We arrived, if I remember rightly, on a Wednesday and put our cattle and horses in the stockyards near the Michigan Street depot1. As I have related, we sold on Thurday and Friday about three-fifths of the cattle. I wanted to sell all, but followed the judgment2 of the Boss and sold three hundred head and put a little over fiwe thousand dollars in my banking3 account.
On Saturday night the alarm bells began to ring and awoke me. I slipped into my breeches, shirt and boots and a youthful curiosity exciting me, I raced downstairs, got Blue Devil from the stable and rode out to the fire. I was infinitely5 impressed by the rapidity with which the firemen acted and the marvellous efficiency of the service. Where in England there would have been perhaps half a dozen fire-engines, the Americans sent fifty, but they all found work and did it magnificently. At one o’clock the fire was out and I returned to the hotel through two or three miles of uninjured streets. Of course, I told Reece and Ford6 all about it the next day. To my astonishment7, no one seemed to pay much attention; a fire was so common a thing in the wooden shanties8 on the outskirts9 of American towns that nobody cared to listen to my epic10.
Next night, Sunday, the alarm bell began ringing about eleven o’clock: I was still dressed in my best. I changed into my working clothes, I do not know why, put my belt about me with a revolver in it and again took out the mare11 and rode to the fire. When still a quarter of a mile away, I realized that this fire was much more serious than that of the previous night: first of all, a gale12 of wind was blowing right down on the town. Then, when I wondered why there were so few fire-engines, I was told that there were two other fires and the man with whom I talked did not scruple13 to ascribe them to a plot and determination to burn down the town! “Them damned foreign anarchists14 are at the bottom of it,” he said, “three fires do not start on the very outskirts of the town with a gale of wind blowing, without some reason.”
And indeed, it looked as if he were right. In spite of all the firemen could do, the fire spread with incredible rapidity. In half an hour I saw they were not going to master it soon or easily and I rode back to get Reece, who had told me that he would have come with me the previous night if he had known where the fire was. When I got back to the hotels Reece had gone out on his own and so had Dell and the Boss. I went back to the fire. It had caught on in the most extraordinary way. The wooden streets now were all blazing; the fire was swallowing block after block and the heat was so tremendous that the fire-engines could not get within two hundred yards of the blaze. The roar of the fire was unearthly.
Another thing I noticed almost immediately: the heat was so terrific that the water decomposed15 into its elements and the oxygen gas in the water burned vehemently16 on its own account. The water, in fact, added fuel to the flames. As soon as I made sure of this, I saw that the town was doomed17 and walked my pony18 back a block or two to avoid flying sparks.
This must have been about three or four o’clock in the morning. I had gone back about three blocks when I came across a man talking to a group of men at the corner of a street. He was the one man of insight and sense I met that night. He seemed to me a typical, down-east Yankee: he certainly talked like one. The gist19 of his speech was as follows:
“I want you men to come with me right now to the Mayor and tell him to give orders to blow up at least two blocks deep all along this side of the town; then, if we drench20 the houses on the other side, the flames will be stopped: there’s no other way.”
“That’s sense”, I cried, “that’s what ought to be done at once. There’s no other way of salvation21; for the heat is disintegrating22 the water and the oxygen in the water is blazing fiercely, adding fuel to the flames.”
“Gee! that’s what I have been preaching for the last hour”, he cried.
A little later fifty or sixty citizens went to the Mayor, but he protested that he had no power to blow up houses and evidently, too, shirked the respon sibility. He decided23, however, to call in some of the councilmen and see what could be done. Meanwhile I went off and wandered towards the Randolph Street bridge and there saw a scene that appalled24 me.
Some men had caught a thief, they said, plundering25 one of the houses and they proceeded to string the poor wretch26 up to a lamp-post.
In vain I pleaded for his life, declared that he ought to be tried, that it was better to let off ten guilty men than hang one innocent one, but my foreign accent robbed my appeal, I think, of any weight and before my eyes the man was strung up. It filled me with rage; it seemed to me a dreadful thing to have done: the cruelty of the executioners, the hard purpose of them, shut me away from my kin4. Later I was to see these men from a better angle.
By the early morning the fire had destroyed over a mile deep of the town and was raging with unimaginable fury. I went down on the lakeshore just before daybreak. The scene was one of indescribable magnificence: there were probably a hundred and fifty thousand homeless men, women and children grouped along the lake shore. Behind us roared the fire; it spread like a red sheet right up to the zenith above our heads, and from there was borne over the sky in front of us by long streamers of fire like rockets: vessels27 four hundred yards out in the bay were burning fiercely, and we were, so to speak, roofed and walled by flame. The danger and uproar28 were indeed terrifying and the heat, even in this October night, almost unbearable29.
I wandered along the lake shore, noting the kind way in which the men took care of the women and children. Nearly every man was able to erect30 some sort of shelter for his wife and babies, and everyone was willing to help his neighbor. While working at one shelter for a little while, I said to the man i wished I could get a drink.
“You can get one”, he said, “right there”, and he pointed31 to a sort of makeshift shanty32 on the beach. I went over and found that a publican had managed to get four barrels down on the beach and had rigged up a sort of low tent above them; on one of the barrels he had nailed his shingle33, and painted on it were the words, “What do you think of our hell? No drinks less than a dollar!” The wild humor of the thing amused me infinitely and the man certainly did a roaring trade.
