Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-11-15
A PRAIRIE FIRE.
ScriI,ner's MONTHLY.

Next to calamities like that the home.
Steadcrs wife told Of, the great bcset.
ting fear Of the settlers on tho borde,
in all the new ind thinly peopled
portions Of Kansas, III facts the
coming Of the autumn prairie fire,
which SO frequently monaces Their
stacks and cribs, their helpless stock,
their stables and cribs, and even Their
lives. Were 1t not for its known dan.
ger and power Of havoc, this tempest
and scourgc of fire would be q spocta.
clio Of commanding force and beauty
First, you will catch glimpses Of what
you take to be gray wisps of haze
away off on the horizon; and watch
ing, you will sec these yagrant par
ticles deepen gradually, and gather
into definite volume Of smoke, black
like a rain cloud, and bronze about
the edges. Then the strange, somber
bulk starts forward across tho pairic,
and you hold your breath at the sight
Of the rapid progress Of it. "a mile
in two minutes is not an exceptional
rate of speed for q fire once fairly un-
der l'eadway.) It halts an instant,
you note, over u broad swale where
there is standing water; but it is for
an instant only. Tho next moment
it reaches the uplnnd again and the
dry grass; and directly it grasps a belt
Of the tall, thick blue stem, and the
flames leap suddenly and make out
above the smoke, then subsidies again,
and the black mass grows blackcr
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 tho sound
Of artillery in heavy timber. And it
is 50 calm Immediately about you that
you do not SO much as miss the tick
ing of your watch in your pocket /;
there is no breath Of air stirring, and
then the sun is shining, and the ,hea-
vens 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 it's
base; the smoke begins to hurt your
eyes, too, and the heat becomes heavi-
ly oppressive. And then, all at once,
the wind smitcs and staggcrs you,
that appalling roar deafcns you, and
then the sun is blotted out, md you
are in q darkness as Of q midnight
without moon or stars. It is an cxpc-
riencc Of but a dozen seconds or 80,
this sudden plunge into darkness,
though it seems an hour, and when
You look out again you find that the
fire has passed you a mile or SO to
yeur right, and is still rolling dcsper-
ately onward and there in it's track
arc charged and smoldering stacks of
hay, and an occasional house afame
and totteripg to its fall, and
a group Of men and boys beating back
the outer line of the fire with brush
and old clothes, and sending forward
little counter fires to meet it and il
possible keep it ut a safe distance.
The creek may stop it and smother it
when it gets there, though such a
hope has mere chance for u warrant;
sometimes these mighty conAagrations
vault across streams twenty or thirty
yards in width, so swift and rcsistless
is their momentum and AZ a rule
they are effect,lally stayed only when
they reach wide extent of plowed
land, and have to yield, sullenly, for
lack of anything more to feed their
inex0rahle fury.