Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1901 — BIG FIRE IN MONTREAL. [ARTICLE]

BIG FIRE IN MONTREAL.

Property Valued at Nearly »3,(MX),DIM) Destroyed, At 8 o'clock Wednesday evening a fire started in the clothing house of M. Saxe & Sorts, St. Peter street. Montreal, Que., and before it was brought under control, had destroyed property valued nt lietwecn $2,500,000 and $3,000,009, including the $600,000 Board of Trade building. Outside of this building, however, there was not a modern structure among those burned. The narrow streets. antiqnntisl buildings nnd the inflammable nature of the stocks they contained made a combination which the department was powerless to overcome, and for a time it seemed that the entire business portion of the place would go. Tho tire practically burned until it came to an open space which gave the firemen nn opportunity for effective work. Numerous crowds of people jammed the narrow streets, and the police could not control them. Women fainted nnd their clothes were torn nnd n few slightly injured in rushes for safety. Outside of the Board of Trade tenants thirteen firms were burnod out. Audew Carnegie has offered nn annual prise of SSOO for the most meritorious oil painting by an American artist. Capt. J. E. Bernier, Quebec, will try to reach the north pole, using ice traveling inventions of his own.