Rising from the Ashes: How Seattle Met Its Great Fire

A few days ago I received from Mr. Charles T. Conover, a former well-known newspaper man in this city, a copy of the 'Seattle fire souvenir,' being the edition of the Post-Intelligencer issued the day after the great fire in that city. There is only one page of it, about twelve by twenty inches in size, and all its space except part of one of its short columns is devoted to an account of the fire. The friends of Mr. Conover in this city who have watched his career in the West have seen with pleasure the rare business ability and enterprise he has displayed. As an illustration of the latter trait, in the Post-Intelligencer souvenir there were but two advertisements. One was that of a bank of that city and the other was that of the firm of real estate and financial brokers of which Mr. Conover is a member, telling the public where they could be found in their temporary headquarters. Mr. Conover is already looked upon as a leading business man of Seattle and is well known throughout the cities of the new state. Seattle contains a number of former Albanians, and the following from a pioneer banker of that city will be read with interest. He says: 'The indomitable spirit and energy which has enabled the people of this city to build it up to the greatness it has so long enjoyed is still in them, and will enable them to quickly recover from the effects of the disaster of the day. The business community of Seattle will rise from the ashes in a very short time and in a better condition than ever. With all the misfortune that has befallen our community there is gratification in the thought that there has been very little distress, for the reason that the loss falls almost entirely on the business community, which is well able to sustain it.' Already many handsome new buildings have been erected in Seattle, and that city has now fairer prospects than ever before of becoming the metropolis of the West.