American Historical Ephemera & Photography

1 issue (incomplete run), 8vo. (Dampstain to lower edges, soft vertical creases.) Original wraps (soot-like residue has been applied particularly to front wrap, dampstains, small tear to lower right corner). 

FIRST ISSUE PUBLISHED POST-CHICAGO FIRE with extensive reporting of the Fire. The cover article “The Great Fire. The Great Calamity of the Age. Chicago in Ashes. Hundreds of Millions of Dollars’ Worth of Property Destroyed” is Bailey’s account of the fire, “The scene of ruin and devastation is beyond the power of words to describe…never has a more frightful scene of panic, distress and horror been witnessed among a helpless, sorrowing, suffering population.” He includes the apocryphal story that the fire “was caused by a cow kicking over a lamp in a stable in which a woman was milking” though with a footnote: “Since disproved.” The reduced issue was evidently published behind schedule from Bailey’s temporary office in his home as he notes that “we have lost our entire issue for the October Number” as well as extensive back issues and “many thousand dollars worth of Books, Regalia, Jewels, &c.” Though he promises that the “November Number of the Voice of Masonry will be issued as usual.” A soot-like residue has been applied to the front wrap, perhaps to give the pamphlet an extra association with the FIre.