Streets of Baltimore: 1904

The fire was covered for the Baltimore Morning Herald by an aspiring 23 year old newspaper reporter who later became known as the "Sage of Baltimore," H. L. Mencken.

Amazingly, only one person appears to have died in the fire.

This photo cannot give true emotional details as if you were there in person. I could not imagine what it would be like to be on e of those men standing there looking at all this devastation.

Considered aside from the human tragedy and the loss of some magnificent architecture, there is a somber beauty to this photograph.

If Weil & Co., Printers & Lithographers, had a branch in a French city that was devastated by an artillery barrage, this picture would work right down to the two gendarmes standing watch.