Tribune,

n) c FW
you. NY XT] “No. 9 526. NEW-YORK, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1871. PRICE FOUR R CENTS.
way down them like dirty pantalcts. There was
escaped, and about fifty dollars In money which
ACTIVITY IN THE BURNED DISTRICT
READY FOR
TRNIORARY STRUC TURES NFARLY
ONE HUNDRED THOU SANLY AIO ar,
|BY TELLGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE be
Ciicaco, Oct. 16.—Every worker that cond
oney has been at
pressed into service for Jove or monty =o The
work to-day rebuilding and reconstructing.
evil of carcless benefaction has wrought seronis de
DE—NEARLY
OCCUPANCY—TIHE BANKS TO RE
GENERAL RESUMPTION OF TRA
PEO] 1
chief, and out of the immense numbers of hots oo
and apemployed, not a tenth part of the nee 3 ore
ean be obtained to run op the Tew uild
ings contracted for and actually in hrogress,
There cannot be less than 55,000 able-bodied men
ont of empleo ment, yet 80 demoralized are they by
a few days of idleness and gratuitous living, that
they stand aloof, and take no part in the pressing
emergency now at hand. As high as $3 an hour has
been paid by great firms in urgent cases. The Re
lief Association has been forced to adopt vigorous
measures, and the system of starvation may be tried
to bring these men to their senses. With such
forces as could be obtained, however, the work of
building was carried on yesterday and to-day, and
the result is almost incredible. Along the lake
gronting Michigan-ave., there are more than 100 im
mense frame one-story warehouses in progress, and
some of them actually roofed in, and ready for occu
pation to-morrow or next day. The first steps have
been taken to set the judicial wheels in motion, sev
eral of the school-houses being appropriated for court
and chambers. A law library is to be borrowed from
8 neighboring town, and very soon the lawyers will
have occupation as well as the rest of the crippled
tril
THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.
To-morrow the Chicago banks resume in full, and
ft is announced froon Washington that the National
Bunks are in condition to continue operations, aud
are authorized to do so from the Treasury Depart
ment. The Controller of the Currency has made
personal examination, aud himself announces the
fact in a printed card to the public. As may be
fmagined, all those unexpected glimpses of good
fortune, when all was imagined lost, has inspired in
business circles a hopeful buoyancy, which will do
much to keep np the spirits of the city under the
depression of actual troubles and future trials,
The unexpected aid from a majority of the insur
ance companies is, however, the theme of greatest
comment and hearty satisfaction. In the first awful
moments no one hoped to save even a relic. All was
imagined lost. It did not seem possible for any num
ber of 1mstitutions, no matter how rich and well en
dowed. to come up to the burden of such mighty sums
as went up in the flame and smoke of those two de
stroving days. The Manhattan of New-York, although
the effort forces it to suspend, means to pay every
thing to the assured. The local insurance compa
pies are entirely and irrecoverably crushed, but will
probably return a small share to the insured. The
Heme of New-York, through its agents here, an
nounces that the early statements of its liabilities
were greatly exaggerated, and that instead of
£4,000,000 the Company loses $2,500,000, and will pay
every cent without trouble.
WHAT THE RAILROADS ARE DOING.
It is, however, no exaggeration to say that the sal
vation of Chicago depends on the railroads, and these
vast corporations have not for an instant seemed
fneensible to the duty that rested on them,
although suffering heavily. Every line in the coun
try, so far as heard from, have aided by free trans
portation, and actual donations of money, in
succoring the people to rebuild the city.
With every facility taxed to the utmost,
these gigantic concerns are now actually
rebuilding their depots, and replacing all that has
been destroyed. The great Union Depot will be up
again in very little time, and the other depots are in
the hands of the contractors already. It is a com
ment on the marvelous good management of these
institutions that, during the seven days of anarchy,
terror, and destruction, not a life has been Jost, not
o package 1m1ssed, and scarcely a tram belated.
RESUMPTION OF TRADE.
The daily papers, almost as well appearing as be
fare the catastrophe, are now published regularly,
and receive a splendid business. The regular stock
and financial reports make a good showing, and itis
seen that the regular routine of trade is
steadily reasserting itself. Cattle are still
shipped largely, and this great branch
of Chicago's ancient wealth promises to suffer
no diminution by the temporary interruption. Capi
tal in every conceivable form is preparing to pour in.
A great list of new banks is announced, with
Canadian and English capital. The great Bank of
Montreal is to establish a DLranch here with a
fabulous capital. A Western capitalist is also about
to start a private bank with $500,000.
REAL ESTATE SPECULATIONS,
Rents went up spasmodically under the impulse of
the business hegira, but they will very shortly be
readjusted, when the great wooden warchouses now
going up are finished. Still, for a long time to come,
the basements of the handsome private resi
dences on Wabash and Michigan-aves. must be
used for banks and other business of a like nature,
and the rents of private dwellings must con
tinue high in consequence; but there will be
no opportunity for ‘‘corners” in real estate, as
several over-gullible Wall-st. sharpers intimated.
There have been several cases where shrewd men
have bought up leases, and rented buildings at 500
per cent advance. Onejpman, while his foundery was
disappearing in smoke and ashes, bethought himself
of a tumble-down edifice on Canal-st., straightway
secured it at a rental of $1,200, and now rents it in
rooms and offices at $12,000, and has still a room in
ft for himself. Sales of real estate are substantially
the same as before the fire, and that indicates pretty
well the disposition of the business men.
The scarcity of help affectsithe grain market some
what. Several vessels now lie at the wharf await
tng men to unload the cargoes, but the owners are
®ot willing to pay at the exorbitant rate of $3 an
hour, aa the men preposterously demand.
NEARLY ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND HOMELESS PER
BONS.
As close an estimate as can be reached puts the
Bouseless at 09,310, This is not guess-work, how
ever, as the official lists show the number of houses
sud the number of people in the burned division.
Of course, ull of these are not on the charity of the
town. Many retain slight sums from the banks,
aod have other resources; but the great ma
Jority must he cared for in some way
during the long Winter that hovers over
this northern country. The sufferers are now
wader the control of the best citizens of the city.
vast fund into the hands of a band of corrupt city
AOA A mecamid adittesd Ba aad 2.2 fe aoa dlls all Alen
CHICAGO.
