The Story of the Great Fire in St. John, N.B., June 20th, 1877 Part 8

Mr. Mather, and in the evening, Rev. Mr. Brigstocke, of Trinity, officiated. Rev. Mr. Windeyer preached both morning and evening in his church, the Reformed Episcopal. Rev. S. P. Fay, a Bangor clergyman, preached in the Union Street Congregational Church, morning and evening.

Rev. James Bennet preached in St. John's Presbyterian in the morning, and Rev. A. McL. Stavely in the afternoon. Rev. Dr. D. Maclise, in the morning preached in Calvin Church; and in the evening, Rev. Mr.

Mitch.e.l.l, of St. Andrew's Kirk, preached. The Exmouth Street Church held three services, Rev. Mr. Duke in the morning, Rev. Howard Sprague in the afternoon, and in the evening Revs. Messrs. Hartt and Sprague addressed the congregation. Rev. Mr. Fowler preached in Carleton Presbyterian Church in the morning, and there was no service in the evening. The Baptist pulpit was occupied by Rev. Mr. Hickson, the pastor, both morning and evening. Rev. Theodore Dowling preached in St. George's Church. At the Free Christian Church, Rev. George Hartley preached in the afternoon. At the Portland Baptist Church, Rev. Mr. McLellan, the pastor, preached morning and evening. The Portland Methodist Church had Rev. Mr. Barrett in the morning, and Rev. Mr. Teed in the evening. St.

Luke's, Portland, had sermons from Rev. Mr. Almon, the rector. Brussels Street Church had Rev. Mr. Alexander. At the Roman Catholic Cathedral, at nine o'clock ma.s.s, Bishop Sweeny addressed the congregation, and at eleven, Bishop Power, of Newfoundland, preached. Rev. Mr. Wills delivered a sermon at the Unitarian Hall; and in the St. Stephen Presbyterian Church, Rev. D. Macrae preached in the morning, and the Rev. Mr. Donald, of Port Hope, in the evening.[S]

Thirty-nine orphans were kindly taken care of by Mr. R. B. Graham, the visiting agent of the Baldwin Place Home for Little Wanderers, who carried them to Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts.

Some months ago a clever poem in several books, ent.i.tled "On the Hills,"

from the pen of a Nova Scotia lady of excellent reputation as a writer, Mrs. Morton, _nee_ Irene S. Elder, was placed in the hands of Wm. Elder, Esq., of the St. John's _Daily Telegraph_, to read. On the day of the fire, he put this ma.n.u.script in his safe, for protection. When the safe was opened, the ma.n.u.script was found quite legible. The scene of the poem is laid in our sister province, and it is said to contain some genuine touches of true poetry.

_Apropos_ of ma.n.u.scripts, it may be said that Prof. Wm. Lyall, of Halifax, lost a very valuable treatise "On the Emotions," which was burned in Mr. Stewart's safe, King street. Mr. W. P. Dole lost all his sonnets, and his late paper "On Definitions," upon which he had expended a good deal of time.

FOOTNOTES:

[R] The _Freeman_ will be issued shortly as a daily.

[S] Rev. Geo. M. Armstrong preached in Stone Church, (built 1824) and on the Sabbath following the Bishop of Fredericton preached in the same church.

CHAPTER XIV.

"I went againe to the ruines, for it was no longer a Citty"--the Drive by Moonlight--Through the Ruins--After the Fire--A City of Ashes--The Buried Silver--The Sentinel Chimneys--The Home of Luxuriance--A Recollection--The Moon and the Church--Back Again.

Sh.e.l.ley's white-orbed maiden sits in the sky, and already her pale torch is silvering the peaks of the ruins. Let us take a carriage, and drive round the desolate city, slowly and softly, and view the giant wreck which the fire has made. There is no better time than the present. The moon is up, and quietness reigns. It is as light as day. We will drive first to the barrack-ground, and look up the long hills. Three days have pa.s.sed, and the first excitement is now over. A thousand weary pilgrims have made the journey to this desert of desolation a hundred times since the fire, and vainly dug on the site where their homes once were, for relics, or perhaps something more. Why, look there! it is past midnight, and those three men you see working by that blackened wall, seem so wrapped up in their occupation, that they scarcely speak to one another, or note the presence of any one but themselves. See, they are carrying away the still hot bricks, and throwing into the street bits of iron and charred wood. Look, watch them for a moment--witness how they--

"Dig, dig, dig, amid earth, and mortar, and stone, And dig, dig, dig, among ruins overthrown; Spade, and basket, and pick, the toiling Arabs ply."

