The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-06-26
THE CoNEMAUGE FLOOD.
The Stupendous Power Of Water Strik-
ingly Illustrated.

The stupendous power of water was
never more forcibly Illustrated than in
the Conemaugh Valley. AS the liquid
sparkles in the dew drop, when con-
gealed clinkS merrily in the glass and
invites the weary and heavily laden to
rest and refreShment, as it sings in the
tea kettle song that to the eXpectant
| hungry man is sweeter than the sweetest
notes from the most successful diva, it
gives no hint of the strength it exhibits
! when its particles are combined and
made mad at the criminal carelessness
of man. 4 correspondent of the Globe
Democrat has recently been going over
the path plowed by the food from the
South Fork dam and what he saw he
tells in terms that are graphic. He de
scribeS where in one place a locom olive,
that probably weighed not less than sixty
tons, had been picked up by the
resistless tide at the Pennsylvania round
house and carried distance of two and
| 4 half miles and thrown down on Vine
street, in Johnstown, and then he NOR
allies: "Cyclones have overturned en-
gines, and floods have moved them from
their tracks, but where is there prece-
dent for such trip" This engine was
| not rolled along as powders are rolled
smooth on the botio Of some rapidly
running stream, for it was not dlsman-
| tied and ruined, as it would necessarily
have been had such been its experience.
1t was picked up like an eggShell, and
rushed along with the rest of the endless
wrecks of houses, of factories and every
thing else that seemed firm and stable.
With the iron tracks and ties. so
thoroughly imbedded in the road ballast
| that it seemed as if nothing but an earth
| convulslon like that sustained at
Charleston could move them, the floods
toyed as ii they had been nothing but
spiders webs spanning d half dozen frail
straws. In one spot the waves lifted
| one side of the track with gradual
slope until the ties stood almost perpcn-
| dicular aud with the rails in position
formed what at distance looked tike
| powerful picket fence. There is spot
| in the bed of the river" says the CORES
| poudent, where gigantic granite bowl
| OcI SIOOO tlSuG 1eeC III OidLliStCA aiit ~ y
feet high. It's general shape was rounded
so that ary ordinary object striking it
would glance Off a wave struck that
bowlder and split it in two, carrying
part of it a dozen rods downstream.
There are acres of territory in the
Conemaugh Valley from which all soil
has been as thoroughly stripped as il Il
river had flowed over it for a million
years. The soil is not only gone, hut
the earth and rocks in places to a depth
of six, eight and ten feet. Streets there
were in this valley whose length was
measured by the mile. There were
shade trees of aalf century's growth on
each side and beneath them were 10
Gated beautiful houses. One of the
streets IN particular as boulevard had
made the valley famous. There IS now
no vestige of it left; not board or brick
to mark a house, not a stone to indicate
foundation wall, not a root to tell
where once grew au elm or maple.
Everything was swept away and the
country there is as barren Of vegetation
or possibilities of vegetation as the bot
tom of a coal mine. This tremendous
Titan of the Conenaugh laughed at
gravitation's laws as giant would
laugh at the resistance of an atom
| Ciecin1aati Times Star.