Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1898 — FIRE-SWEPT PRAIRIE [ARTICLE]

FIRE-SWEPT PRAIRIE

HEAVY LOSSES OF SOUTH DAKOTA^FARMERS. Two Counties Badly Scorched Many Buildings and Hnch Stock and Grain' Destroyed-Rumors of War and Unseasonable Weather Check Business* Licked Up by Flames. Destructive prairie fires swept over the southwestern portion of Beadle and eastern part of Hand couutiea, S. D. Losses will aggregate SIO,OOO to $15,000. Several farmers lost their homes, buildings, machinery and stock. The town of Wessington had a usirow escape. Charles Peek, M. Mosher and oAers loet their barns. The large dwelling, barns and cattle sheds on the Barden farm, near Wesaiugton, were burned. The place was occupied by H. M. DeMott and family, .who barely escaped with their lives. The burned district covers many miles and the distress would have been much greater.except for the rain, which began falling at sundown. Much live stock was burned and many people had narrow escapes. During a terrific windstorm prairie fires destroyed the property and homes of twenty fanners in Spink County, entailing a loss of more than $15,000. Reports reach Valentine, Neb., of a terrible prairie fire that raged in the range country twenty miles northeast of that place. It is feared much damage was done, but nothing definite has been received. There \uis much dry' grass in the district, and tffere had been no recent rains. War Rumors Check Trade. Bradstreet's says: “A sensible quieting of demand for staple goods is perceptible in the various detailed trade reports coming to hand this week. At the East the drift of matters affecting out foreign relations has been such as to discourage new business, but this tendency has been considerably accentuated by untimely cold weather, which has checked the usual Easter demand to a considerable extent. Reports from the West are that the heavy rush of spring business is about Over. Rather less activity is noted in most of the country’s great staples. Gotten goods have moved fairly well. Wool is dull. The iron trade continues to report large volume of business. A feature of trade at leading cities this week is the active business in bicycles in Chicago and New York, where sales an* the largos! on record. Wheat shipments,. including flour, this week-are slightly larger than those of last week, and considerably in excess of last year, aggregating 3,773,726 bushels for that period, against 3,550,6114 bushels Inst week. Corn exports have fallen off sharply, aggregating 3,557,000 bushels, against 4,507,000 bushels last week.” Spain Requests Peace. In an official note presented to the State Department at Washington, Seuor Polo y Bernabe, the Spanish minister, preferred requests for peace hi behalf of his government. The note stated that the armistice offered Cuba was without conditions and contained assurances that the island would be granted home rule similar to tliat enjoyed by Canada. It also urged that a neutral inquiry be had into the Maine disaster, with the condition that both Spain and the United States agree to abide by the verdict.