The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-11-28
A PRAIRIE FIRE.

In an article entitled ''Some EFea-
lures of Kansas farming in Scribner
for November, Mr.. Henry King gives
the following vivid description of that
beautiful scouTge-a fire on the prairies:
Next to calamitieS like that the home
steader's wife told of, the great beset-
ting fears of the settlers on the border
in all the new and thinly settled por-
tiOns of Kansas. in facts the coming
of the autumn prairie fire, which so
frequently menaces their stock, their
stables and cabins, and even their lives.
Were it not for its known danger and
power of havoc this tempest and scOurge
of fire would be a spectacle of command
ing force and beauty First you will
catch glimpses of what you take to be
gray wisps of haze away off on the hOri-
Zon and watching you will see these
vagrant particles deepen gradually, and
gather into definite volume of smoke,
black like a raIn-clOud, and bronZs
about the edges. Then the strange
Sombre bulk starts forward across the
prairie, and you hold your breath at
sight of the rapid progress of it. "a
mile in two minutes is not an exception
al rate of speed for a fire once under
headway.) 1t halts an instant, you note
over broad swale where there is stand
ing 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 sub
sides again, and the black mass grows
blackeI than ever, and rolls higher and
higher, and you can scent the burning
grass, and hear the distant roar of the
fire--an awful roar, resembling the
sound of artillery in heavy timber.
And it so calm Immediately about you
that you do not SO much as miss the
ticking of your watch in your 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 viii be broken soon. The on
coming cloud is enly a few miles away
and you easily trace the scarlet and ter
rifle energy at is base; the smoke begins
to hurt your eyes too, and the heat be-
comes heavily oppressive. And then,
all at once, the wind smites and stag
eres you, that appalling roar deafenS
yoHr and the sun is blotted out, and
you are in darkSess as of midnight
without moon OF star. 1t is an expert
ence of but dozen seconds or so. this
sudden plunge into darkness, though it
I seems an hour, and when you find that
the fire has passed yo1 mile or more to
/ your right, and is still rolling desper-
ately onward, and there iii its track are
/ charred and smOuldeEing stacks of hay
and an occasional house afiame and tot
tering to its fall, and group of men
and boys beating back the outer line of
/ fire with brush and old clothes and
/ send forward little counter fires to meet
/ it and if possible keep it at a safe dis
/ tance- The creek may stop it and smOth-
( er it when it gets there, though such a
/ hope has a mere chance for a warrant
/ sometimes these mighty cOntiagratiOns
vault across streams twenty or thirty
yauls in width, SO swift and restless is
their momentum and as a rule they are
effectually stayed only when they reach
a wide extent of plowed land and have
! to yield sullenly, for lack of anything
more to feed their inexOrable fury.