothing more 
 forcibly that this one fact : that all the na- 
 tions whose records grace prominently the 
 historical page down to a few centuries ago, 
 have reached an ultimus beyond which they 
 could not pass, and have relapsed from that 
 point into insignificance as powers and 
 barbarism as peoples. Whether it were 
 the red hand. of war, the plague-spot, a 
 change in the beaten track of commerce, 
 or the upgrowth of a luxurious indolence 
 that gnawed out the vitals of the nation, 
 some cause has always operated to break 
 down the power and even the intelligence 
 of peoples. And the records of history 
 show that this grand reversal has occurred 
 at least twice all over the civilized world, 
 while the analogies of reasoning tend to 
 the same conclusion, with geological deduc- 
 tions, that the world as a whole is not ex- 
 empt from the providential visitation which 
 sweeps out of existence the accumulated
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES. 
 
 93 
 
 learning as well as the treasures of the past, 
 and leaves the race to begin again at the 
 foot of the ladder up which it had toiled so 
 painfully before. If we may be allowed to 
 represent absolute perfection by the recti- 
 lineal asymptote of the hyperbola, then the 
 curve may be assumed as the path of hu- 
 manity towards that perfection. If undis- 
 turbed the motion along the curve would 
 never meet the line. But even this motion 
 is not permitted to poor humanity, which, 
 like the comet that attempts to describe the 
 hyperbolic course, is ever and anon subject 
 to perturbations that destroy the old orbit 
 and force the wanderer to seek out a new 
 path in the regions of space. 
 
 And, so, it is not impossible, that while 
 the occurrence of the Northwestern fires has 
 furnished to the atmosphere a superabund- 
 ance of carbonic acid that will stimulate the 
 vegetable world to increased activity to 
 supply the place of that destroyed, the ani- 
 mal creation will retrogress, and man may 
 fall back into the mental conditions of the 
 Reformation period and reproduce the then 
 exceptional intellectual splendors of Bacon 
 and Shakespeare. 
 
 A recollection of the fact that large quan- 
 tities of carbonic acid gas were generated 
 by the fire, will enable us to understand 
 how very many individuals dropped down 
 dead near the scenes of the conflagration, 
 and were afterwards found without the 
 least trace of fire upon the clothing or per- 
 son. We have already stated that eight 
 per cent, of this gas in the atmosphere is 
 fatal to life. It would be generated in fully 
 this proportion in the neighborhood of the 
 flames, and would thence spread slowly 
 through the air over the whole surface of 
 the earth. The amount of carbonic acid 
 gas evolved by these fires would suffice to 
 saturate the air in the locality to the height 
 of nearly fifty yards irom the ground. 
 
 But other and veiy important chemical 
 changes were involved in these wide spread 
 conflagrations. Everyone has read, if he 
 did not himself pass through the horrible 
 experience, how the very air itself seemed 
 full of fire, how the flames seemed to take 
 giant leaps of many hundreds of yards, 
 breaking out in points far away from die 
 scenes of the general disaster, and how 
 huge balloon masses of flame swept through 
 
 the sky, to descend and break like a burn- 
 ing (water) spout, licking up every vestige 
 of human life and labor from open clearings 
 to which many had fled as to a haven of 
 safety. These undoubted facts have been 
 ascribed to "electricity" the agent to 
 which every mystery is generally referred 
 when we fail to assign any other cause. It 
 is true that electric forces were vividly at 
 work during that terrible turmoil of the ele- 
 ments; for we know that no chemical 
 change can occur without the evolution of 
 electrical energy. But the electricity, itself, 
 was only a phenomenon, resulting from the 
 formation of other chemical compounds 
 than the one above referred to. 
 
 Immense quantities of water were licked 
 up by the flames, both in city and country, 
 and converted into superheated vapor. At 
 this point the chemical affinities of its con- 
 stituent gases for each other were over- 
 come by the omnipresent carbon, three 
 pounds of which combined with every 
 pound weight of hydrogen to form what is 
 known as light carburetted hydrogen, while 
 the released oxygen combined with other 
 portions of carbon to form carbonic acid. 
 This carburetted hydrogen is the terror of 
 the coal miner, forming explosive mixtures 
 with the ordinary air of the coal pit. It is 
 also known as marsh gas, being produced 
 by the putrefaction of vegetable matter un- 
 der water and mud. The volume of this 
 gas was largely supplemented in the city by 
 the coal gas that escaped from the retorts 
 and the supply pipes. This was the mate- 
 rial that, mingling with the ordinary air, 
 changed it into a perfect atmosphere of fire, 
 through which the intangible flames could 
 leap, like the lightning flash, from one point 
 to another far distant. Here was the sub- 
 stance of those mysterious balloon masses ; 
 they were aggregations of this gas which 
 could not burn where they originated, owing 
 to a lack of oxygen, which had been already 
 sucked out from the air by the incandes- 
 cent carbon. These masses swept along 
 till they met with a sufficient quantity of 
 fresh oxygen to satisfy their inanimate 
 craving to be reduced back to carbonic 
 acid and water. That condition fulfilled, 
 the change was at once effected, and in 
 the process the devastating flames were 
 kindled afresh in hundreds of places so
 
 94 
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES. 
 
 far removed from the previous locality of 
 the fire that it seemed as if the havoc could 
 only have been wrought by the torch of the 
 destroying angel. 
 
 And this hydrogenateo. atmosphere min- 
 istered to the further spread of the devour- 
 ing element in still another way. The 
 millions of blazing fire - brands that were 
 borne mechanically on the wings of the gale 
 would have died out in an ordinary condi- 
 tion of the atmosphere, before they fell. 
 But after the fire had divorced large quan- 
 tities of hydrogen from its aqueous matri- 
 mony, these brands met with fresh fuel in 
 every yard of their course, and set on fire 
 the hydrogen through which they passed, 
 giving rise to lurid lines of light that resem- 
 bled the path of a mammoth aerolite. 
 Hence they bore the death warrant to thou- 
 sands of structures that would have escaped 
 if they had been evolved by a fire of ordi- 
 nary magnitude. " The burning missiles that 
 tell thick and fast on the crib, two miles 
 out in the lake, proved that they had come 
 through an atmosphere highly charged with 
 carburetted hydrogen. 
 
 Space will not permit a notice of all the 
 chemical derangements produced by these 
 fires. Among the more important of those 
 not already mentioned is the formation of 
 considerable quantities of ammonia, by the 
 union of portions of this liberated hydrogen 
 with the highly heated nitrogen of the at- 
 mosphere. Much of this ammonia will 
 return to the soil to stimulate the growth ol 
 vegetable matter, and repair the waste. But 
 no inconsiderable percentage of the whole 
 united with carbon, to form the carbonates 
 of ammonia, or became oxygenated, more 
 slowly, evolving an abundance of ni- 
 tric acid. The latter gave rise to the pecu- 
 liar odor experienced after the fire, which 
 was remarked by many as identical with 
 that noticed after a severe thunder storm, 
 and is now known to be due to the forma- 
 tion of nitric acid in the air. 
 
 The relative powers of the atomic and 
 molecular affinities vary with a change in 
 temperature a fact which the writer dis- 
 cussed, two years ago, at considerable 
 length, as revealing to us a glimpse ot the 
 constitution of matter. The chemist takes 
 advantage ol this, and fire has always been 
 his most efficient aid in working out his 
 
 transformations of material substantives. 
 Here we have the same agent operating on 
 a gigantic scale, in the great laboratory of 
 Nature, and working out results, the mag- 
 nitude of which are almost too vast for 
 contemplation. But this power acted equally 
 in obedience to natural law when raging 
 over hundreds of miles, as when manipu- 
 lated in the chemist's furnace, and assumed 
 the function of teacher even while laughing 
 to scorn the puny efforts of man to control 
 it. The fire has really taught us many val- 
 uable lessons, and not the least useful of 
 these to our future welfare, is that convey- 
 ing a knowledge of wonderful chemical 
 changes, which when in progress perchance 
 excited to wonder the far off inhabitants of 
 the planets Venus and Mars. 
 
