26 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



ting the fire run. Every respectable citizen, or man of 

 good conscience, would refrain from setting fire in ex- 

 tremely dry weather; or if he set fire, he would first pile 

 his brush and dig or carefully make a break around it 

 to absolutely prevent the fire from spreading. To set 

 fire and let it run wild and do, nobody knows how much, 

 injury to other people, is a lazy and half-civilized practice. 



Great forest fires in the Northwest have been caused 

 by just such negligence. 



In October, 1871, such a fire devastated 400 square 

 miles of territory in Wisconsin by wiping out several vil- 

 lages, including Peshtigo, causing the loss of a thousand 

 Hves, the destitution of 3,000 people and damage of 

 $3,000,000. 



Another such fire as that was in the southeastern 

 part of Michigan, September, 1881, which ran over 48 

 townships, and in which 138 people perished and over 

 #2,000,000 worth of property was destroyed. 



The Hinckley fire in Minnesota originated about 

 three miles southwest of Brook Park, Pine county, Min- 

 nesota, and was burning slowly for several days before 

 September ist, the day of the great calamity, when 418 

 people perished. The material loss, but not including 

 timber, which the people sustained, amounted to #750,- 

 000. The relief furnished to the sufferers, nearly all 

 from private contributions, amounted to $ 1 84, 744. 



It is a striking fact that the present penalty against 

 negligence in causing fires, which is now in force, formed 

 a part of the law at the time of the Hinckley fire, 

 but there were no officers specially designated at that 

 time to have it enforced. I believe that if the present 

 fire warden system had been in operation in 1894 the 

 Hinckley fire would not have occurred. 



Strange as it may seem, there are some people who 

 appear to think that the state should take no precautions 

 for preventing forest fires. Why, the state itself owns 