"a bustling commarcial mart, Every sqnare foot is
apportioned off to some building, and scores of edi
fices have shct up like magic on the hitherto
neglected waste, As early as Wednesday the ground
had been staked oft, signs copiously posted about,
and all the preparation of a great cam
paign begun. Two advantages are gained
by this apparently unmeaning eclection. First,
there 1s abundant water near at hand, and it will be
months before the pipes can be brought to work in
the burned districts. Second, the erection of these
temporary buildings does not cumber the grounds
which must eventually be prepared for the rebuild
mg of the city, Furthermore, this is the home of
200,000 of the population, and this is where they
must be accommodated for the present. The
financial iustitutions are also conveniently contigu
ous, and that alone ghould have weight to settle the
matter. If yon should come into the city to-day
from the east, and ride np Twenty-second-st. to the
new Michigan Avenue Hotel, yon wonld never
suspect that these bustling men and women
were rescued with nothing but life from a
surging ocean of flame, and that the slim line of
blocks before you curtained the most appalling sight
of a generation. The great coal beds are burning
still, but the smaller fires are pretty generally out,
save the coal-holes of private dwellings, where small
sepulchral jets continue to burn, only visible when
darkness comes ol.
SUME TO-DAY
gave the coal-holes of private dwellings, where small
sepulchral jets continue to burn, only visible when
darkness comes on.
BE
{GENERAL PRESS DISPATCH.|
CHICAGO, Oct. 16.—There has heen wonderful ac
tivity in the South Division of the burned district
to-day. Thousands of men have been at work clear
ing away the ruins and putting up temporary build
ings, &c. Every laboring man willing to work can
find plenty to do at liberal wages. The action of the
banks yesterday, in unanimously resolving to open
for business to-morrow, and to pay at once, if called
for, every dollar due their depositors, and the
promptness of the insurance companies in getiling
their losses, have inspired renewed confidence.
The reports of the loss of life are greatly exag
gerated, The number of dead bodies already dis
covered is less than 125, A large number of persons
supposed to be lost are alive and well,
The Board of Trade has not yet decided npon the
future location of its building, The Rush Medical
College resumed its usual course in the City Hos
pital to-day.
The Secretary of the Treasury has reconsidered
his recent order instructing Collectors of Custons to
cease forwarding goods in bond to Chicago, as a tem
porary Custom-House has been established here, and
“merchandise in bond can now be shipped to this port
as heretofore,
Col. Eastman, Postmaster, announces that the
Money Order Department of the Chicago Post-Office
is in operation, and ready to pay all orders
promptly. Postmasters making deposits should
remit National Bauk drafts on New-York, or send
currency by registered letters. The Post-Olfice safes
were reached to-day, and their contents found
badly scorched; $3,500 in money was recovered,
and about $80,000 worth of postage stamps were
in a condition to be returned for exchange, although
not fit to be used. The cashier's day book and
ledger were found to be in a condition to be read,
but the cash book was destroyed. The safe of the
‘money order superintendent, and that of the
stamped envelope clerk, were yet in the ruins. The
United States District Attorney lost all his papers.
ee
THE CRADLE AND THE GRAVE OF THE FIRE.
|FROM THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.)
CHicaGo, Oct. 14.—Man is the only animal who
wastes his time in efforts to find out how things
began tor the mere pleasure of knowing. We are
not satisfied with our pleasures until we have
poisoned them with that flavor of realism. We pur
sue our Burgundy until we have hunted it down to
the vats where it spirts under the broad feet of the
peasants of Beaune, And we are eqrally unwise in
dwelling on the source of our troubles, instead of
looking forward to the end of them, and then for
getting them wholly. The Nile is better worth see
ing at Karnak and Cairo than at Nyanza. The Mis
gissippi is a far more enjoyable stream at Spunky
Point or Alton than at Itasca'Lake. Yet good men,
sensible in the main, waste their lives in tracking
them to those savage thickets, where nature has
hidden away their cradles safe from the tread of the
world.
1 see the folly of all this pla'nly enough, but the
human nature in me will not let me follow my own
precept. I have here before me six miles, more or
less, of the finest conflagration ever seen. Ihave
gmoking ruins and ruins which bave broken them
selves of smoking; churches as romantic in their
dilapidation as Melrose by moonlight; mountains of
brick and mortar and forests of springing chimneys;
but I turned from them all this morning to hunt for
the spot where the fire started. It is the greatest
and most brilliant apparition of the nineteenth cen
tary—more reckless than Fisk, more remorseless
than Bismarck. Some details of its early life might
not be without edification. There may be lessons in
ita cradle and its grave. These were the thoughts
that justified me in going to Dekoven-st., though
the real reason was that I was curious to see the
first footprint of the monster who had trampled a
great city out of existence in a day.
