Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-10-07
Dark and gloomy swamps

hare al floor. Dark and gloomy swamps,
filed with pools of stagnant water. and
the home for years of wildcats. bears and
snakes. were struck and shrivelled and
burned almost IN flash. Over the parched
meadows the flames ran faster IMAM morse
could gallop. Horses did gallop before it.
but were overtaken and left roasting on
the ground. 1t scented as II every hope
and avenue of escape we're cut Off, and vet
hundreds of lives we're spared. People
spent ten to twenty hours IN bitches and
ponds, or IN fields under wet blankers,
having their hair singed, their limbs bis
tered, and their clothing burned off piece
by piece.
houses and barns, but after seeming to
have passed on for miles suddenly clrcled
back and made clean sweep OF every
thing. Unless one rides over the burnt
district he cannot believe the eccentrici-
ties of forest FIRE. In the great swamp,
between Sanllac and Sandusky, 1t burned
everything to the roots for a 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 1t seemed to
st,ik the green trees harder than the dry
ones. 1t was like great serpent max
ing it's way across the country. 1t would
run within three feet of wheat stack,
and then glide away to lick up house.
1t would burn stack and spare barn ten
feet off.
People felt the heat while the FIRE was
yet miles away. 1t withered the leaves OF
trees standing two miles from the path OF
the fiery serpent The very earth took
ire in hundreds of places, and blaZed up
as if the fire were feasting on cordwood.
The stoutest log buildings stood up only a
faw minutes. The fire seemed to catch
them at every corner at once. and alter
wbirl and roar nothing would be left.
Seven miles off the beach, at Forester,
sailors found the heat uncomfortable.
Where some houses and barns were burned
we could not find even a blackened stick.
Every log, beam and board was reduced to
ashes.
Seven miles back from theilake at For
ester, farmer g. thered up fifteen persons
| in his wagon and started for the beach,
The fire was close behind them as they
started-so close that the dresses OF some
of the women and children were on lire
from the sparks. It was seven miles of up
hill and down, with corduroy, ruts and
roots, and the horses needed no whip to
urge them into mad run. AS the wagon
started the tire of hind weel rolled off.
They could not stop for it, and yet. even
on good road the wheel would have
crushed down in going twenty rods With
out it.
1t is an actual fact that the horses push
ed over that seven miles of rough road at
a wild run, and the wheel stood firm. A
delay of five minutes at any poiAt of the
road would have given fifteen more victims
to the flames which followed on behind. l
saw the wagon at the lake, and saw the
tire seven miles away on the roadside.
The people who sought the beach had
still to endure much of the heat and all of
the smoke. Wading up to their shoulders.
they we're safe from the flames. but sparks
and cinders fell like a snow storm and
the smoke was suffocating. The birds not
caught in the woods were carried out to
sea and drowned, and the waves have
washed thousands of them ashore. Squir-
rels. rabbits and such small animals stood
no show at all, but deer and bear sought the
beach and the company of human beings.
In one case man leaped from bluff into
the lake and found himself close behind a
| large bear. They remained in company
| under the bank nearly all night, and the
| bear seemed as humble as adog. In anoth-
| or instance two of the ANIMALS came out OF
| the forest and stood close to we'll from
| which farmer was drawing water to dash
over his house, and they were with him
| for two hours before they deemed it
prudent to jog along. Deer came out and
| sought the companionship of cattle and
| horses, and paid no attention to persons
rushing past them.-Detroit Free Press.