Browsing: Diary of Charles Francis Adams, Volume 2

Morning at the Office, nothing remarkable occurred. Conversation with George. My mornings pass away most unaccountably. But little {p. 193} actually done. The afternoons though short are those parts of the day which are most useful to me. In the evening I occupied myself in writing a letter and Records and in reading. After going to bed, was roused by the alarm of fire which so startled me that I started off and saw the whole of it. It was a house on Washington Street in the south part of the town. I did not get quietly asleep until two in the morning. The blaze of this fire produced a beautiful effect. The clouds happened to be low and rather of a thin kind. So that the flame tinged them all with a pale red. It was very light to go to the fire in consequence, but when the cause of the illumination was discontinued, nothing could be darker. The firemen displayed a good deal of intrepidity in saving a house which was so entirely on fire when I first saw it that it seemed impossible to me to prevent it’s complete combustion.