Nothing could be more ignoble and commonplace
than this quarter of Chicago. I reached it by cross
ing over the long drawbridge at Twelfth-st., which
was swinging gracefully on its pivot as I came, The
streets were all filled with wagons loaded down with
furniture, which exposed to the gaze of the loungers
the broken life of the family. The air of the quarter
was wholly foreign and not quite reputable. Even
the little Church of St. Wenzel added to the Bo
hemian air of the district. German volunteers were
guarding the relief stores from hungry Czechs, who
would make irregular forays on the provisions. Both
sides thought their dignity required they should
speak English instead of their native tongue. Keep
your fingers von dem pretzels off, or you'll gita
het on you.” “Yes! I bet you got a heap o style,
don’t it.” These colloquies sometimes give us
moments of conjecture as to the final doom of our
language. I found Dekoven-st. at last, 8 mean lit
tle street of shabby wooden houses, with dirty door
yards and unpainted fences falling to decay. It bad
no look of Chicago about it. Take it up bodily and
drop it out on the prairie and its name might be
Lickskillet Station as well as anything else. The
street was unpaved and littered with old boxes and
mildewed papers, and a dozen absurd geese wandered
about with rustic familiarity. Blatternly women
lounged at the gates and bare-legged children kept
up an evidently traditional warfare of skirmishing
with the geese. On the south side of the street not
a house was touched. On the north only one re-
mained. All the rest were simply ashes. There
were no piles of ruin here. The wooden hovels left
no landmarks except here and there a stunted chim
ney too squat to fall. The grade had been raised
in places and left untouched in others, so that now,
as in the North Division, the roads seemed like via
ducts, and scorched amd blackened trees seemed
growing out of sodded cellars. But of all the miser
able plain stretching out before me to the burning
coal-heaps in the northern distance, I was only in
terested in the narrow block between Dekoven and
Taylor-ste., now quite flat and cool, with small
gutter-boys marching through the lots, some kicking
with bare feet in the light ashes for suspected and
sporadic coals, sud others prudently mounted on
stilts, which sunk from time to time in the spongy
soil and caused the young acrobats to descend igno
miniously and pull them out. This was the Mocca
sruihei BeiAERETE y Ta tT TTY
Politicians, whose record will compare with that of
the New-York Ring. This fund for the sufferers is
fucreasing to tremendous proportions. Dispatches
from England and Ireland, received to-day,
place about $800,000 at the disposal of
the Committee. The Chairman tells me that s
Sousa force of clerks is necessary to simply file
ney contributions, and that he cannot pretend to
read all of them. A splendid club-room has been
placed at the disposal of the Relief Committee and
the foremost men of the State and the first ca
ftalists in the country are in town, advising mo?
eounseling the sorely tried rulers and the disposers
GTed; Shatit3.
ny one who has ever entered Chicago on
linois Central or Michigan Central oon eis
vecall the long narrow plain, rolling down to the
lake, fronting Michigan-ave. through almost ite
entire length. In other days this was set aside as a
Public park, being sparsely covered with trees. Now
18 jo alive with the clatter and clamor of
squalid little hovel alone remained intaet in
calamity, is Intelligence. J. H
HUNK LRCTG BORA (VAT VIG) AA Pal IdIIOAL PORTE 2D
and around it. It wus preserved by its own de
structive significance. It was made sacred by the
curse that rested on 1t—a curse more deadly than that
which darkened the lintels of the house of Thyestes.
For out of that house, last Sunday night, came a
womah with a lamp to the barn behind the house, to
milk the cow with the crumpled temper, that kicked
the lamp, that spilled the kerosene, that fired the
straw, that burned Chicago. And there to this hour
stands that craven little house, holding on tightly to
its miserable existence,
no shubbier hut in Chicago nor in Tipperary. But it
a
I stood on the sidewalk opposite, as in duty bound,
calling up the appropriate emotions. A strange,
wrinkled face on a dwarfish body came up and said,
“That's a dhreadful sight,” 1 assented, and he con
tinued in a melancholy eroon: Forty year I've
lived here—and there wasn’t a brick house but wan,
and that was the Lakeside House, and it’s gone now
an’ av ye'll belave me, Soor, I niver see a fire loike
that.” I believed him thoroughly, and he went
away. My emotions not being satisfactory from a
front view of the shanty, I went around to the rear,
and there found the Man of the House sitting with
two of his friends. His wife, Our Lady of the
Lamp—freighted with heavier disaster than that
which Psyche carried to the bed-side of Eros—sat at
the window, knitting. I approached the Man of the
House and gave him good-day. He glanced up with
sleepy, furtive eyes. I asked him what he knew
about the origin of the fire, He glanced at
his friends and said, civilly, he knew very
little; he was wakec up about 9 o’clock by thealarm,
and fought from that time to save his house; at
every sentence he turned to his friends and said, “I
can prove it by them,” to which they nodded assent,
He seemed fearful that all Chicago was coming down
upon him for prompt and integral payment of that
200,000,000 his cow had kicked over. His neighbors
gay this story is an invention dating from the second
day of the fire, There was something unutterably
grotesque in this ultimate atom feeling a sense of
respousibility for a catastrophe so stupendous, and
striving by a fiction, which must have heavily taxed
Lis highest powers of imagination, to escape areckon
ing he was already free from,
Like his fellows the midge and the mt,
Through minuteness, to wit,
Having seen the beginning of the fire we thought
it worth while to track it through its rise and its
grandenr to its magnificent end after a glorionsday’s
Jifo. There is a very singular caprice of the fire in the
North Division, equally remarkable with that in De
koven-st. The house of Mr. Mahlon Ogden, a large
frame building standing very near the street, is en
tirely untouched, while the entire region around it
is laid bare. Even the church across the street,
which stands entirely detached, is destroyed. The
escape of the Ogden mansion is as complete and as
mysterions as if it had worn an invisible coat of as
bestos. The fire was no less singular in what it at
tacked than in what it spared. Just beyond this
house, which would seem with its dry seasoned pine
a most appetizing morsel for the fire-devil, there lies
a green and tranquil grave-yard, with nothing in it
which could attract a well-regulated fire. But this
fiery tempest has swept in among these graves and
tombstones, has sought out with an apparent
“disregard of conducting material, the humble wooden
head-boards, and has even gnawed the marble in
many places. The last expiring efforts of the flames
were in the quiet German cemetery at the gate of
Lincoln Park, by the shining beach of the Lake. It
is here that hundreds of the hunted fugitives of the
North Division, hotly chased by the fire, came to
pass that first miserable night of hunger and cold.
Loads of household goods were brought lLere, and
dashed carelessly upon the ground. As the hard
night wore on, and the cold wind came blowing in
from the unsalted sea,” chilling the blood after the
fever of the day, these unhappy people began
to break up and bum the furniture they
had saved, and brought so far with
labor and pain. Everywhere you may see the traces
of that wretched vigil of beart-breaking desperation.
At ope point there is a pile of half-burned picture
frames profusely gilded and elaborately carved, and
at another there lie the scattered fragments of a
richly-inlaid cabinet. A library-chair has its back
burned away and its upholstery wrinkledfand singed
with the watch-fire. Bnt there are other and more
revolting evidences of the misery which on that
night gave many over into infernal guidance. I
passed one modest grave, near the scene of a night
camp. A heart was carved npon the wooden tomb
stone by pions hands, and into this touching emblem
a steel fork had been driven by some} brutal fist.
