The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-09-07

! and passenger agent OF the Duluth &
| Winnipeg railroad taken to his home
! last night, nineteens others were picked
| up between Hinckley and Skunk Lake.
| Two or three were evidently passen-
gers on Saturday y'sssouth-bound after
| noon limited. Most of the others were
settlers end the remainder were refu-
gees from Hinckley. who got further
away from the doomed city. One is
the body of Mrs. John Mcnamara, on
whose body was found $4,000 in checks
and $500 in currency, and near by was
the body of a boy, partially identified
as one of her sons. The Robinson
family of five found yesterday were
also brought in This about COM
pletes the number on the right of way
to point six miles out, and foots up
total of between fifty and sixty. A
scattered few were brought in from
the country just across the Grindstone
river. One, who was found in gravel
pit just across the river, was identi-
fled as Joyce Crowell, aged so.
HORRIFYING PARTICULARS.
Minneapolis, Sept. "A Duluth spec-
ial to the Journal says: Oliver Du-
bois French Canadlsn farmer living
on the outskirts of the little village of
Sandstone, was among the $50 refugees
from that stricken spot. He saved
his life by jumping into the bottom of
dry we'll, and was one, of the very
few who took such refuge and did
not find it a grave already dug. His
experience was similar in many ways
to that Of scores and hundreds of 9TH
ers, but it shows the fearful speed of
the flames. Dubois was a little dis
tanra from his ba
in the south a mighty roaring and
thought cyclone was coming
The blackness of the sky increased
and he ran farther from the building
to escape any flying sticks that might
come from his house. He threw him
self down at the root of a stump, his
head under the root. Scarcely was
he on the ground before the awful
heat and fire showed that he con-
tended not with a cyclone but with
flames. There was a we'll few feet
away, into which he jumped. 1t is
twelve feet deep, and dry. Above him,
he could see the rolling cloud of
flames high in the air and taen down
close to the ground. His position be-
came sitting and the air seemed to
be so exhausted that he could only
breathe by clawing a hole in the
damp earth and pressing his face to
the side. AS soon as one place got
too sitting he would make another
little fresh spot. The well filled with
smoke and gas, but after a time he
managed to climb out.
Il was so weak 1 could hardly walk"
he said, land for a few minutes I
was dazed. I was shoeless, and 1
knew there w.re shoes a little dis
tance away. I could not see the
ground at my feet for smoke, but
groped my way to those shoes, losing
my way once, and feeling every STEP
l found them at last and they are the
only thing l own in the world. Then
I started into town. 1t began to grow
lighter, SO 1 could see the street I
stood in the center of Sandstone and
called. Not d sound came in answer
called again and again, but the place
L had been in only two hours before
was as still as the grave. 1 walked
toward the river, shivering with fear.
On the way 1 counted the bodies,
more than fifty of them. 1 climbed
down the bank and there. crouched
in the w tier, found the people. Dur
ing the passing of the fire, women had
held their screaming children's mouths
deep in the water themselves
Several. it is reported. have been
found in wells in the neighborhood
Of Sandstone, dead. AS was the case
at Prestige, during the forest fires
in Michigan two nty-tbree years ago,
the wells were suffocating spots and
We're a dismal refuge. o
RAIN BLESSES MICHIGAN.
Detroit, Sept. "A dispatch from
the upper peninsula of Michigan shows
the rainfall of lest night effectually
stopped the forest fires and will save
millions of feet of pine, besides crops
and houses. The damage already
done, however, is immense, and in
many localities can only be avoided
by an imm ediate cutting of the tim
ber. There is considerable evidence
that many fires were set by men who
knew the scorched pine would have
to be cut at once, thus giving them
work. The fires will also force into
the market much pine that was held
by the Noon logging capitalists for
the purpose of speculation. 1t is
thought nearly every foot of standing
pine in Ontonagon county is burned.
fully 500, OO5 feeet.
NEW, YORK FIRES.
Buffalo, N. Y, Sept. 4.-Fires in
Chautau Iua county are sweeping
through the meadows, woods and farm.
Numbers of families barely escaped
with their lives. They have organized
a bucket brigade to keep the flames
from burning houses. In the vicinity
of Window forest fires are raging. The
farmers are plowing to check the
flames.
Dunkirk, N. Y, Sept. 4.-Forest fires
are raging in this vicinity. Men, wom-
en- and children are fighting the flames
day and night. Thousands of dollars
worth of property is burned. The vii
lage of Fredona was threatened.