How monotonous the work appears, and how strangely weird everything looks. To speak now, and hail these men, would break the charm--would interrupt the gaunt and gloomy silence of the place. But the presence of these excavators, at such an hour as this, arouses our curiosity. We know that the standard authorities tell us, that no matter how deeply men may dig for the pirate's buried treasure, if any one speaks during the performance of the work, the spell becomes broken, the enchantment pa.s.ses away, and the iron box of doubloons vanishes. We have no means of disputing this, and wouldn't if we could. We have no desire to attempt to prove the contrary, but rather incline to the belief that the authorities are right, for we have it on the word of a gentleman who once owned a mineral rod, and whose word is undoubted, that a certain Miss Pitts, who was engaged all her life in digging about the gardens of her neighbours, and who never found anything up to the day of her death, confessed to him during her last illness, that her tongue had spoiled all. Had she but kept quiet when her spade struck the iron-box, all would have been well. But her joy was so great at the sight of the treasure, that she couldn't contain herself longer, and giving utterance to her feelings she spoke, and the box of course, immediately sank. The truth of this narrative can be established by excellent witnesses, and Miss Pitts, whatever her other faults might be, had always a splendid reputation for veracity. She made and sold mineral rods too, and, in explaining their miraculous properties, gave out the advice that, by a judicious and constant use of her peculiar make of mineral rod, the whole world might speedily become rich, and at very trifling cost, thus exhibiting a vein of disinterestedness, as generous as it was rare. We say then, in the face of all this, and at the risk of destroying what happiness yet remained in the minds of the men who were thus toiling through the ghostly hour of twelve, we drew rein and hailed them. We couldn't help it. Our curiosity got the better of us, and we asked them what they were digging for. They were hunting for treasures, truly, not the pirate's though, but their own. During the fire, and unable to hire a team at any price, they had dug a deep hole in the cellar of the house and buried there, what jewelry and silver-ware they could sc.r.a.pe together. They were now hunting for it, and eventually they found it, in not even a discoloured state.

But let us go on. A very pleasant wind is fanning our foreheads, and there is a charm about this drive which we never experienced before. A grim charm truly, but nevertheless, a charm after all. Are we not going to see the ruins. The ruins which came to us in a night--the heritage of the fire. We have a Dunga and a Dugga, and a Carthage of our own. In a few brief hours we had a desolation here, which, in other lands it took great centuries to create. We have crumbling ruins, and shapeless ma.s.ses of stone in the very heart of a community which boasted, but a short time before, of a civilization and an enterprise unsurpa.s.sed the world over. Let the eye wander as we pa.s.s along the deserted streets, and take in the full view as it appears. What a fascination there is about this district of sorrow. Why is it we pause, and wonder if Troy ever looked like this; or the ruins of Sodom stood out against the sky like that house there, this edifice here or that once n.o.ble structure beyond. All, all is desolation, all blackness, despair, decay and misery. Look at those ponderous walls, which defied the flames to the last. See they are still standing, broken it is true, but standing proudly and defiantly for all that. See, the moon is throwing her light upon that church yonder. See how she dances, now high, now low, look, she disappears behind the tall wall, and all we see for a moment is a dark shadow. Now there she is again. Here comes the glittering Cynthia with her robes of white. She is coming along up, up, up by that angle there. Now she is soaring along the sky. Now she seems to stand right over our heads. How light it is. How bright and beautiful the moon is to-night. How playful the mad thing is, how merrily and joyously she disports herself in the heavens, and yet how kindly she turns her sympathetic face on the vale below. She sails along, casting lingering and tearful glances on the havoc-stricken land.

We will drive over to that eminence there and look at the squares of ruins, and notice the fragments of columns which remain. Turn your head round, and look at those sentinel chimneys standing so erect, and so regularly in line. Ah, that is where the old barrack stood, and those chimneys, no doubt, heard many a well-told tale of the bivouac and the battle-field. Could they but speak to-night, what reminiscence would they relate of Lucknow and Cawnpore, of the Heights of Alma, and b.l.o.o.d.y plain of Inkerman. What stories would they tell you of the gallant fellows who on bleak winter nights gathered round their base, and chatted and talked of battles fought and won, and the great deeds of bravery they had seen. These high chimneys have many bits of history locked within them which the world shall never know. They stood there when the city was almost as bare of houses as it is now. They have seen the busy workman, and heard the sound of his axe and saw; they have seen the city grow more and more strong and beautiful; they have watched its growth from a mere hamlet to a metropolis; they have witnessed the erection of n.o.ble structures on sites where trees and bushes flourished before; they have seen St. John on the morning of the 20th June prosperous, enterprising, and full of energy and life; and they have seen her again before the sun went down, stricken to the earth, with her buildings in ruins, and the work of almost a hundred years in ashes. The old sentries keep guard to-night, blackened and bared.

