Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-06-12
Thrilling Incident of the Mill River
Disaster

Thrilling Inciuent oil the MIL hlNcr
Disaster
The marvellous escape of young Dun
ming at Leeds, has already been alluded
to, but his story is so interesting that 1t
is worth giving in detail. When the
alarm was given he was at work in the
spool room of the Nonotuck silk works.
Rushing out of the mill, his first thought,
of course, was for his family. He found
that his father, wife and three children
had all left the 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 safe; but his father, an old
man Of rs, thinking that something
might be got out of the house before the
flood reached it, went back. In dashed
his son after him, begging him to leave
the doomed building, and, why, he knows
not, raising one of the windows. As he
did so 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, crawl up its side to the
roof, as the building broke up, leaving
him but a fragment to cling to for his
life. And ON he went, sailing down that
awful flood in full sight of wife and
children, who, as they looked on in ter
ror and agony, expected momentarily to
see him sink beneath the surging mass.
In few seconds his frsil raft was crush
ed like an egg shell, but his presence Of
mind never deserted him, and he jumped
for another, and when that was gone yet
another. He was Fastening down the
current at terrific speed, and, intent ON
the fearful task he had in hand, never
once thought of the dams toward which
he was fastening. The first one is reach
ed. In the awful crash and jam be 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 again, and clssped
another piece of drift wood, he realized
with an intensity unimaginable by those
whose lives have never been imperiled
that another and higher dam was but &
short distance below, and that he hat
absolutely no hope for life, unless he es
capped from the flood before that poin
was reached. Most fortunately the swol
len mass Of water and debris is at thai
moment surged toward the shore, anC
seizing an opportunity which seemed t.
be providentially presented, he clamberec
across some broken roofs which served
him as bridge, and, with a leap, agair
had foothold on the earth. The feel
ings of man, who, like him, had scarce
ly hope of life, on finding himself es
capped from the jaws of death, cannot b.
depicted. Only cool aud intrepid maj
could have passed through that expert
ence, and possibly Mr.. Dunning coulC
not, but for his service years before, a
raftsman in Canadian waters. He haC
been swept half mile down the river
and was utterly exhausted by intens,
strain ON mind and body, nerve and mus
Gle yet as he lay ON the bank for mo
ment to get his breath, he could not sup
press smile at the appearance of mai
who escaped from the flood near thu
same place by seizing hold of the limb
of a large tree on the bank. Fleshy
though he was, this man went up tina
tree like squirrel, and did not stop til
he was at least thirty feet above the wa
ter Mr.. Dunning describes as the mos
appalling incident of that memorabl
tide, the heart-rending screams AM
groans of women and children in house
that we're swept down with him, ant
seemed to be beneath him. He say
they will ring in his ears to the lates
day of his life. Springfield Union.