The morning call., 1891-03-30
OUT on THE PRAIRIE.
How Miles OF Flames Wiped Out Il
Homes of Early Settlers.

How Miles OF Flames Wiped Out the
Homes of Early Settlers.
A prairie fire, when viewed under proper
circums tanceS, is an interesting and beauti-
fu sight to behold, but when a fierce gale
drives it OH its way, consuming property
and destroying life in its path, its grandeur
becomes an object of terror. To the early
settlers of the plains of Illinois, Iowa and
the West prairie fires were familiar spec
taele, yet their oft recurrence never robbed
them CT the intereSt-awakening sense of
danger with which they were invested.
Many stories are told of the speed of such
fires, the truthfulneSs of some of which is
well founded, says the Chicago Herald.
Wolves and deer have been pursued by fire
until they sought safety in settlers barn.
yards and in such an exhausted condition
that men on foot, armed with clubs, easily
overlook and dispatched them. Emlgrant
trains in the early days had many thrill
ing escapes from the hreS, while not
few were ovprtaken and destroyed by the
prairie conflagratiOns. The traveller pos
sessed of presence of mind and matches
feared no such fate. When no other means
of escape from coming fire offered Itself
he would set Ire to the grass, and as the
burnt area enlarged he would eXtluguish
the flames on the side of it toward the point
from which the wind was blowing, and once
inside the burnt district he had nothing to
fear. The harder the wind blew the easier
it was for him to subdue the fire that was
"backing up" and get inside OF the maven
of safety
Settlers protected their farms by fire.
breaks made by plowing up two strips oil
sod several rods apart around their farms
and on still, favorable day burning tne
grass between the strips. The same results
| were sometimes obtained by cutting TWO
| strips of grass and burning 1t as som as
| dry, and then burning the grass between
| the burned strips when the. frosts had
| ripened it, At times all of such precautions
| ware in vain. Weeks of scorching sun ana
| hot winds would render the prairies dry as
| finder. Then, when the flames came on
| the wings of n strong gale, they seemed to
| feed upon the air ana nre- DreakS aVaiieu
| nothing. In instances OIL this kind oack-
| firing was the settlers only nope oi iinh'u-
| nitv from the flames.
"Newcomrrs usually had very faint
| idea of the intense heat and force oil the hre.
An early settler of Illinois tells OF one such
who in the pioneer days built home near
| his own ii had been some distance from
home and was returning when saw the
smoke of the coming fire. As l hastened
| toward home | saw that my new nelghoor
| house was directly in the path OF the nre. !
lost no time in reaching MS place, aha
found him calmly awaiting the coming OF
! the fire.
"sWhy are you not trying to save your
home p l eagerly asked. :,
".Oh, Pm all ready to meet the fire. said
he, pointing to two buckets OF water he had
drawn.
Il Immediately went to back-frins, and
by doing so barely succeeded IN saving MS
home. When the flames came dashlns nI
many feet high and SO hot that we caulu nol
stay within several rods OF them, he sa"
how utterly useless his two buckets Oh "atei
would have BEEN"
| TumbIe-weeds, which grow abundantly
on newly broken ground, are great tire-car
riers. They are often much larger than {
bushel basket and almost round in shape
Sometimes these, when ignited by the hre
wonld be rolled a long distance by fierce
wind before they were consumed, scattering
the blaze along their paths.