The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-02
PRAIRIE FIRE CLUBS.
FRONTIER ORGANIZATION or
 YEARS AGO IN THE WEST.
One Who Hns Fought Fierce cOnfln- grations on tho Plains Says n storm at Sea is Tame Compared to n storm of Flame on the Prairie.

| uA tho @NJ ~
 at Sea is Tame Compared to n storm
 of Flame on the Prairie.
 T reckon there are few people living
 in this part of the country who ever
 heard of prairie fire clubs" said a
 western man. the subject having been
 suggested by the burning of a lot of
 rubbih on a scow. T doubt if such
 things were ever known in the east. In
 fact they went out of existence in the
 west forty years ago.
 Tn very many sections of what you
 call the middle west timbered land of
 to-day was prairie fifty years ago. I | have travelled a half day over one of
 these prairies without seeing a farm
 house, an individual or a domestic an- | imal. The towns were few and far
 apart, and a census takar could have 1 stood in one place in some of them and
 made up his figures. One I have in mind stood on one of the prairies which rolled out to the horizon in every direc- l tion, with never a tree or a shrub to break the vision Some years later an oak was found in the grass, and that constituted town talk for several days. { l remember 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 few farms. They were not fenced. The tillers of the soil plowed deep ridges about the ground they cultivated. These were to protect their crops and houses from the encroachment of prairie fires, But there were prairie fires which no fur rows could turn.
 "The fires were always started in the fall after the grasses had died out. The object was to clear away the dead grasses so they would not retard the growth of spring. You have heard all your lives of certain events or things running or spreading like 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 prairie fire when it was swept onward at night by high wind has missed a thrilling sight. I have read descriptions of these fires. but not one did the subject justice. To my mind the storm at sea Is tame com pared to the storm of flame on a waste of prairie.
 "The few farmers near the village of which I spoke were almost sacred to the people of the village. They were the only farmers within seventy-five miles of the place. We relied upon r., i,, ,,I ne ba ,oa cessities of life. One night prairie fire escaped from control and bore down upon this little cluster of farms. The attack was seen, of course, by the village. It seemed to light the earth and paint the heavens. Its roar was as distinct as the breaking of stormy sea on 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 distinct In another moment-it seemed like a moment as 1 recall it-- the horse came to a stand in the square The rider was woman.
 "As soon as the young woman could | dc SO she told what we already knew, except 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 | a charge on the road.
 Tn few minutes as many as could | leave went out, some on horseback, | some in wagons. Later another posse | went out. I was in the civil war, but | never saw a battle like the one we | had that night with that prairie fire. | It didn't last as long as the fires of | lead, but it was hotter and more stub l born. Of course you understand that | there was no such thing as water with | which to fight such fire. It had to | De thrashed and beaten back with we'll, with anything that would thrash | or smother. I have known men having | whatever they had in hand | pull off their clothes and fight prairie ires with them until the heat burned heir flesh.
 "It was nearly noon before we had 1t inder control It was the most sullen hing I ever saw At times 1t seemed luman. We saved the crops in the ields and the house. but what a seorched army we were Hens hair, whislSers and eyebrows were missil and net a rerson es ar el, ome accident by the fiery contact.
 Within a few days the village or anized the Prairie Fire club, and eve y man and woman and boy and girl ecame member. A detail was made n prairie fire season whose duty it was 0 watch the horizon and be prepared 0 ride to the relief of the farmers. The club went out a number of times. lit the fires were always easily sub ued. The one I have described was he terror Whenever I see blaze " mind goes back to that night. The rganization of our prairie fire club led ) others in other villages but as the 1untry filled up they were no longer equired. Chicago Inter Ocean,