Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1874 — BAPTISM BY FIRE. [ARTICLE]

BAPTISM BY FIRE.

The Second Burning of Chicago—Loss $5,000,000. Chicago was called upon, on the 14th, to endure another great calamity, pnly less in magnitude than the first which visited it in 1871. A part of the fairest portion of the city was devastated by fire, and a larger portion cleansed by fire. The former is that portion ot Wabash and Michigan avenues and State street embraced within the area bounded by Van Buren and Twelfth streets. The last is that portion of Clark street, Third and Fourth avenues left over from the fire of 1871, and inhabited by the filthy and criminal population that naturallygravitates toward a large city. The Chicago Times of the 15th thus editorially describes the event: “At about half-past four o’clock yesterday afternoon a little spark was discovered in a junk-shop near Twelfth street, between Clark street and Fourth avenue. A pailful of water would have extinguished it had it bee® properly applied. But the shanty was in flames before an alarm could be sounded; a long delay ensued before the arrival of the engines upon the spot; and a still further cTelay occurred before a stream could be turned on the burning mass. But the fire did not await the pleasure of the firemen. It spread rapidly, first to an eil-refinery adjoining the place where it originated, next to the surrounding buildings; and almost before a single stream had been turned upon it half a square of buildings were enveloped in flames. Even then a well-directed effort in the face of the fire might have checked its but* the firemen were blind to consequences, and expended all their energies to save the old rookeries that were already half demolished, and allowed the flames to reach forth their serpent tongues and lick in new victims. From house to house it sped; from block to block it madly sprung, and urged forward by a brisk southwest wind soon made its way down to the most southerly limit-of - the fire of 1871. .“ The area embraced by the fire was from Twelfth street northward to Van Buren street, and from Clark street eastward to Wabash avenue, nine squares in length by one to four in width. Most of the buildings were small frame structures, built a score of years ago, with a few brick and stone stores and dwellings interspersed, and here and there a church or manufactory of considerable value. The buildings were dry as tinder, and when once under headway the fire became uncontrollable. It sped on the wings of the wind, and often, ere the fire-engines had been brought to bear upon its more northerly limit, a house far in advance of their position would be found in flames, and the engines would be forced to retire to avoid being hemmed in on all sides by the conflagration. Thus much valuable time was lost, and it was not until the stone and brick buildings at Harrison street were reached that a firm anil effective stand against its further progress w T as made. Here the engines—or a few of them—were deployed apparently to good advantage, and although from that spot it spread to some extent, its malignity was mastered and the main business portion of the city was saved from the ruin that so recently engulfed It.” This, in brief, sketches the rise and progress of the fire. From four o’clock until midnight the Fire Department, aided by such help as could reach the city from Racine, Milwaukee and elsewhere, battled the flames with more or less judgment, before it was able to hold them in check. At the latter hour all danger of the destruction of the better portion of the city was over. The loss, according to the estimates of the Chicago morning papers, would reach from $4,000,000 to $7,000,000. Over 1,000 houses were burned and probably 10,000 people made houseless. Among the structures destroyed were the Jones School building, the Olivet and First Baptist churches, two Jewish synagogues, a German Evangelical church, the Adelphi Theater, and several large stores and manufactories, the Michigan Avenue, Continental and St. James Hotels, and the Inter-Oceanic buildings.