 We may refer briefly to the more local, 
 but still extensive, effects of the fire, upon 
 the meteorological conditions of the coun- 
 try devastated. It has long been regarded 
 as axiomatic that the destruction of timber 
 and the cultivation of the soil diminish the 
 annual rain supply, and also produce chan- 
 ges in the temperature. This is not wholly 
 true. The ploughing of the ground undoubt- 
 edly lessens the amount of water that drains 
 into the rivers, but it is only because the 
 loosening of the soil permits a greater pro- 
 portion of the rainfall to soak in, instead 
 of running off to feed the water courses. 
 There is, however, the best of reason to 
 believe that the presence or absence of trees 
 has a great deal to do with the quantity of 
 water that falls from the clouds, and so much 
 that we may expect the denudation of so 
 much timber land to be marked by a dimi- 
 nution of not less than two inches, or seven 
 per cent, of the annual rainfall over a large 
 section of the Northwest, while the yearly 
 range of temperature will be widened fully 
 five degrees, the thermometer registering 
 two or three degrees higher in summer and 
 lower m winter than heretofore. 
 
 We have already referred to the proba- 
 bility that these fires were part ol a section 
 in the Providential plan of earth govern- 
 ment. While we cannot accept the doc 
 trine that they were sent either as a punish- 
 ment to the people of one section, or as a 
 benefit to those of another, we must recog- 
 nize them as links in the great chain of 
 events, each of which is an effect of some
 
 SCIENCE OF THE NORTHWESTERN FIRES 
 
 95 
 
 cause, and a producing cause of some sub- 
 sequent effect. And the same philosophy 
 teaches us that no effect can be greater than 
 its cause, or combined causes. Hence it is 
 absurd to look to the mere upsetting of a 
 Kerosene lamp in the city, or the emptying 
 of burning tobacco from a laborer's pipe in 
 the woods, as the efficient causes of these 
 wide-spread disasters. These were the mere 
 incitements like the knocking of a chip 
 from the shoulders of a man who is spoil- 
 ing for a fight. 
 
 That Chicago was " favorably " situated 
 and constructed for just such a fire, none 
 will deny who remember that she presented 
 a four mile line of wooden buildings di- 
 rectly along the path of the southwest gale 
 so common in this region. But the forests 
 per se, presented no more unfavorable con- 
 ditions than in years past; yet they, too, 
 were licked up by the all - devouring flames. 
 
 The proximate cause of the conflagrations 
 is found in the fact that the country was . 
 unusually dry. One and a half inches of 
 rain fell in Chicago on the 3d of July, but 
 from that date to the time of the fire, on 
 the Qth of October, only two and a half 
 inches fell, whereas the quantity falling in 
 that time had averaged eight and three quar- 
 ter inches in former years. The rainfall of 
 the summer season was only twenty - eight 
 and one - half per cent, of the average in 
 Chicago ; while in the lumber districts it 
 was fully twenty per cent, less than even 
 this parsimonious allowance from the clouds. 
 Meanwhile a hot summer's sun had dried 
 out every particle of the " water of crystal- 
 lization," as the chemists will perhaps par 
 don us for calling it, and left the whole as 
 dry as so much tinder. All that it wanted 
 was an opportunity to burn, and that want 
 was soon supplied. Thenceforward the fire 
 and the gale had free course, " with none 
 to let or hinder." 
 
 But this was evidently only a proximate 
 cause. There was some other cause ante- 
 cedent to this ; we are long past the day 
 when storms of wind or rain are regarded 
 as mere accidents. 
 
 If the reader preserves an unburned copy 
 of THE LAKESIDE, August, 1870, he (or 
 
 she) will find the cause set forth in an article 
 headed " Sun Spots, and their Lessons." 
 In that article we gave the following as the 
 
 consequences of the obscuration of a large 
 part of the sun's visible surface by dark 
 spots, which have been fully as numerous 
 in 1871 as at the time that sketch was writ- 
 ten: 
 
 First A reduction of two degrees in 
 the amount of heat supplied to the earth by 
 the sun (to the whole globe of atmosphere, 
 water, and land,) corresponding to the 
 lessened area of calorifying sun surface. 
 Second A diminution in the amount of 
 water taken up by the sun from ocean and 
 land (principally from the sea), owing to the 
 diminished evaporating power of the sun ; 
 and a decrease of fully four inches in the 
 annual rainfall. Third Greater sensible 
 heat at many points on the land surface, and 
 a very irregular register of temperature; 
 because a large proportion of the heat sup- 
 plied by the sun is rendered latent by the 
 evaporation of the water that falls as rain 
 upon the earth's surface. Fourth An in- 
 crease in the amount of chemical activity, 
 both in combination and decomposition, a 
 greater display of electric and magnetic 
 phenomena (hence unusual irregularities in 
 temperature) ; a more rapid growth of veg- 
 etation (but) partial crop failures, etc. 
 
 These articles were widely copied into 
 the journals of the United States and of 
 Europe, and received marked attention from 
 the scientific men of the day. That every 
 one of the deductions then made was accu- 
 rately verified, not only in Chicago but all 
 over the world, is now matter of history. 
 Of course, local peculiarities of position, 
 etc., caused many variations from the aver- 
 age; but, as applied to the whole globe, 
 the theory has precisely agreed with the 
 facts. There can be no doubt, therefore, 
 that the very strongly marked deviations 
 from the average rainfall, both the general 
 deficiency and the excessive floods in some 
 localities, have their general cause in the 
 fact that a greater portion of the sun's disk 
 has been obscured by black spots during 
 1870 and a part of 1871, than at any other 
 time for a hundred years past. 
 
 The black patches on the face of the 
 sun, too remote to be visible without the 
 aid of a telescope, though sometimes cover- 
 ing several milions of square miles of its 
 surface, have for some years been recog- 
 nized by meterologists as potential in pro-
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FIRE. 
 
 ducing magnetic storms and auroral dis- 
 plays on the earth. It is but a step further 
 in the same reasoning process to arrive at a 
 point where we can look upon them as 
 causes of greater change in the meteor- 
 
 ological conditions of our earth, and as in 
 fluencing materially those circumstances on 
 which its inhabitants depend for the con- 
 servation of the order of things under 
 which they live and move. 
 
 Elias Colbert. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FIRE. 
 
 WE have space for only one set of 
 economic considerations, that of 
 the distribution of losses ; and over this 
 narrow field we must pass rapidly. 
 
 It is desirable to have some accurate es- 
 timate of the amount of loss in property 
 burned up ; but we must content ourselves 
 for the present with an approximate esti- 
 mate perhaps we shall never have 
 severely accurate tables ; and for the pur- 
 poses of th's paper no figures are required. 
 We omit our own calculations, remarking 
 that the tables already published are a new 
 proof that hyperbole is the favorite figure in 
 the rhetoric of this great people. 
 
 The loss sustained by the destruction of 
 houses, stores, machinery, goods, etc., is a 
 dead loss ; that is to say, it is labor con- 
 sumed which must be replaced by other 
 labor. In other words, this property must 
 be restored by lalx>r which would have 
 been devoted to the production of new 
 property. All the kinds of property 
 enumerated were surplus earnings of indus- 
 try, and other surplus earnings of industry 
 must fill the place made empty. 
 
 The truth of this statement is disguised 
 by the fact that there are losses not yet 
 mentioned, which are in fact compensated 
 by the beneficence of natural laws ; such 
 as rental values of houses burned, and 
 other losses which are mere transfers of 
 Toperty. The burning of a bank note is 
 01" the last character. The bank is so much 
 richer, and the last holder of the note is so 
 much poorer. Society at large is not a 
 loser to the amount of one cent. Treas 
 ury notes burned in the Custom House are 
 not even a loss of this personal character ; 
 for there is no transfer. Th^ fire did for 
 the Government what a prudent man does 
 for himself when his notes come into his 
 possession. 
 
