THE FIRE AT CHICAGO.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 898, 9 December 1871, Page 2

THE FIRE AT CHICAGO.

The following is extracted from the narrative of an eye witness . Among the sad accompaniments of the calamity was to sea hundreds of men and boys beastly intoxicated around the streets of the North Division, where the saloon-keepers' stock turned into the street furnished a convenient opportunity for the gratification of slavish propensities ; and there can hardly be a doubt that many of these poor wretches found there death in the flames from which they were too helpless to escape. One poor man had crawled for refuge into a water main, lying in the street near the Water Works, but the fire fiend fouud him even there, before he could get his body wholly in safety, and robbed him of his life. Iu the city there is no water, except what is got from the lake. General Sheridan, who has boeu a hard worker all through the fire, is still asking for troops from different points to keep order. All business and work is suspended, and everyone is intent on securing first Romething to eat, and next to get shelter. The suffering on the north side is heartrending; men, women, and children—so,ooo of them—huddled together like po many wild animals ; and in another place 17,000 Grermans and Irish praying for relief, helpless children asking for bread, heartbroken parents who know not which way to turn or what to say, nothing to do but await the distribution of supplies, which at best must be a slow proceeding, as there are parts of the burnt districts over which it is almost impossible to travel. Women in tbe pains of childbirth, and patients who have been aroused from beds of sickness to save lives that at best were nearly spent. All were exposed to the rain of last night and the cold, raw winds of to-day. Several deaths have occurred in Lincoln Park, and three women have brought children into the world only to die. There are people who, in the bitterness of their souls ascribo the calamity to God's judgment. A German said to me, " This is a second Sodom and

G-omorrah, and the curse is on it." Author night must be spent in Lincoln Parle and the brick fields at Division street, and yet another andauother. Ail the trains and extras are loaded to their fullest capacity, laking people away, who, in many instances, have no place to go, yet cannot stay here, and every train is obliged to take five times as many as they have room tor. There is a rumor that, in a burnt blacksmith's shop on Rush street, the •bodies of fifteen men were found, burned to a crisp, they having rushed •into the shop to escape the flames which had surrounded them before 'they had discovered their peril. An immense number of" people are missing, and, for the purpose of aiding in the discovery of missing ones, a ■central intelligence office has been •established where the names of all ■missing ones are taken, and they are given to the police.