Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1893 — RAIN ALONE CAN SAVE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RAIN ALONE CAN SAVE.

WISCONSIN FIRES SWtfEP NORTH. WARD WITH DIRE EFFECTS . t Ashland and the Surrounding Towns Mow Besieged—Settlers Flocking In from All Directions, Fleeing for Their Dives—High Winds Fan the Flames. New Danger Centers Pray for rain is the hopeless cry throughout Northern Wisconsin as the forest flames continue to devour everything before them. Settlors are coming into Ashland from all directions, running for their lives. At noon Sunday the people were called from worship by fire alarms. The cinders and smoko became almost blinding all over the city. Over 1,000 volunteers were added to the fire department ta fight the flames, which rushed in on the city from the Odanah Indian Reservation. At 3 o’clock there was a wild cry of despair among the peoplo living near the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad shops. The waterworks

had given out and thero was no watei’. Tho chemical engines wore brought, but it was useless to try to stop the flames, as a high gale of wind was blowing. Thero are but a vory few wells in tho city. The coal shops caught lire and tho plucky engineers soon had the thirty dead locomotives firod up and running all rolling stock to tho lake front. Household goods have beon burned, and over 100 familios are already homeless. Tho sight was almost oDseured by the heavy clouds of smoke and cindors. Twenty men wore overcome in fighting tho flames and taken to the hospital. Tho timber and vegotation is like straw. No rain has fallon since July 10. Three familios near Marengo have perishod. There was no help to go to them. At Parishville the large iron plant burned. A, large number of women and children who had rushed to the lake front wore only saved by a desperate effort with patrol w r agons. The fire is tho same that lias been raging further south all weok. Settlers arriving have pitiful stories to toll and are being cared for by |hoso who still have houses. Ope man named Egstrom was driven by the loss of his wife and family ot two children. His hair and eyelashes and clothes wero burned from his body when discovered.

Covers Two Hundred Square Miles. As near as can be estimated the fire now covers 200 square ruiles and is sweeping north. The damage to standing pine will be Very heavy and approximates not less than $5,000,000. A woman and baby, supposed to .fep tho wife of a settler, were picked up in an insonsible condition near White River road. The child died soon after arriving. The mother is in a delirium, and it is' supposed that her husband perished in the Odanah Reservation. Indians are camping on a raft in Bad River and are hemmed iti .with an archway of flames. All communication with Ashland was cut off lisovn, surrounding small towns. It Is impossible to give details of holocausts and losses, but if rain does not soon come the death list will run up into the hundreds.

Fierce fires are raging between Iron River and Superior, and a great deal of damage to timber, railroad property and the property of homesteaders has been done. The trains on the Northern Pacific and Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railways wore preceded by hand cars loaded with section men to repair the tracks for the trains to pass. Several bridges along the Northern Pacific have Deen destroyed and homesteaders in many cases have been entirely burned out. For several days West Superior has been enveloped in dense smoke from numerous forest fires south of there, but no danger was until the fives approached the city, forced-on by j a Strong wind. The fire departments I wore called out and the flames were fought off before they reached any of the buildings on the outskirts of the town. At Merrill the wind turned completely around, stopping the progress of the forest fire in that vicinity. The work of caring for .destitute farmers has begun iq oarnest. Citizens are responding liberally, and the immediate wants of the people are looked after. l 's Milwaukee has‘been enveloped in smoke from the forest fires. About the towns within the burning district citizens are fighting the fires day and night to prevent the flames from reaching within the limits. The fires appear to be the worst along the lino of the Wisconsin Central Railway. Through Wisconsin Central trains between Chicago and Minneapolis are running over the Omaha Road between Eau Claire and Marshfield on account of the burning of a bridge. The forest fires which are causing such widespread destruction through Wisconsin and the upper end of the Lower Michigan Peninsula have covered the lake with a thick pall of smoke and navigation has become decidedly dangerous. A half dozen wrecks have occurred the last few days, and the captains of incoming boats report that the smoke is becoming steadily worse.

WISCONSIN’S FIRE-SWEPT COUNTIES.