The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-09-18

Frontier Organizations of Years
Ago in the West.

One who Has Fought Fierce Con-
hngratiOns on the Plains Says n
Storm at Sea Is Tame Compared to
Storm of Flame ON the Prairie.
II reckon there are few people living
in this part Of the country who ever
heard of prairie fire clubs" said a west
ern man, the subject having been sug-
gested by the burning of a lot of rubbish
on a scow. Il doubt if such things were
ever known in the east. In fact they
went out of existence in the west 40
years ago.
In very many sections of what you
call the middle west timbered land of
today was prairie 90 years ago. have
Travelled a half day over one of these
prairies without seeing a farmhouse, an
individual or a domestic animal. The
towns were few and far apart, and a
census taker could have stood in one
place in some of them and made up his
figures. One / have in mind stood ON
one of the prairies which rolled out to
the horizon in every direction, with never
a tree or a shrub to break the vision.
Some years later an oak shrub was
found in the grass, and that constituted
town talk for several days. / remember
a party going out to see it on Sunday.
You may get an idea from this as to how
nearly isolated from the world we were.
'Not far from it, while the tree was
still a sapling, were a few farms. They
were not fenced. The tilers of the soil
plowed deep ridges about the ground
they cultivated. These were to protect
h,f he
croachment of prairie fires. But there
were prairie fires which no burrows could
turn.
1.-THE fires were always started In the
fall after the grasses had died out. The
object was to clear away the dead grass
es so they would not retard the growth
of spring You have heard all your lives
of certain events or things running or
spreading like a prairie fire. Any man
who ever saw one knows what it means,
and a man who has never turned out to
fight one has no conception of the work.
And the man who has never seen a
prairie fire when it was swept onward at
night by high wind has missed thrilling
sight. l have read descriptions of these
fires, but not one did the subject justice.
To my mind the storm at sea is tame
compared to the storm of flame on a
waste OF prairie.
"The few farmers near the village of
which 1 spoke were almost sacred to the
people of the village. They were the only
farmers within 70 miles of the place. We
relied upon them for our grain and many
of the necessaries Of life. One night a
prairie fire escaped from control and bore
down upon this little cluster of farms.
The attack was seen, of course, by the
village. 1t seemed to light the earth and
paint the heavens. Its roar was as dis
tinct as the breaking of a stormy sea on
a rock bound coast or thunder when it
strikes the heart of a forest
'The village was watching the sweep
Of this fire, discussing what was best to
do, when the sound Of hoofs of a hard
ridden horse came nearer and more dis
tinct. In another moment-it seems like
a moment as 1 recall 1.-THE horse came
to u stand in the square. The rider was a
woman.
'As soon as the young woman could
do so she told what we already knew, ex-
cept the information that she had been
sent to the village for help, and, OF
course, we had surmised that when we
heard the hoofs Of her horse beating
charge on the road.
I'm a few minutes as many as could
leave went out, some on horseback, some
in wagons. Later another posse went out.
/ was in the civil war, but I never saw
a battle like the one we had that night
with that prairie fire. 1t didn't last as
long as the fires Of lead, but it was hotter
and more stubborn. OF course you I'M
derstand that there was no such thing as
water with which to fight such q fire.
It had to be thrashed and beaten back
with-well, with anything that would
thrash or smother. I have known men
having exhausted whatever they had in
hand pull off their clothes and fight prai-
RE fires with them until the heat burned
their flesh.
1T was nearly noon before we had
it under control 1t was the most sullen
thing I ever saw. At times it seemed
human. We saved the crops in the fields
and the house, but what a burned,
scorched army we were! Mems hair,
whiskers and eyebrows were missing,
and not a person escaped some accident
by the fiery contact.
within a few days the village organ
lied the Prairie Fire club, and every
man and woman and boy and girl be-
came a member. A detail was made in
prairie fire season whose duty it was to
watch the horizon and be prepared to
ride to the relief of the farmers. The
club went out a number Of times, but the
fires were always easily subdued. The
one / have described was the terror
Whenever / see a blaze, my mind goes
back to that night The organization Of
our prairie fire club led to others in other
villages, but as the country filed up they
were no longer required. CHICAGO In