Above the ontraged blazon were the tender words,
Ruhe Sauft (“Sleep Softly”).
The scenes witnessed in that quiet graveyard dur
ing that night of horror were enough to appall the
stoutest temperaments. A throng of half-maddened
sufferers straggled through the grove looking for
their friends and finding no one, oppressed by a
weight of anxiety that caused them to neglect their
physical discomforts. Delicate women came as they
had escaped from death in thin fluttering night
clothes blown about by the surly Autumn wind.
Several were in a state which demanded the gentlest
care and sympathy, Many little children were
thrown into the crowd too young to speak their
parents’ names. And upon all, the crushing
blow of an enormous and irremediable disaster
had fallen and rendered them for the moment
incapable of any rational judgment. Iheard of one
company of German singers from a low concert sa
loon, who flew out into the night with nothing but
their tawdry evening dresses, who sat shivering and
silent in a huddled group in the lee of a tomb-stone,
their bare arms and shoulders blue and pinched, and
the tinsel flowers in their hair,shining with frost. They
talked little, but sometimes they cheated their mis
ery with songs, and it had a strange effect to hear in
that gloomy and sorrow-stricken place the soft impu
rities of the Vienna muse, and the ringing and joyous
jodel of the Tyrol. Near by the fragments of a
Methodist congregation had improvised a prayer
meeting, and the sound of psalms and supplication
went up mingled with that worldly music to the
deep and tolerant heavens.
The fire could get no hold on the green wood of
Lincoln Park and so gave it up, and went furiously
off to the left and ate up all the pretty suburban
houses on that side, and ended only when the wide
prairie lay before it with nothing more to burn. At
the corner of Willow and Orchard-sts., the noble out
line of the Newberry School bounds the line of de
vastation as if to say that the taturo hope of
Chicago, the power that
ITS BOUNDARIES EXACTLY DEFINED SCENES
AMONG THE PEOPLE—DR. COLLYER'S CHURCH
—NEW STORIES OF ADVENTURE.
[FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.)
CHICAGO, Oct. 18.—I have just made a per
sonal inspection of the condition of North Chicago. Ien
tered by the northernmost of the bridges on the north
branch, in order to see first what was left. On my way
to this bridge I came upon a young man, in the open lot,
sitting on the ground by the side of a box of bread. In
quiring if he had gone into business as baker, I found
that he had been to some freight cars near by to procure
some supplies, that his box contained mest and apples,
as well as bread, and that he was resting on account of
teebleness produced by exposure after the terrible ex
baustion of Monday. I shouldered his box and went
with bim just over the bridge to the temporary refuge
which he had found. Besides himself thers were his
wife, three young children, and widowed sunt with
eight children, the eldest a girl. He had had a good
situation as clerk in one of our leading dry goods
bouses in State-st,, and, with his aunt, owned four small
houses, the rent of two of which was the sole depend
‘ence of the widow and her eight children. The fire took
all thay hod, ozsept the clothes IB whieh they
all that vast expanse. A warped and
weather-beaten shanty of two rooms, perched
ou this piles, with tin plates nailed half
THE RITINEFD DISTRICT.
a
N.S
of 13. The chance of obtaining employment for the 100%
seemed fair. He slept out on the prairie the night after
the fire, and was nearly helpless the next day from
fatigue and revere chills, Probably great numbers laid
that night the foundation of ague or consumption. The
Sunday night had been very warm, and Monday, until
toward midnight, was so mild as to make sitting out not
quite uncomfortable for a well person. But a sharp
change occurred abont midnight; rain came, with
violent and very chilly winds, under which even
the robust suffered severely, Those who had some cov
ering found the wind too much for them, and many
lacked even the chance to shield their wearied bodies
from the blast and their little ones fro.a the chill un
friendliness of the dropping skies, The rain was not
drenching, nor was the wind near to freezing, but both
were just at the point which makes excessive discomfort
to the hardy, and to the enfeebled is the touch of distant
but certain death.
ETORIES FROM THE SUFFERERS.
the young clerk had just invested in boards to build a
In a church some blocks away, quite on the north-west
verge of population, I found other examples of suffering.
The first to greet me was a bright and brave German
fellow, also a dry goods clerk, who had rescued his wife
and five children, and had saved plenty of good clothing
and household stuff enough for tolerable comfort, only
that he had no money and no chance of securing a house.
He took little thought for himself, however, but showed
me a family of ten—eight small children—the father and
mother workers with the sewing-machine, They had
owned a house and lot worth $4,000 or $5,000, with a debt
of $700. The half-weekly payments for making up cloth
ing had been their living, When the fire came the two
Singer fewing-machines were saved by burying
them in tho garden behind the house. Tues
day morning, on going to inspect, the man
found ghouls just ready to make off with them, One
of these saved appearances for the moment by offering
to carry them to (ho owner's place of refuge, but on
reaching this demanded $10, and took one of the $85
machines in lieu of payment. I am happy to say that two
of Sheridan's bavouets are after that fellow, and that we
have stern law for these extortions if the perpetrators
are caught, But by far the saddest case here was that
of a beautiful and refined woman, known, I understand,
in art and operatic circles, whose husband i8 missing.
and who escaped herself in on'y a night wrapper; was
driven to distraction by the terrors of the wild flight,
and waa picked up in Lincoln Park in a state of more
than balf insanity. In the direst need of care from her
own sex, ready to die, almost, from extreme exhaustion,
and wandering in mind most of the time, she had
had last night only the pursing and help which
two men could give, and now lay on a pallet upon the
church floor, directly behind the rear pew on one side.
A young woman cared for her during the day, but at
night female haagination lent partial insanity too great
terrors, and care which should have fallen to womanly
sympathy devolved on the rude though kind and skilled
hands of men. The man whose brave and clear head
gave him chief charge had had experience in a hospital;
but it was pitiful that womanly protection should not be
at hand, and that the couch of such a sufferer should not
be tenderly spread under a private roof. Unhappily, the
entire length of burnt Chicago intervened between all
these sufferers, on the north side, and that part of the city
where suitable care could have been secured for them,
THE BURNED DISTRICT ACCURATELY MEASURED.
