Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-07-07
A TERRIBLE SCENE.

snort Time stuCes-
"Thank Goi!" So exclaimed hun
dred thousand Michiganders the other
day when the clouds poured down tor
rents of rain hour after hour-enough
to drown ont even forest fire.
Your correspondent was in Osceola
county when the fire first began. In
the midst. of wilderness OF pine and
thicket, miles away from village or ham
let, was a pioneers cabin. The clear
ing around it comprised about ten
acres. Some of the ground was ready
for corn, and some of it had been SOW
ed 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 hunters built a grand tire
against a heap of dry logs. The next
day they were miles away, and the hre
had begun to creep. Little tongues OF
flame reached out after dry sticks and
limbs, larger tongues followed 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 bak-
ing trail for the red flames.
"Tm afraid there is a fire in the
woods to the west of us" said the pio-
neer one morning as we stood at his
cabin door.
We could scent the odor of burning
trees and leaves, and there was a smoky
look TO forest. AT noon the odor was
stronger, the smoke denser, and the
live stock around the clearing began to
exhibit signs of alarm. When the oxen
were unyoked to be fed they turned
their heads to the west, scented the all
for a moment, and then charged across
the clearing to the east at full speed,
being out of sight in two minutes.
"Tnat means danger" said the pio-
neer in low voice, and he turned pale.
He believed the fire TO be in large
swamp ten miles away, but hardly
thought it possible for the green forest
to ignite. We sat down to dinner,
meaning to hunt for the oxen afterward,
but before the meal was over there was
fresh cause for alarm. A buck and
two does dashed into the clearing close
~ followed by fox, a score OF rabbits,
and 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.
"You 90 forward as far as you can,
and see what the danger is, and wife
and 1 will get ready for run!" said the
pioneer as the smoke grew thicker.
At that moment fresh alarm and a
Few warning reached US. There came
a roar such as the sea gives out when
rushing in upon a broken beach. We
had not heard it before. 1t was stca-
dy, terrible roar, rising above all other
sounds. A coming whirlwind might
have created the same sound. The
rush of vast heard of buffaloes might
have created such roar. 1t was aw-
fall The ground trembled, the smoke
became blacker, and the heat was like
the rush of air from hot oven.
at isn't mile away--we must run
for our ivesl" shouted the settler.
He had three children. picked up
boy of seven. The pioneer seized his
little girl, two years younger, aud the
wife took the sleeping babe from the
cradle. There wasn't time to take down
spare garment from the wall-to pick
up a cherishing gift or treasured relic.
:'This way-hurryI | heard the
pioneer call out; and gasping for breath
and blinded by the smoke, rushed on
after him.
The roar was louder and grander and
more terrible. Falling upon ms and
around us were little branches of hre,
and to the west, half mile away, was
a wall of flame hundred feet high-a
wall which was coming down upon the
clearing at the rate Of six miles an hour.
The wall of fire was twelve miles long,
and the waters of Lake Erie would have
scarcely drenched it out.
A deer ran against. me as / staggered
after the pioneer. More than once /
stumbled against the small wild ami
mails rushing here and there through
the clearing. My hair and whiskerS
were scorchiug, and my clothing was
on FIRE in dozen places when we reach
ed the outdoor cellar, a place dug into
the hillside 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 through all right, bat the
babe was so nearly suffocated that we
had hard work 10 save its life.
Just before the flames reached The
clearing the ground trembled as it did
around Gettysburg when five hundred
pieces of artillery thundered away for
hours. The smoke drove ahead, leav-
ing me pretty fair view of cabin and
clearing for five or six minutes. Birds
dropped down and died. The deer
rushed around in circles, sometimes
running full against stumps. The
smaller animals roared and barked aud
fought each other, and several rabbits
found our retreat and rushed in among
us.
When the flames reached the edge Of
the clearing, FIVE hundred feet from our
cave, the ground in front of US fairly
baked. The wild animals fell down
and died, steam rose from the green
sfnmns In clouds for q moment. aud