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The accounts of the Chicago fire in Smith’s “Faith and Doubt” are based on religious explanation and social differences in the purpose of continuing the growth of an economic giant. The feelings that God was somehow punishing those who lived in the city because they had strayed from hard work and morals that were applied to build the city initially. The aftermath is now God has given them the chance to reach their potential through the aid of fellow Christians(investors) to build this mecca of prosperity. The people need to put aside their evils, drinking, gambling, etc. and come together to rebuild the city into the hub of industry between the East and West. When rhruska writes about the fire temporarily bringing down the tall walls of class separation it made me think of some of the accounts by upper class Chicagoans after the fire. I think the forced interaction with lower class and prisoners from the jails made them consider how important class separation in their grand scheme of things was. Stories of thievery and violence being handled by vigilantes that were untrue were part of a device used to keep the middle class as a buffer in controlling those of the lower class. Also the stories of the Sands that women were being raped or left to dive in the river committing suicide at the thought of its possibility. This also was jargin used to keep those of middle and upper class to remember to maintain a sense of order in the city at all costs. The underlying purpose of course is control to build capital off their labor and the middle class to police it.