There was more spared of the remote north-wes® of this
porth side of Chicago than the reports had any of them
admitted—an explanation of which fact I shall presently
mention. In 1863 the city lnits were at Fullerton-ave.,
the length of which from the lake to the north branch of
the river is two miles. North-ave., 8 mile back in the
city, is but a mile and a half in length from lake to river.
As far as North-ave. there was little left, and clear up to
Fullerton-ave. the more thickly occupied part was all
swept away, but the limit of this part ran diagonally
from near the west end of North-ave. to near tho
east end of Fullerton-ave. On the left or
west of this limit 18 a large district
mostly unoccupied, and yet sprinkled in various direc
tions with residences of city people, as well as with the
cottages of gardeners. Unpaved streets deep with sand
or with earth which is like ashes, are opened, and to a
considerable extent sidewalks of plank are laid; and
there are two or three small churches within the district,
Thus in fact a territory in shape an isosceles triangle,
having the base nearly two miles long on Fullerton-ave.
to the north, and the sidcs (1) the river on the weat, run
ning there north-west and south-east, and (2) the limit of
closer building on the east, running north-east and south
west, was not swept by the fire, and is now the equiva
lent of a small, very sparely settled village, Oak openings
covered with a young and low growth of trees, squares
bare even of fences and thickly covered with thistles,
gardens occupying four to eight acres, make up a very
large proportion of the district. The city limits were not
long ago removed half a mile north of Fullerton-ave.,
adding a district of more than a square mile, the whole
of which is as much “country’’ as if no city had ever been
thought of in the vicinity, The fire actually crossed Ful
lerton-ave. into this district, and ran across its south-east
corner, near the lake on the east and above Lin
coln Park on the north, But it was the least
possible snip of ground which was burned over
bere and only one small building which was reached.
The residence and grounds of Mr. Huck, one of the great
Northside brewers, who lost $500,000 lower down on the
lake shore by the destruction of his brewery, occupies
the lake shore front on the north side of Fullerton-ave.,
his barn etanding nearest the south-east corner of the
premises, and just beyond it to the south-east is the
small house which the fire reached. By great efforts,
and aided by the police, whom Mr, Huck stimulated by
the promise of $1,000 reward, the barn was saved, and
the fire checked at that point, On the site of this one
small house, therefore, just over Fullerton
ave, and right at the edge of the wide
sands beyond which is the lake, one stands
at the finishing point of the conflagration. And here I
may correct the common accounts even of persons resi
dent at the extreme north end, in regard to the distance
run by the fire. From Fullerton-ave. south to Kinzie-st.,
is two and one-half miles by the survey. Kinzie st. is
the second street north of the main channel
of the river, From Kinzie-st. south, across the river,
and as far as Harrison-st., is exactly one mile. Nearly
all of one block was saved north of Harrison-st., the last
block to the east, directly on the lake, Excepting this
block, the distance due north from one limit of
the fire to the other, or from Harrison-st. to
Fullerton-ave,, is precisely three and one-half miles. This,
therefore, is the length of the broad sweep of conflagra
tion. The average breadth on the south side is three
fourths of mile, until one reaches Randolph-st., going
north, which is the third street south of the river. Here
the great Central Depot grounds at the foot of Lake and
Water-sta, push the line of breadth out to exactly one
mile. Thus the conflagration crossed the main trunk of
Chicago River with one mile of front. Over the river the
line of breadth pushes still more into the lake,
enough to give the fire a front of a mile and
one-sixth, and this front Is fully kept for
the first half mile north snd nearly or quite
kept for the second half-mile; it did not lose much of it
for the third half-mile. But for the last mile not more
than half of the square mile was run over, the burnt half
being a triangle, of which the base was about a mile in
length and the upper point was the finishing point of
north, which is the third street south of the river. Here
the great Central Depot grounds at the foot of Lake and
Water-sta. push the line of breadth out to exactly one
mile. Thus the conflagration crossed the main trunk of
Chicago River with one mile of front. Over the river the
line of breadth pushes still more into the lake,
enough to give the fire a front of a mile and
one-sixth, and this front is fully kept for
the first half mile north snd nearly or quite
kept for the second half-mile; it did not lose much of it
for the third half-mile. But for the last mile not more
than half of the square mile was run over, the burnt half
being a triangle, of which the base was abouts mile in
length and the upper point was the finishing point of
the fire. This whole region was not burned by a direct
northward progress of the fire, but in vast swaths from
the river on the west diagonally across to the lake. First
one vast sweep was made of the triangle the base of
which is the main channel of the river and the upper
point of which is the Water Works. After this there
struck in a dozen other sweeping scythes of flame, the
fire first creeping a block or two along the bank of the
north branch, and then tearing madly across in a north
east direction to the lake. The swinging terrors dia not
sweep evenly forward, but sometimes one behind
outran one which had the start, and they
made horrible dashes into each other, As
each new start was made higher up on
the river bank, and the course was diagonally across, the
effect was to maintain a general line of advance directly
north, until the last start on the river was taken, when
the front commenced steadily parrowing until the fire
ended in a point ss I have described. The effect of thue
moving corps after corps of fire-terrors, their racing side
by side, and their fierce mutual interferences was one of
compounded horrors and of smasing sublimity, It
seemed as if the earth shook with the awful breathing of
the fire monsters, while their voices roared in horrid
unison or more horrid discord, as if earth and sky were
rushing to ruin. The trampling of the fire-chased
throngs, vast whirls of smoke and sparks ocon
stantly sweeping over them, frantic mea dragging
bundles ov trunks women burying forward WM
tle children, teams dashing recklessly or choked
by thelr own mad rush, women’s clothes con
stantly taking fire, and eombnstible bundles bursting
into flame, while sighs and groans and shricks made an
undertone to the fire-tempest—such waa the scene at the
moment when the fullest and flercest course of the man
ifold conflagration was reached, after successive starts
of the fire hud been made along the river bank, and
when the full cumber of the reapers of destruction were
in mad career across the doomed plain,
BURNING OF UNITY CHURCH.
