The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-10-13
The Great Drought Of 1919.

4AC UACot DAUuSnu VI AOAVs
At Pleasant Hill, KY, I conversed
with an intelligent and pious Shaker.
who held to the doctrine of final perse-
verance In his undying faith in the good
ness of God, in not suffering total fail
ure of crops to occur. He was young
man in 1919, the year of the Great
Drought, when from early summer to
the middle of January there was no rain,
when the air was hot and dry, when the
clouds refused to form and be condensed
into showers, when the dew-point was
not seen, when the stagnant pools OF
water in creeks and branches became SO
thoroughly carbonized and miasmiferous
that the cattle died, and all vegetation
was utterly parched up and apparently
destroyed. During that terrible drought
the cattle became afflicted with the shot
weather itch," and thousands died, liter
ally tearing the skin from their sides and
backs in their frantic efforts to scratch
themselves to relieve the intolerable
itching. Deer and horses died with
black tongue; fowls and birds became
istless and stupefed, moped in despair,
lost their plumage, and died In utter
misery. Men, women and children grew
sick with disappointed hopes for the
healing showers. drinking the foul car
BOMBED water and eating dusty food, and
many died of disease not known before
or since. Maddened with the intolera-
BILE itch and frantic with eating the dry
and desiccated grass, deprived of all nu-
tritive elements by the long drought, the
cattle, sheep and horses roamed the
fields and through the forests, moaning
and bowling, or paving the earth in i'm
potent rage. Added to these horrors,
the fields and forests took fire and
burned for weeks and months. The air
was filed with smoke and ashes, produc-
ing another horror in the shape of some
form of ophthalmia that was almost in
tolerable.
Fresh vegetables were soon exhausted,
the cattle were too diseased to be used
for food, water was scarce and unfit to
drink, fires were raging, and the whole
population afflicted with disease in some
shape. This state of things lasted until
the middle of January, when the blessed
rain and the really beautiful snow came
and saved the country from utter ami
hilation. Louisville Coatrier-Jour-
nal.
The East River Bridge
The following dimensions of the vari-
GUS parts Of the great bridge spanning
the East river at Brooklyn and New
York will prove of interest:
Length of river span, 1856 feet 6
inches.
Length of each land span, $50 feet.
Length of Brooklyn approach, 971
feet.
Length of New York approach, 1862
feet inches.
Total length of bridge, $3.50 feet.
Width of bridge, 85 feet.
Number of cables, four.
Diameter of each cable, 15a inches.
Length of each single wire in cables,
3,578 feet inches.
Ultimate strength of each cable, 12,-
200 tons.
Weight of wire, 12 feet per pound.
Each cable contains 5, ,296 parallel (not
twisted) galvanized steel, oil-coated
wires, closely wrapped to solid cylin-
der 15a inches in diameter.
Size of towers at high-water line, 14O
x59 feet.
Size of towers at roof course, 136x53
feet.
Total height of towers above high wa
ter, 278 feet.
Clear height of bridge in center OF
river span above high water, 1876 feet.
Height of floor at towers above high
water, 119 feet inches.
Height of towers above roadway, 159
| feet.
New York tower contains 46, 945 cubic
| yards masonry.
Brooklyn tower contains SO, 214 cubic
yards masonry.
New York caisson weighs 1000 tons.
Weight of concrete filling, 5000 tons.
Size Of anchorages at base, 129x119
| feet.
Size of anchorages at top, 117x1O4
| feet.
Height of anchorages, SO feet front,
| IS feet rear.
Weight of each anchor plate, % tons.
First wire run across May 29, 1877.