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Show MH18BE FIRE I AS IT REALLY WAS fl Ferdle Strouso of tho Grcenewald i Furniture company, who has Just re- h jH turned from a visit to his father at H 'M Baltimore, had tho good fortune to bo I an eye-wltnoas of tho phenomenal flre. r He considers the cxperlenco worth. I mnn dollars, and there aro many who would have given no little money to I have snn tho spectacle. J "A section as largo as about twenty j. Salt Lako biocks is Just ono mass of ; ' mm charred fragments; parts of It were still I JH smoldering when I left on Wednesday Hmm (eleven days after the commencement 1 lmm of the Are.) Yes, sir, that was a I jH crackerjack," Mr. Strouse said with on- jH thuslasm. I 'W "The best part of It was that no lives I 'W wero lost and practically no dwelling- I houses destroyed. ' "Firms and corporations that wore- , I burned out are giving all kinds of 1 I JH prices for locations. The B. & O. rail- I H road people paid $10,000 to a llttlo tallot. for a two years' lease more than he could make in a lifetime. Then, of H course, architects and builders and con- I tractors all over tho country are hard JI at work for the rebuilding. r "No, there was no rioting nor panic; the polico arrangements were too good I mM for that. The only people who vero I H scared were some of the foreign cle- !' ment In the poorer districts lots of 'H the Polish and Italian women were out In the etreeta with their entire house- Mi hold furniture on their backs, ready to move away, but tho police managed to get them to stay. I Mi "The sparks were fierce. I was with. a friend down nt the park thirty blocks away from the fire, and we had to keep !iH busy watching one another for fear of I our clothes catching fire. The gale was blowing: sparks as big as your finger yes, sir, that's a fact. The wind wns so H strong that the streams from the hosa H could not nearly reach the flames on. ! the high buildings. And they did not dynamite the building till they had started to burn. I heard that the fire 'H department wanted to dynamite some of them way off from the fire early lu the day, but the insurance people would not stand for It. Yes, sir, that was the sight of a lifetime."' |