WE GO TO LABRADOR AND START WORK 43 



Government buildings. The respected premier was 

 to have been seen at an early hour of the morning 

 with a background of blazing houses, in a most 

 precarious position astride an angular roof, putting 

 out burning embers as they fell. Nor did the 

 flames cry " Quarter" to the episcopal apron, even 

 his lordship escaping coatless. It was said that 

 a jeweller, who had at the last moment sent his 

 assistant to put valuables in the safe, found on 

 opening it afterward a dust brush and an old match- 

 box only. One man was noticed skurrying up the 

 hill with a feather mattress on his back, all un- 

 conscious it was brightly burning; while one, like 

 another Nero over another Rome, was seen playing 

 a piano in the open street, that had been hastily 

 deposited there by its flying owner. The musical 

 tastes of the community were impressively brought 

 out by the fact that some dozen " borrowed " pianos 

 were rescued from houses in neighbouring villages, 

 when authority was once more able to cope with 

 disorder. 



Forest fires continued to rage in every direction 

 for days and weeks after, till the greater part of the 

 peninsula of Avalon was treeless, many country 

 homesteads sharing the same fate as the city. In 

 some planter cottages I visited, I found men who 

 had been fighting for their lives, homes, and posses- 

 sions for days with these forest fires. In some cases 

 the women, children, and goods had been carried 

 out and deposited for safety for two or three days 



