Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-12-10
A FLOOD MYSTERY.
TRAGIC FATE or A COUPLE ABOUT
WHOM LITTLE WAS KNOWN.

struction OF Property and Loss Of Life
by the Rise Of water In Western Rivers.
Hsroism and Death.
During the foods of the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers and their tributa-
fies the daily papers chronicled hun
tlreds Of cases, humorous, tragic and
pathetic, which occurred along the
banks of these streams from the juno
tion Of the two great bodies of water to
points below St Louis. But while hun
dreds of cases have been described, there
have been also hundreds Of cases that
have not been mentioned.
Homes have been swept away, pros
porous men made paupers within few
hours and poor dumb brutes drowned
while pleading in their pitifui way for
aid. Among the incidents of the food,
too, have been few instances of gen.
uine heroism which stand out as well
come relief TO the usual somber hues Of
life.
Among the strangers recently located
in this locality just above st. Louis was
a man from Iowa. He had settled In a
little cabin near the river, and knowing
no one was unaware of his danger till
he found himself in the center of a sheet
of water five miles wide and rapidly ris-
! ing. Unable to escape, he was step by
step driven with his few effects to the
fiat roof of his cabin, and prepared his
frugal meals there for two days. Two
men who saw him finally risked their
lives TO save him, and succeeded IN
bringing him safe to dry land
Other similar cases have occurred. in
j striking contrast with those numerous
instances where the possessors OF small
boats and skiffs have compelled I'M
happy wretches to give them almost
their entire possessions for merely pas
sage to land.
A pathetic and mysterious incident
occurred in a southern suburb of St
Louis, known as Happy Hollow,
where poverty and squalor usually
reign, which embodied in itself very
evidently the elements Of an interesting
romance. Happy Hollow on one side of
the street or alley or creek (River Du
Peres) doesn't know Happy Hollow on
the other side, and doesn't desire TO.
, The poverty and misery, and usually
the crime, of each individual is surly
and desires no companionship. Hence
when gray haired gentleman and
young girl moved into the neighbor-
|, hood and took little shanty down on
the levee no one asked any questions,
, for no one cared anything about chem.
! They attracted no attention except for
! their neat appearance. Their clothes
!. were clean in spite of their manifest
|, poverty, as were also their hands and
! faces. After Happy Hollow recovered
n from its shock OF surprise at this phe-
. nomenal cleanliness, it went its way
p without another thought Of the
4 strangers.
n The new residents of Happy Hollow
had not been there long when the food
came BY the end of a second day they
are cut off from escape and on the third
q their little shanty was swaying to and
Il fro. The few rough spectators who
II cared enough to note their distress wer'
D. Indifferent. One or two who had boat
10 called over and asked how much none,
10 he had, and when the old man shook hi
c. head sadly. they turned off with langl
e, and went to the nearest saloon.
al One man, less brutal than the others
ia sprang into skiff and started over, bu
q he was drunk and, capsizing the littl
" boat, he went to the bottom like a lum
ne of lead. The skif righted itself an,
IN foated along on the water, and the oil,
40 man saw the only chance for escap
e. drifting away. Springing into the mud
ID dy, seething waters, he succeeded by a
re- most superhuman efforts in reaching th
Mt little boat, only to find that the oars ha
been lost out. just as he became awar
IL of this fact he turned and saw the littl
u shanty, washed from its foundations
come drifting down the resistless stream
ot while the young girl stood in the doc
i. way
,ff Casting look of regret behind hin
he sprang from his boat, which was
haven OF safety, into the water ono
more and caught the edge of his shant
n, as it came past. Climbing into the ricl
,se ETY. doorway, he had just clasped h
companion in his arms when pile
driftwood struck the little building, tol
eet it TO pieces like child's playhouse an
the muddy, roaring waters swallows
up forever two human lives.
mo A reporter for a morning paper four
among the debris washed ashore ne
day several books with other thin
,se from the little shanty. Among the
am were "Histoire de la Poesie Provencale
by Fauriel; Rants "Kritik der Klein,
Nernunft," and well thumbed copies
nj Homer and Shakespeare. Each wo
70. was in its original tongue. and had e,
nv IDENTITY been read before. The name
an the owner on the fly leaves or inn
a. cover had been carefully cut out. nj
M the secret of their lives. IL there W
one. was buried with the owners in t
muddy and turbulent waters of {
great Mississirai. Detroit Free Press