The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-23
FOREST FIRES
IMPEDE WILSON
IN THE SIERRAS
Blazes Attributed to [. w.
w. Leap Across Railway
as He Passes.
TRAIN is OFTEN STOPPED
Speaks at Reno, New, After
Platform Talks at Sacra-
mentO and Elsewhere.
TRAIN is OFTEN STOPPED
By a stor Correspondent. Of THE sus.


RENO, New. Sept 22.-Bret Harte's
country was burning when President
Wilson passed through 1t this evening
on his way to the haven Of the disap-
pointed. Whole slopes of the Sierras
blazed red under sitting mantles of
blush smoke.
For many miles between Sacramento
and Truckee, near the Nevada line, the
Presidents train touched the edge OF
vast forest fires, running sometimes
straight through flames that leaped
and cracked a few yards to the right
and left of the Southern Pacific right
Of way Great gangs of railroad
workmen with water and counter fire,
tired men with scorched boots and
overalls and SCOT blackened faces,
rested only long enough to wave a
greeting to the train. then returned to
their furious labors.
Near the American River Gorge and
Blue Canyon, about 10 miles northwest
Of San Francisco, the heat OF the fire
was SO intense that perspiration poured
from the faces Of the Presidents COM
panions as they leaned from the train
windows in the fascination of the spec
tacIe of this crime against nature; for
crime It is. the Southern Pacific officials
say, who so anxiously guided the Presi-
Dental special to-day. The forest fires
are incendiary, they believe, set by agi-
tators suspected of being agents of the
l. w. w. They are burning the forests
in their practice of sabotage on vast
scale destroying innumerable tracts oi
big trees in a craving to injure society
Some of these creatures have beer
trailed with dogs and shot at.
Train obscured in Smoke.
In many places where the glance was
startled by areas of blood red fame al
large as Central Park and no further
from the Presidential train than Cen
trail Park Is from Broadway. the SLOW
moving string Of ten cars was totally
obscured in dense smoke. The President
watching the spectacle from the drawing
room of the car Mayflower sometimes
had to employ a wet handkerchief II
relieve his smarting eyes or to breathe
momentarily through the square of mois'
! linen. Never before, possibly. has g
President Of the United States had sc
| intimate an experience with a forest fire
Extraordinary care was taken by tht
officials in charge of the train. Les
than half an hour ahead pilot trair
was scouting the right of way. and every
80 often flag signals or the nervous
bang of a torpedo would warn the Presi
Dental special to a stop while the crew
- ~ Ill G,.xy eaI thn 40 ma a
| murk ahead. On these occasions. as a
the American Gorge, where the American
River cuts through the Sierras, 1,00t
feet below the railroad tracks that cllnt
to the gorge's brink, the President lef
| his car to walk along the ramparts o.
i the chasm and to study the havoc pro
| ceeding under his eye.
| Often, far below him, he could SCI
| Chinese miners, no bigger at that dis
! tance away than flies, slowly leaving th'
reduction mills and stamp plants along
the American River. driven out by thu
advance of the fire. They were of thu
! type of yellow men, patient and unbe
lievably laborious, who have been CLEAN
ing from old mines-mines exhausted
| according to the white miners standards
many years ago, but still of rich pos
sbilities to these patient and fruga
4 o.
, of the blazing gorges, carried on thei
backs, all they owned in the world, ac
cepting with the philosophy OF their rae,
the misfortune that had rushed upoI
them.
No Rain for Many Months.
Stamp mills and miners cabins, newl,
caught by the fire. could be seen fiarinl
/ up, burning like matchboxes. Some
where down In that inferno Col. Starbot
| tie and M'Liss. too, no doubt were to b
found, for the Colonel was no coward
There has been no rain for months
The woods are finder. In many region
water is difficult or impossible TO gel
Little can be done, the railroad official
| say, except fight the flames back fror
| the railroad right of way and protect tn
mountain villages. Already immens
( tracts have been consumed. so that tn
train passed through a ruined land o
I blackened stumps and earth still smok
! ing.
There was no danger for the Presiden
! in all of this, because the railroad wa
patrolled and protected In every rod O
! its course but the railroad men SCENE
to think It necessary TO take every possi
BILE precaution. Every tunnel of tn
innumerable piercings of the mountai
passes, every snow shed OF the Ion
series Of tunnels that were a trial I
oughly inspected before the Presidents
train was pei mitted to bore into them.
The Presidents journey to Rem
where he delivered tonight the thirty
fifth speech OF the tour. was twenty
Ave hour ride from Los Angeles, III
broken except for stop of fifteen mil
utes at Sacramento and for mere pause
at Stockton, Colfax, Truckee and one {
two other towns, where the people ha
gathered in large crowds and whei
the President did little handshakin
from the back platform. 1t was n
hottest day OF the whole trip, for nortl
ern California is good deal warm'
Ooatinusd on TAsnd Pd0&