and the
suspenders just held by a thread. He said the comet struck the earth at
Racine, at 9:30 the night before, and knocked the town into the lake, and
he and another fellow were all that escaped.

The narrowest escape was that of young Mr. Oberman. He is a small man, all
except his heart and feet, and when the air began to fill with patriotic
missiles, he started to run. On passing the _News_ office he had to jump
over an old coal stove that stood there, and while he was in the air, six
feet from the sidewalk, a sky rocket stick passed through his coat tail
and pinned him to the building, where he hung suspended, while other
rocket sticks were striking all around him, Roman candle colored balls
were falling on his unprotected head, etc. and one of these nigger chasers
that run all over the ground, climbed up the side of the building and
tried to get in his pants pocket.

Mr. Oberman begged Mr. Wright, the postmaster, to cut him down, but Mr.
Wright, who was using both hands and his voice trying to disengage a
package of pin-wheels from the back portion of his coat, which were on
fire and throwing out colored sparks, said he hadn't got time, as he was
going down to the river to take a sitz bath for his health.

The man that keeps the hotel next door to the _News_ office came out with
a pail of water, yelled "fire," and threw the water on Mr. Curt Treat's
head. Mr. Treat was very much vexed, and told the hotel man if he couldn't
tell the difference between an auburn haired young man and a pin-wheel,
he'd better go and hire somebody that could. Friends of Mr. Treat say that
he would be justified in going into the hotel and ordering a bottle of
pop, and then refusing to pay for it, as the water took all the starch out
of his shirt.

Those who saw the explosion say it was one of the most magnificent, yet
awful and terrible sights ever witnessed, and the only wonder is that
somebody was not hurt. What added to the terror of the scene was when they
went to the artesian well to get water to put out the fire and found that
the well had ceased flowing. On investigation they found that Mr. Sage,
the assembly man, had crawled into the pipe.

By the way, Mr. Oberman finally got down from his terrible position by the
aid of the editor of the _Journal_, to whom Mr. Oberman promised coal
enough to run his engine for a year. Very few men displayed any coolness
except Mr. Treat and Mr. Sage.

LA CROSSE NEBECUDNEZZER WATER.