Turn the horse a little this way. Now look up the street. Do you see that pile of bricks and mortar and those heavy stones lying near? That _debris_ is all that is left of a house where in my youth, I spent many happy hours. I must take you into my confidence and tell you that the owner of that house is to-day a poor man. The day before the fire he was comparatively comfortable, rich I should call it, but the way wealth is computed now-a-days, I will content myself with saying that he was comfortably off. He had his carriage and horses--such splendid drivers, and how well he kept them--he had a library, and such books, and he knew what was in them too. History, belles-lettres, biography, science, all departments were here. You could read if you chose on an idle afternoon, in that alcove off the library, over there, a few feet from those bricks, anything your fancy dictated. I used to love to sit there and pull down his books--not to read them always, but merely to skim the cream off a dozen or so of them of an afternoon. He had some charming old books which he always kept in the extreme corner of his case. I remember with what awe I used to approach this section, and take down from the shelf his luxuriant copy of Milton, printed early in the eighteenth century, and ill.u.s.trated with a grand old portrait of the blind bard. I read Pope's Homer here for the first time, and actually waded through the Chesterfield Letters. I used to sit over towards the left of where we are now, just close to that old stove-pipe which you can just see peeping through the bricks. I may live many years, or I may pa.s.s away to-night, but I shall never forget that dear old house, and the many happy, happy hours I spent there. Come away. Something seems to choke me, and one wants all his strength these days. Continue along in this direction. We shall see all that is left of many beautiful houses from here. There's the Wiggins' Orphan Asylum. The tower and the walls are there. What exquisite ruins they are. Let us look at them awhile.

One can almost fancy he has seen somewhere a picture of the remains of an edifice that looked like this. I can almost hear the guide tapping his cane on the walls, and telling me to note how excellently preserved the building is, and how admirably the builders put it up. See how solid and strong it is, and hardly a discoloration marks its handsome front.

That dingy and dismal-looking old wooden building near at hand is the Marine Hospital--that was saved all right.

Did you notice the jagged, fringe-like edges of that building which we pa.s.sed just now, in that bend near the road? How intense the heat must have been there to wear it down like that. And did you observe that wooden door lying in the vestibule scarcely touched by the flames, while everything around it was burned to a crisp? What odd freaks the fire takes sometimes. Drive a little faster keep well to the left. The streets are full of stones and broken brick yet. We are now coming past Queen Square, and let us look in a moment on Mecklenburg Street. What a beautiful sight those burning coals make in Mr. Vaughan's house. You can see better by the left, there, now stop. See the pale light is above, the deep blood-red light is below. What a curious meeting. You can scarcely see the dividing line between them. Drive through the street to Carmarthen, take in on the way Mr. Nicholson's Castle, and the houses of Messrs. Magee on the left, and before you turn up the street look at that immense ma.s.s of burning coals belonging to the Gas Company, blazing away like some volcano in a state of eruption. There are smouldering fires all round the city, and ruins upon ruins meet us at every turn. My heart sickens at the sight. Let us drive home. We have visited the ruins by moonlight.

Chapter XV.

Aid for St. John--The First Days--How the Poor were Fed-- Organization of the St. John Relief and Aid Society--Its System--How it Operates--The Rink--The Car-shed--List of Moneys and Supplies Received--The n.o.ble Contributions.

