Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-09-04

asked was given ana oven JWlco OK
tended,
Then some tcchnicality in the law or |
the papers in tho case was discovered, |
and still further time consumed.
BY this time the fall rains had COM
mcnced, and few days later the gorge |
above the dam was full, not of water |
alone, but of earth and stones, which,
pressing against that hastily built |
structure, swept it away and went |
pouring over the valley and farm lands |
below.
The bed of the creek was at once |
filled with sand and gravel Brush and |
timbers from the broken dam, together |
with whole trees washed down by tho |
operations at the mines, were swept |
along with the current and, finding |
lodgment, formed barrier which in |
turn banked up tho water and earth |
behind it, until over whole farms the |
worthless soil from the mountains rose |
to depth of ten or twelve feet, bury |
ing orchards and vineyards, and even |
some small buildings beneath the &c
cumulatcd mass.
Poweress to stay its course, John
and Martha Parsons saw the flood OF |
death rise about them. Saw first their |
lower fields flooded and made valaelcss. |
Then saw the flood rise about the |
grapc-vines until they were buried
from sight, and tho mass of earth and
water, rising more slowly now, reached
tho orchard and the higher grounds
upon which stood the cottage with its
outlying farm buildings.
Day by day they watched the horri-
bic mass close in about them.
Now the topinost limbs of the peach
trees alone appeared in sight, and then
disappeared entirely.
AT night the garden fence had been
reached; in the morning it was a foot
deep within the incosure, and was rap
idly approaching the door yard from
three sides.
Now it reaches the front gate, creeps
through the latticcd fence and up the
gravel walk. One by one the flower
beds disappear, swallowed up by the
horrible anaconda that is winding its
folds about the doomed cottage, whose
inmates watch its approach in helpless
agony, knowing that no human power
can prevent the total destruction of all
that years of toll and economy. had en-
abled them to accumulate.
3 What is to be done?
Already dozen of the neighbors
have been driven from their houses and
are domiciled in those more remote
9 from the scene of the overflow, or are
1 camping out among the hills overlook
ing their desolate homes.
A few more days and the ocean of
Y mud and water will enter their own
+ cottage; where shall they seek for ref
t ugeP
There is no one in the cottage now
d but John and Martha Parsons and the
t crippled boy: the young girl who was
o with them for time having returned
+ to her own home, and Jennie and Lucy
: being still in San Francisco.
D Evidently the girls could not long re-
o main at school now, for their parents
IS had no longer any means of paying
l, their expenses. Every dollar of the in
n come of the past year had been ex-
a pended in paying for work upon the
dam and in the effort to obtain the
:, Injunction, and but fifty dollars re-
l. mained in bank of that once laid aside
$ to aid Erastus, now upon his own
claim at the Slough.
II 1.-The girls must come home" Mrs
10 Parsons had said when word came
'i that the dam had broken and all was
Is lost.
1t "We must send for them, father. il
le we are to lose everything we can not
L pay their expenses in the city any long
N er, and if you will take it to the Office
ID will write letter at once, telling them
III to come by the first boat"
at But her husband pointed to the lake
is of mud and water, already six or eight
H. feet deep. over the road across the
creek bottom.
ne "Wc can't git to the landing" he
IA -, t1,nf
Mt stuff fore he got halfway to the bridge"
IN "Then we must go to the landing
c. above. Can't you get some of the
Sc neighbors to go for you2 Mr. Ritche's
to Henry will 20, | think. You know
~ they are not in us much danger yet us
we are"
;h ~ kin git some one to go, s'pect,
Is Marty" replied her husband; Il kir
n cit some one TO 20, reckon, but there
r amt no home fer the girls to come to
lc cr ther won't be by the time they uC
m git the letter and git here"
q "Oh, John! John! is it possible that
Id we have lost everythng!' sobbed Mrs
Parsons, dropping into chair ant
n burying her face in her apron.
le John Parsons made no reply, and
re after few moments his wife checked
X her sobs and rais ne her head asked:
h "Is there no wayp Can not the dan
IN be rebuilt and made strong enough ant
high enough to stop this awful de
m struction of the homes of honest peo
IS ple?"
e, II reckon we've did everything tina
ct kin be done" ho returned, ''eXcept i
til is to push for the Injunction on thu
,h companies, and that amt any use now
hs that the damage is done; and as fer the
I'd dam, why the hull gulch is chock-ful
y. o. slickens and stuff, and there ain t NJ
It, possible chance of doin' anything.
IT. mo, wife, he added in hopeles
III tone of voice, ''there can't nothin' b,
done. We're driv out agin by them a
IN cares nothin' for others, or who thinl
OF that nothin' is wrong that the law cam
nc punish 'em for, and we have got t,
us work hard in our old age and may b.
OF die in n poor-house at the end. Ii
e, wasn't for you and Johnny shoult
O. wish were dead already, and l don
mt see AS there is any use in my liyin' an.
p longer anyway, for can't seem to per
ke tect them rs is dependent on me, thougl
ID the Lord knows I've tried to do it, "
CO Mrs. Parsons arose and came and pu
her arms around his neck and laid he
On head upon his shoulder.
VIZ you have done all you could, John
',;aa and all anybody could have done" sh
as u, said, ''and you must not feel so, dear
VI IL is better for us thousand times +
- lose the place and everything on it THAI
81 to lose you" And then, seeing tn
H. tears start in his eyes, she added: ''Don'
ry cry, dear. We have each other yet
or and the children, and will manag
lte some way. The girls will probabl
Us marry soon, so that they will not sui
ad fer greatly by the loss of the ranch, an
ng we shall then have only ourselves an
10. Johnny TO provide for. and ii we live t