A little later it occurred to me that our cattle might possibly burn, so I went out and hurried back to the Michigan Street stockyards. An old Irishman was in charge of the yard, but though he knew me perfectly34 well, he refused to let me take out a steer35. The cattle were moving about wildly, evidently in a state of intense excitement. I pleaded with the man and begged him, and at length tied my mare up to the lamp-post at the corner and went back and got into the stockyard when he wasn’t looking. I let down two or three of the bars and the next moment started the cattle through the opening. They went crazy wild and choked the gateway36. In five minutes there were ten or twelve dead cattle in the entrance and the rest had to go over them. Suddenly, just as I got through the gap, the mad beasts made a rush and carried away the rails on both sides of the gateway. The next moment I was knocked down and I had just time to drag myself through the fence and so avoid their myriad37 trampling38 heels.
A few minutes later, I was on Blue Devil, trying to get the cattle out of the town and on to the prairie. The herd39 broke up at almost every corner but I managed to get about six hundred head right out into the country.
I drove them on the dead run for some miles. By this time it was daybreak and at the second or third farmhouse40 I came to, I found a farmer willing to take in the cattle. I bargained with him a little and at length told him I would give him a dollar a head if he kept them for the week or so we might want to leave them with him. In two minutes he brought out his son and an Irish helper and turned the cattle back and into his pasture. There were six hundred and seventy-six of them, as near as I could count, out of practically two thousand head.
By the time I had finished the business and returned to the hotel, it was almost noon and as I could get nothing to eat, I wandered out again to see the progress of the fire. Already I found that relief trains were being sent in with food from all neighboring towns and this was the feature of the next week in starving Chicago.
Strangely enough, at that time the idea was generally accepted that a man or woman could only live three days without food. It was years before Dr. Tanner showed the world that a man could fast for forty days or more. Everyone I met acted as if he believed that if he were fully41 three days without food, he must die incontinently. I laughed at the idea which seemed to me absurd, but so strong was the universal opinion and the influence of the herd-sentiment, that on the third day I too felt particularly empty and thought I had better take my place in the bread line. There were perhaps five thousand in front of me and there were soon fifty or sixty thousand behind me. We were five deep moving to the depot where the bread trains were discharging, one after the other. When I got pretty close to the food wagons42, I noticed that the food supply was coming to an end, and next moment I noticed something else.
Again and again women and girls came into our bread line and walked through the lines of waiting men, who, mark you, really believed they were going to die that night if they could not get food, but instead of objecting they one and all made way for the women and girls and encouraged them: “Go right on, Madam, take all you want:” “This way, Missee, you won’t be able to carry much, I’m afraid”; — proof on proof, it seemed to me, of courage, good humor and high self-abnegation. I went into that bread line an Irish boy and came out of it a proud American, but I did not get any bread that night or the next. In fact, my first meal was made when I ran across Reece on the Friday or Saturday after: Reece, as usual, had fallen on his feet and found a hotel where they had provisions — though at famine prices.
He insisted that I should come with him and soon got me my first meal. In return, I told him and Ford of the cattle I had saved. They were, of course, delighted and determined43 next day to come out and retrieve44 them. “One thing is certain,” said Ford, six hundred head of cattle are worth as much today in Chicago as fifteen hundred head were worth before the fire, so we hain’t lost much.”
Next day I led Reece and the Boss straight to the farmer’s place, but to my surprise he told me that I had agreed to give him two dollars a head, whereas I had bargained with him for only one dollar. His son backed up the farmer’s statement and the Irish helper declared that he was sorry to disagree with me, but I was mistaken; it was two dollars I had said. They little knew the sort of men they had to deal with. “Where are the cattle?” Ford asked, and we went down to the pasture where they were penned. “Count them, Harris,” said Ford, and I counted six hundred and twenty head. Fifty odd had disappeared, but the farmer wanted to persuade me that I had counted wrongly.
Ford went about and soon found a rough lean-to stable where there were thirty more head of Texan cattle. These were driven up and soon disappeared in the herd; Reece and I began to move the herd towards the entrance. The farmer declared he would not let us go, but Ford looked at him a little while and then said very quietly, “You have stolen enough cattle to pay you. If you bother with us, I will make meat of you — see! — cold meat”, and the farmer moved aside and kept quiet.
That night we had a great feast and the day after Ford announced that he had sold the whole of the cattle to two hotel proprietors45 and got nearly as much money as if we had not lost a hoof46.
My five thousand dollars became six thousand, five hundred.
The courage shown by the common people in the fire, the wild humor coupled with the consideration for the women, had won my heart. This,is the greatest people in the world, I said to myself, and was proud to feel at one with them.
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1
depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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2
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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4
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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5
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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6
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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7
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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8
shanties
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| n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌 | |
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9
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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10
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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11
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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12
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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13
scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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14
anarchists
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| 无政府主义者( anarchist的名词复数 ) | |
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15
decomposed
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| 已分解的，已腐烂的 | |
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vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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17
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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18
pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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19
gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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20
drench
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| v.使淋透，使湿透 | |
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21
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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22
disintegrating
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| v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的现在分词 ) | |
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23
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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24
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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25
plundering
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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26
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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28
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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29
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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30
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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31
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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32
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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33
shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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35
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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36
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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37
myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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38
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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39
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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40
farmhouse
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| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
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41
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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42
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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43
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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44
retrieve
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| vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索 | |
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45
proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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46
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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