The Doomed City Chicago During An Appalling Ordeal The Conflagrations In West South And North Divisions Written By A Journalist

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Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781333455507
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (555 download)

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Download or read book The Doomed City; Chicago During an Appalling Ordeal written by and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Doomed City; Chicago During an Appalling Ordeal: The Fire Demon's Carnival; The Conflagrations in the West, South and North Divisions; Graphic Sketches From the Scene of the Disaster At Chicago avenue. It was 10 o'clock when the fire got to Chicago avenue, and all down Clark and Wells streets was in a state of terrible excitement. The fire had crossed the river at another point, or, rather, the ying sparks had set fire up near Ontario street. Encouraged by the absence of policemen, the roughs along on Kinzie street broke into the saloons there, and began seizing and drinking the liquor. Many others, at the very moment whendthey most needed all the self-possesion they had, worried themselves, and, in many cases, were surrounded by the ames and sti ed by the smoke. Some were found lying on the sidewalk, and, since no one paid any particular attention to them, they met their fate there. Some women, and their children, lingered too long, and were either lost in the house, or compelled to jump out of the windows, and receiving injuries, remained where they were. The incredible rapidity of the ames passed, all comprehension. They sprang from side to side of the street, and skipping extensive tracts, returned to complete their work Often before the ames had reached a house, the thick, black smoke began to roll out of the chimneys, the result of the action of the intense heat on the pine woodwork within. The Church of the Holy Name, which has a slate roof, was especially no ticeable. From the crevices of the slates poured out eddying whirls of black smoke which, after rising a short height, burned for a moment with an intense ame, and then went out. At an early hour in the morning, it was possible to get teams, but it was not very long before they were all secured. So soon as the people west of Clark began to see that there' was no hope, and that the fire was really bound to go northward to an indefinite point, they turned all their minds to getting over to the West Division, where there was comparative safety from the ames, and plenty of vacant ground on which to encamp. So, since Chicago avenue bridge was useless, the whole tide turned toward Division, which, from Grove to Halsted, was untouched, and promised to remain so. It was not many minutes before a steady stream of carriages, drays, express wagons, and vehicles of every description were rushing pellmell across that bridge, interlocking and breaking, while the southern streets leading up to Division were jammed with wagons. Which occasionally caught fire. The expressmen and draymen, stimulated by the immense prices they were receiving to $50 aoload - drove their heavy teams recklessly forward breaking down the weaker teams and forcing their way across the river in order to return as sobn as possible for another load. Sometimes they themselves came to grief, and then, unfastening their horses, tried to find another wagon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."