DAMAGE BY FIRE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1914, Page 7

DAMAGE BY FIRE

NEARLY HALF A TOWN IN RUINS OLD CITY OP SALEM NO FATALITIES YET REPORTED. (By Telfgrnpli.— l'rcFs Association.— Copyright.) NEW YORK, 26th June. Nearly half of the old city of Salem (Mass.), which was t lie scene of the uilchciaft tiials in 1692. and of the great gaol delivery in 1693, has, with its rich historic buildings, been devas> tated by fire. Ihe outbreak caused the loss n[ twenty million dollars and destroyed ono thousand buildings, including a score of manufacturing establishments. It also made ten thousand of the fortyfiv<s thousand inhabitants of the city homeless. The fire originated in a leather faC' tory, and swept right through the shoe and leather district, ruining every building in its curving path, which was two miles long and half a mile wide. Burning embeis otarted a fire in two other factions of the fashionable residence district, and for a time the whole city seemed doomed. Several buildings were then dynamited and every available line of hose was directed against the approaching flames. No fatalities arc reported, but fifty injured people have been received into the hospitals. flnalem is of interest to people in this Dominion, as it was the home port of a number of the whaling whips that visited Now Zealand in the early days. There arc two Museums there that contain a number of New Zealand exhibits of Maori craftsmanship, also the logs of various ships. On one of thest Mr. R. M f Nab found material that caused him to partly re-write his book '* Murihiku." It was also the home of the American inthor, Nathaniel Jlawthorue, and visitors aro shown the " Hotiso oi tlie So«et) Gablus "—tho supposed scene of Ins tale of that name, his birthplace, and the Custom llouseun which he was employed, It is a charming old-fashioned town, j