 There are still other losses which are 
 something worse than a dead loss -, such are 
 the public records, the scientific collections, 
 the choice books, pictures, and heirlooms. 
 
 We confine our view, for obvious rea- 
 sons, to that part of our losses, the smaller 
 part probably, which has direct and plain 
 relations with production, which can be re- 
 placed only by labor subtracted from ad- 
 vancing accumulation. 
 
 How else can it be replaced ? Were the 
 mechanics who rebuild our houses unem- 
 ployed ? Were there no uses for the lum- 
 ber, iron, stone, brick, which compose the 
 new city? It is believed that the ptopor 
 tion of unemployed labor and of unused 
 materials is too small to be seriously con 
 sidered. The apparent gain at these points 
 is greater in appearance because we easily 
 forget all the loss of activity in building in 
 other cities and villages. Such labor as 
 enters into houses has not been a drug in 
 this country for a long time, and there was 
 no reason to apprehend a glut of it when 
 this calamity came. The rebuilding of 
 Chicago will partially arrest building over 
 a wide area, and the labor expended here 
 to repair this loss will be subtracted from 
 other production all over the nation. 
 
 Some minds, incapable of general ob- 
 servation, are struck by the concentration 
 of industry upon one point ; by the impetus 
 given to those kinds of production which 
 go to fill this fire made void. But if there 
 be no real loss, if the concentration be 
 really new energy set going by the calamity, 
 the matter ought to be capable of practical 
 illustration. Burn down Mr. Smith's mill, 
 and you will see, if Mr. Smith be enter 
 prising, the same new activity about the 
 ruins of the mill. But Mr. Smith knows 
 perfectly well that he loses whatever it costs
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FIRE. 
 
 97 
 
 him to restore his mill to its former condi- 
 tion. He really loses more; that is, the net 
 earnings of his mill during the time occu- 
 pied in rebuilding. In Chicago, I have 
 supposed that this loss may be compensated 
 in various ways; but it is a piece of men- 
 tal weakness to deny that what is true in 
 detail is true in general, that what belongs 
 to each of the parts belongs to the whole. 
 
 The fire creates a vacuum which is filled 
 by the inflow of surplus earnings of labor 
 from other portions of the country, and the 
 general level of wealth is by just so much 
 reduced. 
 
 This loss is very cunningly distributed 
 by natural laws, or their resultant, the ma- 
 chinery of civilization. In such a society 
 as ours, no man's dead losses can be alto- 
 gether his own. Taxes of many sorts will 
 be shifted from him to others, and in most 
 cases his neighbors will suffer even more 
 lirectly. 
 
 In so far as a fire loss is covered by in- 
 surance, it has been distributed in advance 
 by a very fine piece of social machinery. 
 Fire insurance is one of the best imple- 
 ments of a thriftful civilization. It dimin- 
 ishes the shock of a great loss by diffusing 
 it through a large body ; it makes individual 
 losses public ones by applying to their cure 
 a cunning system of taxation. Fire insu- 
 rance is not yet so perfected that all its ob- 
 vious utilities are realized in such a case as 
 the Chicago fire presents. It shares with 
 other beneficent institutions in defects 
 caused by the moral disorders of the world 
 and the imperfect enlightenment of man 
 kind. 
 
 In our case, too, especially humiliating 
 defects of system and detail have been de- 
 veloped by our calamity. But it is no light 
 thing that nearly one - fifth of our dead loss 
 is taken up and distributed by the instru- 
 ment called insurance. No other human 
 contrivance does so much for us ; and none 
 performs its labor with so little strain upon 
 the general welfare. Accumulations set 
 apart for this very purpose furnish in most 
 cases the sums paid to policy-holders, and 
 large sums are drawn from England, so 
 widely does insurance distribution range 
 over the field of production. In a good 
 system of insurance, a loss, however large, 
 would draw upon accumulations. Dis- 
 7 
 
 tribution of losses by drafts upon current 
 industry robs insurance of its chief value 
 to society, and discounts its value to the 
 sufferers by fire. For, to whatever extent 
 . such distribution disorders trade and indus- 
 try, or puts strain upon them, he who re- 
 ceives the compensation receives less than 
 his contract calls for is involved in a 
 general distress produced by the effort to 
 relieve him and others. The large losses 
 of a large fire in so far as they can be 
 provided for by a good system of insurance 
 ought to be covered by the sale of pub- 
 lic evidences of indebtedness which have a 
 steady value in the markets of the world, 
 wherein the unexpected sale of a few mill- 
 ions of this kind of property involves no 
 general confusion. 
 
 Some excuse for current failures is found 
 in the indorsement given by public opinion 
 to other and less safe systems ; but it ought 
 not to be possible to plead again that a 
 great fire is very unusual. Insurance may 
 just as well be sound, safe, and faithful to 
 its engagements ; nothing but a sprinkling 
 of good sense is needed in the premises. 
 
 A much less pleasant form of distribu- 
 tion of such a loss as that caused by the 
 Chicago fire is effected by credit. The 
 ruined men are those who were in debt, 
 and their creditors, scattered over a wide 
 area, become victims of the catastrophe in 
 Chicago. It is hoped that the catalogue of 
 ruined men is a short one; Ixit a good 
 many will probably escape ruin by com- 
 pounding with alarmed creditors. It would 
 be a strange phenomenon if there were few 
 men easy enough of conscience to maintain 
 themselves in their old places by drafts 
 upon the fears of their creditors. Instances 
 of this artifice have become so common in 
 some branches of trade as to discredit the 
 trade itself. 
 
 In these cases the settlements are made 
 so privately secrecy being on one side a 
 necessary part of the contract that the 
 nearest neighbors of the defaulting mer- 
 chant never hear of the failure. Many a 
 dry goods merchant pursues his trade for 
 years, living in the best style of his town, 
 leading in his church and in local benevo- 
 lence, whose flowing phylacteries are kept 
 m ample spread by periodical settlements, 
 of a most private character, at New York
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FIRE. 
 
 or Chicago, of accumulated debts for goods, 
 at rates varying from twenty-five to fifty 
 cents upon the dollar. It is probable that 
 Chicago business morality good accord- 
 ing to the standards of the time has not 
 been found free from the stain of these 
 shameful proceedings. 
 
 In other cases, creditors suffer losses with 
 no diminution of honor to the debtor. He 
 cannot pay, he has business ability and is a 
 capitally good customer. Delays of pay- 
 ment enable him to proceed, and the creditor 
 professes in all good form and all sincerity 
 not to lose because he hopes to be paid ; 
 but he in reality parts with a portion of his 
 capital to another man upon whose success 
 in a new business the hope of repayment 
 rests. It is a loan, and therefore honorable ; 
 it is a forced loan, compelled by certain 
 business amenities, made at a direct and 
 certain disadvantage, and therefore a loss 
 borne, however cheerfully, by the creditor. 
 All unexpected credits for new goods come 
 under the same rule. The Eastern mer- 
 chants impair their own facilities and means 
 in order to maintain some of their Chicago 
 customers. All points considered, this in- 
 cident is creditable to trade in general ; it 
 refutes some theories of the hardening 
 effects of commercial life upon human na- 
 ture. 
 
 There are other forms of credit distribu- 
 tion which might, in a longer article, de- 
 serve special mention. The foregoing may 
 render probably approximate our conjecture 
 that ten millions of the Chicago losses are 
 through credit shifted from the shoulders of 
 direct sufferers by the fire. 
 
