THE CHICAGO FIRE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 203, 21 December 1871, Page 6

THE CHICAGO FIRE.

( Abridged from the " Newxof (he World.")

The news to hand vui San Francisco of the awful calamity which has visited the city of _ Chicago confirm the most sensational of the telegrams which first conveyed to us the intelligence of its occurrence. 13,200 houses were destroyed, and 92,000 people were rendered homeless. The origin of the fire is wrapped in profound obscurity — the cow narrative being denied hy the owner of the animal said to have caused the conflagration. A sensational confession of a member of the International, attributing the fire to a behettt of the association, was printed in a Chicago paper, but was soon proved to be a canard.

About 100 persons are sunpnsprl to have periohed iv the flames. The cause of the fire spreading to such an extent as it did was a tornado which blew with frightful fury on the night it broke out.

Subscriptions are pouring in with almost unprecedented liberality and rapidity for the aid of the unfortunate sufferers, and it is expected that the insurance companies will be able to meet all demands upon them. Already business is being resumed, and new buildings are being erected on the site of those consumed. The newspapers have recommenced publishing in their usual form. One of them contain two and a-half columns of advertisements for missing friends. The rate at which the ruins are befng cleared away, and the erection of new buildings commenced, promises that the world-famed energy and enterprise of the Chicago citizens will soon obliterate every trace of the most awful conflagration on record.