The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-06-28
FOREST FIRES.

ing FfdHaeS-I Night OF Terror.
Harvard City (Mich-) Cor. Cincinnati Enq'rirer.l
"Thank God II
So exclaimed a hundred thousand
Michiganders the other day when the
clouds poured down torrents of rain hour
after hour-enough to drown out even a
forest fire.
There is something terrible connected
with such calamity as befell Mt. Car
mel, there is a feeling of awe and chill
of fear as one walks over the path of a
tornado, but men who have never wit
messed a forest fire have but faint idea
of its terrible power to almost blot a
county off the map. Is is more terrible
than tornado-more appalling than the
swift-moving, rapid-working cyclone.
People wonder how wilderness of
trees, each tree clothed in its spring
dress, can become a sea of fame, but
everything is food for Il forest fire. Ii
the first sheet of flame does not smite the
green pine or devour the leaves of the
beech and maple, it parches and dries
them for the flames to follow, and the
stout pine, shooting n hundred feet high,
becomes n beacon-ight for a moment,
then sways, totters, and goes down with
an awful crash, to burn until heap of
ashes alone marks the earth.
Your correspondent was in Osceola
county when the fires first began. In the
midst of a wilderness of pine and thick
ct, miles away from village or hamlet,
was a pioneers cabin. The clearing
around it comprised about ten acres.
Some of the ground was ready for corn,
and some of it had been sowed and
planted, while the forest around was SO
damp and green that one would have
smiled at the idea of great sheets of flame
climbing those tall trees and waving fifty
feet above them. One night some hunt
ers built grand fire against heap of
dry logs. The next day they were miles
away, and the fire had begun to creep
Little tongues of fame reached out after
dry sticks and limbs, larger tongues fol-
lowed them, and before night the fire
had control of an acre of forest. That
was start enough. At midnight the wind
came up fresh, and the heat of the fire
drove through the forest, scorching and
baking trail for the red flames.
"Pm afraid there is fire in the woods
to the west of us, said the pioneer one
morning as we stood at his cabin-door.
We could scent the odor of burning
trees and leaves, and there was smoky
look to the forest. At noon the odor was
stronger, the smoke denser, and the live
stock around the clearing began to ex-
hibit signs of alarm. When the oxen
were unyoked to be fed they turned their
heads to the west, scented the air for a
moment, and then charged across the
clearing to the east at full speed, being
out Of sight in two minutes.
"That means dangerp p said the pio-
neer, in a low voice, and he turned pale.
He believed the fire to be in a large
swamp ten miles away, but hardly
thought it possible for the green forest
to ignite. We sat down to dinner, mean
ing to hunt for the oxen afterward but
| pClo1O bl1O hSdl Wdo ONcI bI0Io WAS IL
fresh cause for alarm A buck and two
does dashed into the clearing, closely
followed by fox, score of rabbits and
a dozen cOons and woodchucks. The
deer ran to the far edge of the clearing
as we went out, but the other animals
scarcely noticed us.
g You go forward as far as you can,
and see what the danger is, and wife and
L will get ready for run % said the pi-
oneer, as the smoke grew thicker
AT that moment fresh alarm and O
new warning reached us. There came a
roar like the sea gives out when rushing
III upon a broken beach. We had not
heard it before. 1t was a steady, terri
BILE roar, rising above all other sounds.
A coming whirlwind might have created
the same sound The rush of vast
herd of buffaloes might have created
such a roar. 1t was awful The ground
trembled, the smoke became bIacker,
and the heat was like the rush of all
from hot oven
1T isn't a mile away; we must run
for our lives p shouted the settler.
He had three children. I picked up a
boy of 7. The pioneer seized his girl,
two years younger, and the wife took the
sleeping babe from the cradle. There
wasn't time to take down spare gar
ment from the wall-to pick up cher
ished gift or treasured relic.
This way-hurry L heard the pio-
neer call out, and, gasping for breath
and blinded by the smoke, pushed ON
after him.
The roar was louder and grander and
more terrible. Falling upon us and
around us were little brands of fire. and
to the west, half a mile away was wall
of flame 100 feet high-a wall which was
coming down upon the clearing at the
rate of six miles an hour The wall of
fire YVES twelve miles long, and the
waters of Lake Erie would have scarcely
drenched it out,
A deer ran against me as 1 staggered
after the pioneer More than once [
stumbled against the small wild animals
rushing here and there through the
clearing. My hair and whiskers were
scorching, and my clothing was on fire
IN dozen places, when we reached the
outdoor cellar, place dug into hill
side about 400 feet from the house. 1t
was part cave, part structure, but well
covered with earth, and almost free from
smoke. The two children had passed