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In the days immediately following the fire, approximately 30,000 people left the city on
free passes like the ones above. The policy, meant to help the burnt-out, was soon
abandoned as unnecessary, and so as not to encourage a possible drain on the labor supply
needed for rebuilding. Precise records do not exist, but many who left soon returned. Over seventy
years later, Mary Lindsten Schweiding, who had emigrated from Sweden to Chicago in
1870 to live with her brother, a tailor, told an interviewer, "The next day we heard that they
were giving free passes to those who wished to leave the city. I had an aunt in Paxton,
Illinois, and decided to go to her." A month later she was back to assist her brother. "My
sister and I worked very hard helping him get started again. We had to sleep on the floor
on piles of rags. It was a very hard winter but we came through it all right."
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Emergency Measures 