Show fAL FROM A SPARK n rs Eortyfive o S Million Feet of o Lumber Burned a THE NEW RAILROAD TROUBLES < l I Tbe Confederates and Cleveland A Perjured Juror Endorsing I r the President j 5 Big Fire In South Chicago CHICAGO May 8 Shortly after noon today a spark from a passing locomotive locomo-tive engine set a fire in the heart of the great ninelumber yard district which i I lies along both sides of the south branch of Chicago andnear the southwestern city Hniits Bordering upon this district dis-trict are a wooden built portion of the city known as Bridgeport and the Union stock yards with its acres of wooden sheds and pens filled with cattle cat-tle hogs and sheep A fierce wind was blowing from the west and the flames spread with gr rapidity The entire fire department was called out and began be-gan fighting the flames but the twenty or thirty streams of wafer which were thrown upon them had little or no effect as far as staving their progress was concerned The dry pine boards and shingles were piled to a great height only narrow lanes between being left for wagons to pass through The narrow interstices between the boards furnished unusual facilities for the proress of the flames while they broke the force of the streams of water and prevented it from penetrating to the blazing pine in the centre of the piles The news of the fire spread rapidly rap-idly to the business centre of the city and created much alarm lest the fire should assume proportions approaching those of the great conflagration of 1871 which came from the same direction Great brands were carried forward by the wind setting fire the new piles and several fire steamers and to men manning man-ning them had narrow escapes from destruction Starting upon up-on the west side of the river the flamesate up all the lumber between Thirtyfifth and Thirtyeighth streets an area of about 400 by 2000 feet It setfireto a canal boat moored at the dock and it floated across the river which is 180 feet wide at this point and set fire to thelumber on the east bank which covered about aneqUal area and this with one or two planing mills was consumed Brands were carried eastward east-ward and set fire to several small frame houses occupied by employees in the lumber district The fire department however t made a stand at this point all4 ucceededin preventing the spread of the flames into theresidence district The fight continued throughout the afternoon af-ternoon and it was nearly 7 oclock before the conflagration was brought under control having practically burned itself into the limits of the immediate district in which it began A heavy rain during most of the afternoon was of material assistance The entire area burned is 870 by 2300 feet The aggregate of lumber lum-ber destroyed was 45000000 feet valued val-ued at 700000 The individual losses and insurance are as follows Chicago Lumber Company Com-pany 23000000 feet of lumber valued at100000 insurance 300000 Bigelow Bros 10000000 feet of lumber valued at 175000 insurance 125000 Adams Hastings Co 5OOOJOOO feet lumber valued at 85000 insurance 60000 J W Hinckley planing mill loss 26 000 insurance 12000 five cottages of an aggregate loss of about 10000 insurance in-surance about 5000 |