THE CHICAGO FIRE.
On the 8th of October, 1871, Chicago was visited by the greatest conflagration of modern times, with the single exception of that of Moscow. Like many events, fraught with momentous consequences, it had a trifling cause. A cow kicked over a lamp in a stable on De Koven Street, which set fire to the straw. A gale swiftly carried the flames into some adjoining lumber yards and frame houses. All the conditions were favorable for a tremendous conflagration. The fire swept over the south branch of the Chicago River, and raged furiously in the business portion of the city. The main channel of the river was leaped as if it were a narrow alley, and there were anxious hours when thousands believed the whole city was doomed. As it was, the fire-swept district covered four or five miles, and fully 20,000 buildings were burned. It is believed that 250 lives were lost, about 100,000 people made homeless, and $192,000,000 worth of property destroyed.
THE BURNING OF CHICAGO IN 1871.
Chicago's affliction stirred the sympathy of the whole country. Contributions were sent thither from every State, and everything was done to aid the sufferers who had lost their all. With true American pluck, the afflicted people bent to the work before them. Night and day thousands toiled, and within the space of a year a newer and more magnificent city rose like a Phœnix from its ashes. Chicago to-day is one of the grandest and most enterprising cities in the world.
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY.
We had made a treaty with England in 1846 which located the line of our northwestern boundary along the 49th parallel westward to the middle of "the channel" separating the continent from Vancouver's Island, and then southward through the middle of the channel and of Fuca's Strait to the Pacific Ocean. It was found, however, there were several channels, and it was impossible to decide which was meant in the treaty. The claim of England included the island of San Juan, she insisting that the designated channel ran to the south of that island. Naturally, we took the opposite view and were equally insistent that the channel ran to the north, and that San Juan, therefore, belonged to us. The two nations displayed their good sense by referring the dispute to arbitration and selected the Emperor of Germany as the arbitrator. He decided in 1872 in our favor.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872.
It was a curious presidential election that took place in 1872. The South was bitterly opposed to the Republican plan of reconstruction and a good many in the North sympathized with them. One of the strongest opponents of Grant's renomination was the New York Tribune, of which Horace Greeley was editor. The Republicans who agreed with him were called "Liberal Republicans," while the Straight-out Democrats retained their organization. Naturally, the regular Republicans renominated Grant, but Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, took the place of Schuyler Colfax as the nominee for the Vice-Presidency. Horace Greeley, who had spent his life in vigorously fighting the principles of the Democratic party, was now endorsed by that organization after his nomination by the Liberal Republicans, with B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, as his running partner.