Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1877 — St. John, the Scorched City. [ARTICLE]

St. John, the Scorched City.

Tlie chief city of New Brunswick, on tlie Canadian Atlantic coast, is St. John, while that which is the cliief city and port of Newfoundland is St. John’s—tlie only difference in the orthography of the two being the addition of tlie possessive to the latter. It is St. John, not St. John’s, which was lately devastated by a terrible conflagration, involving a loss of about #16,000,000, and laying in ruins the better portion of one of the most substantial and prosperous cities in British America. There is not a finer harbor on this continent than that of St. John. Tho city lies at the mouth of the St. John river, on the bay of Fundy. Including its suburbs, it has a population of about 50,000. The greater portion of the town stands on a rocky peninsula; its streets are wide, generally crossing each other at right angles, and some of them are very steep and cut through the solid rock to a depth of thirty or forty feet. Tlie buildings of the city were principally of brick or stone. It is lighted with gas, and is supplied with water from Little river, four miles distant, by means of two iron pipes, which together have a capacity of 5,500,000 gallons a day. Adjoining the city, and (practically a part of it, is the town of Portland, which has a population of about 15,000. It is worthy of note as a fact in history, that St. John was originally founded by American loyalists who left the United States at the close of our Revolutionary war. Its city charter was obtained from King George HI. in 1785.