The Portland daily press., 1900-03-08
FIRE ON THE PRAIRIE.
A Magnificent Sight IL You are
Not in Danger.

Lively Hustle An Old Railroad
Surveyors Hard Experiences.
"Did you ever see prairie fire?" asked
the retired railroad man. 81 mean did
you ever see one when there was a posi-
bility of getting burned up in It?
"Under such circumstances a prairie
fire is interesting. When first went
west, right after the civil war, they were
naturally more frequent than they are
now. In those days railroad surveyors
lived in tents Ind made camp from day
to day as the line moved on. Many a
night sitting out in front of the tents
smoking with the rest of the boys have
seen off in the distance stretching along
the horizon the dull red glow that betok-
ened a prairie fire. After watching it
awhile the boss teamster, who was al
ways an experienced plainsman, would
say: That's about % miles away. II
the wind don't turn, we're all right
"Then we'd watch the fire awhile until
we all got sleepy, and then we'd turn in.
That would be early, too, for a 20 or %
mile tramp a day across the prairie
doesn't encourage midnight sessions. And
that might be the last we'd see Of the
fire, and then again ii moughten', as they
say in Missouri. And when 1t wasn't the
last we saw of IL there were lively times
in camp before morning.
"Along about the middle of the night
would come the warning cry, All out,
all outg and the boys would tumble out
In all kinds of attire, ready for anything
from repelling n night attnck OF Indians
to pegging down for a storm. But on
an occasion such as this the reason for
the alarm would be apparent even before
we got out of the tents. The horizon
would be fiery red. and the reflection in
the sky would make 1t an inspiring spec
tacle. But we had no time for specta-
Giles. Every once in awhile we could see
just above the rim OF the horizon burst
OF fame, and il there were any buildings
between US and the fire they would stand
out distinctly. We spent little time over
the grandeur of the scene. though its pic
turesqueness was never lost on me.
1--WE would find the old plainsman look.
ing off toward the fire, and we would
hear him say to the chief:
"'The wind turned about an hour ago.
It's 20 miles of yet
'"Then the two would watch the fire for
a moment, and then the chief would turn
around and say, Better get the shoyels,
boys
THAT meant work. In those days we
always had an escort as protection
against Indians. usually one company OF
infantry, sometimes troop of cavalry.
The soldiers who were not on guard
would be turned out with the rest OF us
Wed each get shovel from one of the
wagons and fall TO. The boss teamster,
who didn't do any driving, but just boss
ed the other drivers and ran the outfit
generally, would work out a line around
the camp, and we would put ditch
around on the Iine-not deep ditch, I'M
derstand; just turn the sod upside down.
If the grass was high. we'd cut 1t first,
and we had scythes along for that pur-
pose. After we had got space, say, 10
or Is feet wide, cleared we'd turn to with
.he scythes and cat ell the grass Oround
the tents and inside the ditch. This ditch
would be about 100 feet away from the
tents on three sides.
Usually we camped by the side of
river. When the fire was on the other
side of the river, we didn't care. When
we were between the fire and the stream
and the stream was small enough, we
pulled up stakes and crossed over. When
the stream was too wide for that, then of
course we had the river for one side of
the ditch.
This ditch business sounds like big
job to tell il now, but when there is a
chance of figuring as roast man a fellow
can work pretty lively. After the ditch
had been dug and the ground cleared
some of the boys would be set to carrying
water from the stream to wet down the
tents and the wagons.
But usually, though it isn't so good
for the purpose of this story, our trouble
was unnecessary. The wind would change
or little stream would intervene, and
the fire wouldn't reach us. In fact, In all
my years in the business a real hot fire
reached us only once. That was in the
summer of 1867. We were on the bank
Of the Republican river in Nebraska. The
river was too deep TO cross, so we dtched
and waited. When we saw that we were
in for n scorcher, we drew the wagons in
TO the water and put the horses out as
far as they would stand. The fire was a
fierce one and came along like a whirl-
wind. When we saw that we were GER
tainly in for 1t, we hurriedly dropped the
tents and covered them with dirt from
the ditch. Then we retired to the river
and waited.
Hot! Say! The wind was blowing
right toward US. We got the smoke first,
and that nearly sti1ed US. Then the
horses got FESTIVE and then almost frantic
with fear. We had them tied firmly to
the wagons, big prairie schooners, howev-
er, and they couldn't get away. But they
plunged back and forth, and the team
sters couldn't control them at all.
THE flames in solid wall ran right up
to the ditch, and we got shower of
sparks. The sparks set fire to the stub
BILE inside the ditch, and that began to
burn. The stubble was short, though,
and didn't add very much TO the general
interest OF the scene.
1.-THE heat while the fire burned around
us was something terrific. We doused
ourselves with water and in that way
kept comparatively cool, and we kept the
canvas covers Of the wagons wet down so
that they couldn't burn.
''rhe situation didn't last long. Our
ditch separated the flames into two parts,
and each burned down to the river on
each side of the camp and burned out in
a very few Minutes As soon as we could