Io4o. CONFLAGRATION AT PITTSBURGH. 987

preventing its spreading around the point of the hill, which would have doomed another fourth of the city to destruction. From the intense heat, water seemed of little use   the loftiest buildings melting before the ocean of flame, which rolled and leaped onward before the gale, throwing out its forked tongues as if in derision of the puny efforts of the suffering multitude, whose household gods were thus rudely torn away.

The handsome stone edifice of the Bank of Pittsburgh, with its metal roof and iron shutters   in the fire-proof qualities 'of which people reposed so much confidence, that many placed their valuables in its rooms for safety   shared the fate of less pretending buildings, and with its contents, (with the exception of what was in its vaults,) fell before the flames. The Monongahela House, long the most extensive hotel in the North-West   with the Western University, and a bridge over the Monongahela, (nearly one third of a mile in length,) fell easy victims   and the many splendid steamboats at the wharf were with difficulty saved by promptly cutting their cables and dropping down the Ohio to windward of the fire.

With the destruction of every building upon some fifty-six acres, and throwing houseless on the world nearly two thousand citizens with their families, the fire-king seemed satisfied   and the homeless sought shelter with their more fortunate fellow-citizens, comforted with the knowledge that but two human lives had been lost during the conflagration   those of Samuel Kingston, Esq., a member of the Bar, and a woman named Maglone.

As the fire occurred during a busy season, the most animated the city had seen for many years, the losses of personal property, by the destruction of the contents of the large business houses on Water, Market, Wood and First streets, were enormous   while the losses in buildings and machinery were still greater. It would be impossible to arrive at any near estimate of the total, but the losses assessed by the committees appointed to distribute the funds contributed for relief of the sufferers, as sustained by one thousand and eleven who applied for assistance   and these those who lost the least    amounted to eight hundred thousand dollars. Of these sufferers, there were three huudred and fifty whose losses were reported at less than a hundred dollars each, and the same number at less than five hundred. Of the city insurance companies, whose losses were eight hundred thousand dollars, two were unable to meet their liabilities   thus adding to the misfortunes of the sufferers, while the payment of losses by others brought the disaster home to