The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1881-10-08
The Forest Fires.

ASASS' mo vi hlculBhu. DuTllB lHt
past week a considerable portion of the
small peninsula of Michigan. formed
by Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay, has
been devastated by fire, or rather by a
series of fires, whose origin is..a matter
OF surmise, and whose progress was
stayed only by the shore of the lake ~
the want OF material ON which to feed
The counties visited by dire destruc
ton were those of Saginaw, Tuscola,
Sanilac and Hurnn. All the horrors
which human beings can experience or
imagine, we're attendant on the progress
OF the fires. The country is denaely
wooded, embracing a portion OF the
lumber region, and the settlers had
planted themselves upon small clear.
ings where they were hemmed in as
completely as if caught in the garnet Of
n house, whose stairways were flooded
with smoke and flames. As conse-
quence, the loss of life has been APP
palling, between five hundred and Il
thousand people having been suiTocated
IN deceptive hiding places, or burned to
a crisp by the all-destroying elemeut,
Poor frightened creatures buried them
selves in their gardens, only to be bak-
ed they crawled down into wells, only
to be suflocated; they crept into cellars,
only to be buried in the mass of char
red rubbish piled up by the bosom of
destruction that swept over the land
fugitives were not safe in the open
field where the unimpeded gale hasten
ed the surge of the burning waves upon
their faltering retreat they were not
safe in the forest, not knowing which
way to turn, and in their blind desper-
alton rushing into the very jaws Of the
fire; they were not safe in the towns
Tor upon the dried and cracking roofs
balls of fire from the neighboring for
est were rained down as if shot from
mortars and gattling guns. Accom-.
panying, or rather preceding the adj
vance of the fire, there came darkness
exceeding that of the gloomiest night.
The cloud that enveloped everything
was neither vapor, nor smoke, nor ashes;
1t was Just darkness, not black but
brownish red-the shadow of the death
angels wing preceding the thrust of
his fiery dart. The darkness of Egypt
could not have been so terrible, because
the Egyptian plague was not the adj
vance guard of fire nor could the gloom
enveloping the lake of burning mari
be 30 oppressive, for beneath its shade
the fallen angels knew they had reach
ed the end of their downward flight,
and were ut length at rest, secure from
the wrath of an offended God and the
pursuing hosts OF Michael. This gloom
greatly added to the horrors and en-
harrassmsnts of the situation. Flight
was the Impulse Ur 'lll, Dut the darkness
made flight laundering in some cases
and impossible in others.
in the darkness and terror families
were separated, some members escap-
ing, some perishing; and it will always
be question which were the greater
suflerers-those overtaken and over
come by the heat and smoke and drop.
ping by the way in pain and despair, or
those who survived only to discover
their nearest and dearest ones as char
red corgses, victims of the merciless
tide of wrathful flame.
1t was holocaust. Next to the pres
ervation of their own lives, settlers in u
wild country are most concerned for tina
safety of their cattle. Indeed, it is not
uncommon for people to endanger and
lose their lives in attempts to save the
dumb creatures, which form the most
tangible and availing portion of their
earthly possessions, and which, aside
from all selfish considerations, occupy a
large share of their affections The
perverse stupidity of the domestic ami
mails is well known, and the experience
of the Michigan sufferers was no ex.
ception to the general rule; many poor
people lost their own lives in the vain
effort to extricate their cattle and horses
from the labyrinth Of flames. The car
casses of these animals, now decompos
ing in the run, add to the discourage
ments of the situation, for the fostering
masses will have to be put under ground
before the region will again be habita-
BILE. OF the condition in which the
bodies of the human victims have been
found it is best not to speak; it is pref
cradle that shroud of decent silence
should be drawn over them. The fate
of such families as persisted all together
though terrible, is enviable compared
with that of those survivors who lived
10 find their kindred suffocated in 9
root-house or roasted in the forest
There is more horror in the contem
plation of death by burning tn Their,
is pain in the actual fact. II [ , body
were consumed while the lung, wer,
supplied with cool, pure air, no doub
the pain would be intense, but in mos
cases Of loss of life in fire, death il
caused by sufIocation, and is compare
lively painless. When the final catas
; trophe arrives the victim inhales
! breath of smoke or heated air, expert
encing the sensation of being struck OF
the head with soft heavy substanc,
and is stunned into partial insensibility
The next state is that OF unconscious
ness and painless death.
The condition Of the survivors is pit
liable. Many are described MS hayinl
lost all and still in debt for their places
What barren, cruel mockery the own
ership of those places must be now
And yet it is said that in some OF tn
camps OF the survivors, much cheerful
/, ness and enterprise prevail, This is an
other evidence Of the elasticity OF tn
American character. And yet thes
people are destitute and many of then
suffering from hunger. Contribution
= have been made and supplies forwarded
but, as IL seems to us, not in proportio
TO the necessities OF the case, certainl
a not ON the scale on which relief wa
sent to Chicago after the great fire &
|, 1871. On that occasion the quautilie
4 Of food that poured in before the pc,
!, pie could realize that they we're hun
4. a -. 4