No sooner was it known abroad that a great fire had swept away the princ.i.p.al portion of St. John, and that thousands of people walked the streets, homeless and hungry, than, with wonderful unanimity, generous offers of aid came pouring in from all sides, for the relief of the ruined city. Large sums of money, cargoes of supplies, and carloads of breadstuffs, furniture, and clothing arrived; and committees of citizens, notwithstanding that they were burned out themselves, and had suffered severely, forgot everything in the desire to do good, and instantly proceeded to take charge of this relief, and administer it to the needy. The s.p.a.cious skating rink was at their disposal, and this splendid building soon became the house of refuge for over three hundred homeless persons. These men, women, and children lived, slept, and ate here day after day, for a week and more after the fire. The rink was also converted into a provision storehouse, and from its centre the poor, daily, received the necessaries of life. The ladies' dressing-room was thrown into a clothes department, and from this place the wants of applicants were attended to. Of course the system employed at first was very loose, and while many deserving persons received aid, others, again, who had no claims on the fund, fared equally as well. The committee took the ground that it was better a few impositions should occur than that one deserving person should "go empty away," and accordingly none were refused alms and other a.s.sistance. The greatest credit is due to these gentlemen for their kindly and disinterested labours. While in office they did much good, and the generous donors of the material which was so freely sent, can rest a.s.sured that their bounty was not misapplied. Everything pa.s.sed through the hands of His Wors.h.i.+p, Mayor Earle, the chief civic officer, and was by him placed immediately after its receipt, in the possession of the proper ones who were delegated to receive it. But this committee could not be expected to distribute the relief, after the first week or two. The sums of money, and the immense quant.i.ty of supplies, which continued, and still continue, to come, and the large increase of applicants who only now began to realize their loss, caused the work to grow more and more arduous and c.u.mbersome. Some regularly organized system of administering aid must be devised, and a proper board of workmen selected, who would be paid fairly for their services. This was what was done in Chicago, during the days of her calamity, and our people wisely considered that a leaf out of her book would answer the purpose. A meeting was called, and though some dissatisfaction existed at the precise _manner_ in which the thing was done, yet, after all, the error in such times as these should not be accounted as anything very serious. The movers meant well, and every one could not have a place on the board of directors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKATING RINK.]

Mr. C. G. Trusdell, the General Superintendent of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, was sent down to St. John to give what counsel he could, and relate his experience to the people, and point out to them the beauties of the organization which obtained in Chicago during her troubles. He counselled the instant formation of a similar society here.

He knew its workings intimately. It was thorough; it was business-like.

No one, after the system was in full working order, could impose on the managers, and order would come out of chaos, and confusion no longer exist. His words had weight, for he had pa.s.sed through the fire himself; and steps were at once inaugurated for the establishment of "The St.

John Relief and Aid Society," with full control of the funds and supplies. The men who were selected for the task are those in whom the citizens have every confidence. The Directors are:--

S. Z. Earle, Mayor, _President_.

W. H. Tuck, Recorder, _Vice-President_.

Chas. H. Fairweather, _Treasurer_.

James A. Harding.

Hon. Geo. E. King.

Harris Allan.

Fred A. King.

Andre Cus.h.i.+ng.

James Reynolds.

H. J. Leonard.

James I. Fellows.

Wm. Magee.

Chas. N. Skinner.

Ezekiel McLeod.

Gen. D. B. Warner.

A. Chipman Smith.

John H. Parks.

E. Fisher.

Aldermen Maher, Peters, Ferguson, Kerr, Adams, Duffell, Brittain, Glasgow, and Wilson, with L. R. Harrison, _Secretary_.

These gentlemen then organized the St. John Relief and Aid Society, and a.s.sumed charge at once. The moneys were deposited in the bank, to the credit of Chas. H. Fairweather, the Treasurer; and General D. B. Warner, U.S. Consul, entered upon his duties as General Superintendent, and opened his office at the rink.

The sufferers by the fire, who had lived in the rink up to this time, were housed in tents on the barrack green. The rink was thrown into compartments. Fully two-thirds were placed at the service of the store-keeper, who dealt out the provisions, the manager of the furniture department, and the overseer of the s.p.a.ce allotted to clothing. The s.p.a.ce directly in front of the door-way is occupied by the different officers who perform the preliminary work. The gentlemen's dressing-room is devoted to the use of the visitors, and the other dressing-room is where the General Superintendent is to be found. No more admirable system of giving out help to those whose wants require it, could be formed. It is perfection itself, and though mistakes may occur occasionally, on the whole it moves like a piece of well-appointed machinery. The reader must understand that thousands of applications are made daily, and all sorts of tricks are resorted to by those whose necessities require no help, and every dollar given away to the undeserving, is so much carried from the mouths of the honest and honourable, for whom this magnificent donation was made. The greatest care must be exercised, and it is the business of quite a staff of officers to see that these impositions are checked, and no one is served twice on the same order. No one has been refused aid, if he was legitimately ent.i.tled to it.

