Wichita eagle., 1890-01-08

L a
orchestrated by Berlioz: fInvitation la
Valse, with its marvellous musical swing!
| "Waltzingr cried the captain. 'God
| help them!-God help US all now! .
! The Wind waltzes tonight, with the Sea
| for his partnerf'
o the stupendous Valse Tourbillon!
| o the mighty Dancer! One-two-
three! From northeast to east, from
east to southeast, from southeast to
| south; then from the south he came,
whirling the Sea in his arms.
Some one shrieked in the midst of the
revels; some girl who found her pretty
| slippers wet. What could it be? Thin
streams of water were spreading over
the level planking, curling about the
feet of the dancers. = What
could it be? All the land had begun to
quake, even as, but a moment before,
the polished floor was trembling to the
pressure of circled steps; all the build
ing shook now; every beam uttered its
groan!
There was clamor, a panic, a rush to
the windy night. Infinite darkness above
and beyond; but the lantern-beams
danced far out over an unbroken circle
of heaving and swirling black water.
Stealthily, the measureless sea-food was
rising.
"Messieurs-mesdames ce nest rien.
Nothing serious, ladies, assure you.
Mais nous en- avons WI bien souvent, les
inondations CONNIE celle-ci; ca passe
vite! The water viii go down in a few
hours, ladies; it never rises higher than
this; il ny pas lie moindre danger, je
is that"
For a moment there was ghastly
hush of voices. And through that hush
there burst upon the ears OF all a fearful
and unfamiliar sound, as of colossal
cannonade, rolling up from the south,
with volleying ightnings. Vastly and
swiftly, nearer and nearer it came, a
ponderous, unbroken thunder roll, terri
bic as the long muttering of an earth
quake.
The nearest mainland, across mad
Caillou bay, lay twelve miles north;
west, by the gulf, the nearest ground
was twenty miles. There were boats,
yes!-but the stoutest swimmer might
never reach them now!
Then rose frightful cry, the hoarse,
hideous, indescribable cry Of hopeless
fear, the despairing animal CRY man ut
ters when suddenly brought face to face
with Nothingness, without preparation,
ii
Of respite. Sauve qui peut! Some
wrenched down the doors, some clung
to the heavy banquet tables, to the sofas,
to the billiard tables; during one terrible
instant, against fruitiess heroisDls,
against futile generosities, ragged all the
frenzy of selfshness, all the brutalities
Cf panic. And then-then came, thun-
dering through the blackness, the giant
swells, boom on b0omi One crash!-the
huge frame building rocks like cradle,
seesaws, crackles. What are human
shrieks now?-the tornado is shriel1ing!
Observation-Disclosures splinter; lights
are dashed out; sweeping cataract
hurls in; the immense hall rises-oscil-
lates-twirls as upon pivot, crepitates
-crumbleS into ruin. Crash again.
the swirIing wreck dissolves into the
wallowing of another monster billow;
and hundred cottages overturn, spin
in sudden eddies, CULVER, disjoint, and
melt into the seething.
So the hurricane passed, tearing off
the heads OF the prodigious waves. to
hurl them a hundred feet in air, heaping
up the ocean against the land, upturning
the woods. Bays and PASSES were swollen
TO abysses, rivers IegOrged, the sea
marshes were changed to raging wastes
OF water. Before New Orleans the food
of the mile broad Mississippi rose six
feet above the highest water mark. One
hundred and ten miles away, Donaldson
vile trembled at the towering tide of
the Lafourche. Lakes strove to burst
their boundaries. Far off steamers
tugged wildly at their cables, shivering
like feathered creatures that hear by
night the approaching howl of destroy
ers. Smollestacks were hurled over
board, pilot houses torn away, cabins
blown to fragments.
Ailu oNCi iOIt-L -LLis5 MILL 4DuIA dSS, over
the agony Of Gallon Bay, the billowing
tide rushed unresisted from the gulf,
tearing and swallowing the land in its
course, plowing out deep sea channels
where sleek herds had been grazing but
few hours before, rending islands in
twain, and ever bearing with it, through
the night, enormous vortex of wreck
and vast wan drift of corpses.
But the Star remained. And Capt
Abraham Smith, with a long good rope
about his waist, dashed again and again
into that awful surging to snatch vic
tins from death; clutching at passing
hands, heads, garments, in the cataract
sweep of the seas; saving, aiding, cheer
inS, though blinded by spray and bat
tered by drifting wreck, until his
strength failed in tie unequal struggle at
last, and his men drew him aboard sense
less, with some beautiful half drowned
girl in his arms But wellnigh two
score souls had been rescued by him; and
the Star stayed on through it all.
Long years after the weed grown ribs of
her graceful skeleton could still be seen
rurying up from the sanddunes of Last
CsIanu, III witness OF how well she STAYED.
Day breaks through the flying wrack,
over the infinite heaving of the sea, over
low land vast with desolation 1t is a
spectral dawn, a wan light, like that of
dying sun.
The wind has waned and veered; the
food sinks slowly back to It's abysses,
abandoning its plumbers, scattering It's
piteous waits over bar and dune, over
shnal onA nal, n,----..-- l.. IL a.-,e. -