The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-09-21
FIRE DEvASTATtS
INDIANA LANDS
Territory Between Richmond
And Chicago Greatly
Damaged.
MARSH LANDS ARE BURNING
HOT RAYS OF SUN DRY THEM UP
AND NOW FIRE is BUSY
FARMERS CONSTANTLY ON THE
ALERT.


pal employment for the farmers along
the line Of the Chicago. Cincinnati &
Louisville railroad between this city
and Chicago. Probably along no 9TH
err stretch of railroad track has there
been greater damage done. Fields are
on fire and burning constantly. Marsh
lands have been dried by the burning
rays of the sun until they, too, are
now burning. Fences and small out
buildings have been destroyed and
farmers have plowed burrows about
the larger barns and covered hay and
straw stacks with wet blankets. Wat
err from wells is SO scarce in some
vicinities that the blankets are taken
to the streams and soaked. Even the
streams are so low that cattle refuse
to drink the water. Forests have burn
ed through and. although the slow
crawling fire has not damaged the
growing trees to any great extent all
fallen monarchs, stumps and under
brush have been cleaned out.
Acres of clover land have been
burned over and the harvest ruined.
Day in and day out for the past month
the farmers and their families and
neighbors have e contending
against the fires. In a few instances
the flames have spread to nearby corn
fields and the base Of the stalks is SO
dry, as to provide further fuel for the
fire. Horses are kept hitched to
plows and as the fire spreads through
the grass, skillful hands seize the
plows and run burrows across the
fields. All day Yesterday groups of
farmers were on watch about the
fields with plows and wagons loaded
with water and wet blankets.
The fire burns with a slow but
steady advance and not only the grass
and leaves on the surface nave been
have been burned out. Near Kewana
is a vast extent Of marsh land now in
flames. In the spring of the year this
land is covered with water and hun
dreds of acres are of no worth to the
farmers. A bog has been formed as
the result of the water and heavy veg
citation and the ground has a similar
lly 10 Tue pCdI Uo5o VI CldAA bue
this entire section now is dried COM
pletely for a depth of three or four
feet beneath the surface and is on
fire. Already the fierce eating fire
has worked through the ground for a
depth Of n foot.
In a few places the of the
land have given up all attempts to
fichf tho fIomac and in ithaca Soctiopc
as far as the eye can see, there is
nothing but the low hanging smoke
lowering above the fields. Seen at
night these waste lands present a
beautiful but wv inspiring spectacle,
as the tongues of flame flicker and
leap into the air as each clump or
hummock of grass is reached and
fresher fuel is furnished for the min.
ute.
The cemetery at Peru has been over.
run by the fire. Tall shafts and mon
uments of marble appear as grim
spectres surrounded by the dead black
of the burned grass. The cemetery
is about a quarter of a mile from the
tracks and the intervening distance
has been covered by the flames.
A condition not unsimilar exists at
Amboy. Here, too, the flames have
passed through the cemetery. To do
SO 1t was necessary to circle a small
pond, leap the mud In the bottom Of a
creek that had almost entirely dis.
appeared and climb a long hillside.
Near Chicago hundreds of acres
have been planted with cabbage and
sugar beets. Half of this crop is said
to be lost at the present time and