Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1874-05-26

feet at the summit are thrown III
against this barrier-and there wa:
your dam. They began this dam in
July they finished it, Mr.. Wells saws
in the following January-in the
depth, that is to say of New Eng
land winter. Mr.. Bodnan, one of the
projectors, admits that the work was
hurried along that it might be finish
ed before winter. Haste and waste
But it was finished in the middle OF
winter, and SO we have both the hur.
ry which ought to have been dreaded
and the cold weather which was dread.
ed, and which the hurry as less evil
was intended to balk, in the building
of this deadly dam. Now Mr.. Cheney
says that three years ago, six years
that is after the dam was built and
when he became gateman, he used to
be alarmed because water in stream
as big as mans arm kept coming
through this 100 feet of earth and five
feet of stone and cement OH the eastern
side. He kept telling his fears to Pro-
prietOr Spelman. Proprietor Spalman
kept telling him that cams always
leaked. So all the superior intelligen-
ces in the valley were secure, but all
the inferior intelligences uourished a
kind of intuition that Ashfield reser-
voir would go some day. 1t went last
Saturday, and then, as it seems, for
the first time, when the ruin was
wrought and the land was filled with
mourning because of the dead that lay
therein. some people began to ask
questions about that stream of water
las big as mans arm.n Mr., Wells
says he has heard several theories
about it, two of which lie mentions,
giving credit to neither. The first is
muskrats. The second is, OF all things
in the world. conspiracy: namely, OF
men who had been cheated on their
work, or were dissatisfied with the way
in which the land, wanted fer reser-
vOir, was taken, or with the ! ri 8
to revenge their pockets y kill
ing 100 Innocent men, won and
children. C'ed0t JUClCeuS. r. Wells
believes neither theory, He II; no
theory that he expresses about either
the prOXimate or ultimate cause OF tie
burst, but he says he supposes Il e
water may have come from some OF
the spriMg5 so numerous i'll that clay
soil. Now let experts say whether Il
spring is good thing to have in Il dam.
Bat there in the great gaping lent,
from a source within the sprt ing Uf
the earthwOTks, runs as much water
as a four-inch pipe could carry right
across the slipping clay bank on which
the dam rested. How many more
there were God knows; the cont ac-
tors didn't and don't. Finally the
dam gave way at The bottom willie
Cheney bad gone to break fast after an
examination of it, this stream las big
rs Il mans arm" had become a stream
as big as Il mans waist and was tearing
rents at the base of the dam, and. a.
Cheney ran for his horse, had swept
through Il semI-circle and then it was
really too late to do anything but ride
away like the wind and Try and save
q few lives. Now there i left of this
dam an enbankIneut of eaIth and
walls swept and snapped off short OH
either side, and broken tower of stone
near the middle. There is q cant eX-
preston, which has Heretofore been
supposed prOfane, but which has nj
ways been used to define utter worth
lessness in the most cOntemptuOus
way. The utter wUrthlessness and
worse than wOrthlessness of this struc-
tnre at A+hfield Reservoir entities it
To he called, as mark of approhrius
distinction "a tinker's dam.n Tie
County Commissioners surveyed ii "a
year ago, and said it was all right
Alas, then, in respect of dams, good
mea as they may have been otherwise,
they are tinkerS, too.
Well. the dam broke away, and the
wafer behind it. A dead weight of
millions of tons became in au instant
hammer stroke of millions of TONS
Hurry now, Cheney! Ignorance and
neglect aud greed have begun a work
which all the knowledge and care in
the world cannot stop till it Is tho
roughly done to the end. Yours be it
to save the lives which ignorance and
neglect and greed have put into so
terrible danger Ten minutes hard
gall0p, good horse. over the mountain
roads. Ten minutes-but where will
the water be in ten minutes? ? Where
is ii when Cheney on his weary horse
shouting to the families of Williams
burg to arise and get them to the hills
for their lives? Behind hi ? Ali,
yes, it was-One second ago. Now it
is abreast of him and has passed him,
and is playing terrible game among
the little white cottages that looked
so clean and pune i'm the soft rain when
he came within sight of them 10y the
graveyard at the turn in the road
The wall of mud-blackened water is
upon them. Will anything, anybody
escape that fearful flood which has
brought down from its hills great frag-
ments split from the gniess rocks, and
is hurting along ten tons weights of
stone as boys kick on a football
There is a house now standing m
harmed OH every side of which are the
shaver cellars of houses whose frag-
ments are seven miles away. Here
there lived a livery stable man, who
was sitting at break fast with his wife
when the roar of the flood reached him.
Up they went to the roof hand in hand
not hoping to escape, yet just hoping.
Crash went a whirl of boulders through
the house above. Then there was
sharp cracking 10 the east and their
barn was in kindling wood. The
water was almost upon them. Had it
Dub tOuCieu TIE mousse Will It's eupe
only, they had been shaken off into
its grasp. The waited for it and kept
waiting in agony. An eddy swept
round below them and took off a house
with family in it. They were be-
tween flood above and flOod below ard
still waiting Z" BELL. says I, Il think
the water is goin' down leetle OH that
house above She didn't say anythin'
but jest gripped me, an then-I s'pose
it was about ten minutes-an' | was
sure it was goin' down, an by George
it did go down an didn't touch our
house, an there we was, safe. Only
we see our neighbors that was an their
houses carried off down the stream
S pose we were on the roof half an
hour" Half an hour. No village of
the four that lay in the track of the
flood was exposed for more than half
an hour to the tremendous thrust of
the burdened waves. II tell you"
the livery stable man, "I've
been through freshets before and floods
before, but nothin' like this. Years
ago, down at Winstead, was caught
in the water and rode on tree over
two dams, one thirty feet deep an the
other fifteen, an tell you l was just