1872年11月9日晚7点刚过, Charlestown police offers on duty spotted the glow of a fire, the first indication that something might be amiss in the streets of Boston. 大约二十分钟后, 第一个警报在52号包厢响起, 位于波士顿市中心的Summer街和Lincoln街. Firefighters arriving at the scene discovered the six-story commercial building at the corner of Summer and Kingston Streets fully engulfed with flames rapidly spreading to other buildings. 的 building, which had been constructed in 1866, housed Baldwin & Davis, a dry goods merchant; A. K. Young, a hoop-skirt manufacturer; and Damon, Temple & Co., a manufacturer of neckties and hosiery—six stories of flammable wood and textiles, and an elevator shaft that allowed the flames to quickly spread throughout the building to the roof and beyond.

到达现场后，消防队长约翰. Damrell found that “6 separate buildings were on fire and 一个 was a literal blast furnace.就在一个小时之后, 局势迅速恶化, “花岗岩前缘爆炸了, 和墙壁, 下降, broke not only the water mains and branches … the gas-mains had also succumbed to the shock, and the gas was flowing into cellars and sewers and through drains into the buildings.”

查尔斯·卡尔顿·科芬, 不知疲倦的内战记者和记者, 将火灾描述为“赤手空拳的巨人”, 我们的仆人和主人,” and that evening the fire would challenge firefighters from Boston and beyond, 因水供应不足而受阻, 缺少拉消防车的马, and explosions caused by ruptured gas lines and the gunpowder used to try and create fire breaks by blowing up buildings in the fire’s path. 多年以后，丹雷尔回忆起那天晚上的恐怖

… currents and counter-currents were driving the flames in every direction … swept through our streets with the power of a tornado … 的 roar of this Niagara of destruction was appalling … Gas and air explosions in quick succession, 墙倒, 和高温, made it a terrible experience to that faithful organization which it was my privilege to command.

后

大火肆虐了一夜, 最终在第二天中午被控制住了, 尽管废墟在很久之后仍在燃烧. 六十英亩 of Boston’s mercantile center had been consumed by the conflagration. 700多座建筑被毁, 影响近1000家企业, which were enumerated by Russell Conwell in an alphabetized list that ranged from “ale and beer, two; aucti一个ers, five; bagging, two; billards, 一是酵母和香精, 一个.” Thousands were unemployed and financial losses climbed to the millions, 但波士顿证明了自己的韧性, 立即动员提供救援. 灾难发生五天后, at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society (whose Tremont Street headquarters, 然后在建设中, 坐在离火场只有几个街区远的地方), 罗伯特·C. Winthrop predicted—in very short order—"the complete restoration of Boston to its long-accustomed prosperity,” reminding his audience of the other great fires that had tried the enterprising, 勇敢的, 以及(最重要的)虔诚的波士顿市民.

事实上, 在火灾一周年之前, Boston was rising again--365 buildings were under construction and 115 nearly completed. 这些建筑, 不像那些点燃大火的人, 外墙较厚，屋顶不可燃. 的 tangle of narrow streets that distinguished downtown Boston in 1872, 然而, 基本保持不变.

“无家可归的夜晚，还是灰烬中的波士顿”

Charles Albert White, the composer of “Homeless To Night” was born in Dighton, Mass., in 1832. 在他的职业生涯中, 他发表了1500多首歌曲, 共同创立了音乐出版公司White, 史密斯 & Perry, and published a very successful musical periodical entitled Folio. White was known for popular tunes to be sung around the household piano, 《og体育平台》也不会让你失望. Its opening line and mournful chorus “L一个 and weary thro’ the streets we wander, For we have no place to lay our heads; Not a friend is left to shelter us; For both our parents now are dead” typifies the sort of sentimental song favored by musical consumers of the time. 1873年9月， Folio crowed, “’Homeless To-night’ is selling by tens of thousands. Since the days of ‘Put me in my Little Bed’ no song has been in such demand.” Despite (or perhaps because of) White’s popular success, the obituary writer for the 音乐新闻 1892年2月19日，他无法抗拒一点嘲讽, writing that the “story of the composer’s life illustrates the too prevailing desire to win success by writing down to the standard of the lowest comprehension; a state of things not satisfactory from the art point of sight.”

就能确定的而言, "今晚无家可归"这首歌没有事实依据, but was probably written in an effort to capitalize on the public’s morbid fascination with the fire. 在火灾后的几天里, thousands arrived to view the charred ruins as photographers surveyed the scene to produce inexpensive and popular stereoview photographs, some featuring before and after photographs of the same location. Stephanie Schorow also notes the “enterprising boys” who searched the fire scene for souvenirs which they sold to the curious and the Boston publishers Chandler & Co. 谁制作了61页的插图 《og体育官网》! 和废墟 火灾后两周内.