NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2758, 19 December 1871, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

THE C'HIC.VtJO FIRE. The Tribune of October *2O, publishes an exact statement of the number of buildings destroyed by the great lire, with a careful estimate of the number cf people rendered homeless, and an estimate of what was left. The total area of the city is stated to be over 23.000 acres, including the annexed terri i'ory west of Western Avenue, and the total number of buildings before the fire was about 00,000. On the south side the fire destroyed nearly everything in the First and Second Wards, and a portion of the northwest corner of the Third. Its southern limit on Michigan Avenue was 1 engross street; on Clark, Harrison, and Wells streets, a point a little below Polk. The area of the burnt district is 450 acres. There were destroyed 3(500 buildings, including 1600 stores, 26 hotels, and 60 manufacturing establishment'. 21,600 persons were turned out of their homes, the j,re»tc t ; number of whom Uvod went of State street/ they were closely packed The residents in the First Ward generally lived in hotels or furnished rooms, except where many poor families were congregated. On the North Bido 1300 acres were burned over out of the 2500 acres in that division, leaving intact a small portion of Kenziestreet, near the river, and several houses north of Division and west of Orchard street, including some of the better settled districts up Claybourne Avenue. The total number of buildings destroyed was 10,000, including over 600 stores and 100 manufacturing establishments. About 71),(p persons were deprived of homes, and are sojourning on the west side, or have left the city. Out of a population of 77,000, only about 7000 have houses which- they can claim as their own ; and there are not over 600 houses left standing, for the district burned over unbraced most of the settled area of the North Division, while the amount of ground burned over in the West Division was not great, hardly exceeding ir»Q acres ; and while much of that was dgcapiid by lumber yards, &c., the people who did live ther.- were very closciy packed together, and between 1000 and 2000 people must have dwelt there. The value of the houses destroyed was comparatively light, they being nearly all frame buildings. It appears, then, that out of the 60.000 buildings in Chicago, only about 13,500 Lave been destroyed ; and that while 92.000 persons have been driven from their homes, over 145,000 have not been atilicted in that way. MISCKU.AXEOL'S. The newspaper controversy concerning the international copyright law lias taken so personal a tv,.,n and lias become so heated that'the 'flints declares its intention to close its columns to any further communication on the subject. Already one libel suit lias grown out of the controversy, the Hon. Mrs Norton having brought a prosecution against one writer on the subject. The Duke of Edinburg more nearly apprehended the temper of the English people when he lately told the Fringe of Wide?;

“ You’ll never be King of England.” “ Why not ?” replied his brother. “ Why, long before the succession is open they will make a rule that it shall depend on competitive examination ; and I’ll beat you then by a long chalk.” —Blondin, the great tight-rope walker, seems determined to invent a feat in his rope walking which shall finish him at last. At a late performance to be given at the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, it had not come off by last accounts, the tall masts that support the rope were to be covered with fireworks from the ground to the top. When all these 'were going, Blondin was to walk forth on the rope bearing a great piece of pyrotechny, “ weighing three hundred pounds,” which he would forthwith proceed to discharge from “the altitude in the centre of the rope.” At the same time shells and mines were to be exploded in every direction, and the advertisement announces with much gusto that Blondtn “ will thus be encircled with fire for nearly ten minutes.” This is a barbarous performance for the nineteenth century.