Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-10-09
BAD PRAIRIE FIRES.
Many Acres Laid Waste in Places
Through the Excessive Drought.
Fever Situation Is Worse-Three Deaths
and Thirty-One New Cases at New
Orleans Yesterday-The Un-
precedented Drought.

now prevailing in this section. During
the past "a hours the thermometer in
this city went up to Sc degrees, and,
according to the signal service records,
this is the highest point that has been
registered for the month of October in
81 years Dense smoke aggravated the
conditions. On account of the drought
of two months every thing is dry
finder and forest and prairie fires are
numerous. Lake Michigan has been
made almost unnavigable on account
of smoke and fog. A dispatch from
Bremen, Ind, says that the most dis
astrous prairie fire known in the his
tory of Marshall county is now raging.
Hundreds of acres of lands in the
northern portion of the county are one
vast. smoldering waste. At times,
when famed by a breeze, the heat
bursts into blaze and, darting across
clover fields, corn fields meadows,
lays waste everything in its path, only
stopping when headed off by plowed
fields or highways The drought of
the last 60 days has made the pastures
brown, compelling stock to seek the
1owlands for grazing where the
fire is smoldering underneath.
Many instances are reported
where cattle, in passing over
the treacherous ground have
broke through the burning peat and
persisted. Farmers are kept busy at
night fighting the flames and prevent
ing destruction of their homes, but
the lack of water makes the battle al
most hopeless just west of Walker
ton more than 1000 acres have been
swept of every vestige of vegetation,
many thousands of tons of hay and
miles of fences having been consumed.
With fire on every side great anxiety
is being felt for the safety of towns
without fire protection. Nothing
short of drenching rain can possibly
check the progress of the flames.
FEVER SITUATION WORSE
New ORLEANS, Oct. 6.-After two
days of Improvement and of promise,
the fever situation, on the face of the
record, took somewhat of a turn yes
terday. For 40 hours there had been
no deaths, and Monday the number of
cases had shown material falling off
from the day before. Early yesterday
morning, however, the reports of new
cases began to come into the
board of health office with con-
siderable rapidity, and by seven
o'clock last night all previous records of
this season had been broken, so far as
new cases were concerned, they num-
bering 81 for the day. In few hours
three deaths had also been reported to
the board. The physicians were not
at loss to explain the increase in
cases. They took the view that it
| might be expected that numerous
cases would still continue daily to be
reported. Dispatches received an
nounce that there are two cases of yell
low fever on DIR. j. III. Saunders plan
tation near Patterson. La, and one
, additional suspicious case. All are
traceable to Ocean Springs.
At Edwards, Miss, nine new cases
of yellow fever and one death were
officially reported yesterday. Deaths
to date, Is; cases to date, 344; total
number under treatment. 1874; conva-
| descent and discharged, 195.
At Mobile, Ala, the yellow fever re-
, port for "a hours is follows: New
cases. ?; deaths. 2; total cases to date,
95; deaths. 10; discharged, So; remain
ing under treatment, 81
UNPRECEDENTED DROUGHT.
! ST.. LOUIS, Oct. Omitted States OBJ
] server Frankenfield said yesterday
F.! that the present unpreceden ted
! drought extends all over the country.
| He added: speaking from this sta
| ton, the states of Illinois, Missouri,
| Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and Arkan-
sas are all in need of wet weather.
Iowa has had more rain than some of
/. the surrounding states. but is now in
| almost as bad a condition as the rest
Missouri and Illinois are sufferin g
| the most, particularly the south
! ern portion of Illinois and
| central Missouri There is yet
no indication of rain" Reports from
these states say the ground is too dry
for fall blowing and all the country
. roads are from four to six inches deep
in dust. A white film covers all the
land. The ripening corn hangs dull
and apparently lifeless in the heat of a
summer sun, and everything is
parched- In many sections of Missouri
cisterns have gone dry and the danger
of fire in the small cities and towns is
imminent. The Mississippi and Mis-