Anna Dickinson SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE SPEECH FILE "A Threefold Tragedy"A Threefold Tragedy. By Anna E Dickinson 1 -For a length of time I had not seen Boston. Other towns and cities—Manifold— had passed as the panorama of a fear. Its quaint angles, its curving picturesque streets,—its noble stone architecture— warehouses and storehouses, places of barter granite grey and imposing as Castles of Barons and Kings of old,—its fascinating shops, —crowded groups of beauty, art, elegance,—never2 showrd with more irresistible bewitchment. The day was balmy,—void of any harsh Easterly wind from the Sea. A kindly sunshine over all. =Saturday Afternoons were, then and there, half holidays for multitudes, never was this more in evidence than on this fair date. People from the—nearby—four quarters of the world crowded its side walks and swarmed to its Theatres. It was a fad of the fine old "Boston" to show its "Star" at 3 Saturday Matinee, and raise its curtain to pixt ordinary Company Call at night. =but of a busy life what delight to hold this play-bill in hand x And wait eagerly with the packed and eager throng for sight and sound of the great Enchantress. -Meanwhile we edified ourselves—as usual—by reading smudgy programme "ads."—at an expense of more or less temper and4 dress gloves, and learned among other matters of moment and apropos of the the Great One's Lady Macbeth, "that the witch's song, of boiling cauldron had been taught a parrot— wondrous parrot,—for sale— reasonable—at the New-York Bird Store, 9. Bowdoin Square." -Did Cushman top her heights that afternoon? Perhaps the burnished splendor of the night that followed threw out the picture as a clean cut mountain peak—"so beautiful the sight ached at it—" for through all 5 the years the figure half woman half sibyl, dominating, absorbing shows as yesterday,— and the voice tender, heart-penetrating, yet write the noble melody of a great organ—"the voice surpassing for Amphion's lyre"—sounds though the spaces as through her tones even now were charming Henry Bertram, or causing misty eyes with plaint that—"the tree is withered— never to green again, —and poor, old Meg Merrilies will never sing blithe songs moir,"— or thrilling sentiment and soul with the blending of6 mortal and immortal feeling in—"The darkness is in my ain e'en. —Its a' ended now. Pass breath, Come Death." -The exalted mood went to the sidewalk and on to the abode of companions, and blended well with their questioning of my wanderings through the fear since I had talked with them. And before all of Chicago? —What I had seen of Chicago? -The Boston of that day was full of roots of 7 trees that had born bloom and blossom, and fruit in the City by the Lake for no return but that of death,— charred to the ground. Boston had put disciplined ardor, brain, and will, and heart, humanity and financial zeal at the disposal of Chicago,—the Chicago or /71. was a robust and pleasing—if "unfinished" daughter of stately but paternal Boston, and while she had cost her father dear,—she was, perhaps because of this, even more beloved. To Boston andBoston's scheme of business, (8 and princely [?] were more than to all else, Chicago owed her re-incarnation, and all that pertained to her agony and sublimity was a theme welcome to Boston [?]. As we drifted down Washington St. - jostled by the active throng - I noted afresh the condensed wonder of the City. Facing into the artistic vista of Jordan and Marsh's mart of rare stuffs and exquisite garmentings and wandering through it an exit, expansive as the entrance was found on Summer St. - at right angles with Washington, narrower, narrow almost, as a Courtway, with buildings seemingly ambitious of Companionship with the firmament, crammed with everything that taste and money could collect and disperse, and, in a vague way - a sort of thought floated by, with the memory of learned parrot and witch's song - "double, double Toil and trouble Fire burn And Cauldron bubble." -What a seething pot of Hell a fire, here, would be; and as we rambled leisurely on10 our journey through Washington St. and again paused to note the massive grandeur of Franklin St. - granite. - its highway and buildings flexed with the grace of an Oriental fan sweeping into Boston's great thoroughfare, presumably the worthiest specimen of trade architecture in America the thought took shape in words. "Chicago in Mind?" asked one. "Yes," I replied, "Still