The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1897-03-19
IN THE FLOODS PATH
THE OPTIMISM THAT LOOKS FOR BET
TER TIMES NEXT SEASON.

The Dwellers Along the Shores Of the
Destroying Streams Stay and Suffer Loss
Year After Year With Hope springing
Eternal In Their Breasts.
The reports from the district through
which the Potomac and the Shenandoah
rivers flow show that the floods have
again caused the loss of much property |
ami that the destruction was greater
than at any other time since 1886. For
the highest there was much apprehen-
sion as far down the Potomac river as
Harper's Ferry, where the usually quiet
stream resembled o huge, roaring tor
rent, which threatened to carry away
the massive bridge which spans the
river, SO violently did it break against
its granite abutments The water had
been drawn from the canal which runs
parallel with the river, but the freshet
had filled the bed to overfowing, and
the strip of land which separated it
from the madly rushing river had be-
come so narrow i'll some places that
river and canal seemed doomed to be-
come merged at any moment, to the de-
struction of the artificial banks. The
lowlands farther up on the line Of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad. as Ear as
4 MartinshurR, were flooded, and the
farm products, for which the owners
had hoped to realize handsome reve-
nue. were destroyed, stock was drowned,
and buildings collapsed. To many OF
the people who went to the inundated
district to make observations and who
looked upon the appalling spectacle the
fact that people would live i'll such
district, where equally severe inunda-
tions might be expected any year, was
incomprehensible. They asked, Why
should a man risk his life and his prop
erty in a place which offers nothing
more than other places where there are
no floods? And the farmer says that it
costs too much to pull up stakes and to
go elsewhere, and even if it did not the
place was good enough for his family
"away back, and it is good enough for
him. The fact is that people usually be.
lieve that the food of that year will be
the last to do any damage.
This is not true of the rural districts
alone, but it fits the residents Of large
cities whose geographical situations
make foods almost an annual occur
renee The best examples Of that kind
are Cincinnati and Albany. Cincinnati
has had some terrible floods, and the
records on the wharf show that the Ohio
has measured S4 feet in depth between
the city and Covington. Several of the
streets running parallel with the river
have often been changed into miniature
rivers, and the stores and warehouses
on the river front have had water in
the second stories But the people re-
mained in the stores after the floods had
subsidized, and when the torrents came
down from Pittsburg and Wheeling the
next time and converted the broad levee
into a lagoon, swept by coffee colorcd
water, the same merchants were in the
same stores that had been flooded when
the Ohio was up" the last time.
Albany can tell the same story. When
the time for breaking up comes, when
the ice in front of the city begins to as.
sumo the telltale curve form, and when
even the small boy cannot be tempted
to cross on the honeycombed surface,
the people who have goods on the
ground floors in houses along the river
front move them one story higher up il
the house and watch for the ice to move
out Sometimes it does SO with little
ado, and the frozen mass goes sailing
down the stream in large foes, leaving
no trace of destruction behind, and the
old river, which had been hidden from
view for weeks, reappoars, possibly
trifle higher than its normal condition
but imperceptibly so to the unschoolet
observer And then the man who hat
prepared for high water puts his goods
back where they were and tells hi!
neighbors that the days of high waite
are over.
The next year the ice is likely t.
break up without warning after shor
thaw and to become cholled on the ba
below ON its way down stream. Th
water backs up in the city, and whel
it is rising fast, when Broadway ha
become river and the roof of the Peo
nle's line sheds can barely be seen peep
ing. over the ice covered water, the CT.