 It is in place to observe that in so far as 
 capital is brought from abroad into Chicago, 
 either in the form of goods or money, this 
 transfer ot capital is a means not only of 
 distributing certain per cents of dead loss, 
 but also for putting oft for the time being 
 the perception or realizing of loss at this 
 point. This is of very great importance, be- 
 cause it is likely to disguise to ourselves 
 the share which remains for us to bear. 
 By new profits and savings we shall gradu- 
 ally extinguish these new debts, and by dis 
 tributing our payments lose consciousness 
 of our losses. The men who borrow and 
 pay will not be deceived ; but the delight- 
 ful being who revels in "general aspects" 
 
 will duly report nis impression that there 
 has been no loss whatever, because the 
 brave shows of prosperity go on upon 
 borrowed capital. Now it is no light thing, 
 no small credit to civilization, that it is 
 possible to distribute in this mode the losses 
 of Chicago, those which remain for Chicago 
 to pay. It is well too that Chicago has 
 such munificence of opportunity and such 
 energy of character, that she can pay large 
 interests and principal too. " We want 
 only time," on the lips of our business men, 
 means much in its personal sense, more 
 still in the deeper and wider significance 
 which makes us believe it. An immense 
 capital lies in the opportunities which open 
 before us and ^the experience which we 
 bring to our new work. 
 
 Still, it cannot come to good that we in 
 any way disguise from ourselves that when 
 all deductions are made a large per cent, of 
 our loss falls on- ourselves. Happy for us 
 that we can pay it gradually; that credit 
 tides us over the shoals and provides us 
 with means to use our great advantages. 
 
 Charity has also proved in this instance 
 a great distributor of losses. Its field is 
 mainly that area of loss upon which we do 
 not now venture : tlie rental values and the 
 wages or profits of suspended industry. 
 But Charity has turned political economist 
 in this instance, and to some extent acts 
 upon the area of dead loss. 
 
 The comfort of her laborers has been a 
 just pride of Chicago. It was to be ex- 
 pected that the large hearts and clear heads 
 of the Relief Committee should instinctively 
 recur to that condition of health, independ- 
 ence, and hopefulness, which had been so 
 marked a feature of humble life among us. 
 
 It seemed an inspiration of genius to seize 
 the occasion to make Charity extend her 
 healing offices in the direction of this same 
 independent condition of labor. It was at 
 once the cheapest charity and the wisest 
 public economy, to aid the poor to rebuild 
 some of those humble homes which in Chi- 
 cago stand in the place of the tenement 
 barracks of older cities. And to such ex- 
 tent as these restorations are promoted by 
 the Relief Committee, Charity distributes 
 the dead loss of this calamity over the 
 world. Among the millions, this item will 
 seem small in arithmetic; but is very large
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FIRE. 
 
 99 
 
 in its relations to future production. A 
 million of dollars so invested would be the 
 banner million in a record of profits made 
 up ten years from now. It will save fami- 
 lies from pauperism and crime, and make 
 them producers and consumers. It saves 
 taxation, reduces claims upon benevolence, 
 recreates workmen, makes markets for 
 goods, and maintains a system of artisan 
 life which is the most hopeful in the world. 
 
 We believe that the Relief Committee has 
 never advocated any of the patent nostrums 
 for curing labor of poverty and other wrongs ; 
 but it has in this movement done the one 
 only scientific 'hing to be done in the prem- 
 ises. The laborer's best hold on good 
 wages is in habits of comfortable living. 
 To promote that, is wor.h more than a vol- 
 ume of eight - hour statutes, or a prairie full 
 of international labor - reform conventions. 
 
 1 1 is too much forgotten that cost of pro- 
 duction enters into the labor problem in an 
 imperial form. Tlie cost of maintaining 
 laborers, as; well as of growing them, is al- 
 together a question of the modes and habits 
 of living prevailing among the humble 
 classes of a country. Wherever laborers 
 are " raised " and subsist upon potatoes and 
 cold water, labor will receive low wages; 
 wages will certainly be higher whenever 
 beef and coffee are substituted for potatoes. 
 A laborer who grew in a straw - covered 
 hovel, or one corner of a basement, and is 
 growing a family in the same style, cannot 
 be well paid. Nor can he be ill paid if he 
 live in Ins own house and have a fair ap- 
 preciation of the decencies of life. It works 
 in two ways. The laborer can endure loss 
 of a day now and then perhaps has a bit 
 of garden upon which he can lay out such 
 a day and such a laborer cannot be put 
 upon any labor market for less money than 
 good wages. It costs, to produce him, the 
 capital for high rate of wages, and it would 
 cost that to supply his place. 
 
 Absentee ownership is also to some ex- 
 tent a distributor of these losses. The 
 resident of another city who owned prop- 
 erty burned in Chicago is in a position 
 somewhat similar to that of a foreign in- 
 surance company. The entanglements . 
 and all other incidents of his loss fall upon 
 other communities. 
 
 The railway companies and all other 
 
 corporations having non resident stock- 
 holders also distribute losses which fall 
 upon such corporations. 
 
 That form of distribution which is called 
 taxation ought not to be overlooked. It 
 is operative over the whole nation, in the 
 Custom -House and other public property 
 of the nation ; over the State to a less ex- 
 tent, falling with most force upon the coun- 
 ty, which is scarcely distinguishable from 
 the city for this purpose. But benefits of 
 an unexpected character result from city 
 and county distribution of loss by taxation. 
 Many suffer no loss and some gain by the 
 fire. Taxation should be so modified as to 
 throw all such losses as are repaired by 
 local taxation upon those who have in 
 place of those who had property. 
 
 These are by no means all the ways in 
 which the loss by our fire is distributed. 
 In the language of " The Nation," " it was 
 not the savings of the people of Chicago 
 only which were destroyed, but the savings 
 of at least as many more, who never come 
 within a thousand miles of it, and with 
 their savings nearly everything that made 
 life sweet. , . . The fortunes of the 
 whole race are being so closely linked to- 
 gether by science that there is nobody, 
 from the hod carrier up to the millionaire, 
 who may not, any morning, read in the 
 paper news from the uttermost end of the 
 earth, depriving him of his fortune or his 
 daily bread " 
 
 The political economist finds in such 
 facts new reasons for hopefulness and also 
 for apprehension. He is stimulated to in- 
 creased confidence in the wholesomeness 
 of the natural laws of society, to new fear 
 of the consequences of their disobedience. 
 1 We cannot forget that bad men, and 
 careless good men, are not restrained 
 from careless handling of great social con- 
 cernments by the magnitude and range of 
 the perils they thus invite , and when fools 
 abound it is not cheerful to feel that any 
 one of them may put us all to grief by one 
 careless action or one piece of negligence. 
 
 The effect of the sudden destruction of a 
 great mart of wealth upon human energy, in 
 increaing or lessening its quantity or deter- 
 mining its direction, cannot he omitted 
 from our survey. In one point ot view, it 
 seems probable that loss and gain are in
 
 100 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE EIRE. 
 
 equilibrium. On one side we see men of 
 some years disheartened and retired from 
 productive exertion. On the other, we see 
 places opened for younger men. ^Assuming 
 that this energy must have taken the same 
 direction, we have only personal and 
 moral reasons for regret. But if we con- 
 sider that the young men are forced by 
 this event into trade, who would else have 
 been forced into letters, art, science, one 
 perceives in the persistency of the old di- 
 rection of force an absolute loss and a new 
 danger. For, whatever retards the natural 
 movement to higher forms of energy, what- 
 ever arrests the progress of a society to a 
 higher life, gives to the lower order of ac- 
 tivities facility for crystallization and lessens 
 the probability of a better life. If in a 
 town composed of huts, an annual fire 
 made it necessary to annually rebuild, the 
 people could only be hut builders and hut- 
 dwellers. If young men are demanded to 
 produce grain and build houses, they can- 
 not frequent colleges, libraries, or art 
 studios. If all the income of Mr. Smith is 
 required to furnish shelter and bread for 
 his family, his daughters will be inade- 
 quately educated. 
 
 That general condition of social comfort 
 which has been the general aim of our 
 young civilization is in itself a good never 
 to be despised or undervalued. That this 
 fire subtracts in thousands of homes, not 
 in Chicago alone, from this comfortable 
 status, is by itself an evil not covered up 
 because patiently borne. But it is a greater 
 evil that, mixed up with these means of 
 comfortable home life, there were accumu- 
 lations intended for the education of young 
 men and women On a smaller scale the 
 fire repeats the greatest of the burdens of 
 the war by subtracting from the education 
 of a generation. 
 
