Document-Based Questions - Debra J. Housel, M.S. Ed. 2008
Chicago: Gone in a Puff of Smoke
Incredible Disasters
For humans, fire has always been both friend and foe. Fire cooks food and warms homes. But once it’s out of control, it’s a frightening enemy. This happened to Chicago, Illinois, in October 1871. No one knows for sure what started the fire. They do know that it started in O’Leary’s barn. Many people think that a cow kicked over an oil lantern. Others say that a tramp lit a pipe inside the barn and caught the hay on fire. But everyone agrees that the blaze from that barn destroyed the city.
At that time the city had 651 miles of wooden sidewalks. It also had 60,000 buildings. Nearly all of them were wooden. Constant winds blowing off Lake Michigan gave Chicago its nickname of the Windy City. Now the wind spread the flames rapidly. Even worse, it sent sparks flying across the Chicago River. If that hadn’t happened, the river could have provided a natural firebreak.
The night the fire began, the city’s firemen were tired. They had fought 30 fires in the past week. A lookout atop the courthouse saw smoke coming from the O’Leary’s barn. But in his excitement, he gave the wrong location. The blaze was already out of control by the time the firemen got there.
A burning plank crashed through the wooden roof of the city’s waterworks. This knocked the water pumps out of action. And it left the frustrated firemen nothing with which to fight the flames. Then the fire reached the “inflammable” city hall. High heat made the limestone and marble building crack. It didn’t burn. But it turned into a big pile of rubble.
Some people waded as far as possible into the lake and kept all but their heads underwater. They had to keep dodging the flaming debris falling all around them. Makeshift hospitals and morgues were set up in homes. But they had to keep moving to stay ahead of the relentless flames. After a while the dead bodies were abandoned. It was more important to keep moving the injured. The blaze raged for 24 hours. It wiped out the downtown area and most of the North Side. It ended when rain fell.
The fire killed at least 300 people and left 90,000 homeless. At least $200 million in property was lost, too. At that time insurance was a luxury. Most people lost all they owned and did not get an insurance payment.
Like a phoenix, Chicago rose from its ashes to become one of the greatest cities in the world. In just six months, half of the city had been rebuilt. The new buildings and homes were made of brick and stone.
Chicago: Gone in a Puff of Smoke
Chicago Relief And Aid Society
Chicago, October 24, 1871.
To all in the service of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society:
With donations pouring in . . . and with multitudes of sufferers . . . every tendency will be towards a generous . . . distribution of supplies. But remember that there are from six to eight months before us in which we will have to fight the hunger, cold, and nakedness of our poor.
You will, therefore, see . . . that not a single dollar be expended for persons able to provide for themselves. Every carpenter or mason can now earn from $3 to $4 per day, every laborer $2, every half-grown boy $1, every woman capable of doing household work from $2 to $3 dollars per week. Clerks, and persons unaccustomed to outdoor labor, if they cannot find such employment as they have been accustomed to, must take such as is offered or leave the city. Any man, single woman, or boy, able to work, and unemployed at this time, is so from choice and not from necessity. You will, therefore, . . . give no aid to any families who are capable of earning their own support (except to supply some needed articles of clothing, bedding, or furniture which their earnings will not enable them to procure1, and at the same time meet their ordinary expenses of food and fuel).
Our aid must be . . . for the aged, infirm2, widows and orphans, and to supply to families those actual necessities of life, which . . . they are unable to procure by their labor.
Any failure on the part of any employee of the Society to conform to the instructions above given will be regarded as sufficient cause for his instant dismissal.
O. C. GIBBS,
Gen’l Sup’t of Distribution of Supplies
Approved by the Executive Committee
WIRT DEXTER, Chairman
1get
2sick or disabled
The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory. “Organizing the Relief.” http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/rescue/organizing.html
Chicago: Gone in a Puff of Smoke
1. Chicago’s nickname is
a. the Windy City.
b. O’Leary’s Barn.
c. Phoenix.
d. not given in the article or document.
2. The Great Chicago Fire finally ended when
a. the fire reached the shores of
Lake Michigan.
c. the tired firemen got help
from neighboring towns’ firemen.
b. the fire couldn’t cross the Chicago River.
d. rain soaked the city.
3. For a short time after the fire, the O’Learys hid. They went out only in disguise. Why?
a. They were embarrassed for not helping anyone to escape from the fire.
c. They thought that people might attack them and blame them for the fire.
They had deliberately set the city on fir
d. They were rich and thought that everyone would beg them for money.
4. In the notice dated October 24, 1871, Mr. O.C. Gibbs urges relief workers to be generous in distributing the relief funds. True or False? Explain.
5. After reading the Chicago Relief and Aid Society notice, what conclusions can you draw about the wages of men (carpenters, masons, and laborers) and boys compared to women?
6. Does the Chicago Relief and Aid Society put too much of a burden on the poor to prove their need for funds? Why or why not?