The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-11-06
A Prairie Fire.

Next to calamities like that the home
steader's wife told uf, the great besetting
fear of the settlers on the border-in all
the new and thinly peoped portions of
Kansas, in facts the coming of the au-
tumn prairie fire, which 80 frequently
menaces their stacks and cribs, their
helpless stock, their stable 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 q
spectacle of commanding force and beau
ty. First, you will catch glimpses of
what you take to be gray wisps of haze
away OF on the horizon, and watching, you
will see these vagrant particles deepen
gradually, and gather into definite vol
niue of smoke, black, like rain.cloud,
and bronze about the edges. Then the
strange, somber bulk starts forward
across the prairie, and you hold your
breath at sight of the rapid progress of it,
a mile in wo'minutes is not an excep-
tional rate of speed for fire once fairly
under way.) 1t halts an instant, you
note, over broad swale where there is
standing water; but it is for an instant
only. The next moment it reaches the
upland again and dry grass; and directly
it grasps belt of the tall, thick blue
stem, and the flame leaps suddenly and
madly ont above the smoke, then sub
sides again, and the black mass grows
blacker than ever, and rolls higher and
you can scent the burning grass, and
hear the distant roar of the fire--an aw-
full roar, resembling the sound OF artillery
in heavy timber. And it is so calm i'm
mediately 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 pla-
cid. 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 in lis base i;
the smoke begins to hurt your eyes, too,
and the heat becomes heavily oppressive.
And then, all at once, the wind smitcs
and staggers you. that appalling roar deaf.
ems you and the sun is blotted out, and
you are in darkness rs of midnight
without moon or star. 1t Is an expert
cnce Of buta dozen seconds Or so, this
sudden plunge into darkness, though it
seems an hour, and when you look out
again you find that the fire has passed
you mile or more to yonr right, and is
still rolling desperately onward; and
there in its track are charred and
smoldering stacks of hay, and an occa-
sional house afame and tottering to its
fall. and group of men and boys beating
back the outer line of the fire with brush
and old clothes, and sending forward lit
tie counter-fres to meet it and if possi-
sible keep it at safe distance. The
creek may stop it and smother it when it
gets there, though suci hope has mere
chance for warrant; sometimes these
mighty conflagrations vault across streams
twenty or thirty yards in width, so swift
and resistless is their momentum; and
as rule they are effeclually stayed only
when they reach a wide extent Of plowed
land, and have to yield, sullenly, for lack
of anything more to feed their inexora-
! BILE fnrry.-Scribner for November.