 It is not well for us to be taught in the 
 school of pain, until it is true that we can- 
 not learn in a better school. And therefore 
 one may distrust the social effects of shocks 
 given by this calamity to brave and noble 
 men among us who are silent sufferers at 
 home. One hears every day in soft accents 
 of sympathetic friends, of this and that 
 silver-haired merchant, public servant, or 
 saint, on whose bounty the poor have fed, 
 
 by whose hands churches have risen out of 
 the ground, through whose wisdom the city 
 has been established on some of its perma- 
 nent supports, from whom the fire took 
 away not merely goods but all the forces 
 whereby goods grew. Many a prop is 
 gone from under the civilizing institutions 
 that rose somewhat too slowly in Chicago. 
 
 It is not merely that these forces are 
 gone, that some of the best of our hands 
 are nerveless, and some of the warmest 
 friends of charitable causes rendered help- 
 less ; the very mode of their paralysis is an 
 evil, because sudden and undistributed as 
 by ordinary death or failure in business, 
 and because it has destroyed some of the 
 procreant force of charity. Some celestial 
 color will be missed from our life at the 
 very time when after the charity of our 
 neighbors has ceased to flow this way 
 the greatest demand for public spirit will 
 exist with the smallest supply. 
 
 It is painful to follow the lines of dis- 
 tribution over which this loss travels out 
 over the land, and to mark everywhere the 
 disproportionate burden thrown upon the 
 nobler uses of life. Whatever educates, 
 as books, newspapers, magazines, higher 
 schools, and churches, suffer out of pro- 
 portion because material wants are imperi 
 ous Just because we can hide here such 
 a large proportion of our loss, we shall the 
 sooner recover the shows of our prosperity ; 
 but it is a loss this of education which 
 has no compensation, and torments the 
 thoughtful spirit with painful apprehensions. 
 The vast army of counter-jumpers, bar- 
 tenders, and political bummers, is recruited 
 from among the imperfectly educated young 
 men the young men who have neither 
 book learning nor trades, and want all 
 forms of discipline and culture. 
 
 To know a danger is to avoid it. The 
 press and the pulpit have it in their power 
 to greatly decrease the impending evils of 
 diminished benevolence and education. 
 These great lights and forces may, by giv 
 ing special attention to this danger, prevent 
 the excessive taxation of culture and charity 
 to repair our loss. Of these we must lose 
 much. Let our lamp - bearers see to it that 
 we lose no more than we must. 
 
 D. H. Wheeler.
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 " r I "*HE Fire," said a distinguished 
 orthodox clergyman of this city 
 in a recent sermon, "has burnt up a 
 good deal of sectarianism in Chicago." 
 Whether this be true or not it is not our 
 purpose to inquire ; but it has certainly 
 brought into zealous practice a great 
 deal of unsectarian Christianity. " If," 
 says one of the most vigorous and elo- 
 quent writers of our generation, " If it 
 be true Christianity to dive with a pas- 
 sionate charity into the darkest realms 
 of misery and of vice, to irrigate every 
 quarter of the earth with the fertilizing 
 stream of an almost boundless benevo- 
 lence, and to include all the sections of 
 humanity in the circle of an intense 
 and efficacious sympathy ; if it be true 
 Christianity to destroy or weaken the 
 barriers which had separated class from 
 class and nation from nation, to free 
 war from its harshest elements, and to 
 make a consciousness of essential equal- 
 ity and of a genuine fraternity domi- 
 nate over all accidental differences ; * 
 * * if these be the marks of a true 
 and healthy Christianity, then never 
 since the days of the Apostles has it 
 been so vigorous as at present." When 
 these words were written we had not 
 then, as our newspapers so love to say. 
 " passed recently through a disastrous 
 conflagration ;" but no more striking 
 illustration of their truth has been, or, 
 let us hope, will be given in our time, 
 than in these last three months of our 
 history. Both in what has been done 
 for us and in what has been done among 
 us, true Christianity has dived here into 
 the darkest recesses of misery ; has 
 flowed over us with a fertilizing stream 
 of almost boundless benevolence ; and 
 has enfolded us as in an intense and 
 effective sympathy. It is true that Chi- 
 cago, more than any other city on the 
 globe, is made up of people gathered 
 together from all civilized countries. 
 The oldest native born cituen is OJily 
 
 about thirty - five years of age, and there 
 is hardly an old man or an old woman 
 in all its three hundred thousand in- 
 habitants. Much the larger portion of 
 its adults are young, or in the prime of 
 life, and all, or nearly all, have left old 
 homes and kindred elsewhere, to whom 
 they are bound by the closest ties of 
 affection and interest. 
 
 The fire broke out on Sunday even- 
 ing at ten o'clock, and the last house it 
 caught four miles distant in a straight 
 line from the starting point was still 
 blazing at eleven o'clock the next night. 
 In that twenty -five hours the news of 
 the disaster was carried across an ocean 
 and a continent, and the hearts of hun- 
 dreds of thousands were wrung with 
 anxiety and suspense as to the fate, not 
 merely of their fellow creatures, but of 
 parents and children, of brothers and 
 sisters, and of intimate friends. The 
 intense sympathy which was every- 
 where shown was due, doubtless, in a 
 measure to this deep personal interest 
 in the event; but the contagion of that 
 sympathy ran through every town and 
 city, at home and abroad, as irrepressi- 
 ble and as consuming as the hot flames 
 that were even then leaping from house 
 to house through our doomed streets. 
 The barriers which separate class from 
 class, and nation from nation, were no 
 longer remembered. In London, in 
 Vienna, in Paris, in all European 
 capitals, instant measures for relief 
 followed the first imperfect com- 
 prehension of the calamity. It was 
 only necessary to placard upon a wagon 
 in any New York street the one word 
 "Chicago," to bring out from every 
 house its inmates, loaded with whatev- 
 er of clothing or of food they could lay 
 their hands on, for the succor of a suf- 
 fering people a thousand miles away. 
 The rich and the poor vied with each 
 other in giving of their abundance or 
 their poverty ; and from the western
 
 .04 
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 border of the American continent to 
 the eastern boundary of Europe.a chord 
 of tender feeling and Christian charity 
 thrilled through all peoples with pity 
 and with love for those who were thus 
 stricken with sudden poverty, and who 
 looked up hopeless and in despair into 
 the pitiless heavens, red with the reflec- 
 tion of their burning homes. 
 
 Of what depths of feeling were stirred 
 many touching evidences were given, 
 in the hundreds of boxes of goods sent 
 here to private persons for distribution. 
 Stores of household treasures that had 
 lain untouched and hidden away from 
 the light of day for many years, too 
 precious from cherished associations to 
 be put to common use, were brought 
 out now, and dedicated, as it were, to a 
 sacred mission. Their character, and 
 the fashion of them, evidently showed, 
 as they were lifted from their places 
 here, what tender memories must have 
 been entwined about them, and how 
 intense the pious devotion was that 
 could enforce consent to part with them 
 now forever. Sheets and blankets and 
 coverlets, and stores of other homely 
 stuff, as precious once to some good 
 housewife as the contents of Mrs. Tul- 
 liver's cedar closet were to her, and 
 which some loving daughter had laid 
 away as a legacy too sacred to be put 
 to any common purpose, were sent as 
 a fitting gift to those who sat in the 
 ashes of all past memories. Garments, 
 doubtless the last worn by friends who 
 were dead, and which carried with them 
 some semblance to the " dear flesh " 
 they once covered, were sent where 
 their new use was held to be no profa- 
 nation of the old, sad associations that 
 belonged to them. Now and then, 
 packed away with unusual care, was 
 some quaint, old-fashioned suit of baby- 
 clothing, or child's dress, which was 
 not parted with, we may be sure, with- 
 out many tears, for its very age told of 
 a cherished grief in the heart of a lov- 
 ing mother, who, long years ago, had 
 laid a little one to its final rest, and 
 now sanctified that sorrow with the 
 hope that the robes of her baby, who 
 
 died when she was young, would go to 
 comfort the heart of some other young 
 mother who still clasped a living child 
 to her bosom. 
 