The actual working of the system is an interesting study. Everything is done regularly and methodically. There is a substantial reason for every movement, and it is surprising how quickly the officers can detect an informality, or notice any attempt at deception. A brief account of the system as it works will be interesting to many. Upon entering through the main entrance, the visitor will notice, in stepping down to the floor of the rink, a number of benches. On these the applicants sit, each awaiting his or her turn, as the case may be. Before them are the interviewers, six or seven in number, seated at convenient desks. The applicant steps up and answers the questions propounded on a sheet of paper. This doc.u.ment is signed, and one of Mr. G. B. Hegan's (the chief of the clerks' staff) clerks numbers it. It then goes before Mr. Peter Campbell, the superintendent of visitors. He allots it to the visitor of the district to which the applicant belongs, for his name and address are on this paper. The next day this house is visited, and the wants of the residents being made known are entered on the paper, if in the opinion of the visitor, after thorough examination, they come under the proper head for relief. The applicant is told to call at the rink, where he receives orders for furniture, clothing or provisions, or all three if he needs them. After that has been gone through, it is only the question of a few minutes when he gets what he wants. He presents each ticket to the department of the various supplies, and after receiving his quota he pa.s.ses out. The process is very simple, though it appears at first sight a little involved. It is the only way, however, by which a complete check may be put on what goes out or by which every dollar's worth of supplies can be strictly accounted for. Cases calling for immediate aid often come before the managers. The applicant's needs are urgent, and he cannot wait two days. He must have something now and at once. Even here the wheels of the system are not clogged. In half an hour or less he goes off with a day or two's full supply. An interim ticket is furnished for just such cases as his, and he gets enough on that "Immediate Relief" card, in advance of visitation to keep him from actual suffering, until his regular supply can come to him in due course. The plan adopted to prevent fraud works excellently, and without the remotest possibility of a mistake. This is the famous vowel index system and there is no better way than it. This is in charge of the book-keepers under W. H. Stanley, the Chief Book-keeper, whose fine ability has full scope in the management of this department. A complete registration is made of the name and number and residence of every applicant. The vouchers bearing these statements are fyled away in packages of a hundred, and it is only the work of a few seconds to find out all about the applicant as soon as he presents himself. In this department only the "issued" doc.u.ments are kept. Before they pa.s.s into the book-keeper's hands they are retained by another set of clerks who hold them until the supplies are issued; when this is done the words "issued to ----" are written down on the face of the voucher in red ink and at once recorded at the book-keeper's desk and fyled as before mentioned. Mr. Hegan, whose desk faces the door, performs his functions with excellent executive skill, and the other gentlemen in charge of the different departments have the system at their fingers' end and already show much familiarity with the work. It is the duty of the visitors who call on the people named in the circulars handed them, to make every legitimate enquiry and strive to learn the fullest particulars of the applicants, as much depends on their report to headquarters. This duty is entrusted to persons of discernment and reliability, and few complaints have reached the General Superintendent of negligence and incompetency. As soon as they occur, however, the offenders are promptly dismissed. The Provision Department is in charge of Mr. Geo. Swett, formerly Manager of the Victoria Hotel. He has an efficient staff of clerks, and his store-room reminds one of a well regulated wholesale grocery store. The meat is cut up into convenient pieces by butchers, and the whole management here is reduced to a system; Mr. Swett is always courteous and looks carefully after those under him. Mr. Kerrison is chief of the Clothing Department, and Mr. P. Gleason, is the princ.i.p.al officer of the Furniture Room. Miss Rowley is Superintendent of the Ladies' Clothing Department. The heads of the different departments are held responsible for the doings of their subordinates, and the utmost vigilance is accordingly exercised.

The large car-shed immediately adjoining the rink, has been converted into a store-room and receiving office. Here, Messrs. Wm. Magee and James Reynolds receive the supplies as they come to the very doors of the shed by rail, and are brought from the steamers by carts. As most of the relief comes by train there is no cartage or expense attached, and this besides being very convenient is wholly inexpensive. Not an article can leave here to go to the various departments in the rink, unless an order comes for it from some chief of a department. The supplies are usually ordered in large quant.i.ties in the morning and in sufficient amounts to last one day. The warehouse is kept well, and the goods therein are carefully looked after and subject to constant examination.

Everything here, as well as in the other rooms, is done by check, and nothing can go astray.

The Directors are husbanding their resources and looking further ahead than the present hour. Care is taken to render judiciously the relief which has come from the generous friends abroad. It is likely that the St. John Relief and Aid Society will continue several years in active operation. They will have much to do, and the trials which will come with the winter will be very trying.

LIST OF BUSINESS HOUSES BURNT OUT.

Academy of Music A. M. Ring, Pres. Germain Street.

Adams, James & Co. Drygoods King Street.

Allan, Harris Bra.s.s-founder Water Street.

Allan Bros. Foundrymen " "