The Portland daily press., 1881-10-03
.ited
nan be-
-stiy toward a
a perfect mass of
Led with his head to-

nan be-
atiy toward
a perfect mass of
Led with his head to-
mother and children had TAX
me root house. This was a struct
-sIy sunk in the ground and the roof
covered with earth. Here they were all
for time, but when the father failed 10
them, one OF the sons went out to see what
ed the delay. He was hardly out of the
before the door through which he had
sed was in flames. In this emergency b.
to dry creek, and by lying on his fsce
ke-ring his mouth to the ground he lived
ough 1t.
tssIs-u 10 a woman who lived neighbor to
Tborntons, and who escaped by fleeing to
field OF ploughed ground. This was only
g rods from the root honse, and she SAID II
FAs fully an hour before the screams and
bricks and groans from the people inside grew
luiet ia death. One by one they were suffo-
Gated by heat and smoke, and their bodies pre-
sented most horrible appearance
To one riding through the district it seems
miraculous that a single soul escaped. The fire
swept through the green trees the same as the
dry. II ran through fields OF corn at the rate
Of twenty miles an hour, and fields OF clover
-ere swept as bare as floor. Dark and gloomy
smps, filed with pools of stagnant water,
I'd the home for wears of wildcats, bears and
askes, were struck and shrivelled and burned
lmnst in a fash. Over the parched meadows
he names FhQ faster lllau UpIS6 CDuiu Shi-
lep Horses did galop before it, but were
oeeriaken and left roasting ON the ground. II
seemed IS IL every hope and avenue of escape
were cut off, and yet hundreds of lives were
spared. People spent ten 10 twenty hours IN
bitches and ponds or in fields under wet blank
cts, having their hair singed, their limbs bis
tered, 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 Ior miles suddenly circled back and
made a clean sweep OF everything. Unless one
rides over the burnt district he cannot believe
the eccrntriclties OF a forest fire. In the great
swamp, between Sanilac and Ssndusky, 1t
burned everything 10 the roots for mile in
breadth Then it left patches from ten feet to
ten rods vide. Then again it struck in and
burned lanes hardly twenty feet wide, leaving
half = mile of fuel ON either side. In the tim
Der IL seemed to strike the green trees harder
THAI the dry ones. IL was like great serpet
aaking It's way across the country. 1t would
within three feet OF hay stack and then
away to lick up house. IL would burn
and spare a barn ten feet off.
= felt the heat while the fire was VT
sav II withered The leaves of trees
ding two miles from the path of the fiery
zrpeut The very earth took fire in hundreds
OF places and blazed up as ii the fire were
fessting on cord wood. The stoutest log build
iDgs stood up only few minutes. The fire
seemed TO catch them at every corner at once,
and after a whirl and roar nothing would be
LEFT. Seven miles off the beach, at Forrt ser,
sailors found the neat uncomfortable. Where
some houses end barns were burned We could
not aud ever a blackened stick. Every log.
beam aud board as reduced to fine ashes.
Seven miles back from the lake at Forester
q farmer gathered mp fifteen persons in bis
wagon aud started for the beach. The fire
s.zs clrse behind them as they sfafted-so Close
that the dresses OF some ot the women ami
cniiartD were ON fire from the sparks. 1t was
seven miles OF up hill aud down, with cordu-
row. ruts and roots, and the horses needed no
whip to urge them into MAD run, AS the
wagon started the tire of hind wheel rolled
of They could nor stop for it, and yet, even
on a good road the wheel would have crushed
down in going twenty rods without it.
Il Is an actual fact that the horses pushed
over that seven miles of rough road at wild
ron, and the wheel stood firm. A delay of
five minutes 1T any point OF the road would
have given fifteen more victims to the flames
which follow ed on behind / saw the wagon
at the lake, aud l saw the tire seven miles
ay on the roadside.
r Fhe people who sought the beach had still to
- -dare much of the heat and OF the smoke.
Wsdinc up to their shoulders they were safe
from the flames. but sparks and cinders fell
like snow storm and the smoke was sutfoca'-
ing The birds not caught in the woods were
carried out TO sea and drowned, and the waves
have washed thousands Of them ashore. Squir-
reis, rabbits aud such small animals stood no
show at all, but deer and bear sought the
beach and the company of human beings. In
one case a man l-aped from high bluff into
the lake and found himself close be hind
large bear. They remained in company un-
der the bank nearly all night, aud the bear
seemed as humble as a dog. In anothe, in
stance two of the animals came out of the for
est and stood close to q we'll from which
farmer was drawing water to d,sh over bis
house. and they ere with him for two hours
before they deemed it prudent to jog along.
Deer came out aud sought the companiouship
OF cattle and horses and paid no attention to
persons rushing past them