THREE DAYS AT CHICAGO. 369 



^lare of the conflagration three or four miles away. 

 By midnight nearly every vehicle in the city had 

 been pressed into service, and the frightened animals 

 attached to them, in many cases beyond control, went 

 flying through the streets in all directions, making a 

 racket and a rumble which, coupled with the hoarse 

 shouts of men, the moaning of the gale, the roar of the 

 conflao-ration and the crash of fallino; building^s made a 

 conglomeration of sight and sound so appalling that 

 none who saw it, or were of it, are ever likely to for- 

 get. Few in the city took any notice of the break of 

 day or the rising of the sun. These occurrences 

 seemed to make little diiference in the quantity of 

 light. It was only now and then that Old Sol was 

 visible through the almost impenetrable smoke clouds. 

 Nothing could be seen but smoke, smoke, smoke, here 

 and there interspersed by dark rolling masses of 

 flames. It was chaos come again. The earth was 

 seemingly resolved into its original elements.'' 



At the end of three days, 300,000 people were desti- 

 tute, 100,000 were absolutely homeless, 200,000 were 

 without water. The food supply was doubtful for all. 

 Rubbers and incendiaries were at work. The gas was 

 gone — blown sky high. Churches, newspapers, po- 

 lice, telegraph offices and public institutions were 

 gone, while nineteen-twentieths of- all the mercantile 

 stock in the city was consumed. 



The tract destroyed was about a mile in breadth, 

 and the losses were roughly estimated at $200,000,000. 

 Scill, so alive was public sentiment and hope, that at 

 the time of my horseback journey, five years later, 

 scarcely a trace remained to tell the tale of this disas- 

 ter, aud that of 1874, except the records of history. 



