The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-04-20

pills Pupils wishing to write in Phys
iology and Geography should com
in Friday, April %.
Several of our rural schools viii
close this month. Lois Warmbroc
has r~e-entered our eighth grade
Marian Walter won the S1.0C
prize for the best essay on Fire Pre-
vention. Her essay is given in full
Fire, the Rsvaging Artist
On the walls If the great gallery
of life hang numerous pictures of
rare meaning and direct import to
all of us who will stop to view them.
Let us pause for a moment and
glance at this one.
In the foreground blazes a cheer
full bonfire, dancing and Pickering,
casting a ruddy glow on the faces
of the merry party gathered around
it under the shadows of the deep
woods. Now the picture grows dim
oh, there it is again. The laughing
party is preparing to depart. They
hastily scatter the embers about, toss
a pail of water over the Goals, turn
with tired footsteps and are swal-
lowed up in the forest. But see now
what a brilliant hue is cast over the
portrait; a wind has risen; the mid
night sky is alight with a fiaring
blaze; dark clouds of smoke roll
higher and higher as the mighty pat
riarchs of the wood fall with a de-
spairing, heart-rending creak; wierd,
h~urrying forms dart here and there,
helpless in this extremity-but what
need to go on? Let us turn to the
next, a more cheerful picture at our
other hand.
Here we see a loving mother who
has just tucked a curly-headed cher
ub into the crib and S hanging the
stubby scarlet stockings over a rod
on the stove; comfortably but peril
ously near the open crate which
sends forth a warm, CHEEKY glow,
defying the storm that age outside.
But what is this? A still greater
change has taken place here. A
white, bleak, snow-covered prairie
stretches away to meet a cherries
winter sun. rising to blink duly on a
heap of black, charred ashes, bent
rods and scraps of iron, where last
night the "homey" cabin stood.
What is this picture in the corner?
A long lank figure reclines against a
post on the street corner. The
cap is pulled to a rakish angle, the
features are ~contorted into an exag-
gerated air of bravado and between
two fingers a lighted cigarette is held
A careless flip, a heap of weeds, and
a little flying paper-you know the
story and have seen the black ruins
that mark the once most prosperous
street of the city.
Let us turn to another scene.
we need see no such blood
curdling sights here! A peaceful
plain lies before and no forest. stove
Or building is near. Apparently the
plain is forsaken. No, coming over
he hill with a team and a pillow,
is a man. A very wise mar !
he is, too, for he is blowing a fire
Now the scene has changed.
Two rounds have been completed
md (oh, sad violation of all rules of
.are) the man has produced a match
md is carefully lighting a fire with
. heap of dried grass between the
.wo narrow burrows to perfect his
ireguard
Again the picture fades and again
It grows plain, disclosing a black
sweep of lonely, barren, rolling land,
Without a shack or barn for miles
along the fire ravaged plain. Who /
but what the loss may have
9een more vital than mere crops,
buildings, and savings of many hard
years of labor?
Far on down the dark passages ]
If the gallery the pictures hang, but
go farther is only to see more mis-
Try and loss brought about by the :
Monster, Fire, exalted, from a help }
'ul position of servitude to a cruel
mastery, by c arelessness. Let us
urn back and pass out resolved that
,hese pictures shall never be repro
iuced in an enlightened country of !
free-born free-thinking and free
Americans.
f. H. Livingston, Supt.