harping on your daughter" - but this business centre is a curious antipodes to that of 11 her child, as I last beheld it." = Describe it? - I did not, and do not find in language shades and colorings to set before eyes that saw it not any conveying realism of the truth. = I beheld it while its embers were yet warm, and of it I had heard so much, and read so much I thought description and imagination had given me a clear idea of it in entirety. At last coming face to face with it I was overwhelmed by the awful surprise of its desolation.12 Not at the outset. As we entered, it was rather to view salvage of a shipwreck. - Wabash Avenue, - wider than Fifth Ave. at its amplest, a stretch of miles banked on either hand by handsome and graceful residences in the neighborhood of the Railway Station still kept its wholeness, - but with what curious transformation! The house stood covered in railings, in windows, from basement to cope with hideous fit heroie sign boards, rude pine, rudely painted, but setting forth how this, that, and the other trade, business, 13 profession - torn by fiery billows from huge and safe anchorage had here taken hold again. Close by the fair beauty of Michigan Ave. was even more scarred, and adorned by its scars. Its consummate charm had been its "One Sidedness." At right hand, miles of palaces that were none the less homes, and at the left hand the splendent surface of the Sapphire Lake. = Here, too, hung and clung the same universal courageous sign boards, and the long strip of grass, -- an attenuatedpark, dividing driveway and footway from the water was jammed by sordid yet sublime shanties wherein [?] and [?] were swarmed undaunted. To observe scorched ones the city had promptly granted freehold lease for a year. That shops and stores and warehouses might take root to be later transplanted to their great original - or to even larger, soils. = Turning from these I drove for miles without seeing sign of disaster. Far-reaches of comfortable and fine houses, - - multitudes of well dressed 15 peoples - in many an instance too well dressed, - in their all - polished equipages, - the outward signs and symbols of a multitudinous city, and the city - that what makes a city - Gone. = It was an inverted mirage. - A city in the air, void its foundations. The substratum, all that supported it, - ashes. Literally but a warehouse, a storehouse, a business establishment of any kind of value in community. Six miles of that sort of thing annihilated.16 - And what else? - On the North Side, where had lived a new New England of love[?] and thrift the Crimson Sea had flung its might to effacement. Looking one saw the shore, with the clamor of deafening tempest fit in one's ears: - "A long, low reach of level Sand Packed erewhile by the maddened [wrens? loons? towns?] As the storm wind drove these towards the land: X X X X X X A boat on the shore and nothing more To tell of the Dead who sank to their graves to the Sound of the wild Sea's roar." =Just nothing to describe! 17 miles of open spaces - clean as a threshing floor - not even a pile of ashes. Not a peg, or a nail of what had been the great heart circle, - the Home Centre of the City. No ruins. No wreckage. You could with safety lay a spottless hand on the ground. Never before was seen such awful clearing of flames. = On the East Side - ruins. -ruins everywhere. Nothing but ruins. No smoke, No smell of smoke or soot. No broken joists, nor half consumed timbers, nor fallen door, nor wall, nor chimney. No18 yawning spaces for once cheerful window or hospitable entrance. None of the dismal hall-marks of fire. Here and there strange and pathetic shapes, miniatures of Bitter Creek or Monument Park,--as grey and sad to sight, and seemingly as old as they. = A bit of Thebes? -- It was as though this place had been,--lived,--died,-- and, left these scant memorials centuries ago. = By intervals stood the portal of a church,--guage of the fury of the flames.