The Red Cloud chief., 1874-06-18

IBlycf 1O9ISuts
Iron the sprisgnesd flaa.j Republican,
The marvellous escape Of young Dun
ming at Leeds has already been referred
to, but his story Is 70 interesting that it
is worth giving in detail. When the
alarm WAS given he was at work In the
spool.roOm Of the Nonotuck siIkworks,
and. rushing ont of the mill, his first
thought, of course, vas for his family.
He found that his father, wife and
three children had all left his house.
He shouted to them to run for their
lives. at the same time pointing to them
what direction to take. His wife and
children obeyed him and were saved ;
but his father, an old man Of seventy
eight, thinking that something might
be got out Of the house before the food
reached it, went back. In dashed his
son after him, begging him to leave the
doomed building. While raising one OF
the windows the floor gave way beneath
their feet and his father disappeared.
from his sight. The young man had
just time to Chamber out of the window,
and as the house tipped over crawled up
lis side to the roof just as the building
broke up, leaving him but o fragment to
cling to for his life, and on he went sail
ing down that awfnl food in full sight
of his wife and children, who, as they
looked on in terror and agony, expected
m~omentarily to see him sink beneath
the surging mass. In q few seconds his
frail raft was crushed like an egg-shell,
but his presence of mind never desert.
ed him. He jumped for another, and
when that was gone for yet another.
He vas fastening down with the current
at q terrific speed, and, intent on the
fearful task he had in hand, neve once
thought of the dams toward which he
was fastening. The first one is reached
in the awful crash and jam. He is
hurled seemingly twenty feet in the air
to come down and be submerged for the
first time far beneath the waves. As he
came to the surface and clasped another
piece of driftwood he realized with an
intensity un~imaginable by those whose
lives have never been impeiiled that
another and higher dam was but q short
distance below, and that he had abso-
lutely no hope for life nnless he escaped
from the flood before that point was
reached, but fortunately the swollen
mass Of water and debris at that mo-
ment surged toward the shore, and seiz-
ing an opportunity, which seemed to
be prOvidentially presented, he clam
bered across some broken roofs, which
served him as a bridge, and with q leap
again had q fOothold on the earth. The
feelings of a man, who, like him had
scarcely a hope of life on finding him
self escaped from the jaws of death,
cannot be depicted. Only a cool and
intrepid man could have passed through
that experience, and possibly Mr.. Dun
ming could not but for his experience
before as q raftsman in Canadian waters.
He had been swept half a mile down the
river, and was utterly exhausted by the
strain on mind and body, nerve
and muscle, yet as he lay on the bank
a moment to get his breath, he could
not suppress a smile at the appearance
of a man who escaped from tho flood
near the same place by seizing hold Of
the limbs of a large tree on the bank.
though he was, this man went up
the tree like q squirrel, and did not stop
till he was at least 80 feet above the
MI. Dunning describes, as the most
remarkable ..incident of the memorable
ride, the heart-rending screams and
groans { women and children in houses
that w~e-leSyept down with him and
seemed to be beneath him. He says
they will ring in his eareS |yae latest
day Of his life. ~