New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1884-09-17
broke down and cried like child.
Maxon's fierce tones recalled him to

| MaxonsS sierce tones recalled HIM to
1 himself
| ..Why, man, do you think we would
| let you go into that fiery furnace again?
See! There goes the roof now. =
| With a gentle. waving motion the
roof seemed to slowly vibrate to and
fro, then sank down with a sudden
crash, and a flying column Of sparks
celebrated its downfall.
With half dazed senses John Proctor
stared about him, and his gaze wan
| dered to the sky above, where an angry
crimson glow had blotted out the stars,
and rested upon the distant mountain
chains weirdly rejecting from their
scanned fronts and cragggy peaks the
glare of the unrighteous flames. Would
| she admire them now?
Surely it was a spectacle to enchant
the eye of an unprejudiced spectator,
/ whose whole possessions were not be-
ing sacrificed to the effect.
He turned collectively to the scene
before him. There was still something
| to be done. The cream of the stock
had been destroyed, but unless some
piles Of lumber to the right of the
building were speedily removed, the
fire would communicate with the whole
outside stock, stretched for several
hundred yards along the railroad track.
He turned to the crowd of men who
stood inactive, gazing upon the scene:
Come on and help us save the lum-
ber!''
A couple of dozen men came prompt
| ly forward. The lumberman saw, to
his surprise, that the volunteers were
almost exclusively composed of the So
called professional men of the town.
The local officials Of the railroad, a
dapper, well-dressed set of fellows,
commonly viewed with contemptuous
eyes by the hard-working portion OF the
population, presented themselves al
| most to a man. The tall form of Judge
| Cheeseman, stiff and somewhat aris-
tocratic legal luminary, loomed up in
their midst. A quiet-looking little real
estate agent leaped upon pile of shin
giles and began to fling the punches
down to a German chemist below The
two rival editors, for the least of New
Mexican villages usually boasts its min
iature newspaperdom, who had ex-
changed shots on Gold Avenue the
previous day, glared cordially at each
other along the lengths of the timbers
they undertook to transport to place
OF safety. The laboring population
offered scarcely q representative, save
in the persons of a few contractors and
mechanics, who had learned to know
and like the pleasant young lumber
man.
The men worked like heroes. Their
energy never waned until faint light
in the east began to rival the red glare
Of the flames, through the medium of
the high, rare atmosphere, cast over
the desert plains for miles around, and
every piece of lumber was removed to
q safe distance.
Worn and wearied. John Proctor sat
down to rest upon the wheel of his own
copying press. A gradual change had
taken place in the ranks Of the loungers.
Many of the spectators OF the night had
gone home to refresh themselves with
q nap, and the remainder were rein
forced by q struggling corps of men
who had slept through all the turmoil
and excitement. One Of these, stout
fellow with a big diamond blazing in
his shirt bosom and a mimic beer bot
tie suspended from his massive watch
chain, was recounting his experience,
as all people revel in detailing their in
dividual impressions on the occasion of
a fire.
''You see [ was sleeping like log
when Lizzie caught hold of my shonl-
der and she says: Bob, Bob, wake up,
tell you. The sky is all afire and
there must be an eclipse! / reached
up to see it my pocket-book was safe
-,
The words brought back to John
Proctor a sense of the loss he had sus-
tanned. At that moment Maxon strolled
up, flushed with exertion. He had
just administered sound kicking to a
couple of young Mexicans, whom he
had detected making off with key of
building hardware.
! '.Maxon,' he said, abruptly, ibid
that fellow who got me out last night
come out safely himself?''
''Now think of it, returned Maxon.
| che went back minute; but he got out
| all right-just as the roof fell in.
thought at the moment piece of fall
| ing timber hit him, but he scrambled
off fast enough
A dread suspicion assailed John
Proctor's honest heart; but he repealed
It sturdily. Yet all day long as he
wandered dreamily about, answering
8 thousand idle questions or fishing
from the ruins various mementoes Of
the wreck there would constantly in
trude upon him the memory of two
greedy, deVouring eyes, peering through
q window, a strange retreat into a
burning building, and disappearance
into the shadows. When night came it
was necessary for some one to stay and
guard the ruins, for, if the wind should
rise, some smouldering piles of lumber
might be famed into blaze, and the
remainder of the stock be swept awav.
Maxon, weary and hollow-eyed, offered
his services.
''Not bit f it, Maxon. Go home
to your wife and babies, | have engaged
q man.
Proctor did not add that the watch
man he had engaged was no other than
himself, but when the rest had gone
homefhe remained there alone. Sep
arated as it was from the rest Of the
town, by night the place was a dreary
solitude. Once the call of a hooking
bird thrilled in the distance. A fiery
eye, miles away over the level plain,
developed into the headlight of the To-
connective of the evening train, which
Numbered past on its way to the depot
below. The moon came up and threw
into weird relief the blackened rains.
John Proctor, who had been slowly
pacing to and fro, sat down upon .
bunch Of shingles and buried his face
in his hands. He knew, what not even
Maxon had guessed. that this disaster
had wrought his irreparable ruin. It
would require every cent of the insur-
ance money to settle his outstanding
liabilities, for he had done business on
the rushing Western plan, and had car
ried a stock out of all proportion to his
I.capital If he could only have saved