The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-05-29
In the Jatcs of Death.
j MARVELLOUS ESCAPE FROM THE GREAT
FLoOD-A FEARFUL RIDE.

The marvellous escape of young Dunning
at Leeds has already been alluded to, but
his story is so interesting that it is worth
giving in detail. When the alarm was
given he WAS at work in the spool room of
the NOuotuck silk works, and. rushing
out Of the MILL his first thought, of course,
was for his family. He found that his
father wife and three children had left the
house. He shouted to them to run for
.heir lives, at the same time pointing to
them what direction to take. His wife
aud children obeycd him and were saved
but his father, an old man ofseventy-
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.
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 its side to the roof just as
the building broke up, leaving him but a
fragment to cling to for his life, and on
he went sailing down that awful food in
full sight of wife and children, who as
they looked on in terror and agony, ex-
pected momentar;ly to see him sink be-
meath the surging mass. In few seconds
his frail raft was crushed like an egg shell,
but his presence of mind never deserted
him. He jumped for another, and when
that was gone, for yet another. He was
Fastening down with the current at ter
rifle speed, and intent on the fearful task
he had on hand, never 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 sub
merged for the first time far beneath the
waves. As he came to the surface again
and clasped another piece of drift wood he
realized with an intensity unimaginable
by these whose lives have never been i'm
periled that another and higher dam was
but short distance below and tnat he
had absolutely no hope for life unless he
escaped from the flood before that point
was reached, but fortunately the swollen
mass of water and debris at that moment
surged toward the shore, and seizing an
[ opportunity, which seemed to be proYi-
dentially presented, he clambered across
some broken roots, which served him as a
/ bridge, and with leap again had foot
hold on the earth. The feelings ola man,
| who, like him, had scarcely hope of life,
! on finding he had escaped from the jaws
/ of death cannot be depicted. Only q cool
and intrepid man could have passed through
| that experience, and possibly Mr.. Dunning
could not but for his experiences as a rafts-
! man IN Canadian waters. He had been
swept half a mile down the river and was
! utterly exhausted by the intense strain on
mind and body, nerve and muscle, yet as
/ he lay on the bank for moment to get
breath he could not suppress a smile at
! the appearance of a man who escaped
! from the food near the same place by
seizing hold of the limbs of large tree on
/ the bank. Fleshy though he was, this
man went up that tree ike a squirrel, and
did not stop till he was at least thirty feet
! above the water. Mr.. Dlnning describes,
! as the most appalling incident of the men,
oriable ride, the heart rending screams
! and groans of women and children in
/ houses that were swept down with him
and seemed to be beneath him. He says
| they will ring in his ears till the end of his
! life.