Word: fire-fiend
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...half dozen tar barrels, well stuffed with cannon crackers, cast a lurid glare over the spectators. Proctors rushed to the scene. The everready Cambridge fire department, represented by an aged man with a leaky bucket of water, promptly appeared and attempted to quench the conflagration. Repeated efforts, aided by a snow-shovel, at last prevailed, and only the charred remains of six once flourishing and prosperous barrels remained to mark the path of the fire-fiend. Late in the night the drowsy slumberer was awakened by the explosion of a belated cracker smouldering in the coals, and uttering its expiring...
...water on the fire-fiend dumps...
...fire-fiend scorched old Stoughton well...
...first place, Barker's hotel was set on fire and burnt to ashes, the Sophomoric ruffians howling with demoniacal glee as each massive wall of the noble structure tottered, crumbled, and fell before the insatiate rage and devouring ferocity of the exultant fire-fiend...
...class of these words sprang into an immense use as a consequence of the Chicago fire, and have retained their place in the journalist's dialect ever since. Doubtless the man who invented the expression "Fire-Fiend" thought he had done a good thing in the way of personification, and the first six or seven editorials on the great fire were perhaps strengthened by the use of that bold figure. At any rate, its popularity was insured by the indorsement thus received. The "Phoenix" had also manifested himself to a few hopeful minds at this time, and these two some...
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