New York Dispatch

UNDER THE FLAMES.
An Adventure of the Forest Fires An
Old Veteran who Stayed to See the
Circus Out.
A man named Allison Weaver, who reached
Detroit from Port Huron on Wednesday, had a
narrow and curious escape from being roasted
alive in the north woods. His story is told in
the Detroit Free Press of Thursday:
Weaver is a single man, about fifty years
old, and served all through the war in an Ohio
regiment of infantry. Up to two weeks ago he
was at work for a man named Bright, ten miles
from Forestville, as fireman of a shingle mill.
Two or three days before the approach of the
flames, which eventually destroyed that sec-
tion, Bright and his family left for Forestville,
and the next day all the men employed about
the place either followed his example, or made
haste to reach their homes. On leaving.
Bright informed his men that the fire would
sweep that way, and warned to lose no time in
making their escape. Having no property to
lose, or family to care for, Weaver determined,
as he says,
"TO STAY AND SEE THE CIRCUS OUT,"
meaning that he intended saving the mill, if
possible. He has a stubborn sort of a spirit.
and the fact that everybody else went, induced
him to stay.
As soon as the men left he set to work and
buried all the provisions left in the house, and
during the day also buried the knives. belts
and other light machinery of the mill, as well
as a stove and a quantity of crockery ware.
There was plenty of water in the vicinity of
the mill, and he filled several barrels full, be-
side wetting down house, mill, stock and every.
thing which would burn, scattering several
hundred pailfuls of water on the ground
around the buildings.
When night came, and the fire had not ap-
peared, he began to jeer his absent comrades.
But his self-conceit soon left him. About ten
o'clock the heavens were so light that he could
see the smallest objects around him, and there
was a roaring in the forests which
SOUNDED LIKE WAVES BEATING AGAINST ROCKS
on the shore. He began to suspect that he
would soon receive the visit predicted, and ac-
cordingly made preparations for it. In level-
ing up the ground around the shingle mill,
earth had been obtained by digging here and
there, and Weaver went to work and dug one
of these pits deep enough for him to stand up
in.
He then filled it nearly full of water, and
took care to saturate the ground around it for
a distance of several rods. Going to the mill
he dragged out a four-inch plank, sawed it in
two, and saw that the parts tightly covered the
mouth of the little well. I calculated it
would be tight enough to go," said he, "but it was
the best I could do." At midnight he had
everything arranged, and the roaring then was
awful to hear. The clearing was ten or twelve
acres in extent, and Weaver says that for two
hours before the fire reached him there was a
constant flight across the ground of small ani-
mals. As he rested a moment from giving the
house another wetting down,
A HORSE DASHED INTO THE OPENING
at full speed, and made for the house, where
he stopped and turned toward the fire. Weav-
er could see him tremble and shake in his ex-
citement and terror. and felt a pity for him.
After a moment the animal gave utterance to
a snort of dismay, ran two or three times
around the house, and then shot off into the
woods like a rocket.
Not long after this
FIRE CAME.
Weaver stood by his well, ready for the emer-
gency, yet curious to see the breaking in of the
flames. The roaring increased in volume, the
air became oppressive, a cloud of dust and cin-
ders came showering down, and he could see
the flame through the trees. It did not run
along upon the ground, nor leap from tree to
tree, but it came on like a tornado, a sheet of
flame reaching from the earth to the tops of
the trees. As it struck the clearing he jumped
into his well and closed over the planks. He
could no longer see, but he could hear. He
says that the flames made no halt whatever,
nor ceased their roaring for an instant, but he
had hardly got the opening closed before the
house and mill were burning like tinder, and
both were down in five minutes. The smoke
came down to him powerfully, and his den was
so hot that he could hardly breathe.
Ye know that
THE PLANKS ABOVE HIM WERE ON FIRE.
but, remembering their thickness, he waited
till the roaring of the flames had died away.
and then with his head and hands turned them
over and put out the fire by dashing up water
with his hands. Although it was a cold night,
and the water had at first chilled him, the heat
gradually warmed it up until he says that he
felt very comfortable. He remained in his den
until daylight, frequently turning over the
planks and putting out the fire, and then the
worst had passed. The earth around was on
fire in spots, house and mill were gone, leaves,
brush, and logs were swept clean away as if
shaved off and swept with a broom. and noth-
ing but soot and ashes were to be seen.
After the fire had somewhat cooled off, Weav.
er made an investigation of his caches and
found that considerable of the property buried
had been saved, although he lost all his pro-
visions except a piece of dried beef, which the
fire had cooked as in an oven, without spoiling
it. He had no other resource than to remain
around the place that day, during the night,
and the greater part of the next day, when the
ground had cooled enough so that he could
pick his way to the site of the burned village.
He was nearly twelve hours going the twelve
miles, as trees were falling, logs were burning,
and the fallen timber had in some places heaped
up a breastwork over which no one could climb.