St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1881-11-12

| ~3A ~~AS
trict, it seems miraculous that {
single soul escaped. The fire
swept through the green trees al
we'll as the dry. It ran through
fields of corn at the rate of twenty
miles an hour, and fields of clover
were swept as bare as a floor;
Dark and gloomy swamps, filled
with pools of stagnaat water and
the home for years of wildcats,
bears and snakes, were struck and
shriveled and burned almost in q
flash. Over the parched meadows
the flames ran faster than a horse
could gallop. Horses did gallop
before it, but were overtaken and
left roasting on the ground. 1t
seemed as if every hope and avenue
of escape were cut off, and yet hun
dreds of lives were spared. People
spent ten to twenty hoars in ponds
and bitches, or in fields under wet
blankets. having their hair singed,
their limbs blistered, and their
clothing burned off piece by piece.
In dozens of cases the first flames
spared houses and barns, but after
seeming to have passed on for
miles. suddenly circled back and
made clean sweep of everything.
Unless one rides over the burnt
district he cannot believe the eccen-
tricities of forest fire. In the great
swamp between Sanilac and San
dusky, it burned everything to the
roots for mile in breadth. Then
it left patches from ten feet to ten
rods wide. Then again it struck
in and burned lanes hardly twenty
feet wide, leaving half a mile of fuel
On either side. In the timber j. |
seemed to strike the green trees
iarder than the dry ones 1t was
ike a great experimenting its way !
'cross the country. 1t would run
within three feet of wheat stack,
md then glide awav to lick up a
'ouse. 1t would burn straw stack
nd spare barn ten feet of.
People felt the heat while the fire
'as yet miles away. It withered
he leaves of trees standing two
niles from the path of the fiery SER
ert. The very earth took fire in
undreds of places and blazed up
8 If the fire were feeding on cord 1
'ood. The stoutests log buildings
tood up only few minutes. The
re seemed to catch them at every
orner at once, and after a whirl and
roar nothing would be left. Seven
tiles off the beach, at Forester,
.ilors found the heat uncomforta-
le. Where some houses and barns i.
ere burned, we could not tind even
stick. Every log, beam
nd board was reduced to fine ashes.
Seven miles back from the lake.
Forester, farmer gathered up
fdeen persons in his wagon and
arted for the beach. The fire was
ose behind them as they started 4
J close that some of the dresses of G
10 women and children wee on
,e from the sparks. 1t was seven b
lies up hill and down, with cordu- a
y, ruts and roots, and the horses !
,eded no whip to urge them into a
mad run. AS they started the
re of q hind wheel rolled off. \
hey could not stop for it, and yet, n
EN- on a good road, the wheel O
ohld have crushed down in going q
,enty rods without it.
It is an actual fact that the horses
lshed over that seven miles of q
ugh road at wild run, and the II
heel stood firm. A delay of five r
inutes at any point of the road Z
ould have given fifteen more VIC q
MS to the flames which followed
| behind. I saw the wagon at S
9 lake, and I saw the tire seven n
lies away on the roadside. T
The people who sought the beach p