Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

All but ten (10) of the hospital tents were returned in a damaged condition.

The subsistence stores were distributed to meet the pressing wants of the sufferers for the two or three days after the fire, before donations of food were received sufficient to meet the demand. The amount disbursed on account of pay-roll of employés was for men hired by General Hardie to unload cars containing donations prior to the time the Relief and Aid Society took charge of the receipt and distribution of stores and money.

The water barrels were bought to bring water from the lake to distributing depots while the supply of water for the city was cut off.

THE

CHAPTER X.

TRANSPORTATION.

HE business of transportation was under the direction of a special committee of which C. G. Hammond was appointed chairman. During the early weeks of its labors the work of this committee was necessarily enormous, and the expenditures for transportation heavy.

At the same time these labors were much increased by the perplexing duty of providing passes for the large number of persons who wished to leave Chicago and were without the means of doing so. It was absolutely necessary, though by no means easy, to discriminate among the multitude who asked for passes, as there was danger of giving to undeserving persons and imposing upon the generosity and good nature of the Railroad Companies who had thrown open their roads as a part of the general relief.

At first passes were issued by this Committee which were honored by the different roads; after the immediate pressure of the first few weeks had passed, the Committee only gave recommendations for passes, which were usually accepted by the roads. At a still later period in the work of the Committee an arrangement was made with the superintendents of the different roads by which half fare passes were issued upon the recommendation of the chairman of this Committee, which arrangement still holds good with most of the roads, the recommendation for half fare being signed by the General Superintendent of the Society. It is only now in exceptional cases, however,

that applications for passes receive favorable attention except upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of the Employment Bureau, in the case of persons being sent to the country to labor.

A careful record of names of persons and destinations has from the first been kept, and is an interesting voucher of one of the incidents of the Great Fire.

NUMBER OF PASSES ISSUED AND PERSONS TRANS

PORTED,

FROM OCTOBER 13 TO OCTOBER 31, 1871, INCLUSIVE.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

NUMBER OF PASSES ISSUED AND PERSONS TRANSPORTED, BY MONTHS,

FROM OCTOBER 13, 1871, to May 1, 1873.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Total amount paid by the Society for Passenger Fares,

from October 13, 1871, to May 1, 1873 .

} $14,118.79

CHAPTER XI.

SHELTER.

HE first immediate necessity to be relieved, of course,

THE

was food, and in some measure, clothing. But close following upon it was need of shelter, for it was plain that the thousands who lay upon the ground, on the prairie whither they had fled, in the door-yards and empty lots of the city, must have immediate protection.

The homes left by the fire, were already full of either friends or strangers.

The suburbs of Chicago are comparatively few, and for the most part distant, and only few of the families found. immediate shelter in these. Had a like fire occurred in London or Boston, it would have been possible to have sheltered the hundred thousand homeless people in the immediate suburbs, in either of these cities, until definite and adequate temporary arrangements could have been made for them.

The Churches and School-houses which were at first thrown open to those who had no better place of refuge, could of course, be only unsuitable, and at best, temporary resting places.

The exigency was imperative. We were on the verge of the most inclement season of the year, and those familiar with the great severity of our winters, and our exposed situation between the open prairie on the one side and the lake on the other, can understand how the question. of shelter pressed upon us. Some rude barracks were, at the outset, put up by the Citizens' Committee, which could

« ZurückWeiter »