New-York tribune., 1908-08-09
ONLY 200 LEFT OUT OF 1000.

Below the bridge the burning tiubers of a mill
foated down on the multitude assembled The
fats and inflicted lamentahle suferings. The men
fought this new death bitterly. Those who had
coats fus them over the heads Of wives and
children and dipped water with their hats the
inprovised shelter Scores had every shred Of hair
burned Many protecting others.
The iremen had made effort to save some OF
the buildings but the hose, swollen with water.
burned through hundred places Many lum-
ber company H-orkmen shut themselves up in a
great brick building with their wives and chill
dreI and were roasted in the raging heat OF the
next half hour The situation the river banks
crowded with animals and men, full Of despair.
The fats were covered with prone figures with
hacks a5laze and faces pressed rigidy into the
cool, moist earth maelstrom OF sparks, cinders
and hot sand did as much in killing the people as
the first terrific siroCco The wretched throng
neck deep the water. and the still more helpless
beings stretched on the heated sands. We're pi- ed
and bIstered by the burning particles.
When the hapless dwelers in the remote streets
themselves cut off from the river groups
broke in all directions in a wild panic Of terror
few took refuge in cleared field bordering on
the town. Here, fat upon the ground. with faces
pressed in the sand. the helpless sufferers lay and
roasted. Few survived. The next day revealed a
picture exceeding in horror any battlefield Mothers
with children hugged closely lay in rigid groups
the clothes burned of and the flesh scared TO
crisp One mother had scraped hollow in the
sand. put her child in it and lay above it as
shield When daylight came both were dead the
baby with face unscarred. the mother burnt almost
TO cinders. stout woodman carried on his shouI-
oers a conrade sick Of fever He burrowed a
refuge for his friend and then struggled to save
himself He stayed too long. and his SCARED body
was found near the refuge Of the man his heroisn
had preserved.
daylight broke before the survivors in the river
dared 70 drag their cranlped limbs from the lev
waters They had been in the river since 10 o'clock
OF the night before. Long after the flames had died
out the hot sands rendered moving about an ax
Qalslfe torture. and long into the dismal midday
the survivors confined TO the narrow, circ,,it
near the river. As the day wore on helm came in
slowly from the northward a railroad gang caroa
10 ule rescue through miles Of burning prairie and
blockaded roads. The rescuers found less than
seven hundred naniacal survivors OF a population
OF zoo" a search Of the town disclosed unuttera bI
gre~sone sights Men had the throats of their
children TO spare them lingering agony 7rt
they had killed themselves. Some women and obf1-
oren were put in wells. covered with bedding for
safety But fiery tongues licked down into the
deepest wells, destroyed all life and made the
waters DOL IKE cauidron Where houses stood
the ground was whipped clean as a CARPET
The next night the long PRAYED for rain .,
ana aNerteo danger from the bay cities and towns
a clean swath Of backened stumps and roots
showed the course Of q fiery tempest through
the forest The roads We're numbered with roasted
I'm
bitches and cleared fields were strewn win, sr,a
game and wild birds. Here and there a few pieces
OF twisted iron and some human bones told Of a
settler and his family fleeing in a wagon when
overtaken by the relentless flames"
The great fire that overwhelmed FIinckIy and civ
other Minnesota towns in September 1894 destroy
ing nearly five hundred lives and property worth
$5oooee. VIII be remembered for thrilling and
heroic episode II had been a very dry season not
q drop OF rain having fallen in four months a
locomotive spark fell in a heap OF dry leaves and
started little blcze which track laborer ignored
thinking IL would die out. Two days later q
breeze famed Te partly extinguished enbers until
the underbrush caught fire, and then the trees A
semicircle OF conlasration ragged through the
forest and drove down the town of Hinckly
which IN the centre Cf the are On it came,
e moving fire trap. greedy for human prey. and the
wings OF the half circle a mile beyond the
town before the centre had reached it, The people
heard the Of the flames three miles away and
clouds OF FIRE shoot a hundred feet a bove the
trees, while gigantic pail Of smoke shrouded the
sky Some panic stricken and smoke blinded per-
sons dashed to their doom in the face of the ad-
vancing fury: Others fed from the flames. but were
soon oVertaken The wagon roads led into d fur
mace that took toll of hundred lives
There was & shallow pond OF stagnant water half
q mile from the town on the side away from the
Ere 4 number OF persons made their way TO the
pend through the choking smoke and dashed into
the water Up 20 their mouths. or tried to bury
themselves In the wet sand the banks, digging
franticaIly with bare hands
A railroad line passed through the town. but II
seemed idle TO expect any aid from this source.