The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1919-07-26

The forest fire victims in Duluth 8
hinterland are sadly respondent. Their
wives are victims of melancholy. Their
children seek profitable employment in
the city. Sights, scenes and today 8
conditions in the regions devastated
by the terrible holocaust Of last Octo-
Der are depressing to anyone with heart
and understanding.
Governor .Burnquist promised the
sufferers a complete measure of rehab-
ilitation. The ink hardly was dry on
his excellency's certificate of re-elec-
tion when he forgot both people and
promises.
The state eked out a measure of
temporary relief. Relief supplies,
money and deepest sympathy were ex-
tended to the victims of that sudden
disaster by kind-hearted men and
women in all sections Of state and na-
tion. Both state and public aid was
administered by an association headed
by human icicle who certainly has
made no hit with the actual sufferers,
with very few favored exceptions.
"a tour of inspection through the
burned regions will open the eyes and
satisfy the understanding Of any fair
minded person A trip through the
hinterland is saddening, depressing,
even very distressing.
People who acquired a competency
and lived comfortably, as result Of
many years Of toll and frugality, saw
their hard-won possessions swept
away in a few short minutes. A mis-
cradle winter, spent in paper shacks,
with scanty living conveniences and
limited food, had most debilitating
effect on mind and body. Hopes Of
rehabilitation, prosperity and real hap
piness have not been realized.
The wives and mothers are break
ing under the strain and the unsatis-
factory conditions. Melancholy and
hysteria are slowly gaining control Of
these women. One short visit to that
good woman near Twig, who saw
$4,000 or $4,000 worth of property
destroyed and who has become so
weakened, discouraged and Respondent
that she weeps almost constantly, is
enough to sadden one with a heart for
many weeks.
A sturdy settler and a fond husband
near Twig, who lost small fortune,
declares that he must sell and get
away, for he fears that living longer
in present surroundings and under
present conditions will cause the aged
wife of his bosom to 60 insane.
Another good wife and mother in
Israel, with children able to care for
her and to give her a fair measure of
her former comforts, has spells of de-
preston, weeping and discouragement
One old. man near Culver, rs years
of age, has been i'll ever since the fire.
He lost his all and it is feared that
his sick k-bed also is his deathjbed. L
A settler near Culver stood it as
long rs he could and then he man
aged to- sell out. He left the hinter-
Land and settled on rented farm near
Albert Lea. .sr .,,..., ,...r'' .#-
Strong, self-reliant men lack ambi-
tion and are between two minds as
what to dc, OF where to- 60. They dis
like the. idea Of being beaten by q
cruel fate, but common sense tells
them that they will be happier, health
ier and more prosperous in some other
environment, '."Js,a 10 ram
Some who. have a, strong desire to
stay lack money, tools and equipment
for properly conducting q farm or
shopaT A skilled blacksmith near Cul-
yer states that his business is one-third
of what it, was before the fire. His
.nsighbors lack money to pay for work
at his. .smithy and he lacks money to-
buy new material He thaso been pick
ing up scraps and burned materials ont
of which to fashion tools and imple.I
ments, trying to reshape, retemper and
utilize that which would DE useless to-
one not s skilled craftsman.
No land Isl being cleared. Much Of
the cleared soil has been seriously rin-l
jnred by the fires. Some fields have
been so badly burned that the, .peatyl
soil and vegetable mould have disap-l
,peared, and it will be many years be-
fore the stony fields win grow even
q scanty crop of grass. 81 aiarer |
Many Of the farmers are not back
and many never will come back There
ist,a strong tendency to get away for
good and a very weak inclination to
leave the temporary locations to go
back to the charred hinterland.
Milk products in the burned regions
are about one-half Of what they were