River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1874-06-05
THE ASHFlELD FLOOD.
The Calamity toreshnJowea ih hamnr
Frnm TIRE ih,innati Gazette.


Frrr TIRE in,innati Gazette.
\ we'll worn proyerb says that truth
is stranger than fiction, but fiction
sometiD strangely anticipates truth.
Gun telegraph columns describe the
fearful destruction OF life and property
oecassioned by the bursting of a reser-
yolr covering $50 acres of ground and
thirty feet deep, few miles from
Haydenville, Mass. A similar disaster
forms one of the most thrilling episu,lpg
of Charles Reade's novel, "Put Yourself
in His Place" 0usley dam had been
weakened by frost, and the mill owner
was advised to open the sluice oh the
| water pipes md relieve the pressure.
"The embankment, the novelist tells
us, huge as it was, was not SO high by
several hundred feet as nature builds
IN parallel cases, and, beside the ratu.
raj pressure of the whole water. the
upper surface uf the lake was being driy-
en- ny The wind against the upper or thin
part OF the embankment. Tho slliit,,
pipes were opened with Vast effort. and
the ground tremblcd violently. and
the water US it rushed out Of the pipes.
roared like discharges of artillery. II
was Thought that all danger had been
ayerted, but soon thin shee, % water
began 81" @tyc.im down over the center
/ ~ the embankment and trickle down
/ The quantity was nothing, but il alarm
4 Ell him, the director of operations,
Having no special knowledge az these
matters, he was driven TO comparisons
and II flashed across him that when he
/ was boy and used 10 make little mud
/ dams 10 April, they would resi-t the
tiny streams until It trickied over them,
aud from That moment their fate was
sealed. This thought filed him with
alalu-, and not without reason. A
/ few minutes ,dter 1.-THE water was pour
'n5 over he top, still in thin sheet.
but then that sheet was gradually Wild
enIng. The rchs ABOVE kept charging
AMI deepening at fearful rate, the
rent IN the top of the eubankment
spread, deepened, yawned terrifcallv.
and the pent up lake plunged through,
aud swept away at once TIE center EN-
bankment rushed, roaring and kissing
down the valley, an avalanche Of water.
Whirling great trees up by the roots and
sweeping huge rocks away, and driving
them, Ike corks, for miles. -
The Massachusetts, disaster did not
occur from precisely the some circum-
stances Ms that imagined by the English
novelist hut IT'S general occasion was
the sNmc-the inability of the walls 10
resist the pressure of the water. The
elect, however, was singularly alike.
as will be seen 10y the following para
I graphs, quoted from large description
SO interviewer with the plot of the story
ms not to he susceptible of reproduction
/ uuabrigcd
" At an appalling sound. that kissing
| thunder. the like Of which he had meyer
heard before, and hopes never To hear
again, Ransome spurred away ~ all ms
speed, and warned the rest of the village
with loud, inarticulatc cries: he would
not wait 10 speak, nor was il necessary.
Vt the top OF the hill he turned a mo.
ment, and looked up the valley soon
ne saw lofty white wall running down
on Hatfield mill it struck the mill. and
left nothing visible but the roof
surrounded lay white foam. Another
moment and lac distinctly saw the mill
swim yard or two, then disappear and
leave no trace. and on came tho white
wall, kissing and laundering. Ransome
uttered a cry Of horror, aud gallopcd
madly forward to save what lives he
might. As ho gallopcd along, his mind
worked. llc observed the valley wider
IN places, and he hoped the flying lake
would spread and lose some of that
tremendous volume and force before
which he had seen Hatfield stone mill
20 down With this hope. he galloped
ON, and reached poma Bridge. five
mules from the reservoir. Here, tO his
dismay, ne heard the kissing, thunder
ing sound as nolr t. him rs when he
halted ON the hill above Damnask, but
he could see nothing, owing tu turn
IN the valley Then he dashed across
the bridge. As he crossed it, he caught
sight of the lying lake once moro he /
hod gone over more ground, hut he had |
gone NO further. lie saw the white |
wall strike Dchnau's farm: there was |
a light in one window now. lie say |
the farmhouse, with It's own light. |
swim bodily, then melt, and disappear |
with oil the poor souls in il. -
Tho scene after the subsistence of The /
water Is thus portrayed:
" All landmarks were gone; houses. !
trees hedges, all swept away; roads /
coNcrcdthreo feetwithrucks and stones. |
ami bricks and carcasscs. The pleas /
ant valley was one horrid quagnirc. in
which he could take few steps, without +
sticking orstumbling against some sure
Sign at destruction aud death. Within I
the compass of fifty yards he found
steam boiler and its appurtenances.