Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-06-08

crash, roar as of a mighty food, 6
!; sound that filled the air and prevented
the group at the bridge from hearing
each other, sound unlike anything ever
heard by mortal. Mehitable darted
across the bridge, ran up knoll, looked
away up the creek and suddenly retracted
her steps, flying toward her parents,
crying out:
"There is white wall rolling down
the creek-an awful sightp'
| A minute later the white wall moved
down on the bridge. Then they knew
what it meant. ALI the water of the
valley had gathered in the defile; had
| been damned up in the Devils Bottle.
The terrific cloudburst expended its
force in an area that shed all into the
defile. The defileclogged, more material
was hurled upon the Instructions; all the
loose, floating material in the valley
| swept upon the mill-site, and swept mill
and cottages down, their wrecks helping
to cork up the Devils Bottle. Then
when millions upon millions of gallons of
water were massed, their weight bore all
| before then, and the waters marched
down the remainder Of the valley solid
wall Of flying timber, huge stones, trees
and debris of farms before them.
The bridge disappeared in the hun
dredth part of second. The waters
rose height of eighteen or twenty feet,
| spreading out over the bottom valley,
then suddenly receded.
A mighty tree near the bridge was half
torn from it's roots, but the topmost
branches extended far over the water.
AS the terrified group looked upon this
terrible sight horse was swept past
them. It struggled gallantly for its
life. Dan Young said aloud: "Pray
God no lives are lost"
At that instant his wife shrieked:
"See, Dan, there's manr' Dan
| looked, and saw what made his heart
throb suddenly man, clinging to a
log, battling with the rushing waters that
boiled and seethed about him. He
shouted to him. The man turned and
looked, and in the gray darkness Dan
thought it was young Northup.
" Ii l could get out on that tree"
1t won't bear you," said Mehitable.
And before her mother could preventher,
the girl was clambering out on the tree.
She sprang rather than felt her way
among the branches until she was among
the topmost. Then she twisted herself
about one strong branch, how, she never
knew, but she was just in the nick of
time to seize George Northup as he was
borne down under her. He chung des-
perately,to her with dying man grasp,
then slowly grasped the branch next
| ho11 70 &ho&
while Mehitable held fast to the other.
Dan Young and wife looked on this
scene with bated breath; then the father
ran to the barn, and back again with a
plow line, which he contrived to cast to
the two In the tree top. Mehitable, with
her own hands, passed the line around
Northup's body, and tied it, using her
teeth III her desperation. Then she made
a sign to her father, and five seconds
later Northup was lying upon the solid
earth, far out of the reach of the treach-
erous water
George Northup was the sole one out
Of seventeen who escaped drowning in
the Devils Bottle. His life he owed to
Mehitable Young. It was entirely In
keeping with romance that he should re-
cite all the circumstances to his parents,
closing with the declaration that he
would marry her if she would accept
him.. When the inhabitants of Raccoon
valley heard they we're to be married
they said the young Bostonian was for.
tunate to get wife with the independ.
ence and spirit of Mehitabel Young.
His father said better thing to Dan
Young on their wedding night when he
said his son had made him pay hundred
dollars an acre for the Walnut Belt, and
then married the woman who got the
money.