Historic fire burned town on this date (EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article appeared in the Daily Texarkanian on this date in 1923. The byline identified the author only as "an Old Timer." The story was a retrospective of a blaze that roared through Texarkana 115 years ago today. The following is a direct copy of the original first-person article. It was brought to our attention by a reader and former friend of J.Q. Mahaffey, the long-time editor of the Gazette who died last month.) At about 1:00 on the morning of Aug. 21, 1885, Texarkana was visited by one of the most destructive fires in its entire history. The weather was exceedingly warm the evening before, and I had laid down on a table with a book under my head in the mayor's office, then located on the second story of Bramble's warehouse, which occupied the present site of "The Criterion," on East Broad Street. I had been asleep for perhaps a couple of hours when I was aroused by the cry of "Fire" and the report of numerous pistol shots. Looking out of the rear window toward the south I saw that the Arlington (formerly the Draughon) hotel, a large two story brick occupying part of the present vacant ground just east of the Huckins House, was ablaze. There was no modern fire department then, only a hook and ladder company, operated by volunteer firemen, and the fact that a lively breeze had sprung up and was blowing directly north, made it clear to everybody that the fire would have to "run its natural course." The flames swept everything in that block, including the Smith drug company corner (then a dry goods store), Weinstein and Kosminsky's big store (now the O'Dwyer and Ahern Co.) and all adjoining buildings, and then crossed to the north side of Broad street, where it made a clean sweep of everything from State Line Avenue east to Vine street and north to Third street, including the postoffice, which was then located where Andrew Rose now has his offices. As I recall, all the destroyed buildings were frame structures, except the Arlington hotel and the postoffice. Charles E. Dixon was proprietor of the hotel, and W.W. Shaw was postmaster. Several of the places that were burned were operated as saloons and these put up cloth tents and started their gin mills running again within less than 48 hours. Other lines of business waited until brick houses could be built for their accommodation. Everybody said (under his breath) that the fire was of incendiary origin, but nobody cared to make any particular investigation of the matter, as all felt pretty certain that to do so would have meant a funeral for the investigator. © VHR