I found npon inspeetion, and from the reports of those
who worked to the last to save it, that the burning of a
house just south was the immediate cause of the loss of
Unity Church. Mr. Collyer and his friends worked with
desperation against the doom of the beautiful edifice,
but in vain. It was the heaviest blow, not of loss of
life, which fell that day, Robert Collyer’s loss of his
church, It had been not merely built for him, but built
by him, and was his pride and joy. When farther effort
was hopeless, the great stricken poet-preacher was led
away blind and nearly distracted from excess
of exertion and exposure ta smoke and dust.
Rest and water restored the kindly sight and
gave back the exhausted strength, but the
moment was one of the most painfnl anxiety. It {llus
tratos the extortion practiced that day by teamsters
that Mr. Collyer could not get two trunks removed for
less than $100. The trunks were dragged some distance,
and then buried in a celery field, whence they came out
all right the next day. Some $2,000 worth of Mr, Coll
yer’s books were heaped up in the park in front of his
church, and were saved with only the injury due to the
rain of Monday night. The lady to whom Mr. Collyer’s
son was married on Wednesday night lost everything
by the fire, aud was married, none the Jess happily, In a
calico dress,
nt
DOMESTIC RELIEF.
ADDITIONAL CITY CONTRIBUTIONS,
The Aldine and employés.... $225| Centenary M.E. Church, New
Public Sehiool No. 16, Brooklyn 388] &rk.......sees socsrecisses MN
Merchants’ Insurance Co..... 1,000) Maedougal-st, Baptist Church, 30
Abyssinian Baptist Charch.... 155 Liverpos} and Londen and
Eight "xth-ok M. BE. Charch, 165] Globe Tnsuranes Co........10,000
Dr. Clapiu's Socicty.sersenss 1,500 Baltic Lloyd Mail 8. 8. Co.... 1,0K
THE TRIBUNE has received and handed over to A. A.
Low, Treasurer, the following additional sums:
Fmployss Bixby Corr. vores $40 Josss Cumming. .oveersssesees. 810
Workinea John R. Hoole Son. 29]
J.C. Eldreage Pay Director United States Navy, has
receivea tho hollow ng telegram in response to a dis
patch authorizing the Mayor of Chicago to draw at sight
for $6,550, contributed by the officers aud employés at
the Navy-Yard:
God bless vou all. Tt 1s a splendid contridation. The Chlosgn Rellef
and Aid Society will draw ih Jue time, B. B. Mason, Mayor.
CONTRIBUTIONS REPORTED BY TELEGRAPH,
The following contributions for the Chicago
sufferers were reported by telegraph yesterday from the
places named:
Qresec.—Col. Martindale, commanding garrison, for
warded 1,500 blankets and a number of tents.
81. JOHN, N. B.—General subscriptions, $6,000,
ALBANY.—The churches on Sunday coutributed nearly
$15,000; total thus far, $40,000.
BINGHAMTON,—Frow the Congregational, Episcopal,
and Presbyterian Churches, $500,
POTTSVILLE, Penn.—~Contributions from Presbyterian
and Episcopal Chinrchies, $1,000.
SANTA Fr.—General subscriptions, $800,
i SsiNGz08 ~The cash subscriptions now amount to
57,000,
HARTFORD.—The general subscriptions now amount to
30,000,
WouRCESTER.—~The Chicago fund is now $36,000.
CHICAGO REFUGEES IN PHILADELPHIA,
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 16.—It is estimated that
nearly $50,000 were raised by collections in all the
churclies yesterday in ald of Chicago, Several refugee
famlies from Chicago have arrived here, A frame house
on the eorn=r of Eighth and South-sts., used as a police
station, bzd been devoted to ftheir reception by Mayor
BR. YY
FUROPEAN AID.
PUBLIC MEETING IN MANCHESTER—LIBERAL
CONTRIBUTIONS.
MANCHESTER, Oct. 16.—Taking advantage of
the holiday a large meeting was held in the Town Hall of
this city yesterday, for the purpose of receiving sub
scriptions to the Chicago relief fund. The Bishop of
Manchester presided, and spoke in advocacy of liberal
contributions in ald of the distressed ony: Messrs, Jacob
Bright and Hugh Birley, members of Parliament for
Manchester, and Mr, Adams, the United States Consul,
were also present and addressed the meeting. The con
tributions on the spot amounted to £4,600, Beside this
amount, a large quantity of ologiing was given. Bup
scriptions which ve heen opened in the various cities
throughout Great Britain have met with cordial re
sponses, and the outgoing steamers from all our ports
wu vid large contributions, both in money and
ma al,
LONDON, Oct. 16.—The Chamber of Commerce of Shef
fleld has resolved to call a meeting of the principal clti
zens for the purpose of SontHbaling to the relief of Chi
cago. A meeting for the relief of Chicago was held in
the town hall of Liverpool to-day, at which the Mayor
Dresiied, A Committee was pPjviated to receive con
{butions, and £8,500 were raised on the spoL,
The subscriptions taken at the Mansion House for the
benefit of the Chicago sufferers amount thus far to
£20,000, *The Strand Theater devoted the proceeds of
Wednesday s performance to the Relief fund.
The Lord Mayor of London has forwarded £7,000 in aid
of the iCute sufferers.
C. F. Langford of No. 167 Broadway, General Agent of
the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier,
Vermout, proposesto contribute the entire products of
his office for one month.
Who announcement in Saturday’s TRIBUNE, that the
ugar Nanntactering Company had contributed $10,000,
should have read Singer Manufacturing Company.”
Jay Cooke, McCulloch (Co. have coutributed ¥30,000
juroush their London, New-York, and Philadelphia
101uses.
