The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-06-05

reach Of the approaching danger, she stood
by the instrument with unfnching loyalty
and undaunted courage, sending words OF
warning to those in danger in the valley be-
low. When every station in the path of
the coming torrent had been warned she
wired her companion at South Fork; "This
is my last message and as such it shall
always be remembered, as at that very mo-
ment the torrent engulfed her and bore her
from her post on earth to her post OF honor
in the great beyond The most awful de-
struction in a single house occurred at the
Hurlbut hotel. There were fifty-seven peo-
pie in the house when the torrent came
down, and of these only ten are living
PATHETIC INCIDENTS.
ONE Of the pathetic scenes Of the day was
a man and his wife who drew from a mass
OF rubbish part of a cradle. They looked
at it moment in silence, and then fell to
weeping in each others arms for the loved
little one that was gone.
SCENES of terror and despair were wit
messed along the bank. Two men on tiny
raft shot out into the swiftest part of the
current. They crouched stolidly looking at
the shores, while between them, dressed in
white and kneeing with her face turned
heavenward, was a girl six or seven years
old. She seemed stricken with paralysis
until she came opposite a railroad tower,
and then she turned her face to the operator.
She was so close they could see big tears on
her cheeks, and her pallor was as death.
The helpless men on the shore shouted to
her to keep up her courage, and she re-
sumed her devout attitude and disappeared
under the trees of projecting point a short
distance below. Said spectator: Scores
of children have been swept in there.
| believe that when the time comes they will
find almost a hundred bodies of children in
! there among those bushes
! A HANDSOME woman, with hair as black
as a ravens wing, walked through the de-
| pot where a dozen or more bodies were
awaiting burial Passing from one to
another, she finally lifted the paper cover
| ing from the face of woman, young and
with traces of beauty showing through the
stains of muddy water. With a cry of
anguish she reeled backward, to be caught
| by rugged man who CHANGED to be passing.
In moment or so she had Gained herself
sufficiently to take one more look at the
| features OF her dead. She stood gazing at
the unfortunate as if dumb. Finally turn
ing away with another wild burst of grief,
she said " And her beautiful hair all
matted and her sweet face so bruised and
stained with mud and waterl" The dead
woman was the sister of the mourner. The
body was placed in coffin a few minutes
later and sent away to its narrow house
AN utterly wretched woman stood by a
muddy pool of water on Sunday trying to
find some trace Of a once happy home. She
was half-crazed with grief and her eyes
| were req ana swollen. AS the writer
stepped to her side, she raised her pale and
haggard face and remarked: "They are
all gone o God, be merciful to them! My
husband and my seven dear little children
have been swept down with the flood and
am left alone. We were driven by the
raging flood into the garrett, but the water
followed us there. Inch by inch it kept
rising, until our heads were crushed against
the roof 1t was death to remain. So |
raised a window and one by one placed my
darlings on some drft-wood, trusting to the
great Creator. As | liberated the last one,
my sweet little boy, he looked at me and
said; Mamma, you always told Inc that
the Lord would care for me- will he look
after me now?' / saw him drift away with
his loving face turned toward me, and with
a prayer on my lips for his deliverance he
passed from my sight forever. The next
moment the roof crashed in and | tioated
outside, to be rescued, fifteen hours later,
from the roof of house in Kearnvlle. Ii
| could only find one of my darlings | could
bow to the will of God, but they all are
gone. / have lost everything on earth now
but my life, and l will return to my old
Virginia home and lay me down for my
last great sleep" These incidents are but
fair samples of the scenes familiar to every
turn in the stricken city.