Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-05-20

sheets, waiting for friends to identify them.
Long strings of teams, filled with curious
strangers, are crossing and recrossipg the
river, where it flows over the new bed 1t has
made for itself Now and then wagon
comes in loaded with dead bodies just recov-
cred. Great loads of coffns are continually
arriving, and the hearse goes briskiy back
and forth, followed by few mourners on
| foot. The people have too much to do to
mourn long. and the funerals, though many,
are brief. Under the hemlocks, in the great
cemetry on the hilltop, they are digging
thirty new graves. The clothes are all
wanted for the living, and the dead are buried
| in nothing but winding sheets as OF old.
| Vaudeville seems to have been unfortu.
patev situated between two river curves, and
hence, at one end of the town, is to be seen
the effects of the madly rushing torrent in a
sweep Of highlands at the other, the effects of
| the devastating under-current of the backwa-
| ter, as it receded from and finally leaped over
the lower bank. 1t was about eight o'clock
| when the flood came down, and to use the words
of spectator ga man lived a lifetime before
nine o'clock" The brass works were first
swept, by a wall of debris from fifteen to
twenty feet high, and with the added momen-
tum the flood went over the road bed, devas-
tating lawns and porticos of houses, leaving
boiler 1000 feet from its original position,
and placing it on an elevated spot in front OF
a house, tearing out the stone sides of the
river and placing the boulders in the bed Of
the channel or on the sidewalk, and sweep
ing men, women, and children into eternity.
Wooden houses were seen to come bounding
along like corks, and from the interior Of
more than one was heard the shrieks of wives
and daughters, whom their husbands and
fathers had left a few moments before in
| r ....r,A l. Il,
alyzed every beholder.
The most frightful havoc of all, as regards
extent of damage to property, took place in
Skinnersville. Though fever lives were lost
there than elsewhere. Only three houses are
left standing in the village.
The following graphic description of
the catastrophe conveys an idea Of
the terrible scene. About seven o'clock
the Waterman at the dam discovered a small
leak near the base, but such things had been
seen before and caused no great uneasiness.
In a few moments, however, the trickling
stream began to run faster and wider; con
siderable gap appeared, and then the guard
suddenly realized the imminence Of the disas-
ter. He started on a run for Williamsburg
Long before he could traverse the two miles
of down hill road, a loud rumbling noise went
up behind him, the whole embankment gave
way, anu uuSt wall vi iOdiilR Woteio sh spy
down the valley from hill to hill The mo-
ton of the great mass was not so swift but
what the Waterman could save himself by es-
Gaping up the hill side, and thence he watched
the progress Of the destruction against which
he was powerless to utter word of warning.
In the little village below the operatives ha d
fairly begun their work for the day; the mills
were alive with busy workmen; there were
the monotouous whirr of wheels, the buzz of
spindle and loom, and all the mutitudinous
sounds that go to make up the monotone Of
industry in such hive of activity and ener
gy. In that busy little community of $500
souls there were few who were not up and
abroad at this hour Of the morning. For none
of them was there any warning OF the peril
which, back Of them on the hills, came sweep
ing down bearing ruin, destruction, and death.
Not until the tremendous bore so feet high
and of the width of the valley, throwing up
spray like smoke and bearing great mass of
timber, earth, and stone in its teeth, was in
sight and fairly lowering over them did they
apprehend their danger. Looking up al it
then in the horrible moment ofagony that was
left them there was no escape. Toward the
coming flood there was no possible outlet
Only death in that direction. On either side
toward the hills-oh, so far away-they
looked in vain. The hill of waters fanaed
them, and hope on either side was cut off.
Down the valley there was no chance for the
fieetest rider to outrun the hungry monster
that came roaring after. 1t was moment of
deadlest terror. Hemmed in, surrounded,
overwhelmed, what could they do? There
was nothing left but to raise white faces and
imploring hands to Heaven, and to Gods
mercy leave their fate.
The great ghastly horror of that dawn
l. -. l. c., aLr ;nly, rs
women and children, the dumb helpless con-
sternation Of strong men, the roar of the rush.
ing waters, and the crash of timbers, the
writhng, gurgling, and drowning of the vic
tins as they were seized up, whirled onward,
crushed, and swallowed up in the flood beggar
description. Here was no slowly rising
stream, driving its victims incl. by inch from
floor to floor, till they waited on the roof to
be delivered from the encroachng tide; nor
was it confagration driving the terror
stricken inhabitants from house to house and
from street to street until it had laid a city in
ashes. These are calamties which, appalling
though they be, give at least sign of warning
and a chance of escape. But here was a viii
lage that woke with overwhelming destruction
on its head that left them hardly time to pray
before it swallowed them up in very hurry
burly of death. The water they had stored
up anu Heli pdth tndt IL ulSuL tuih tueI
wheels and do their bidding had risen against
its masters, and with the angry roar of an in
surgent mob had come down upon them with
out any thought of mercy.
And the tremendous power of this vast vol
ume of water can hardly be conceived. The
great stones in the dam and in the foundations
of buildings were tossed about by it like peb-
bles. 1t seized deep-rooted trees and whirled
them out of the ground a man might firt
half planted shrub from its place. 1t plunged
against massive walls, and as they tottered
and fell, it caught great blocks of masonry
and flung them far and wide in the track of
its fury. 1t burrowed under the heavy boil
ers that by the derricks and jackscrews and
powerful machinery had been slowly and la
boriously set in their places it tossed them up
like feathers, and using them as batteTing
rams, carried them aloit in its arms with a
great sweep Of destruction and death as it
went. If lifted buildings from their founda-
tons, and crushing them together, scattered
their fragments, iron and mortar and brick
and stone, all through the fair valley it tray
ersed. The boarding houses ofthe operatives
and the residences of the capitalists, it plucked
up and whirled together, in a drifting undis-
tinguishable mass. 1t gathered reinforce
ments for its work as it swept along; it took