Los Angeles herald., 1891-03-02
THE RIVERS WILD WORK
A SCENE OF DESTRUCTION AT THE
SAN GABRIEL.
Currents That Ran Deep and Wide and
Washed Out Everything in Their
Course.

Yesterday morning at s 80 two HER
AID reporters boarded the Santa Fe
train at the foot of First street, to visit
Mr.. II. A. Unruh at Arcadia. As the
train pulled out, General Manager X.
H. Wade OF the Santa Fe came in and
asked the news gatherers to go on with
him to the crossing of the San Gabriel.
"You can form no idea of the devasta.
ton wrought by the flood unless you
see this spot" said he. So the two re-
porters concluded to see the tracks left
by the terrible floods. All the way out
Mr.. Wade sat in the rear OF the last car,
and took very careful observation of
every bridge and cut along the
road. No weak spots escaped his
trained and watchful eve. FIRE.
quently where small river
had come down the slope and car
ried piece of the track, or trestle, he
would say: That is nothing. You do
not see the force of the storm until you
get to Duarte."
The train sped along until Monrovia
was passed and Duarte reached without
incident; but there one surely did see
the force of the flood. The waters rose
with more or less depth and force until
they flooded along through South Mon
rovia, or Chicago park. To the east of
Duarte, all the way to the mid-line OF
the stream at the railroad bridge, south
OF the track, for miles the track of the
giant sweep of the food are too mani
l.
washed away, and the houses more or
less wrecked. Two houses were noticed
flood swept and desolate where the
one, not quite finished, was seen at
the Duarte depot, where it had
been hauled out OF the waters. One of
the abandoned houses was that OF the
unfortunate Wells family, who all per-
stands on ridge between two deep cuts
where the water swept by deep and
strong. One of these runs directly in
front of the house, which faces west,
and is within twenty feet of the door.
The other is some distance behind the
house and to the east. 1t was the first
one the Wells people tried to ford. Had
they made the attempt a few hours
earlier than they did, there would have
been no difficulty in reaching safe
ground. Had they remained in the
house few hours longer, they could
then have gotten out easily. But they
tried the current when it was deepest
and strongest. 1t must have been four
to ten feet deep, twenty to thirty feet
wide, and running at terrific rate
when the Wells entered it and were lost
With boulders rolling along the bottom
and heavy driftwood driving down the
current, it was natural they should have
been lost. But it is at the bridge
that the full effects OF the flood are to be
seen. Here the tracks are those of a
Titanic force. The stream was mile
wide at this place, and in the channels
the water was 10 to 20 feet deep. That
current would run on that grade at a
rate of perhaps 40 miles an hour.
Great boulders as large as barrel
were whirled along in the wild and i'm
petuous swirl of the food, and it would
be hard for anything to withstand its
force. Just below the Santa Fe bridge
the old channel became choked with
debris, and the current turned off west
erly at an angle of 60 degrees or more.
This is what inundated Duarte below
the railroad track, and carried the main
stream so far west all the way down to
the Monte.
The Santa Fe people have cribbed up
an extempore bridge just above the old
one, and last night train passed over
it with ease.
About noon large number of passen-
gers from the east crossed the bridge.
walking part of the way on the new
bridge. There were about $50 of them
who had been storm-bound at Barstow
for several days. They left Chicago
week ago last Thursday. S. B. Hynes,
general freight and passenger agent, ac-
companied the party in from Barstow,
where he happened to be. Mr. Wade
went out to Azusa to see to their COM
forts, and right glad the passengers were
to get off the desert, out of the floods,
into the land OF orange trees and
loveliness. The floods were not the only
untoward incident some of them en-
countered. On one OF the trains
crazy man ran amuck at Bagdad,
wounding two men, who are doing we'll.
The crazy man then jumped the train
and cut his throat, almost performing
the act of self-decapitation. Details
were given in the HERALD at the time. On
another train, an excursion agent want
ed to get in Pullman late at night,
and the negro porter was slow in open
ing the door. The agent became irate
and drew pistol to show the sen of
Africa, but the man of color was man
OF nerve, and took the pistol from his
assailant, and beat him over the head
Herewith.
The Parent of Insomnia.
The parent of insomnia or wakefulness is in
nine cases out OF ten a dyspeptic stomach.
oiv cloa ind