Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1916-05-03
CHAPTER XVI.
The Spirit of the East.

"a stood in column of tours while
~ officers sought the head of af-
,,trs Daily promptly sent for the
-onng forest ranger, and in less than
. takes in the telling these two keen
-;tteF Westerners, the woodsman
,-d the soldier, were ready to crap
nc with the enemy. Light-marching
;as we're dumped upon the ground
and the hard-muscled men took to
,sa bills and the timber under quick,
asisiTe orders. Two hours later
wagons arrived with commissary sup
niles and the smoky, blackened val
Is7 took on a military air.
was a Titan struggle, and it was
Indicative of the force that has con-
cuered nature-the human atoms toll
Ing In semidarkness beneath the
threatening forest, choked by the
smoke, fayed by the almost unbear-
able heat, menaced by the flames that
at any moment might sweep here, or
there among the rocks and declivities
CT the uneven hills and cut off escape.
That was the great danger they
guarded against-the possibility of
getting hemmed in. Guards were de-
tailed to watch the vanguards of the
foe, to note the speed of the flames,
the lie Of the timber, the lines that
we're likely to go fastest, following the
different growths, but in the mysteri-
Gus dusk and the silence of vast
mingled sounds they were impotent
and each man had to take care of him.
self
The mighty boom Of falling patri-
archs Of the forest, hoary with thou
sand years of age, crashing through
O6structing branches, shook the earth
each moment. With each such stu
pendOus fall wealth and world-econ-
omy and prudence trembled at the
sacrilege. It was a carnival of waste,
9 sacrifice of the gifts of God-and
among all those who fought it with
heart and hand and brain there was
none who knew its worldwide import
80 well, who lamented it SO keenly
as the lean, brown forest rangers
whose special foe it was.
And TO think dozen miles of gov
eminent trails would have prevented
tt" cried the leader with an oath
Out in the valleys beyond, the heavy
smoke had obscured the setting sun
entirely. Over the crest of the Coast
Range it had spread up to the heav-
ems, drifted afar on the changing wind
and all the distant valley of the Will
lanette knew that the forest fires
were burning in the hills.
The papers throughout the state
told Of it that day, and it awakened
90 more interest than would have at
tended the announcement of heavier
run Of salmon than was usual in the
Columbia.
They were too common, those fires
hat sported with the national wealth
each year, too much part of every
lay life, and they did not know that
his was to be a marker of time in
he coast country.
AhAO was WHICH LACJ
hese monsters of destruction-a long
)ast time it was, when those first for
,st rangers, the silent Red Men of
he hills, had burned out the under
,rush each year so that pony might
20 anywhere unhindered.
The silent rangers had gone with
he years-passed to the Hunting
Grounds and the reservations, via civ
Hzation, and now the great timber
Lad shed it's dry foliage and its pitch,
he little growths had sprung UP sea-
on after season, the vines had crept
'etween and a man might not pene-
rate the Businesses without built
rails.
So Destiny took up the land and
Ilayed with it that hot, dry August.
All through the early hours OF the
ong night they labored. dirty, black
ned, tattered scarecrows of men, run
ing here and there, digging like mad
n the wide trench that was to stop
he surface flames, saving unceas-
ngly at the towering trees. while the
yards brought twenty-minute tidings
4 the approaching fire.
High against the dun, smoke-light-
ned sky the dark canopy of the East
selt whispered and moaned as II In
ear, and from time to time Sandry,
grim-lipped specter of man,
Ifted his bIoodshot eyes toward 1t. 1t
vas still his own, his future of the
despite the tangle OF
Iampden's threats, the unrecorded
eed and the unfinished trail OF the
fellow Pines at the south. and 1t
,ulled at his heart pathetically.
There was still a stretch OF almost
timber near the summit
4 the big ridge which must be CUT
through before the flames reached It.
T all would be lost.
Shall we make it. JohnF asKeu
he owner desperately of Daily, VINO
an by in the smoke with wet rags 70
lie over the mouths of the men.
Ought to if the wind stays "nere
! is"
It was two o'clock and that hour In
he sleeping world outside Wnen al
he elements are at an ebb.
Then, all suddenly. Destiny laugneu
md Destiny's laugh was wnoop,ns