--The solid stone had boiled, -- 19 --run over, -- and hardened in curling streams. = My brave living friends, driving with me, seemed as though they must be survivors of a past age, and I, myself, surely a ghost--consorting with shades. = Cheerful shades, -- even jolly ones! They had lost a million, but, as he said coming into their bright little temporary domicile, "I am lucky. I saved my books, and I hold my credit. I can go on. What more does a man want?"20 =What indeed? - Work finished at fifty to begin again to drive the spade of at twenty! =and she said, "We have had Europe and Jerusalem. A safe investment that no fire can destroy! - What would you?" Jolly? Yes. - Other Shades gathered around the hospitable board, - a veritable one, - planks on saw-horses, covered with fine linen, sand somewhere, somehow - cheered the wayfarer with stories of how "Mrs. B-- as you know 21 an epitome of reserve and dignity, - sprang into my arms - (from second floor) - clothed in night dress, voluminous it is true, - bare footed and bare headed but with a gorgeousness of Paris Opera wrap about her shoulders! - though indeed, I could not be critical for I was arrayed in naught save night shirt and Mary's petticoat - sans boots and breeches!" And how "Mr. S.—. Met - Mrs. M. in such a plight! Naught save a "rough and ready" with22 Mrs D's India shawl for drapery! A brandy bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other!" While he talked we had seen sights, and eaten dinner at the most enticing of hostelries - the Parker House, - of breakfast- roll, and other fame, and one said, as we gathered up our traps for a fresh raid on Pleasure Grounds, the "Globe" and Sothern - to wit! "Why? In the name of the everlasting mysteries, - Why? - Some of the 23 hues' good have been telling us that Chicago was destroyed because of its wickedness. "The judgment fires, alone, could clear that place." But that sounds a lame and impotent conclusion." "Fie, blank and blasphemous!" was added and one and all were sure that if even the shadow of this could be akin to truth - no fear for Boston! The "Hub" would stand forever secure in its own perfection! So wont we in lively24 wise to this later feast of good things. Holidays and holiday pleasures not strewing thickly the pathway of a crowded working year - and so to be magnified when found! =As in afternoon so by brilliant evening lustre the unusual crowded gaiety of the streets was matter for cheerful notice. Boston through a fortnight of time had been moving her pace bereft of equine help in more marked measure than even New York, or sister and brother cities. \25 - Epizootic regnant. Horses everywhere in Hospital. Tens of thousands dying, or ill, or disabled by the universal pest of "pink eye." People in flower-like evening garb strolling along in concert with the dun garb of convenience. It was known that Chief Decker, in this case humanely inhuman, as its result testified, had ordered that in chance of fire the first call should be answered at a foot pace, by the sick and suffering animals; - "The measured footsteps of the Fates are dumb./26 unseen, unknown, unheralded they come." As our party hurried into the vestibule of the "Globe," all eyes focused on the large and welcoming face of its clock to see and remember that it recorded one minute past eight. "Curtain up?" was asked as in passing we looked in at the box office and its keeper. "Not yet." And at the instant the fire alarm sounded. It was matter of history that the advance /27 guard of engines did not reach their vantage ground and get to work with actual douse of water till fifteen minutes later. Where smouldered the Spark of Destruction? It was surmised in Holbrooks - perhaps in their neighbors - assuredly in some one of the stately structures in notable and narrow Summer St., belike at five of the holiday afternoon, and with slow and hideous security, - all watchers gone in drowsing, - had writhed its way to roof and air/28 three hours later. There it sat to triumph - when at last all Boston, - Roxbury, and Charleston and Dorchester had been summoned and heroic men and streams in minie rivers were flung against it they impotently sluiced but its lower limbs and garments, leaving, perforce, its head to plot and push its way from roof to roof plunging downward its merciless magnificence undimmed and unassailed. Meanwhile the theatres held their through free of /29 disturbance or alarm. Ushers brought in word, sifting through the audience "that the fire is on Summer St." -- "Too bad!" -- "One of those grand buildings?" "More than one!" -- "Sad!" --and when the first curtain fell, gallery and orchestra went streetwards to return with flashing eyes and keen voices reporting "a fire indeed! -- What a pity!--But superb!"