The Ouachita Telegraph

That the conflagration that is to consume the world has begun is believed by many residents of Reading, Pa.

While some gentlemen were shooting on the farm of Henry Miller, near that city, one of the party killed a partridge, which fell in an adjacent field. To the surprise of the gentleman his dog refused to fetch the bird, and he went for it himself: but at the spot where the bird had fallen he suddenly sank several feet in a bed of fire and ashes. The burning tract is a square in length and half a square in width. Miller says the fire began burning about three weeks ago, and travels several feet a day. It emits no smoke excepting now and then when a turf of grass is being consumed, or when trees are burning, but the heat is intense. The fire has extended into a green wheat field, which is gradually being destroyed. The roots of oak trees burn off, and some trees two feet and a half in diameter have fallen over.