Among the Ashes; or, Doomsday (with illustration) (Christmas Supplement) [pp. A001-A032]

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1 A IO~U TilL' ASilES. [CllnIsTMAs,
eyes,looking even hghter il~an Xature had
originally intended them to be, in the
bronzed complexion in which they were
set, bad a frank, earnest, and withal somewhat humorous expression; his nose was
large and aquiline; his lips thin and
con'pressed; and his square chin was
covered with a long bay-colored heard.
A slight stain at the corner of his mouth,
an occasional abstraction of in anner under the influence of extra enjoyment, and
an unremitting attention to the china jar,
which, placed on the floor of the car,
served for a spittoon, showed that Rufus
P. Croffut followed the practice still
common among his Western countrymen,
and regularly invested a certain portion
of his dollar in Bagley's Mayflower,which
he held to be the best chewing-tobacco
made in the States. Ills companion was
a good specimen of the average middleclass Englishman, young, good-looking,
and intelligent, and t}ie place where the
conversation just recorded was carried
on was a drawing-room car-a large saloon on wheels, elegantly fitted with easychairs, tables, mirrors, etc., running over
the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, and
now nearing Chicago, the time being
about eleven on the night of Sunday, the
5th of October, 1871
Blows, don't it? " said Rufus P
Croffut, pulling his coat tightly round
him; "wind seems to snake in at every
c~'ack, and that nigger "-looking at the
negro who was trimming one of the suspended lamps-" that nigger is powerful
weak at keeping the door shut.- Say,
Peter, pretty tall wind outside, ain't
there?"
"Reg'lar storm, colonel," replied the
negro; "`nuff to blow de smokestack out
of de locomotive."
"Fall weather is all gone, I guess, and
we're goiug in for winter right away
Well, Mr. Middleton, since you're decided
to squat in Chicago, I can recommend
you to a boarding-house where you will
be comfortably located."
"I'm not such a stranger in Chicago
as you seem to think," said Ilarry Middleton, wfth a laugh. "I've been there
once before, though only for a few days,
and I have some friends there, one friend
especially, who-in point of fact," he
added, wiil~ cheeks flushing under his
companion's searching gaze, "I am going
to Chicago to be married."
"Why, thunder! "cried Croffut, wfth
a broad grin. "Why, then, in course
you won't want no boarding, but will go
right away to house-keep! Say, mister,
who is this gal of yours?"
`,Iiddleton started at the abruptness
of the question, b~t immediately recollecting that his companion had no inten
conversation with blanched cheeks"have you any idea whereabouts the
fire is?"
"Looks somewhar round by the depot, I should say," said Peter, straining
his eyes under the shade of his hand.
"Don't you think so, Mr. Croffut?"
"More than that, I guess," said
Croffut. "It would take all ten or twelve
blocks to make that light. It's making
tracks through them wooden buildings
and shanties in the West Division, that's
what's the matter. What makes you
take snch an interest in it, young man?"
he asked, turning to Middleton.
"I-I Myra."
"Lord! I forgot about the gal," said
Croffut. "Whar is she stayin'?
"At the Sherman Rouse, or at the
Pacific-I don't know which," said Rarry
tion to offend, said, "She is Miss Otis
daughter of Judge Otis, and-"
"What, Myra?" interrupted the Western. "Guess I've known her since she
was born! Guess I know'd the jedge
when he was sent to lobby a new appropriation for our post-office through Congress. She's the right sort is Myra.
You're in luck's way, mister, and I give
you joy! Ra! what's that?"
Ris exclamation was caused by a tremendous gust of wind,which came sweeping over the open plain, and seemed to
shake the train of cars as it passed along.
"Dat's de wind dat I told you ot,"
said the negro, pausing by them, and
looking out of the window. "Bress my
soul, it's a reg'lar wild night."
"That's suthin more than wind,
Peter," said Croffut, following his look.
"Reep your eyes skinned and see straight
over there. I've done too much camping "Don't you be sheared, my lad. I
out not to know the streak of fire, and guess the jedge ain't easily taken by a
by G- it's there " deadfall. You can't come any gum-games
lIe pointed as he spoke to a light on over hb~ and if he saw the fire creepthe horizon, now lull red, now flaring ing up to his diggings, and thought he
bright at each successive gust of wind. was going to be crowded out, he'd move
Dey're got anoder fire in Chicago, I stakes at once. Re ain't one to bark up
guess,` said the negro, grinning and the wrong tree, ain't the jedge."
showing all his white teeth; "dey had As he spoke, the engine, uttering its
one last night, so Adams's expressman in deep intermittent groans, and with the
Pittsburg was telling me just now huge bell suspended midway over its
Burns bright, don't it, Mr. Croffut?" he boiler loudly clanging, was already runadded, shading his eyes with his hand; ning through the outskirts of the town,
"dey do every thing in Chicago better and neanug the scene of devastation.
than anywhere else-even to fires." Already the narrow streets and alleys,
"Tell you what it is," 1173;1512]said Croffut, right through the centre of which the
still looking straight before him, "this railroad ran, were beginning to overflow,
ain't going to be just one of your match- and to be choked with people driven
box blazes, this ain't. It means going, from their houses, whose terror-stricken
this does, and every thing is in its favor. faces were silent witnesses of the anguish
There has been no rain all summer, and through which they had passed; women,
the sun has scorched all the sap out of frantic with terror, and only half dressed,
the trees, and baked the airth and the who had been roused from their threathouses till they're as dry as tinder, and end homes, and dragged into the streets;
as ready to fire. And there's this here children, only half awake, and dazed and
drivin' gale of wind, surging up from the deafened by the roar and tumult; men,
southwest. Look at the lake under it. laden with such hasty waifs and strays
It's whipping the waters until Old Nick of their deserted henrths as they had
is growing reg'lar mad." been enabled to snatch up in the moment
Ile pointed as he spoke to the lake, of flight-all drifting about, in hopeless
alongside of which the train was run- uncertainty, in search of any place of
ning, and on whose troubled surface the refuge. Already the train was forcing
waves were rising high and white-crest- its way through an atmosphere alive
ed like the breakers on an ocean-beach. wfth showers of sparks and swirling
"Guess de fire department will be flakes of fire, which went hurtling
pretty tired with last night's work, and through the air, borne upon fl~e wings
won't care about turning out again in a of the tornado then raging: an atmoshurry," said Peter. "Flm~es seem to phere so rarefied by the intense heat as
walk along strong, don't they, Mr to cause the cooler air from beyond to
Croffut?" rush in with eddying whirlwinds. Al "They du, that same," said Croffnt; ready the engine, with its iron-tongued
"the way it flares is a caution!" bell booming out the knell of doom, was
"Rave you any idea," asked Rarry coming to a stand-still far in advance of
Middleton, who, while eagerly scanning its usual halting-place, and the affrighted
the distant horizon, had listened to fl~is passengers, leaping forth, saw before