Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-09-23

~--~A ~ 1CEhS luEEdlEQEu the
many small communities that have
sought to make homes in the country
where but recently was the primeyal
forest, all recall the awful holocaust
which visited and destroyed the town
OF Peshtigo, in Marinette county.
.thirty-seyen years ago The burned
area covered 1000 square miles. tim
Der worth millions of dollars went M
in flame and about 1,200 people were
burned or smothered to death. A sur.
face fire had smoIdered for weeks on
the outskirts of the town, and no one
dreamed of danger until the red death
suddenly leaped forward with volcanic
fury. The event is thus described in
a History of the Great Fires in Chi
.cago and the West" by Rev. E. J.
Goodspeed.
Heard First RumbIings
1t was Sunday The sharp air OF
.eariy October had sent the people in
from the evening church services more
promptly than usual, although mum
bers delayed to speculate on a great
noise which set in ominously from the
west. The housewives looked tremD-
lingly at the glare. The noise grew
in volume and came nearer with ter
rife cracking and detonations The
forest alarm fellgupon the imprisoned
village, for the swirling blasts came
now from every side. In one awful in
stance a great fame shot up in the
western heavens, and countless fiery
tongues struck downward into the viii
lage. A deafening roar mingled with
blasts of electric flame. There was
no beginning to the work of ruin; the
flaming whirlwind swirled in an in
Istant through the town.
Moved by a common instinct, for
all knew that the woods that encircled
the town were impenetrable, the peo-
pie ran TO the Peshtigo river. On the
west they saw the bridge in flames in
"a dozen places. and turning sharply
to the left, they plunged into the wa
ter. Three hundred persons wedged
themselves in between the rolling
bOpAiS VI III LlilUCls sway Gu W anu llO
by the current, where they roasted in
the hot breath of flames that lowered
above them and singed the hair Of
each head exposed above water. De-
spairing men and women held their
children until the benumbing cold
forced them to let go or sink down
ward in a last embrace Above was
intolerable heat and below an unen-
durable icy food.
Moved Down by Flames.
Meantime the eastern bank was
crowded by the dying and dead. The
victims who rushed to the river in this
direction were moved down in swatns
by swirling blasts of flame To breath
the fiery air was death. Scores fell be-
fore the first blast. A few were able
to crawl to the pebbly flats, burned
naked and hairless, dreadfully dis fig
ured. They fell prone on the grateful
damp flats, suffering excruciatipg
agony The fierce blaze played in
tremendous counter currents above
them, and the wind bombarded them
with red hot sand that blistereI
the flesh. All that could break
through the sitting simeon had come
to the river. They could see in the
red glare the sIoping bank covered
with bodies OF those who fell by the
way A new danger befell. The cows,
terrified by smoke and flame, rushed
in a great lowering herd to the river
brink. Women and children were
trampled by the frightened brutes,
and many, losing their hold on friendly
logs, We're swept under the waters.
Made for River.
Below the bridge the burning tim
bers OF mill ffoated down on the mug,
titude assembled on the flats and in
hicted lamentable sufferings. The
men fought this new death bitterly.
Those who had coats flung them over
the heads of wives and children and
dipped water with their hats on the
Impoverished shelter. Scores had
made an effort to save some of the
Uui1uAHESB uAt the Ao6Sf SN OtASA " ALH
water, burned through in hundred
places. Many lumber company work
men shut themselves up in a great
brick building with their wives ant
children, and were roasted in the rag
ing heat of the next half hour. The
situation on the river banks, crowded
with animals and men, was full OF de-
SPAR. The flats were covered with
prone figures with backs ablaze and
faces pressed rigidly into the cool
moist earth. A maelstrom Of sparks,
cinders and hot sand did as much in
killing the people as the first terrific
sirocco. The wretched thong, neck
deep in the water, and the stiH more
helpless beings stretched on the heated
sands. were pierced and blistered by
the burning particles.
Roastsd in Open Fields.
When the hapless dwellers in the
remote streets saw themselves cut of
from the river, groups broke in ali d.
rections in wild panic OF terror. A
few took Y~fuge in a cleared field boz
derlng on the town. Here. fat upon
the ground. with faces pressed in the
sand. the helpless sufferers lay AID
roasted Few survived. The next
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