The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1892-05-27
FROM THE ELEVATED.
Many Lives Saved by People workir

From This Structure.
The elevated road served as a great
point of observation to tn usands of
oplookers. 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 nnd long poles
ready to render assistance nhonld the
occasion require And their services
We're brought into use great many
times and numerous lives were svead
in consequence. VIM Mills, n laboring
man was one of these. He came sail
ing down with the tide in what ap-
peared to be common dry goods box.
Long before he reached the trestle
work he had attracted the peoples nt-
tention aud the lif, saving rope was
lowered and in waiting Just before
he reached it, however, the box turned
md Mills nll but missed the rope. He
succeeded in grasping hold and was
quickly hauled up onto the Elevated
tracks A number of lives We're saved
In the same way.
Fully thousand homes can be seen
from the Elevated in various
degrees of submersion. Some
are only up to the window sill,
while only the tops of chimneys
can be seen others, and it is u
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
enced in rescuing many of these, and
1T is thought that with the subsistence
Hf 1,a L., e.. 4
of some of these foolhardy ones. A.
I. Pauley and his family OF wife and
three children came very near losing
While al! his neighbors had
he could with safety move his family
other hour had passed waves three
feet high were beating against the
sides of the building almost up to the
second story. A rescuing party was
sent out, but the high winds and the
strength of the current was too much
for them. They We're succeeded by q
brawny-handcd crew from the Mis-
souri, river who. under the direction OF
T. 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 Mt
any minute. And it was not minute
to soon. Tho boat had not gotten
twenty feet away when huge wave
came along, carrying the house and all
but upsetting the boat of the rescuers.
There nre 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
nre 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
mp into tue thousands Several fam.
lilies took refuge on these trains think
ing they were surely safe, but at la
o'clock the rcscuers were making eff.
| forts to remove them from the cabooses
rs the waves We're threatening to
sweep over them ut any minute.
At the Omaha bridge there is piled
up on either side thousands of new
railrond ties and renching out
from each side of the pier for
u distance of nearly 200 feet
the ties arc wedged in soiidly up to u
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. Tie father
and two children were safe, and the
rescuing party were returning for Mrs.
West and her child when the waves
swept the house away. They
foated down with the roar
ing current until this bridge
was reached. The building was torn
nsunder, and by the time the stock
yards bridge was reached there was
scarcely anything left on which tc
hold. At this bridge Heller tS Sons
engineer succeeded in saving the
woman. But the woman's physica
strength was unequal to tho mother.
love and she was compelled to relin
quish her hold on her child. With Z
despniring cry of Mammal" the child
disappeared beneath the angry wave.
und was seen no more.