Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-20
THE MOSES OF THE FLOOD.
Little Baby Williams Who Was Born at
JOhustowu,

youngstown.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer.l
An infant has been an honored guest of
the Children's Aid Society in thi; city, at
the neat and pretty home, No. 1928 Bar
ker street. The home is in charge of Mrs
John Griffiths and her daughter, Mrs.
Marter. The distinguished baby is Moses
Flood Williams, and he was born on the
first day of the Johnstown flood, and I'M
der remarkable circumstances. THE street
is crazy over the little thing" said Mrs.
Griffiths yesterday. 'The market people
on Nineteenth street offered me 500 to get
Mrs. Williams to let the little one go to
the market so they could exhibit it to the
people It's little beauty"
Mrs. Grifith's eyes sparkled as she
spoke of her charge. She gave this ac-
count of the birth of the baby, which is
one of the almost incredible incidents of
the food
When the food struck Johnstown Mrs.
Williams was confined to her bed. Her
husband, who was in the employ of the
Cambria Iron Works. had just come home
to change his dress, and was in the bed
room with his wife when the rush and
shouting of " The dams bursted; fly for
your life?" reached his ears. He realized
what was coming, so, grabbing his wife
from the bed with only her night clothes
on, and pulling along his three children,
they made their way to the roof, and had
hardly got there, wher, with swish and
whirr, the house was torn from its founda-
lions and was washed away in the flood.
% 1t rolled and tossed" said Mrs. Will
liams to me, "struck up against other
houses, toppled over, as if it would sink;
and then slashed up against trees, carrying
them away by the roots. My husband had
me around the waist with his right arm,
while with the other he hung to the Chin
ney. The children were made fast to his
body by tearing up our night clothes into
strips, and the littlest one he tied to his
neck. So we drifted and drifted Some
times we would come within almost
touching distance of the shore on the
mountain side, and the next we would be
shot out into the swish and whirr of the
flood again. 1t was half-past s, or there
abouts, the next morning, when we were
flung high and dry, on the mountain side.
was cold, half naked, and my children,
poor BARNS, they had cried themselves to
sleep, while my poor man looked as if his
eyes were shooting out of their sockets.
/ cannot tell you how felt. We man
aged to get ashore and the only house we
could find standing had already ffty-two
people in it. To that house l was taken
i could not walk, and they had hardly put
me on the floor of the house when | more
than realized [ was to become mother.
My old man asked if there was physician
present Everybody said "No" While
he was going among the crowd a tin roof
was washed up to the same spot, and man
and two women jumped ashore. Someone
said: He is a physician Ny husband
rushed to him, and sure enough he was
one. The case was explained to him. Ny
child was born, and | and all of US in that
cottage got down on our knees and thanked
God for his merciful saving of mine and
the baby's life" Then the poor thing, as
she told me this, would cry as if her heart
would break
eyes," interrupted the daughter, "but
the best part of the whole affair was the
baptism. The child was baptized by the
Rev. DR.. Bealse, and it was that part of it
that was so funny. The minister suggested
that it be called Noah, but the father
and mother objected, and suggested they
would like it called Moses for, as the
father said, 1T was found in the bull
rushes.' So it was baptized Moses Flood
Williams"
"The child was born with only the Iisht
from the wreck at the bridge" added Mrs
Grihiths. "For nearly two days neither
the mother nor the children had morse
to eat, and they were all half-naked. Gu
of the ffty-two people in that house, ther,
were only two that could entirely cove
their nakedness. 1t was terrible"