The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-10
FIRE QUEEN or FOOTHILLS.
A brave Woman Who Rode to Warn
Her NCiEhbors
From the San Francisco Exar


ezra foothills, is the talk and the sensa-
ton of the entire northern section Of cali
fornia. During The unprecedented fires
that have RACED over the hills and mann
tains to the east OF this citv sine has ac-
complishcd wonders i'm saving life and
property and made a record for endur-
ance thar probably has few parallels in the
history of women's good deeds in this
state
Mounted astride of her horse, she has
spent days ana nights in the saddle riding
over the hills and through the timber
warning settlers Of the approach Of The
fires.
The fires in the mountains have now al
most ceased, and Miss HurleS is moving
a rest which She has earned wen II ever
woman did; but the country hereabouts is
sun talking OF her pluck aud hardihood,
and her fame is creeping as fast as
tongues can carry it from Nuba nd SUIT
ter counties, on the south, to Tehama and
shasta counties, ON the north, aud from
the river TO the crest of the S.erras. When
dozens of thrifty ranchers and hundreds
OF humble ana modest settlers. whose eX-
lStence depends upon their farms, owe the
preservation OF their property and even
OF lhelr IlNeS 10 the unusual activity OF a
ulslhtefested young woman it is 10 be eX-
pected that they will hold that young wo-
man dearly and gratefully in memory, and
that her name will echo through all their
conversation. Thus where two weeks ago
An',ie huries was merely an alert but
modest storekeeper In the little town of
tiurietoh when pears her family name,
sue Is now known as the Fire Queen OF
the Foothills.
~ IS many years since the foot hills of
lnls region nave oeen so raVenously de-
Noureu oy hre as they nave been this sum-
HheI' rom Iehama down 10 Auba and
swept on IKE the WIND, leaving the land
pare as pea Oh marble The origin
u me Hres mas Deeh mysterious, Per
maps spark from an engine, perhaps
cIreless campfire, perhaps that dubious
PneioiieHoh known as spontaneous com
puslioll' mas peen responsible; but what
ever us cause, the req terror has been
1orodu III me land' starting many fam
ilS Oh t'e loothlIs from its rest and TAX
lhs many harvester from his moving
Hidcii4he 10 save the crops, his house, his
Darh' ana even his wife and children.
one day in the latter part of last month
one OF the ranchers not far from Hurleton
was started from his work by the sudden
mating IN front of him of Annie's wen
known horse, with Annie astride both rid
er ana beast GREATNESS, the horse putting
IKE racer at the tape, and Annie eX-
claiming as hurriedly as her painting
breath would permit:
me nils are on fire! les started be-
yond the store and is sweeping this way
IKE a cyclone. Get your wet sacks and
hurry over there and I'll 90 get the rest
OF the people out. It's going to be ter
rble if we don't get il stopped before IL
gets up TO the pines"
The farmer realized the womans ser-
BUSINESS in an instant and at the same
moment he caught a faint odor of smoke
in the air. He had only time 10 ask:
haFp2'' IN ,ffF IL
before Miss Annie put the spurs to her
horse and galloped away calling back to
the farmer as she went: Hurry; it's
sweeping up this wayr'
The farmer reused his family. and bows
and women were soon out at the exhaust
ing and disheartening work Of fighting fire.
Annie must have seen them as she look
ed back over the hills on her way to an
other farmhouse and she must have MOTTO
ed that their tiny efforts to stay the pro-
gress of the fire were like placing a plank
i'm the way of river. For she kept on ca
gerly and swiftly from house to house.
rousing the neighbors and sending them
III groups or two and three and more until
the fires were half surrounded with fight
ers.
In the blistering sun of the foothills Il
was no easy task. that she had set either
FOR herself or her pony, but she seemed to
be unconscious of the strain When the
nelShDorS had been well reused she was
back among the fighters herself, urging
her horse from one eminence among the
hills to another to watch the progress of
the flames more closely than the fighters
possibly could do.
The lind was high, and 1T seemed to her
that, as fast as the flames were beaten
back in one place, they were breaking out
in others swift gust of wind would car
ry a piece of burning timber across some
ravne or gully, and away would go the red
fire toward another section of the settle
mont, licking at the underbrush as fierce
ly as If it were pitch or oil. Quick as a
fash, as the cry would go up from the
fighters that Sam Blanks ranch would
80 next and all his big crop of hay" Miss
Hurles would be off on her horse again,
running at full speed dashing down the
slopes, leaping the bitches in the ravines
and plunging up hills toward Blanks
ranch.
In an Incredibly short time fighters at
the first section could see the result of
Miss Hurles. ride, the hills where the
new fire was raging being dotted with new
lighters, cutting brush and back-hrjng in
a supreme effort to stay the conflagra ton.
Thus the work continued day and night.
fire aI-a a. n