The Penn's Grove record., 1892-07-01
NUMBER 40.
A MYSTERY OF THE FLOOD,
Zoe Tragic Fate Of an Old Gentleman and
His Young Companion.

Zoe Tragic Fate Of an Old Gentleman and
His Young Companion.
During the floods of the Mlssissip
pi and Missouri Rivers and their
tributaries, the daily papers have
chronicled hundreds Of cases, humor-
pus, tragic and pathetic which have
occurred along the banks Of these
streams from the junction Of the two
great bodies Of water to points below
St. Louis. But while hundreds of
cases have been described, there have
been also hundreds Of cases that have
not been mentioned.
Homes have been swept away.
prosperous men made paupers within
ID few hours, and poor dumb brutes
drowned while pleading in their pitt
full way for aid. Among the incidents
of the flood too, have been a few in
stances of genuine heroism which
stand out as a welcome relief to tht
usual somber hues of life.
Among the strangers recently To-
Gated In the 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 rising. Unable to
escaDe, he was step by step driven
with his few effects to the fat roof
of his cabin, and prepared his frugal
meals there for two days. Two men
who saw MIN, finally risked their own
lives to save him, and succeeded In
bringing him safe to dry land.
Other similar cases have occurred,
In striking contrast with those nu-
merous instances where the possess
ors Of small boats and skiffs have
compelled unhappy wretches to give
them almost their entire possessions
for merely passage to land.
A pathetic and mysterious Incl
dent occurred In a southern suburb
of st. Louis, known as "Happy Hol-
low" where poverty and squalor usu-
ally reign, which embodied in itself
very evidently the elements of an in
teresting 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
lcompanionship. Hence when a gray
haired gentleman and young girl
moved into the n~eighborhood and
took a little shanty down on the
l~levee, no one asked any questions for
no one cared anything about them.
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 Hol-
low recovered from its shock of sur
prise at this phenomenal cleanliness,
It went its way without another
thought of the strangers.
The new residentso of Happy Hollow
had not been therel long when the
flood came. BY the end Of a second
day they are cut of from escape and
on the third their little shanty was
swaying to and fro. The few rough
spectators who cared enough to note
their distress were Indifferent. One
or TIVE who had boats called over and
asked how much money he had, and
when the old. man shook his head
sadly, they turned of with a laugh
and went to the nearest saloon.
One man, less brutal than the 9th
ers, sprang into a skiff and started
over, but he was drunk and, capsiz-
ing the little boat, he went to the
bottom like a lump of lead. The
skiff righted itself and f1oated along
on the water, and the old man saw
the only chance for. escape drifting
away. Springing into the muddy,
lseething waters he succeeded by al
most superhuman efforts In reaching
the little boat only to find that the
oars had been lost out just as he
became aware Of this fact. he turned
and saw the little shanty, washed
from its foundations, come drifting
down the res7stless stream, while the
young girl stood In the doorway.
Casting q look of regret behind
him, he sprang from his boat, which
was a haven of safety, into the water
once more, and caught the edge Of
his shanty as 1t came past. Climbing
into the ricketty doorway, he had
Just clasped his companion in his
arms when a pile Of driftwood struck
the little building, tore it to pieces
like q child's playhouse, and the
muddy, roaring waters swallowed up
forever two human lives.
A reporter for a morning paper
found among the debris washed
ashore next day several books with
other things from the little shanty.
Among them were "Histoire de la
Poesie Provencaie," by Fauriel,
! Rants "Kritik der Keinen YER
nunft," and well-thumbed copies OF
| Homer and Shakespeare. Each work
was in its original tongue, and had
evidently been read before. The
name of the owner on the ~fy-leaves
or inner cover had been carefully cut
out, and the secret Of their lives, II
there was one, was buried with the
owners in the muddy and turbulent
waters of the great Mississippi
Queer Pet Names.
The terms employed by the people