-- and a sort of electric thrill -- a suggestion but not a warning, stirred actors and audience alike.Page 30 -Here is the tally [??] Programme please take good care, and return, Page 31 -play bill in hand x Programme. Please take good care, and return,Boston. Saturday November 9, 1872. BOSTON THEATRE ==================================== J. B. BOOTH, ................ Lessee and Manager. ____________________________________________________________ MISS Charlotte Cushman, ==================================== THIS AFTERNOON, Will be presented the grand Romantic play of GUY MANNERING, or, The Gypsy's Prophecy. MEG, ........................................................ MISS CUSHMAN COL. MANNERING, ............................ MR. J. J. SULLIVAN HENRY BERTRAM, .............................. MR. H. S. MURDOCH DOMINIE SAMPSON, ........................ MR. D. J. MAGUINNIS DANDIE DINMONT, ........................... MR. LOUIS ALDRICH DIRK HATTERAIK, ................................ MR. A. LEONAR D BAILIE MUCKLETHRIFT, .......... MR. J. W. HAGUE GILBERT GLOSSIN, ................... MR. C. STEDMAN GABRIEL, a Gypsy, .................... MR. W. H. NORTON SEBASTIAN, ", ............................. MR. J. B. BRADFORD FRANCO, ...................................... MASTER EUGENE JOCK JABOS, ............................... MR. STUART CLARK FARMER HARROW, .................. MR. W. LEACH SERGEANT McRAE, .................. MR. C. STUART JULIA MANNERING, ................ MISS RACHEL NOAH LUCY BERTRAM, ........................ MISS DORA GOLDTHWAITE MRS. McCANDLISH, ................ MISS JANE PARKER FLORA, .......................................... MISS VIOLA VANCE ZILLAH, a Gypsy Girl ................ MISS SMILEY ____________________________________________________________ On Saturday Evening will be presented NOBODY'S DAUGHTER, and the Screaming Farce, "PADDY MILES' BOY." ____________________________________________________________ MUSICAL DIRECTOR, ............................ MR. N. LOTHIAN TREASURER, ............................................. MR. JOHN M. WARD BUSINESS AGENT, ................................. MR. H. A. McGLENEN ____________________________________________________________ The Pianos used in this Theatre are from the celebrated manufactory of Chickering & Sons. The Cabinet Organs from the manufacturers, Mason & Hamlin. ________________________________________________________________________________________ OPERA GLASSES To Let at the Stand in the Front Lobby. ________________________________________________________________________________________ SCALE OF PRICES. Admission..................................75 Cents Balcony.....................$1.00 Family Circle (Reserved)......50 Cents Orchestra.................$1.00 Dress Circle (Reserved).........75 Cents Orchestra Boxes.....$10 each Gallery.........................................30 Cents Proscenium Boxes....According to location Box Office open from 8 A. M. till 10 P. M. Seats can be secured six days in advance. Doors open at 7 .............................................................................................Commences at 7:30. /30 Here is the tally: Kept through this long interval, of the first. A goodly company -Sothren always elegant, finished, fascinating, was that night superlative in emotion and sincerity, and though the next accounting voiced "The greatest fire Boston has seen in years!" he held all till the story of Garrick and Ada Ingot was told. What direful night with the rain of desolation followed! Sixty five /31 acres "cleared", on its face not a large showing against San Francisco's twenty-five-hundred! But what a ravage of clearing! The balance wheel from the watch. The "pin" from the engine. The heart torn from the living oak! Docks and wharves and warehouses, Banks and offices, Receipts of Custom and [?] of Business. The streets were packed with stricken and struggling crowds and a press of everything that/32 could move in wheels by any impulsion or compulsion loaded with immensity of treasure. The night, a clear but moonless and windless one, was bright as day, but with a malefic sheen. Even where one stood screened from sight of the fatal furnace, against the serried walls, chimneys, steeples, roofs, and endless chain of upper stories and windows lay a resplendent coloring of crimson, softer than sunshine and scarcely touching the lower shadows /33 of the avenue, but of which above, one could read as by electric glitter. As the night wore the sound of the red tide surged through all other noises, shouts and cries, trampling of men and horses. Not of crackling and rending flames, nor