THE WISCONSIN CONFLAGRATION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 203, 21 December 1871, Page 6

THE WISCONSIN CONFLAGRATION.

From the survivors we glean, says the " Milwaukee Sentinel," the following in reference to the scene at the village of Peshtigo and in the farming region commonly known as the " Sugar Bush:" on Sunday evening, after church, for about half an hour, a death-like stillness hung over the Roomed town. The smoke from the fires, in the region around, was so thick as to be stifling, and hung like a funeral pall over everything, and all was enveloped in jEgyptian darkness. Soon light puffs of air were felt ; the horizon at the southeast, south and southwest began to be faintly illuminated ; a perceptible trembling of the earth was felt, and a distant roar broke the awful silence. People began to fear that some awful calamity was im pending, but as yet no one even dreamed of the danger.

The illumination soon became intensified into a fierce lurid glare ; the roar deepened into a how-l, as if all the demons from the "infernal pit had been let loose, when the advance gusts of wiud fisoui the main body of the tornado had- struck. Chimneys were blown down, houses were unroofed, the roof of the Wooden ware Factory was lifted, a large warehouse filled with tuns, pails, kanakans, keelers, and fish kits was nearly demolished, and amid the confusion, terror and terrible apprehension of the moment, the fiery element in tremendous inrolling billows and masses of sheeted flame, enveloped the devoted village. The frenzy of despair seized on all hearts; strong men bowed like reeds before the fiery blast ; women and children, like frightened spectres flitting through' tho awful gloom, were swept away like autumn leaves. Crowds rushed for the bridge, but the bridge, like all else, was receiv ing its baptism of fire. Hundreds crowded into the river ; cattle plunged in with them, and being huddled together in the general confnsion of the moment, many who had taken to the water to avoid the flames were drowned. A great many were on the blazing bridge when it fell. The debris from the burning town was hurled over and on the heads of those who were in the water, killing many, and maiming others, so that they gave up in despair, and sank to a watery grave.

Tn less than an hour from the time the tornado struck Peshtigo, a flourishing village of 1500 inhabitants, it was annihilated !

Full one hundred perished either in the flames or in the water, and all the property was wiped out of existence.

In the " Sugar Bush " the loss of life was even greater, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, than in the village. Whole families are destroyed, and over a thickly settled region in the heavy hardwood timber, consisting of two or three townships, thei-e is scarcely a family but is now left destitute, and mourns for the loss of some of its loved

1200 persons perished in the vicinity of Pe.-shti.£o, and tho loss of life in other districts has not been ascertained, but must amount to many hundreds.

A correspondent of the " Beehive," who dates from South Lambert, says that he is prepered to "go before any audience in the world, and to prove and demonstrate- a new and practical plan by which the poor can be made rich without "making the rich poor." He has nothing to do, he adds, with " whether his plan will conflict with others or not," evidently anticipating the objections likely to be raised by the Communists, whose trade will, of course, come to an end. He has, he observes, a reputation to lose as well as other people, and, considei'ing the " tremendous importance " of his plan, he expresses a hope that some people or other will, at all events, get him a, hearing. He has feeen " calling out on this subject for a long time, and is really sick at heart," It is to be hoped that this gentleman's troubles will now come to an end, and that every facility will be. given to- him, for propounding a plan which has so admirable an object in view as making the poor rich without making the rich poor. A universal plutocracy is exactly what we all require, and wjll give offence, to, nd one, unjess perhaps to, Mr.. Gladstone.