GREAT CONFLAGRATION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11249, 14 April 1908, Page 5

GREAT CONFLAGRATION.

FIRE RAVAGES BOSTON, U.S. SQUARE MILE OF SUBURB DESTROYED. DAMAGE TWO MILLION POUNDS. (Press Assn. — By Telegraph.— Copyright.) (Received April 14, '8.30 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 13. A fire destroyed over a square mile of Chelsea suburb, Boston. Thirteen churches, two public libraries, a children's hospital, a dozen factories, and 400 tenement buildings were burned down. The damage amounts to a million and a half pounds sterling. The lire is still unsubdued. One death is reported, and fifty cases of injury. The embers wero blown across Chelsea river, and caused several of the Standard Oil Company's tanks to blow up. (Received April 14, 9.50 a.m.) The fire at Boston started at a ragpickers' shop. Ten thousand people have been rendered homeless. There are four additional deaths. - The damage amounts to two million pounds.

Boston, the capital and largest city of- ! Massachusetts, aiid fifth in populatioiv in the country, is situated at the head of Massachusetts Bay;' Suffolk County. It is a combination of several cities and towns about Boston. harbor and along the Charles river. Besides Old Boston or Boston proper, it ,-incliides .- East Boston or Noddle Island, S,outlx Boston; Charlestown (where a. granite obelisk marks the scene of Bunker's Hill, the •first conflict between British and Americans in 1775)^ and the suburban districts of Brighton, West Roxby, aiid Dorchester. Chelsea;, where the lire, occurred,, is an extensive suburb to the : north-west. Tlje area, of tlie city is 43 .square- miles. : Parks cover' 2620 acres, .'the best known being the Common, in the heart of Old* Boston. In the suburbs is aichain of beautiful parks and boulevards,; FranklinParkv(s2o acres), being the largest.- The -sclibol" system of Boston has long: been.khpwh- as ■ the best in the country. -There is'-one..: lriuhicipal li brary, containing • some -. 775#00- volumes,' housed in one -ot :the finest buildings in the States. There' are many fine ediica; tion buildings arid handsome "churohes! One of the latter, possibly destroyed is the Old ■ North Church, erected in 1723, around which cluster many historical associations!- Boston, it should be mention. ed,.took a. leading part in tlie revolution; and was the soene of the Boston "tea party.",- In 1872 much of the business portion was, destroyed; by fire. Tlie intellectual "culture'' of Boston is proyerf bial. The population of the city is about 600,000.