 There was no display, and no obtru- 
 sion of any feeling of this sort ; the only 
 evidence of it was in the mute testimony 
 of the things themselves ; but they bore 
 as certain witness as though they spoke 
 with tongues. In the presence of a dis- 
 aster involving so many in utter ruin, 
 and the immediate deprivation of the 
 bare necessities of life, to hold back 
 anything which could be parted with, 
 seemed to thousands an act of cruel 
 selfishness which no merely private sor- 
 row or personal comfort could palliate; 
 and the world will never know how 
 many sacrifices, very hard to make, 
 were laid upon the altar of that charity, 
 how many crosses were lifted up cheer- 
 fully and borne bravely that others' 
 burdens might be lightened. If there 
 was great suffering, so also was there 
 great love; and in the dire disaster that 
 befel Chicago came a swift witness to 
 the truth that far more powerful than 
 any dogma in the minds of men in our 
 time is the law, that " ye help one an- 
 other." 
 
 As the benevolence of the world was 
 without stint and without parallel, so 
 was its confidence boundless. Where 
 there was so much distress, it had to be 
 assumed that of necessity there must 
 be honest men and women who would 
 rob neither the poor nor their friends. 
 Millions were given in money, and 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars' 
 worth in goods. The trust involved in 
 the use of so large an amount of prop- 
 erty was enormous, and it was by no 
 means a foolish or an over- anxious 
 question, in the first days after the fire, 
 whether the duties of that trust would 
 be faithfully discharged. Private dona- 
 tions of large value came immediately 
 to private persons in whose integrity 
 and judgment friends at a distance 
 knew they could confide. That confi- 
 dence, we have no doubt, has been uni- 
 formly justified ; and we know that 
 many men and women have labored
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 105 
 
 incessantly, though unobtrusively, for 
 the last three months in seeking for and 
 relieving suffering among a class which 
 but for them would have submitted to 
 the very extremity of want. What has 
 been done in this way, and by small 
 voluntary associations of ladies, has not 
 been and never can be told, for they 
 have done good in secret, and have 
 reached cases which no public charity 
 could ever touch. Whether right or 
 wrong, there are many families who 
 shrank far more from any exposure of 
 their poverty than from starvation, and 
 their sensitiveness has been respected 
 by those whose privilege it was to relieve 
 their wants. But the larger class was 
 of those whom public charity must aid 
 or they would perish. Between them 
 and absolute poverty there was, at all 
 times, only the precarious barrier of 
 their daily bread, earned by their daily 
 labor, with some small but indispensa- 
 ble accumulation of household goods; 
 and when these were swept away, they 
 stood face to face with gaunt hunger 
 and blank despair. They stood face to 
 face with them, but only for a day. Had 
 such a calamity as ours. occurred to a 
 city of three hundred and fifty thous- 
 and people, which was not connected 
 with all the world by telegraphic wires, 
 and which was not a railroad centre, 
 death would have been the portion of 
 very many ere succor could have 
 reached them ; but here not even one 
 human creature perished from destitu- 
 tion. The wires and the rails assured 
 us, before the sun had set over the burn- 
 ing city, that none need suffer for food 
 or clothing; and there was none of that 
 desperate despair that might have led 
 to desperate remedies. 
 
 There was anxiety enough, and ap- 
 prehension enough, as everybody re- 
 members, in the first few days, in a city 
 without gas, without water, overworked, 
 sleepless, distracted with cruel rumors, 
 carefully collated by a reckless press, of 
 ruffianism, robbery, and incendiarism ; 
 but the real danger of that fearful time 
 seemed to escape attention, or, at least, 
 to find no voice. That danger was 
 
 whether, after all, the boundless benev- 
 olence of the world would avail us any- 
 thing; whether all those millions of 
 money and all those trains of food and 
 of clothing should ever reach those for 
 whom they were intended, or whether 
 committees should steal and squander 
 all they could lay their hands on, and 
 a hungry and naked mob should divide 
 among the strongest the material in 
 kind of which they knew there would 
 be no just distribution. That we nar- 
 rowly escaped that peril, there can be 
 no doubt. Political adventurers saw, 
 or thought they saw, their opportunity. 
 Where would Chicago and her wretched 
 people have been to-day, had it been 
 their fate to have remained another 
 week at the mercy of those men, or 
 their like, whom a Grand Jury has since 
 called to the bar of justice to answer 
 for their ordinary method of municipal 
 administration ? It was not merely that 
 there was no city government equal to 
 the occasion, but that in the utter cor- 
 ruption of our city politics there would 
 have been even no attempt to meet so 
 terrible an emergency. There would 
 have been a desperate scramble for the 
 spoils, first of officials, and then of the 
 mob; and the disaster of destruction 
 would have been followed by the deep- 
 er disaster of disgrace and anarchy. 
 
 But one just man can save a city. 
 Fortunately Mayor R. B. Mason con- 
 trolled officially all the contributions in 
 money and material sent for the relief 
 of the people, and fortunately Mayor 
 Mason was both a man of probity and 
 a man of sense. He saw not only the 
 thing that was not to be done, but he 
 saw also, just as clearly, the thing to do. 
 To a citizens' committee, which had on 
 it some good men, but which was con- 
 trolled by those who were politicians by 
 trade, and therefore not good, he gave 
 a fair trial of three days. Three days 
 were enough to show that we were going 
 to the bad almost as fast as the fire 
 swept from the W T est Side to the North, 
 and with a result quite as certain. He 
 looked about him for men who were 
 honest as well as wise ; men identified
 
 io6 
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 with the true interests and the fair fame 
 of Chicago ; men who would not if they 
 could, and could not if they would, be- 
 tray the sacred trust which the sympa- 
 thy and the benevolence of the whole 
 Christian world had put into its hands; 
 and he found an organization ready- 
 made, better - fitted for the work to be 
 done than if it had been created at the 
 moment for that special purpose. 
 
 On the 1 2th of October he handed 
 over to The Relief and Aid Society a 
 hundred thousand homeless, hungry, 
 and almost naked people, with the 
 means to house and feed and clothe 
 them, and held the Society before the 
 world, by proclamation, responsible for 
 the gravest duty that ever yet fell upon 
 private citizens in the administration of 
 the largest charity the world has ever 
 known. What special considerations 
 they were that moved the Mayor to this 
 decision, is not of much moment, inas- 
 much as the result has proved that the 
 decision was a wise one, and nothing is 
 so wise as wisdom. But he doubtless 
 reflected that the men he selected were, 
 from their circumstances, social posi- 
 tion, and private character, above per- 
 sonal temptation ; that they could have 
 no partisan purpose or political end to 
 gain by the perversion of a public fund ; 
 that they had had long experience in 
 dispensing charity to the needy, moved 
 thereto by no other motive than a sense 
 of humane and Christian duty. Their 
 acts, moreover, would be open to pub- 
 lic inspection and public criticism, for 
 the Society was a chartered institution, 
 and by its act of incorporation its di- 
 rectors were obliged " to make a report 
 at least once a year to the City Council 
 of Chicago, giving a full account of their 
 doings, a statement of their receipts and 
 expenditures, verified under oath " ; 
 and by the same act it is provided that 
 " any officer, agent, or member of said 
 corporation, who shall fraudulently em- 
 bezzle or appropriate to his own use any 
 of the funds or property of the said 
 corporation, shall be deemed guilty of 
 larceny, and liable to be indicted and 
 punished accordingly." 
 
 In accepting the grave responsibility 
 bestowed upon them, the officers of the 
 society gave the strongest guaranty pos- 
 sible, first, in their character and posi- 
 tion as private citizens, and, second, in 
 their relation to the law as a public body, 
 that the duties devolving upon them 
 would be discharged wisely, honestly, 
 and humanely. The Mayor could no 
 doubt have selected other citizens quite 
 as wise, quite as honest, and quite as 
 humane, to whom he could have en- 
 trusted the care of the army of his in- 
 digent constituents to be marshalled 
 into peace and comfort and thrift, but 
 he could not hold them responsible to 
 any legal obligation ; or he might have 
 asked of the Legislature the creation of 
 the legal obligation, but then the selec- 
 tion of the citizens would not have been 
 in his hands. The existence of the 
 Relief and Aid Society relieved him of 
 any such dilemma ; its officers were the 
 very men he wanted, and they were 
 already answerable for a faithful dis- 
 charge of the trust they accepted. It 
 was fortunate for Chicago, and fortu- 
 nate for the Mayor that he saw his way 
 clearly. 
 
