Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-10-12
Bourbon Correspondence.
BOURBON, IND, Oct. 8, 1871

BOURBON, IND, Oct. 8, 1871.
EDS. REPUBLICAN: Fire! fire!i fire II!
| Our citizens have been talking, thinking
and dreaming only of fire, for the past ten
days, and still the excitement and emf
nent danger of entire destruction by this
element is increasing hourly. Constantly
are couriers arriving from all directions,
reporting the confagration on the rapid
increase, and begging that all able bodied
men and women be sent Immediately to
their assistance, or the entire country viii
be devasted by the all consuming fires.
Having had no rain of any Consequence
since the 9th of June, everything is
parched to a finder, and ignites by the
smallest spark, and a fearful fire is raging
in few moments thereafter, famed into
flames by the least breath of wind But
what is a very terrible fire on an ordinarily
windy day, is forced into an appalling and
irrepressible confiagration by the wind
blowing anything of a breeze, as has been
the. case for the past few days. Fires
that have been latently smouldering in
the vegetable soil, Or in old, half decayed
timber, perhaps doing no damage nor
causing the least alarm to any one until
a few days since, have suddenly broken
out into raging fires that spread rapidly
over everything of a combustible nature,
and rendering all attempts to arrest its
course almost perfectly futile until its
power is spent, only because it finds
nothing more to feed its fury upon, then
quietly and sullenly shoulders into ashes
and blackness, fearful to contemplate.
Vast scopes of country are burned over in
this vicinity, and hundreds of farms and
timber lands have been run over by the
fires, leaving only their unmistakable
trail. Business of all kinds has been al
most entirely suspended in country and
town, except systematic and persistent eff
forts to subdue the ever present and fear
fully raging fires. Regularly organized
fire squads, properly differed and with
well arranged rt!iafs, are constantly pa
trolling the entire country surrounding
our city, bravely endeavorfng by almost
superhuman efforts to stop the progress
of the all-consuming element before it
reaches our town; they, TO this moment,
have been fortunate enough to do so, but
every second we fear the conflagration, in
all its terrors, will burst in its fury upon
our devoted city and entirely destroy it,
beyond all hope of succor, if it once
reaches US before rain. Nearly every
well in our place and vicinity has so far
failed that fighting the fire fiend has been
at very great disadvantage, and every
possible resort has been made to CONQUER
it without water Counter fires have been
made, the leaves and grass carefully re-
moved along the line to be made to stop
the HE, aid burrows miles in length have
been plowed only sometimes with good
results. Our citizens in town and coun-
try have accomplished deeds of heroism
and done works Of noble daring, to be
long remembered gratefully, with only
here and there an exception in a disgrace
full few who refused to lift finger to stop
the impending general destruction-ex-
pecting others to save their oontemptible
carcasscs from burning, and their proper
ty. if they possess any at all
They too are certainly remembered by
our entire community. The railroad COM
pany is quite severely censarel because it
did nothing to save the wood piled in
thousands of cords along its track, that
when once fired nothing could arrest, I'M
I'll II carried the confagration over miles
OF country that could otherwise have been
saved from destruction The fires that
were weeks ago scarcely worth a mo-
ments consideration are to-day the all alb
sorblng subject of attention, and if no for
tunate rain occurs in a remarkably short
period OF time we can scarcely hope to
save anything of our property that is at
all combustible. Already hundreds of
families have been driven out of house and
home, and their household goods are to
be seen piled in the middle of recently
plowed fields, where there will be pos
sibility OF saving them fro2 burning
the owners staying any where that pro-
vides temporary refuge. Stock of all
kinds is turned out to seek, if possible,
some safe retreat that could not be given
them by their owners. Inmany instances
the devouring element has overtaken
them as they fled, and destroyed the poor
dumb cattle, however rapidly they ran
from the confiagration.
The frightful scenes of destruction are
appalling to look ON after the tierceness
of the burning is over, and can scarcely be
imagined by any one not an eye witness.
The full extent of the destruction cannot
be guessed at, at present, but weeks will
be necessary to approximate our loss from
this terrible conflagration, that cannot be
described or an idea of all its losses con
veyed to one at distance.
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