Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-05-28
FROM THE ELEvATED.
Many Lives Saved by People workin
Eran 1hia Rlr,nluro Il

Many Lives Saved by People Working
From This Structure.
The elevated road served as a great
point of observation to tn usands of
onlookers. Every station from Jones
street to the Leech street station was
crowded with refugees and sightseers
and from station to station the tracks
were lined with men and boys. Many
were armed with ropes and long poles
ready to render assistance should the
occasion require. And their services
were brought into use a great many
times and numerous lives were svead
in consequence. VIM. Mills, a laboring
man was one of these. He came sail
ing down with the tide in what APP
peared TO be u common dry goods box.
Long before he reached the trestle
work he had attracted the peoples at
tention and the life saving rope was
lowered and in waiting. just before
he reached 1t, however, the box turned
and Mills all but missed the rope. He
succeeded in grasping hold and was
quickly hauled up onto the Elevated
tracks A number of lives were saved
in the same way.
Fully n thousand homes can be seen
from the Elevated in various
degrees of submersion. Some
IRE only up to the window sill,
while only the tops Of chimneys
can be seen others, and it is q
common sight to see houses floating
by with the tide. In many of these
houses it was all but impossible to
make their occupants realize their
danger. Much difficulty was expert
aAnaI ~ raeax,,. ,n.., ~ .la.1 o-I
1t is thought that with the subsistence
of the flood there will be found corpses
Of some of these ~foolhardy ones A.
L. Pauley and his family of wife and
three children came very near losing
their lives in just this way.
While all his neighbors had
moved out, Pauley thought
he could with safety move his family
into the second story. But before an
other hour had passed wave three
feet high were beating against the
sides of the building almost up to the
second story. A rescuing party was
sent out, out the high winds and the
strength of the current was too much
for them. They were succeeded by n
brawny-handed crew from the Mis-
souri, river who, under the direction OF
L. l. Webster and Walter Strange,
finally succeeded in reaching the
house. First the wife, then the
three babies, the oldest not more
than years old, and then
the father were taken into the boat
Cheer after cheer came from the
throats of the watchers who had been
expecting to see the house give way at
any minute. And it was not a minute
to soon. The boat had not gotten
twenty feet away when a hugo wave
came along, carrying the house and all
but upsetting the boat Of the rescuers.
There are stories of other families who
waited in their homes and met death,
but these, of course, cannot be verified
until the waters recede.
The round houses of the Sioux
City and Northern and the Chi
cago, Milwaukee and st. Paul
are in the midst of the flooded
district. Several engines and
cabooses were standing on the
tracks in their vicinity and it Is esti-
mated that their loss will figure way
up into the thousands. Several fam
lilies took refuge on these trains think
ing they were surely safe, but at l2
o'clock the rescuers were making eff
forts TO remove them from the cabooses
as the waves were threatening to
sweep over them at any minute.
AT the Omaha bridge there is piled
up or either side thousands of new
railroad ties and reaching. out
from each side of the pier for
a distance of nearly 200 feet
the ties are wedged in soiidly up to a
height OF nearly twenty feet. 1t was
here that the West family met disas-
ter. Mrs. West and her little 5-year-
old Nellie were unable to get away
from the flood in time. The father
n two children were safe, and the
rescuing party were returning for Mrs.
West and her child when the waves
swept tho house away. They
tloated down with the roar
ing current until this bridge
was reached. The building was torn
asunder, and by the time the stock
yards bridge was reached there was
scarcely anything left on which to
hold. At this bridge Heller & Sons
engineer succeeded In saving the
woman But the woman's physical
strength was unequal to the mothers
love and she was compelled to relin-
quish her hold on her child. With a
despairing cry of Mammal" the child
disappeared beneath the angry waves
and was seen no more.