 It is not details but results that we are 
 considering, for the method and ma- 
 chinery of their labors the Committee 
 have fully explained in their first Spe- 
 cial Report, which is within everybody's 
 reach. It is by their fruits that those 
 labors are to be judged, and their meth- 
 od, however admirable as a statement, 
 is good for nothing as a fact if it does 
 not stand this experimental test. We 
 are not, it is proper to state, the advo- 
 cate of the Society in any partisan 
 sense ; we are under no obligation to it 
 even to the value of a daily ration ; 
 and we bear no relation to it whatever 
 that can blind our eyes or warp our 
 judgment. Indeed, we observe one 
 notable fact in regard to the Relief 
 Committee, that they do not defend 
 themselves from any attacks that have 
 been made upon them, nor ask, so far 
 as we know, any defence from anybody 
 ' else. They are too busy to listen to 
 cavil, though always ready to hear com-
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 107 
 
 plaints ; too much in earnest to stop for 
 idle discussion, though always ready to 
 receive suggestions ; too strong in their 
 own integrity and too firmly persuaded 
 of the magnitude of their task and the 
 practical results of their way of hand- 
 ling it, to permit themselves to be turned 
 aside by captious fault - finding. If there 
 are points in their management that 
 need to be explained, the explanation, 
 we presume, will come in due season, 
 and on the whole we think the public 
 can find patience to wait for it. For 
 meanwhile the welfare of Chicago to- 
 day, her reputation the world over, and 
 her character for the future, dating ur- 
 bis conflagratio, are recorded indelibly 
 and unmistakably in the daily lives of a 
 hundred thousand people, whom the 
 Relief Committee have in charge. The 
 problem to be solved in regard to them 
 had three conditions : First, that none 
 of them should perish ; second, that 
 none of them should suffer for want of 
 food, or of clothing, or of shelter ; and 
 third, that when these points were at- 
 tained, there should be left, as the grand 
 result, a hundred thousand industrious, 
 thrifty, and happy people, and not a 
 hundred thousand idle, discontented, 
 and helpless paupers. Three months 
 ago, the fire left them all in absolute 
 destitution, and not one of them knew, 
 on the morning of the gth of October, 
 where they should lay their heads that 
 night, where their next meal was to 
 come from, or wherewithal they should 
 be clothed. But not one human crea- 
 ture has died as a consequence of a 
 destitution so unprecedented ; there has 
 been among them no real suffering for. 
 the want of the necessaries of life, dur- 
 ing a season of unusual severity, and 
 all the hardship that has been endured 
 is positively less than the poor are com- 
 pelled to submit to in ordinary winters; 
 and not one of all this multitude is left 
 without a home of some sort, and many 
 of them have been put in houses of 
 their own, almost as comfortable and 
 almost as good as those they occupied 
 before the fire swept them away. 
 
 To establish a system that would do 
 
 this, and do it in the shortest possible 
 time, on the very edge of winter, was 
 an enormous work, requiring energy, 
 directed by the most unerring j udgment, 
 and commercial ability and experience 
 backed by the most careful economy, 
 and the strictest probity. Nor was it a 
 work of a single day, or week, or month, 
 but of half a year ; demanding fore- 
 sight, the exactest calculation of means 
 to ends, unwearied and constant labor, 
 and keen insight into the character of 
 men to whom the details of the work 
 were entrusted. Commerce, we know, 
 clothes and feeds and houses any given 
 community, whether large or small ; but 
 commerce works by precedent, calcu- 
 lates supply by a known or probable 
 demand, whether of necessaries or lux- 
 uries, and does its work by many self- 
 appointed agents whose separate sphere 
 is narrow and who easily master the 
 defined limits of their activity. So we 
 know that armies, large and small, are 
 lodged and fed and clothed ; but the 
 nucleus of the army is the squad of the 
 recruiting sergeant, and the agglomera- 
 tion of the parts is not permitted till 
 Quartermasters General and Commis- 
 saries General are provided with all that 
 is needed for sustenance and protection. 
 But here was a community for which 
 commerce could make no calculation ; 
 of which the law of supply and de- 
 mand had no cognizance ; for whose 
 wants there were no agents, and 
 where every individual member had 
 lost all past accumulations, had no re- 
 sources from which to provide for the 
 most pressing wants, were suddenly de- 
 prived of the ordinary means of sub- 
 sistence, and stood with outstretched 
 hands, hopeless, destitute, and almost 
 as helpless as when he came into the 
 world. Here was an army, not mus- 
 tered by squads at the sergeant's con- 
 venience, to await the orders of Quar- 
 termasters and Commissaries ; but an 
 army, a hundred thousand strong, of 
 men, women, and children, huddled 
 together in the extremity of distress and 
 terror, to become marshalled on the in- 
 stant into an organized body, or left to
 
 io8 
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 become a starving, fierce, and lawless 
 mob. We look with pride upon Chica- 
 go rising again slowly and laboriously 
 above her two thousand acres of ashes 
 and ruins ; but had there been among 
 us no men wise enough and strong 
 enough to take into their hands the es- 
 sential government of the city, and to 
 dispense with prudence and forethought 
 the largess of the world, we should have 
 still sat mourning in that abomination 
 of desolation. 
 
 Perhaps the time has not yet come 
 when it can be definitely pronounced 
 that the third condition of the problem 
 has been fully solved. Pauperism be- 
 gets pauperism, and the danger always 
 is that it will grow with what it feeds 
 on. But to so care for this impover- 
 ished and ruined multitude that they 
 shall neither lose the sense of self-re- 
 spect and independence nor the habit 
 of self-support, has been from the be- 
 ginning the aim of the Relief Commit- 
 tee. The very poor are always on the 
 verge of despair, and an event which 
 only serves to nerve the energies of those 
 in better circumstances, sinks them 
 often in hopeless beggary. But fortu- 
 nately there are almost no very poor in 
 Chicago. Plenty of work and good 
 wages and the chances for the acquisi- 
 tion of property are here so uniform 
 that their influence is marked upon the 
 character of the people. The losses by 
 the fire are counted by the hundreds of 
 millions, but the estimate is made up 
 from the destruction in merchandise 
 and buildings and insurance, visible 
 wealth, the value of which could be 
 easily reckoned. No account is taken 
 of the little unseen accumulations of 
 the poorer class, the household goods, 
 the fruits of long and painful industry, 
 the stores for winter use, the tools and 
 implements of mechanics and laborers, 
 all of small value when considered sep- 
 arately, but large in the aggregate. It 
 is one of the striking facts revealed by 
 the business of Relief that the poor of 
 Chicago are not of the very poor, but 
 that the habit of forehandedness is al- 
 most universal among them, and that 
 