Harris Bros, Co. of London, representing the Corn mer
chants, have forwarded £800,
1HE KU-KLUX,
I
EXPIRATION OF THE FIVE DAYS’ GRACE AL
LOWED TO THE SOUTH CAROLINA BANDS—
PARTICULARS OF THE RIOTS IN GROESBECK,
TEXAS,
WasHiNGgTON, Oct. 16,—Advices from South
Carolina are looked for here with considerable anxiety
to-day, as the last of the flve days of grace allowed by
the recent proclamation. The Attorney-General has
gone with Col. Merrill of the 7th Cavalry to York County,
S. C., the center of the proclaimed district. Additional
cavalry have arrived there since the publication of
the proclamation. According to recent advices, there
appears no disposition on the part of the Ku-Klux to
surrender their arms, &c. On the contrary, it is known
that moet of those who fear arrest are lying out. The
United States Marshal and his deputies are busy in the
Ku-Klux country, Among the arms to Le surrendered
are 800 Winchester rifles, captured from the State militia
some months ago, which have been In the possession of
the Rebel banditti ever since.
Letters from Texas [give an interesting account of the
troubles at Groesbeck and Springfield, which have caused
Gov, Davis to send a considerable body of the Btate
police there, and to ask power of the Legislature to
enforce martial law, The troubles were begun at Groees
beck by a gambler named Applewhite, who carried a
pistol contrary to law, and refused to surrender the
same to a colored officer, who noticed 1t,
and resisted an attempt to disarm him,
He was shot dead in the subsequent
melee, while attempting to use his pistol. Almost in
stantly the streets were filled with armed Democrats,
snd the Rolie officer was barely able to save his detach
Se Abe 8 RE as county, Sud
n mare
they were ra besieged by an armed crowd
of several hundred men, who gathered from
all quarters, after the first affray, as if under
leading 0 0 were picketed
and at Groesbeck the Houston evening train ras stopped
searc or State office
was stopped and searched. Se of the
riot was frst forwarued to the capital by lady. These
events occurred just before the e Aion, 4d, 80 3 Youuli,
no polls were opened there. The disturbance does
seem to have subsided, and inflammatory appeals
about a war of races, &c., have been made.
MRI FGRAPHIC NOTES.
....Rich discoveries of gold have been made in
Peru and Chili.
wr panish man-of-war Tornad is i
wall, wane Op movements of on a nade js in Angin
....Nearly all the Senior Class of Bowdoin Col
lege have been suspended for absenting themselves from recitations.
....The losses of the Pacific Insurance Co. of San
Francisco are estimated at $3,000,000, and the Compaay will probably ge
into liquidation,
....Horatio Bolster has been sentenced to two
....A short and sharp earthquake shock of a few
seconde’ duration awoke the People ja Lake Vilage. N. H., abest 18
vers snow-storm is re
TE ere pardon Ts
feet deep in Paws. Passenger on the Rai
Salived 1 um, passengers suffering severely for want of feed and
The Supreme Court of the United States met
in Washington yesterday. Pressat, Chief-Justice Chase Jaatioon
yet Ee, Nil Brn py, ty ort
hie sljourned term, There was large sbievdases of wwvers. sad are
I A ry ——_———Y
LUMBIA WINS BY MINUTES AND BSEC
ONDs.
FIRST RACE OF THE LIVONIA BERIES~THE CO
The first yacht race of the Livonia series was
salled yesterday over thc usual regatta course of the
New-York Yacht Club, and resulted in a decisive victory
for the schooner Columbia, Rear-Commodore Osgood.
The Livonia displayed good sailing qualities, and, ai
though the wind was too light for her, even ex
ceeded the expectations of many whose judg
wents were based on her record at home. The
Columbia did not equal her performance in the races off
Newport Harbor last month. The interest in the eity
regarding the termination of the race was very great,
and, as the Staten Island ferry-boat came in at 6 p. m., a
large crowd had assembled to learn the result of the
contest, The answer appeared satisfactory, for, without
waiting for particulars, all went across the Battery,
screaming, The Columbia has won.”
THE COURSE,
The race was one of the series of seven races between
the English yacht Livonia and the yachts of the New
York Yacht Club, The Columbia had been piaced in
readiness, and, mith the Sappho, was prepared for the
contest. The prize of the series is the memorable
Queen’s Cup, won by the schooner yacht America, in
England, in 1851. The course of the New-York Yacht
Club ia from an anchorage west of a flag-boat stationed off
tbe Quarantine landing, Staten Island, to the red first-class
can-buoy west of Bouthwest 8pit buoy, designated on the
charts a8 buoy No. 10, passing it to the west and south
thence to the light-ship, rounding it to the north and
east, and returning over the same course, passing east,
ving and returning, of all the buoys on the West Bank,
namely: Nos. 13,11, and 9, and west of the flag boat sta
tioned near the Quarantine landing, Staten Island.
The relative sizes of the two yachts were as follows:
Name of Yacht (lub, Owner, roams
BR 7 Rr IE Dy TR i
Columbia, N. X. Y, C.......Fraoklia Osgood. 16:4
‘SCENE IN THR BAY.
The steam and sailing crafts of New-York were astit
early, and in many docks in the East and North Rivers
excursion steamers were to be seen gaily decorated
with flags and signals, The morning did not
promise fine weather, but after a slight fall
of rain, the skies clogred. The steamer William
Fletcher, used as the judge’s boat, left the foot of
Desbrosses-st, at 9:21 a. m., having on board Moses H.
