Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-10-31
APRAIRIE FIRE.
How the Lives and Property OF
the Kansas People Are in Dan


In an article entitled "Some Features
OF Kansas Farming, in S'TibHer for No
vember, Mr.. Henry King gives the iol-
lowing vivid description OF that beautiful
scOurge,-a fire on the pralrles:
Next 10 calamlties like that the home
steader's wife told of, the great besetting
fear of the settlers on the bOrdeI-in all
the new and thinly settled portions OF
Kansas. i'm iact-ls the coming OF the
autumn prairie fire, which So frequent
ly menaces their stacks and cribs, their
helpless stock, their stables and cabins,
and even their lives. Were it not for its
known danger and power OF havoc, tins
tempest and scOurge OF fire would be a
spectacle Recommending force and beau
". First, you will catch glimpSes OF
what YOU take to be gray whisps OF haze
away off on the horizon; and watching,
YOU will see these vagrant PARTICLES
deepen gradually, and gather INTO a
definite volume of smoke, black like a
rain cloud, and bronze about the edges.
Then the strange, sOmber bulk starts
forward across the prairie, and you hold
your breath at the sight OF the rapid
progress Of il. { \ mile in two minutes
is not an exceptional rate OF speed Tor
fire once under way 1t halts an IN
slant, YOU note, over a broad swale
where there is standing water; but it is
for an instant only. The next moment
it reaches the upland again and the dry
grass; and directly it grasps belt OF the
tall, thick blue-stem, and the flame leaps
suddenly and madly out above the
smoke, then subsidies again, and the
black mass grows blacker than ever, and
rolls higher and higher, and you can
scent the burning grass, and hear the
distant roar of the tle-an awful roar,
resembling the sound OF artillery In
heavy timber. And 1t is so calm imme-
diately about YOU that you do not SO
much as miss the ticking OF your watch
in vOuI pocket; there is no breath OF AIR
stirring, and the sun is shining and the
heavens above YOU are blue and placid.
But the stiffness will be broken soon.
The oncoming cloud is only few miles
away now, and YOU easily trace the
scarlet and terrific energy at Its base;
the smoke begins to hurt your eyes, too,
and the heat becomes heavily oppressive.
And then all at once the wind smltes
and staggers Won, that appalling roar
deaiens YOU and the sun Is blOtted out,
and you are in darkness as OF a mid
night without moon or star. 1t Is an
experience OF but a dozen seconds or so,
this sudden plunge into darkness,
though IL seems AN hour, and when you
look out again You find that the fire has
passed You a mile or more TO your right,
and is still rolling desperately onward;
and there in its tracks are Charred and
Wondering stacks of hay, and an occa-
siOnal house aflame and lettering to its
fall, and group of men and boys beat
ing back the outlines of the fire with
brush and old clothes, and sending for
ward little cOuntertires To meet 1t and II
possible keep il at a safe distance. The
creek may stop il and smother it when it
gets there, though such Il hope has mere
chance Tor warrant; sometimes these
mighty conhagrationS vault across stream
twenty an thirty yards in width, so swift
and rpsiStlcSS is their momentum, and as
Il rule they are eilcCtually stayed only
when they reach a wide extent Of plOwed
lanI, and have 10 yield, sullenly, for lack
of something more TO feed their inexora-
BILE fury.