The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-11-08
MARJORIE COLE Who VISITS IN
RICHMOND DESCRIBES GREAT
WESTERN FOREST FIRE

as if the immense waves OF ire
! had been shot from some powerful
gun. They had word that the Tires
all around them were getting big
| ger all the time, and MarjOri"
knew that the telephone would
soon be burned out SO she telC-
| phoned her mother in Los Angeles
and told her she was safe at the
station. Ten minutes later the
! phone was burned out.
Men were being ordered to
many places to fight the fire. One
place where many men went was
around Mount Wilson determined
to use all their strength TO protect
the observatory at Mt, Wilson with
its priceless lens.
She realized that something
must be done, somebody must be
done, somebody must be in charge,
but unless She had orders she
could show to The men they would
not take any orders from her. But
Mcndenhall, the man who could
give her the power to take charge
of the main station whatever hap
pened, was five miles away. 1t
was evening and fires were burn
ing furiOusly all around, but Mar
jOrie decided the only thing to do
was to go.
As she was gallopin% down the
dusty trail she noticed the tracks
of many wild animals that had
LETT their mountain homes to the
great fire, and, dumb refugees,
were rushing tor safety SomcWher"
else on the mountains. Some OF
these were the tracks Of the noun
tain lion, the wildcat, fox, coon and
deer. Marjorie felt her revolver
to be sure it Was in her holster,
and gallopcd on.
She stopped only long enough at
The camp whore Mcndnnhall was
stationed to get Iull orders from
him, and then jumped in her sad
die again In an hour and one
half after she had left it, she was
once more back to the place where
Sll' lIdNi % I'll lIit u NO Va 'Il'- " iva
animals. But now, on both sides
of the narrow roadway and form
ing an arch over it were walls OF
hungry flames.
Marjorie gave one look at it and
decided that though she liked
thrills sh" would not try TO ride
through that burning archway, so
she turned aside and went back
across the river 10 another path
which would take her TO the main
station She tied a moist handhcr-
chief over her mouth so hat she
could breathe in spite Of the
smoke, and fled on.
AS she was galloping along in
the river bed, She heard a terrible
roar million times as great, she
says it was, as the little roar Of
the flames Of q big fire in ones
homo fireplace, and She looked up
to see the flames from the noun |,
tainS to her right leap across the !
canyon over her head and Join the .
flames on the mountains TO her +.
left. Her hair which was not GOV
cred with her cap was Singou and |
her shirt, for she wore a regular .
army shirt, was burned in sovcra! F..
places. Luckily for her, her horse
was sure footed and unalraid, SO
they gallOped swiftly on and soon i
they reached the station. She had !
been gone just three hours from /
the station, and though sh" had |
ridden the horse till it was about .
dead, she was back again with her
full orders.
"The World on Fire"
Three fires were coming toward |
the station from different direC- !
tons Thinking that the fire
would reach them soon, they went
to the corral and turned the horses
and burros loose with their halters
on.
Then they sat down to watch it
burn, for there was nothing else to
do then but that. 1t was Thursday
evening and one of the men cX
pressed what they all thought
when he said: The world is on
fire" Red We're the flames, not
orange and not yellow, just deep
red. and some of them were 400
and 500 feet high. The roar was