Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-02-04

led the mare to the door, and fairly
kicked her out to safety. He returned
with the same blanket and rescued one
of the work horses. He took five horses
out, and then came out himself with his
clothes bravely on fire. He had no
whiskers, and verify little hair on his
head. They soused five pailfuls of water
on him. His eldest son made a clean
miss with the sixth pailful because the
old man had turned and was running
down the decline and around to the base
ment of the barn where were the
stanchions of cows. Some one noticed
at the time that he ran very lamely, as
if one of the frenzied horses had
smashed his hip.
The COWS, with their heads held in
the heavy stanchions, had thrown them
selves, strangled themselves, tangled
DEMONSTRATIONS everything which the
ingenuityof their eXuberant fear could
suggest to them.
Here, as at the we'll, the same thing
happened to every man save one. Their
hands went mad. They became incapa-
BILE of everything save the power to
rush into dangerous situations.
The old man released the cow nearest
the door, and she, blind drunk with ter
ror, crashed into the Swede. The Swede
had been running to and fro, babbling.
He carried an empty milk pail, to which
he chung with an unconscious fierce en-
thusiasm. He shrieked like one lost as
he went under the cows hoofs, and the
milk pail, rolling across the floor, made
flash of silver in the gloom.
Old Fleming took fork, beat off the
COW, and dragged the paralized Swede
to the open air. When they had res
cued all the cows save one, which had
so fastened herself that she could not
be moved an inch, they returned to the
front of the barn and stood sadly,
| breathing like men who had reached
the final point of human effort.
Many people had come running.
Some one had even gone to the church,
and now, from the distance, rang the
tocsin note of the old bell. There was a
long flare of crimson on the sky, which
made remote people speculate as to the
| whereabouts of the fire.
The long flames sang their drumming
chorus in voices of the heaviest bass.
The wind whirled clouds of smoke and
cinders into the faces of the spectators.
The form of the old barn was outlined
in black amid these masses of orange
hued flames.
| And then came this Swede again cry
ing as one who is the weapon of the
sinister fates: ode colts! De colts!
You have forgot de colts!" .. ..
| Old Fleming staggered. 1t was true;
they had forgotten the two colts in the
box stalls at the back of the barn. 'sBoys,"
he said, Il must try to get 'em out"
They clamored about him then, afraid for
him, afraid ofwhat they should see. Then
they talked wildly each to each. "Why,
it's sure death!" "He would never get
out!" "Why, it's suicide for man to
go in there!" Old Fleming stared alb
sent-mindedly, at the open doors. "The
poor little things" he said. He rushed
into the barn
| When the roof fell in a great funnel
of smoke swarmed towards the sky, as
if the old mans mighty spirit, released
from its body-a little bottle-had
swelled like the gent of fable. The
| smoke was tinted rose hue from the
flames, and perhaps the unutterable
midnights OF the universe will have no
power TO daunt the color of his SOUL.
St James Budget,