THE FIRE IN CHICAGO.

Dunstan Times, Issue 508, 12 January 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FIRE IN CHICAGO.

—o The character of the Americans findoing everything on a grandscale will bo sustained by the terrible lire in Chicago. Two square miles of buildings burned, one hundred thousand people rendered homeless, and property to the value of five hundred millions dollars destroyed ! We may suspect th“ existence of exaggeration in some of these statements, but the fact of their getting currency warrants the belief that the actual havoc will be found to have been something gigantic. To those who can only think of Chicago as it was twenty years ago, not the least part of the marvel must seem to be that the place can possibly have comprised a considerable fraction of the wealth which is said to have perished, or of the human life which suffers distress and inconvenience. It will probably appear that the rapid spread of the flumes was ascribable in a large degree to the number of wooden houses in the town, and that the occurrence of the calamity at a season of the year when the -stoves would naturally bo tilled with produce contiibuted to swell the amount of property destroyed. Tried by any standard there can be but little doubt that the fire will prove to have been among the most disastrous on record. It may bo confidently expected that the Government and people of the United States will display their usual energy in measures to alleviate the immediate pressure of ihe injury occasioned ; and any appeal to aid for this purpose which may be made to foreign nations will be readily entertained. Another thing to he reckoned on with certainty is that the amazing capacity for development which Chicago owes to its unrivalled situation on the American continent will assert itself in recuperative efforts after the present heaiy loss. A Imost before astonishment at the min which has been wrought within a few hours has ceased to be a fresh sentiment,we shall bo callediqion to wonder at the rapidity with which the mischief has been repaired. No city in the world can compare with Chicago in rapidity of growth—-not even Melbourne, which in 1840 boasted of nine more souls, which in 18G0 led it by forty-eight, but which to day is nearly one hundred thousand in arrear. Of tire causes which have contributed to a prosperity which is without parallel, it will be enough to say that Chicago is the largest primary depot in the world ; that it has direct communication by river and rail with the coal fields of Illinois, and the immense quarries of “ Athens marble ” (i egarded as the best building material in the country); and that many of the leading railways of A merica converge towards it. Brief as this outline is, it would he inexcusable not to mention an achievement remarkable even in this age erf engineering exploits. Tho city rests upon an immense plain, and in process of time it was discovered to be too low to admit of a proper system of drainage, Steps were accordingly taken, a dozen or fifteen years ago, to elevate the principal streets and buildings from four to ten ieet. That a city teeming with such wonderful associations should perish in a night, forms one of the most romantic, if not less mournful, episodes of modern history.