 there were very few who were not losers 
 by the fire of something more than the 
 bare necessities of living from day to 
 day. As an illustration among many, 
 we know of a poor German woman, 
 who, at the wash-tub and over the 
 ironing-board, had accumulated a pro- 
 perty of several thousand dollars, and 
 had made the last payment, on Satur- 
 day, the yth of October, on a house 
 costing two thousand dollars, which the 
 fire the next night swept away. She 
 recounts to any listener the story of her 
 labors and her losses, enumerates the 
 comfortable and handsome dresses she 
 had laid by, among other blessings, for 
 her old age, but breaking down invari- 
 ably when she comes to the fifth, which 
 was trimmed with velvet. Houses and 
 furniture she can speak of with calm- 
 ness and resignation, but the memory 
 of the velvet trimmings is too much for 
 her. Everywhere, in odd and unex- 
 pected ways and places, the evidence 
 of the habit of accumulation crops out 
 and shows how far the spirit of the peo- 
 ple is from that of paupers. It was 
 good ground to work upon, and the 
 Relief Committee have cultivated it 
 diligently and well. That work is the 
 rule, and idleness to be tolerated only 
 where enforced by want of work or sick- 
 ness, is a wholesome regulation, never 
 lost sight of; though it is sometimes 
 necessary to remind some over -zealous 
 visitor, disposed to enforce too rigidly 
 the maxim " that he who will not work 
 neither shall he eat," that Chicago win- 
 ters were not known in Judea. But 
 applicants for aid do not usually shrink 
 from toil. The old habit speedily re- 
 sumed its sway ; cheerful hopefulness 
 soon took the place of despair when 
 they found that there was help at hand 
 to aid them over slippery places, so 
 putting the past calamity behind them 
 they make a new beginning, aiming at 
 the bright future to which they had al- 
 ways looked with a steady face. Here 
 and there, it is true, imposters turn up, 
 who recount their sufferings and flaunt 
 their rags with pitiful pleadings and 
 wonderful dramatic power. But, by
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 109 
 
 following their doublings from station 
 to station, it is found that one scamp 
 would have attempted twenty frauds 
 where, under a less perfect system, 
 there would have seemed to be twenty 
 rogues. 
 
 From the class who really need aid 
 there is no grumbling. They under- 
 stand the situation and accept it. They 
 comprehend the tremendous difficulties 
 of the work the Committee have in 
 hand ; are helpful and not repining ; 
 know that they ought not to have, and 
 do not expect to have, anything but 
 temporary help, and strive with all their 
 might to keep pauperism from the door 
 as manfully as ever they fought against 
 hunger. In nothing is this spirit 
 so manifest as in the success of the plan 
 of providing " Shelter houses," the 
 wisest and the most permanent in its 
 effect of any of the measures adopted 
 by the Committee. To feed and to 
 clothe the poor was absolutely necessa- 
 ry, but, after all, was only temporary 
 relief. If nothing more could be done 
 the inevitable consequence would be 
 that many would sink into hopeless 
 despondency, and the town be burden- 
 ed, in the spring, wiih a crowd of help- 
 less paupers. The proposition to pro- 
 vide all whose homes had been burned, 
 but who owned or leased the lots on 
 which they stood, with a cheap but 
 comfortable house, was accepted with 
 delight and gratitude. It gave a fixed 
 value at once to what they had left, the 
 land ; it provided them with a home of 
 their own ; it decreased their expenses 
 by the amount of rent they would have 
 had to pay elsewhere, and left all their 
 earnings for the support of their fami- 
 lies; it made them at once self-sup- 
 porting ; it made them again indepen- 
 dent citizens, giving them once more 
 the proud sense of being property - 
 holders, of having a share in the well- 
 being of the community, bestowing 
 upon them a renewed incentive to good 
 order, industry, and thrift. Many of 
 these houses the occupants, with little 
 savings of their own, improved and 
 added to, so that they were made almost 
 
 if not quite as good as those they had 
 lost. A considerable portion of the 
 burnt district is thus already built up 
 and occupied by a permanent popula- 
 tion which would otherwise have been 
 scattered or have remained in penury, 
 but which may now be relied upon to 
 furnish mechanics and laborers for the 
 future wants of the city. About six 
 thousand of them have already been 
 built ; to these probably two thousand 
 more will be added in the next two or 
 three months, providing homes for not 
 less than forty thousand people. Their 
 cost will be perhaps one -third of the 
 whole of the Relief Fund, but it is 
 money not expended but invested, is a 
 permanent gift to Chicago and that 
 portion of those who lost their all by the 
 fire. The money could have been put 
 to no wiser or more beneficent use, both 
 in its material and its moral influence ; 
 and the benefactors, whose generous 
 sympathy made it possible, will feel, 
 when they come to understand its char- 
 acter, that by such a disposition of their 
 bounty far more has been done for Chi- 
 cago than they ever intended. 
 
 We hope that we do not seem to have 
 indulged in superlatives. That spirit 
 of braggadocio which pretended to a 
 boastful pride in the extent of the fire, 
 and vaunts itself now on what it is 
 pleased to assume as an exceptional 
 display of activity since on the part of 
 our business people as if a man in 
 deep water could do anything but swim 
 or else sink to the bottom that boast- 
 ful tendency commends itself neither 
 to good taste nor sound judgment. But 
 the fire was certainly a remarkable 
 event, and it has had some consequen- 
 ces which the political economist and 
 the moralist may consider with profit. 
 "You have had," said the young Rus- 
 sian prince, who was here a few days 
 since, " you have had a great burn." 
 This may be stated as a fact without 
 offending anybody's most delicate sense 
 of modesty. It certainly was, at least, 
 "a great burn " that destroyed between 
 fifteen and sixteen thousand buildings ; 
 burnt over more than two thousand
 
 HO 
 
 CHICAGO AND THE RELIEF COMMITTEE. 
 
 acres of a populous city ; raged steadily 
 for five and twenty hours unchecked 
 and uncontrolled, even fora single mo- 
 ment, and turned out into the night 
 probably a hundred and twenty -five 
 thousand people, stripped, to the scanty 
 clothing in which they ran for their 
 lives, of all their earthly possessions. It 
 needs no expletives to describe it. The 
 most vivid imagination and the most 
 ingenious invention halt lamely and 
 tamely far behind its mingled facts of 
 tragedy and comedy. For here were a 
 siege and a battle ; a defeated army 
 and a flying host; the terrors of a famine 
 and a revolution ; and here were the 
 grim humor of despair ; the ludicrous 
 display, in thousands of ways, of per- 
 sonal peculiarities and eccentricities 
 surprised into sudden betrayal; the un- 
 reservedness and frankness of the sim- 
 ple human relation where convention- 
 alism and artificial restraint came out 
 in curious and absurd contrast with a 
 state of nature. But more remarkable 
 than the fire itself are the events that 
 have followed it. Cities have been 
 burned down before, and battles and 
 sieges, and the flight of multitudes, and 
 revolutipns and famines, are scattered 
 thick through all the pages of history. 
 But nowhere ever before has it been 
 recorded that the terror and desolation 
 and destitution which mark such events 
 have passed away and not a single hu- 
 man life, after the fisst shock and strug- 
 gle, has been lost ; not one has endured 
 the pangs of hunger or of cold ; not 
 one is left without a shelter ; not one 
 act of violence or of open immorality 
 
 has followed the sudden change from 
 settled life to the severing of so many 
 social ties dependent upon it ; but that, 
 on the contrary, the terrible ordeal has' 
 been passed through in safety. That is t - 
 we mean, aside from the inevitable losses 
 and distress which come as by the act 
 of God and cannot be avoided, none 
 of the ordinary results of great calami- 
 ties have followed here, among that 
 class who became peculiarly the care 
 of public charity, and about whom 
 alone the world is entitled to know. 
 Disaster overwhelmed them, but they 
 have not sunk ; sudden poverty, like a 
 thief in the night, came upon them, 
 but none are sick, or starving, or in 
 prison ; they have looked a future in 
 the face that was all darkness, but have 
 not despaired ; the wrath of God seem- 
 ed to many to have been visited upon 
 them, and yet they lost no faith. These 
 facts are patent to whomsoever will 
 take the trouble to inform himself of 
 that condition of Chicago that lies be- 
 neath the surface; and it is not an 
 inconsiderate eulogy upon the Relief 
 and Aid Committee to ascribe this 
 unprecedented condition of things, fol- 
 lowing a great public calamity, to the 
 wisdom, the self-devotion, and the 
 courage with which they have dis- 
 charged the duties of the great and 
 sublime trust that fell into their hands. 
 If we are right in believing that here is 
 a new phenomenon in the history of 
 civilization, then we do not err in com- 
 mending it to the consideration of 
 thoughtful men. 
 
 Sydnev Howard Gay.
 
 University of California 
 
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