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7 [[strikethrough]]8.[[/strikethrough]]
planes--now a dozen or more in number--still hummed and darted here and there with the agility of natural birds of the air.Then a filling station farther down Easy Archer caught on fire from the top.I feared now an explosion and decided to try and move to safer quarters. I came out of my office,locked the door and descended to the foot of the steps.The side-walks were literally covered with burning turpentine balls.I knew all too well where they came from and I knew all too well why every burning building first caught from the top.I paused and waited for an opportune time to escape."Where,oh where is our splendid fire department with its half dozen stations?",I asked myself. "Is the city in conspiracy with the mob?",I again asked myself.As I stood there in contemplation of these and other gruesome facts,I saw two sights that will live in my memory to my dying days.One was a woman on the opposite side of the street.She was traveling south,-hair disentangled and disheveled--in the very path of whizzing bullets.She was calling wildly to a little tot that,a few moments before,had dashed in panic before her and turned off Greenwood on Archer at the corner.I hollered to her,"Turn back woman, for God's sake turn back.You will be mown down".Never turning her head,she answered,as she hurried on,"I must follow my child".And so she did follow her child and not a bullet touched her although they literally rained down the street.This brave self-denying mother lives today here in Tulsa and with her that tot--now a splendid young lady--whom she risked her life to save.The other sight was occasioned by the Piro building catching on fire from the top.(This was a frame building then).The fire dislodged those in the building--a woman,two children and three men.They emerged in wild confusion and came on in my direction.The little children--they were both girls--out ran the others and passed the place where I was standing with the speed of the wind.The woman ran across the street and into the foot of the steps of my office building--right where I was standing--and fell upon her knees and commenced to pray,totally oblivious of my presence.I don't think she ever saw me.And such a prayer'--She asked God to save her and her children from whom she had just been separated.This prayer was uttered over and over.I am unable to say whether that prayer was answered or not.I have lived in Tulsa continuously ever since that memorable morning,but I have never seen that woman since.I know I would know her if I were to meet her, even today. The three men--one of whom lugged a heavy trunk on his shoulder--were all killed as they were crossing the street--killed before my very eyes.The

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-03 12:10:51