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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Burning of the Newhall House
Published by Bleyer Bros.
Cramer, Aikens & Cramer, Printers - 1883

     [29]              BURNING OF THE NEWHALL HOUSE
     
                                THE RUINS
                                
     The scene in the neighborhood of the tragic spot shortly after
  daylight dawned was one that will never be forgotten by those who
  witnessed it. A perfect sea of dumb-stricken humanity encircled
  the crumbled walls and broken columns of what only a few hours
  before was one of the city's stately edifices. Police officers
  and firemen were hurrying hither and thither in the performance
  of their duties, while, as if to give the new-comers a confirmation
  of the terrible tale that had been poured in their ears, shortly after 
  7 o'clock, four bearers with a ghastly burden emerged from the edge
  of the ruins and deposited it in a sleigh for conveyance to the
  morgue. The seven steam engines which were massed in close proxi-
  mity to the fiery pile kept up an incessant din, which was varied
  at intervals by the sharp jingle of breaking glass, as the sudden
  reaction from the extreme heat to which they had been subjected,
  sent the fine plate glass fronts of nearly all the stores on the
  east side of Broadway to the pavement in fragments. Dense clouds
  of smoke and steam completely veiled the ruins, and it was almost
  impossible to get a clear view of the whole place at one time.
  Towering above the writhing mass of vapor stood jagged monoliths of
  brick and mortar, remnants of the partition walls, whitened by the 
  
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     [30]              BURNING OF THE NEWHALL HOUSE
     
     intense heat. Broadway was comparatively clear, except as to the
  western sidewalk, which was heaped high with brick and rafters.
  Michigan street, in front of the Chamber of Commerce building, was
  strewn with debris, over which about two-thirds of the south wall,
  slightly buttressed by a fragment of the alley wall, reared its head
  in a threatening manner. Almost the entire north wall remained
  standing, owing to the support given it by the Sherman building.
  Along its seared and scorched face the iron frames of the fire-places
  around which the guests had grouped themselves in fancied security
  only a few hours previous, still adhered. Another object of
  pathetic interest to observers was a table-cloth dangling from
  one of the dining-room windows, to the frame of which it had been
  tied by some unfortunate endeavoring to escape the flames. Like
  the walls and everything else in the neighborhood of the fire, the
  table-cloth was thickly coated with ice. The crowd of spectators at
  last grew to such proportions that the police found it necessary to
  draw a cordon around the immediate neighborhood of the fire, and
  the avenues bounding the ruins were closed for the day. The
  struggling mass of humanity pressed closely against the hempen
  barrier throughout the entire day and far into the night succeeding
  the calamity, seeming loth to leave the weird spot and retire to the
  quietude of home.  
  
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