Girinnell, Phillip Schuyler, and Chas, A. Minton of the
Regatta Committee, and the following guests: Ruther
furd Stuyvesant, ex-Secretary Hamilton Morton, Ansou
Livingston, David Rawlston, ex-Mayor Godfrey Gua
ther, H, M. Morris, Ludlow Livingston, H. G. Russell,
Mr. Boardman of the yacht Wivern, and Charles Greg
ory of The London Illustrated News. The Bay swarmed
with every kind of craft. Tbe schooners Sappho,
Madgie, Tidal Wave, Tarolinta, Magic, Madeleine,
Alice Tarolinta, and Foam, tho sloop Gracie, and
the steam yacht Mischief, were either lying at
anchor, or darting about the Narrows, The steamers
Magenta, Americus, Martin, Sea Bird, JArrowsmith, and
Antelope, crowded with spectators, arrived at the start
ing-point soon after. Dr, Carnochan’s pleasure-yacht,
Audrew Fletcher, maintained at tho expense of the
State, was present during the entire race. Commodore
Bennett, Lester Wallack, George Wilson, and Harvey
Harley sailed as guests of Rear-Commodore Douglas, in
the Columbia, and Lord Walter Campbell, Paymaster
Cunningham, U. 8. N., and Sheppard Homanc, on the
Livonia. The committee-boat was industriously em
ployed in keeping steamers and small boats away
from the Livonia, as every one scemed anxions to see the
stranger,
THE RACE,
The signal was given at 10:40 a. m., both yachts having
previously hoisted their foresails, mainsail, and fore and
main gaff-topsalls. The Livonia also set her large square
gaff-topsalls. The Columbia first caught the breeze, her
head sails—oonsisting of jib, flying-jib, and jib-topsail—
being run up and hauled to windward with a celerity
which called forth the admiration of every yacht.
The wind was blowing steadily from the north-west, and
the tide was running out; the Columbia's head was
canted toward the Staten Island shors, and she spun
rounp like a top and filled away on the starboard tack;
and when fairly under headway she set her large main
topmast staysail. The Livonia hoisted her immense jib
topsail, and was some time in canting her head, for ber
after sails to draw, and she then ran up her fore staysall,
and slowly followed in the wake ol the Columbia. Both
yachts moved slowly past the high bluffs of Staren Island
and boomed out their head sails to windward to catch
every puff of air that came from the bluffs, The Colum
bia, followed by the Livonia, rigged in her booms and
hauled aft her sheets as soon as she passed Fort Rich
mond. Clearing the Narrows, and fairly opening into’
the Lower Bay, they began to feel the strength of the
breeze and the effect of the strong ebb tide, the Colum
bia having passed the Staten Island Lighthouse at 11:3:15,
and the Livonia at 11:83:20, In this way the yachts moved
sluggishly past the Upper Quarantine, at which point
the Columbia was one-third of 8 mile ahead of the
Iivonia, and had increased the distance to half a mile
when the Livonia was abreast of the Lower Quarantine,
A light rai set in, which it was feared would kill the
wind; but both yachts kept their course for the
3outh-West Spit, and the Columbia turned buoy
No. 10 at 12:04, having hauled down her main
topmast staysall, and standing on the port tack for
sandy Hook. The Livonia turned the buoy in fine style
at 12:08:27, and both sent up their matiiopisas Saysaile
again, and drifted with the tide Xoat the Hook, half way
0 the lightship. The breeze freshened and shifted to the
westward, the Livonia being the first to feel its effect.
I'he Columbia took it soon after, and turned the light
ship at 1:23:53; the wind falling again as the Livonia
neared the hghtship, which she rounded at 1:33:31. Both
yachts stood on the starboard tack to the south, the Co
lumbia going about agaly when within 2} miles of the
southern end of the Highlands, and the Livonia following
ii tacking when she was within 3 wiles of the same
int,
Phe Columbia stood for the Highlands with every stitch
she could set close-hauled and it was geserally noticed
that however beautiful tte Livonia loo with all her
sail set on the same tack, she did not sall as near the
wind as the Columbia, which was favored in every
respect with just the wind and water for her yo
draught. The Columbia continued to increase the
distance between her and the Livonia as she stood
in for the Hook, where she went about again and
stood to the south far Suouzl to tack to
starboard and lay her course for the buoy ou
the South-West Spit, which She Dassed under a cloud of
vauvas at 8:50:13, Yebelvjup bun of applatisn aud salves
of artillery accompan waving o a
kerohiefs, The Combis stood on the same tack with
the wind abeam from the west, and finally and tri.
umphantly Rataed the home stake-boat at 4:67:42, and re
ceived another ovation—which, although not by such
numbers as is expected to greet the Grand Duke Alexis,
was certainly enthusiastic. The Livonia came home &t
as 5 have held her own pretty well on the home
pLre and received a generous shure of applause.
OPPICIAL TIME, —4TARY, 10:40.
8, W.Spit. Lightship. 8. W. Spit. Howe.
ms BEket BES BNL
Columbie.....12 04 00 1 3B 63 3 MN 13 «40
Livoihe,,. 53 08 97. 'Y WS 4.10.10... 5 33.40
time. by allowance, goin.
nos HOM os [AS
cesssssnnnene 4 1TO eM 4 LE
The new keel yacht Livoais, Commodore James Ash.
bury, 260 tuns, was launched last Spring, and has aimee
contended in 18 races abroad, winning the first prise in
four races. The distinguishing features of the schooner
are that her channel pieces are filled up solid under
Livonia cesses sonsensns 6 OW ts 6 6
ro boom instead bowsprit; that
Der jibe are all sot without stays, and thai her
masts are placed closer together ia RauAUY
the case in the English model. Her leagth is 108
gues all: Jeu on Yule SUC. fous; Uoedty u
23.7 feet. Her and ri are of the heaviest
Ad aro calculated Gof beavy sea FURL Her salls
Siadt of American Sutton “uek, 9d ait to pentoetipe.
eabin A A um Her sailing
master is Capt. Wood, formerly of the Egeria.
THE COLUMBIA,
The Columbia, Rear-Commodore Frankiin Osgvod, ie
one of the newest accessions to the New-York yscht
squadron, having been launched 1s April last from tho
yard of J. B. Van Ducsen, at Chestor, Penn. She is a
center-board, cook-pit schooner of 206 tund, The dimen
length on deck, 113 feet at waterline,
rr SR A
Tmo" square feet of canves in hes maineall, fore
of 3 nek ond Vlsneth S018 ot 2% ine Ameren
3 w when she won the pn pagan na,
and defeated bia English yoo
The haa in? Zaens this stasod,
in 3 of which she has carried off he frst prize. It wil
bo remembered that Frankiia Columbia
quoed the Magle at the of last race for the
Tan gocgna series will be sailed
return.
THE QUEEN'S CUD.
AN AMERICAN VICTORY.