any familiar voices of fire, but like the far off roar of ocean beating on the shores. Like that of Chicago the huge monster made its own headway, even opposed to nature. Currents of which that Dame and her normal34 "Cave of the Winds" knew naught, set were her and it at defiance, driving victoriously against them. Huge masses of flame, looking like solid rock - large as a Pullman car, were riven off and hurtled a half block - a block- from their source, falling to ignite afresh, an awful Avant-Courier, making doubly sure the triumph of the fateful and deadly invader. Holding a hand on the panes of a window at one side the street, while this fury fit tarried 35 on the other, was impossible. The miracle was wrought of artificial heat acting as sun on burning glass. A mercy to all New England that night was that no conflagration burst forth elsewhere in her boundaries. The Fire Departments of Lynn, Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Augusta, Lawrence, Lowell, Manchester, Concord, Worcester, Springfield, Providence, Hartford, New Haven were home bankrupts to aid Boston at its utmost need. In vain. It was in evidence before midnight's hour that the appeal36 from flame to water was absolutely denied. Owners of the wondrous Franklin bend and of other buildings as costly if of less dignity, - men of might - and millions "with strong crying and tears" besought the Fire Chief to blow their magazines to powder that their beloved city might be saved. A petition negatived by Seclair. man ill, nerve gone, the chief was a leader no longer. At last retreating from the field the City Fathers who at the stately structure on School St. had wrestled and agonized 37 through the night gave hasty orders for desperate deeds, - but the blasts were set and blown by untrained and undisciplined eyes and hands and did but work further wrack and spread the ruin. Sons of the Pilgrims exalt - and Rule! - visbly Worthily. Doff the hat to the helmet with slow reluctance: that is will. Even at that trial time they paused, since if hastily done those saved and those spared would doubtless have cried - "Needless havoc and demolition!"38 General Butler, Commander of the Old Bay State's Guard at Lowell waited in enlightened anguish of impatience.- Car on track. Keen [tanker?] Engineer with hand on throttle. The wires sizzling with personal suggestions - gladly translated order- to the Navy Land Officers, and its Corps of Great-War-Seasoned sappers and miners. And at last, when all people were gathering what they could carry in their hands, and looking about their homes in a final farewell, the sons of the Pilgrims flung down 39 their fate and proclaimed Martial Law! Butler and his engineer came.- The wheels did not turn, they sprang along the tracks. All Boston knew what was coming, what had arrived. What discipline was waiting. And as the boom! boom! boom!- that struck the ear like the bombarding of a beleaguered fortress sounded through the grey glimmer of the Sabbath dawn, one wild cry that was fell, -shout, prayer, but that spelled a/40 universal "Thank God!" rose from that Gehenna to Heaven. The Flame Fiend had reached his enchanted boundaries within which he could continue to rage, but beyond which he could set no fiery and fatal footmark. And when New York came in, the "laddies" with their splendid equipment brought, a marvel there from city to city on five hour schedule, brimming with heartsome cheer and ardent hope and sympathy, it was to meet outstretched /41 hands and streaming eyes of welcome, and the amazing word "You can eat your breakfasts, (everybody had everything that could possibly be consumed and devoured at "Attention!" "Ready!" and refresh yourselves a moment! It is bliss Heaven! for relief you are needed, and are here. The fight is won! It is victory that is to be made secure!" And the New York "boys" did honor to their manhood by answering from overwrought souls with howls of delight that were choked/42 with responsive tears. History repeats itself. Ever new truism. As I think of Chicago and Boston I look across prairie and plain, mountain and marvellous canyon to the city by the Sea. Mourning, but not as one without comfort and elation, and thank God this is a land and time in which can be made Manifest, what has always been fact, that the bond of humanity is universal and that it thrills with responsive love /43 and help through all its fibres, at the call of supreme sorrow and need!