[figure description] Page ix.[end figure description]

I shall say but few words in regard to this first child
of my imagination.

About one year ago our hearts were in deepest sympathy
with our fellow citizens of Chicago, and it occurred
to me that their losses, sufferings, and fortitude might
teach lessons after the echoes of the appalling event had
died away in the Press; and that even the lurid and destructive
flames might reveal with greater vividness the
need and value of Christian faith.

I spent some days among the smouldering ruins, and
then commenced the following simple story which has
grown into larger proportions than at first intended. But
comparatively a small portion of the narrative is occupied
with the fire, for its scenes are beyond description, and too
strange and terrible to be dwelt upon. Therefore the thread
of my story is carried rapidly through that period of unparalleled
excitement and disaster.

[figure description] Page x.[end figure description]

Nearly all the scenes introduced are historical, and are
employed to give their terrible emphasis to that which is
equally true in the serenest and securest times.