The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1877-08-04
An Extraordinary Season.
HAS THERE BEEN ANY MYSTERIOUS IN
FLUENCE- AT WORK.


From the Philadelphia Ledscrl
| Even the dullest Of newspaper readers
must have observed something extra
/ ordinary in the atmosphere and Other
! phenomena OF this season. 1t has been
| marked by numerous destructive storms,
/ and by an unusual number of disastrous
COntiagrations. Both series began very
early in the season. There were forest
| fires in the east, north and northwest
within ver~ short time after the eVap-
OratiOn of tile last moisture from the
melted SHOWS OF the winter months
| and hurricanes began to set in as early
as the third week in April. We printed
Il list oil these last Saturday, and by
that our readers were advised of the
great number :Of them for so early Il
period Of thesprlng and summer, and
also OF their very destructive character.
Since then there has been another, the
most furious and extensive OF all. rag
ing over Il stretch of country from the
Missouri river to the Upper Ohi0-sOmc
of the thanking gusts reaching even
to our own city. All of these showed
great electrical disturbance, and, taking
them and the forest fires and the wide
spread destruction by fires in two cities
they furnish cO-incidences entitled tOcOn
Sideratiun. We c0uuOt, OF course, al
rest or escape the tornado, but We can
do something to reduce the risks OF fire ;
and this latter Is thing to be done
most carefully at Il season when there
seems to be al extraordinary su$CepU-
bility to fire in the air. When a con-
tlagratiOn consumes half Il city i'll few
hours, and Il day OF two after that an
other sweeps away the more valuable
half of another town, and when both
disasters are the product of fires that,
nndcr ordinary circumstances, would
have been confined to the buildings
in which they originated OF at the worst,
to two or three others III the close VI
cinitY-surely such occurrences should
arouse the suspicion that some extra
ordinary agency or influence IS ut work.
Both the cOntlagratiOn at st. john and
that at Marblehcad We're uncomfortable
from the first, Just rs the enormous des
tructiOn ut Chicago was. The COnSum-
ing element seemed to have for the
time an augmented power far beyond
the reach of the usual appliances. The
fire lcaped from street to street over
spaces broad enough to afford ample
protection at other times; it advanced
like Il great, irresistible wave as long as
any cOnsumabl material was left in its
path. These were characteristic OF all
the fearful cOntagratiOnS mentioned
1t is not so generally. Nlnety-nIne
times out of hundred, the fires which
reduced so much Of the cities OF Ihl-
cagO, St John, and Marble-hcad to ruin,
would have been eXtinguiShed before
the second house was destroyed. But
all the power Of the fire departments
Of the cities named was Of no more
avail than if strlken by paralysis before
the petty tires-petty at the time of
their Origin-Which grew into such
wide sweeping calamItIeS. These are,
however, circumstances characteristic
Of them all. Not one of them at first
seemed to be anything different from
the u8ual fire that destroys single
each of them almost Immediately got
beyond control, and at each of them
the fire leaped from street to street,
over broad spaces, and advanced until
there WAS nothing more in its path to
burn.
Was there anythingin the atmospheric
conditions at the times of these fires TO
give unusual potency to the consuming
element? This is not asked as a question
that can be answered, but as a question
to suggest inquiry, in its relations to
the extraordinary atmospheric dlStur-
Dances which have marked this season,
and which, to some extent, characterized
the period at which the Chicago fire
occurred. In this aforementioned year,
and near abOut the time of the Chicago |
there were most disastrous |
forest and, prairie fires in Minnesota and |
Wisconsin,; and intelligent persons who |
were cye-Wltnesses to them, in WlscOn- |
sin, testified that hOt-b!asts swept the |
country for miles in advance Of the fire ; |
that great luminous balls travcrsed the !
air in the afflicted districts; and that |
new flames started up at considerable |
distances from the main body Of the |
cOntiagratiOn. Assuming these state !
ments to be true, and they have not !
been questioned within our knowledge. |
there would seem to have been some |
thing in the air of that region at that |
time switch gave it extraordinary pO- |
tency to excite combustion, to feed fire |
and carry it over long distances. What |
can our meteorolOgists, physicians,
chemists and other scientists tell us
about this? ? Given these cOincident cir
are there any relations be-
tween them, and does the atmosphere
at times get into a condition to make |
it extremely susceptible to fire, or to
give it an unusual power to excite and
feed combustion? If there be any such
if there be only u sus-
picion of them-and if this season,
with its long list Of hurricanes, severe
storms and disastrous forest and city
fires, be one of the seasons when such
agencies may be potent in the air, then
{ is season to be on guard against the
of fires, whether by "acci-
lent " or by spontaneous combustion
II by the re-cracker and rocket-stick.
Those people are wise who do not tempt
5ate or undertake to defy the powers