Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-10-27
NORTHWEST ON FJRE.

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". Y. World The scenes and suf-
fcring and dosolation surpass the bur-
ming Of Chicago, over seven counties
are 4 smOuldering ruin:
Shortly after 8 o'clock a fire was seen
southwest Of the town, and heavy rum
bling was heard in that direction. At
o'clock the wind freshened and in
half an hour was blowing q gale
Smoke poured in clouds through the
village. At 10 the tornado burst with
all its fury, an immense and wonder
full sheet of flame flashed to the sky rs
the smoke rolled away, and in an in
slant PcshtigO was seized and whirled
away in ashes and fire. The wind
blew with such tremendous violence
that the people endeavOTing to escape
were lifted from their feet and blown
into burning houses, which rOaTed and
cracked like blast furnace. A wO-
man, WHO had run from her house
from which she had been driven by
fear that it would fall upon her, had
caught her child in her arms as it was
sleeping in its cradle, aud thus Cncum-
bered endeavored to reach the river.
Her clothes took fire before she reach
cd the bridge, but blinded with Gin
ders and clinging to her child she
struggled to cross to a place of safety.
When halfway across the bridge the
blast seized and threw her headlOng
into the stream below where she was
afterwards found, her face burned al
most beyond possibility of recognition,
and her babe yet claspCd to her breast.
In several instances people were killed
by the falling upon them of burning
roofs which in its fury the tornado had
lifted from the houses and blown into
the streets Lclow. The unimaginable
horror of the scence cannot be tOld-it
was neither whirIwind nor fret was
a whirlwind of fire blowing in all di-
reCtions. No prCcautiOn was possible,
for there was no means of telling how
or were death would come. Burning
beams were dashed with frightful vio-
lence into houses yet untouched, and
when building fell crashing to the
earth it was to send forth showers of
living fire; its destruction was worse
than its destroying. People who Lad
no time to escape to the river threw
their children into wells and then
jumped in themselves, and many were
thus drowned, although, owing to the
drought many were saved. Others
threw themselves into vaults and per-
ished miscrably. Mr.. John +. Behce,
with his wife and two children in try
ing 10 escape were overwhelmed and
burned upon their own threshold. The
destruction was swift and terrible, and
alike in kind to that which overlook
Pompeii when Ncsuvius VOmited
upon it its glowing ashes. There was
no thought of saving property. hOwcv-
er valuable or easy TO carry-lIfe, life
was all. People by the hundreds ran
into the river, where they were Oblig-
cd to keep their bodies entirely i'm
mcrscd. for firebrands whirlCd about
ever the stream with the rush of the
wind, and the fervent heat blistcred
their faces and burned their clothes
whenever rhey were exposed. Many
had their ears and hands burned off,
and lay down charrGd and manglCd on
the bottom of the streams. Women
rent the air with shricks of agony and
ran wildly about on the rivers bank
screaming for their children and una
bic to SuccQr them. A Mrs. Creamer.
having reached the wafer and Satura-
ted her clothing, threw her apron over
her head, and, thus protected, ran
back a considerable distance from the
shore to where her shild had fallen in
the street, unable to 90 further. She
seized her, and with horrid screams at
! tempted to regain the shore through
the rain of fire which filed the air like
| n shower of sulphurOus hail. Within
! forty feet of the rivers bank She fell,
and the two cOrpSes We're found after
wards burned and blackcned beneath
a heap of embers and sand. Indeed,
one of the most horrible circumstances
connected with the desolation of Pcsh
tigo was the fact that the wind drove
immense clouds of sand before il which
were heated so chat when they struck
a'human being each grain burned and
blistered its way into the flesh, infiic-
ting unspcakable agony, TO escape
from which many people ran madly
hither and thither in blind torment
yelling and shrieking and fumbling
with manned hands for egress from the
hell i'm which they were, and finding
none save in death. Logs lying
in the river ignited and burned
TO the waters edge. Frightened ami
mails ran believing through the streets.
Women and girls rushed about franti-
cally with their hair i'm flames. Moth
ing but in earthquake could have add
ed horror TO the scene. In less than j
hours from the time when the storm
burst upon the town Peshtigo was a
heap of ruins with nothing to mark
its streets or tell the survivors where
to seek the burned bodies of their hus-
bands wives and children. 1t Is
thought that nearly 200 persons lost
their lives in consequence of the con-
flagration, some being burned to death,
others bruised, mangled, smothered
and drowned. Surgeons, nurses, ana
provisions have been sent from neigh
boring cities for the benefit of the sur
vivors, many of whom have been re-
moved to Green Bay. The peclnlary
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