Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1900-10-03

snce against the forces of nature and
to meet bowling wind and rising
waves with jokes and jovisl songs.
The wind from the sea. steadily
gaining violence, piled up the waters
of the Gulf on the South, the Bay on
the North. The water rose to Sixth
street, where 1t had often been before,
and the people doing business along
there splashed about cheerfully, rails
ing their belongings to counters and
shelves and upper stories. They were
presently compelled to swim out CT
float out on RATS or in boats, and vet
the water rose. At 1 o'clock in the
afternoon there was water on Twen-
fy-frst street, where it had not been
before, and alarm began TO develop.
The water crept up and over as stead
lily aud swiftly as the column of an
invading army, and far more terribly.
1t was frightful contrast-the wa
ter below coming stealthily, almost
silently, each new wave of the waves
fast recurring rising little higher
than any of its predecessors, the whis-
tie of the wind becoming more in
tense, its power more evident minute
by minute. A driving rain was fall
ing in sheets which stung flesh and
penetrated the fastenings. The street
cars stopped running. Some of them
were abandoned and left standing iu
the streets where the water rose over
their floors. \ 3 o'clock black dark
ness had fallen. All the electric light
and power houses were then under
water. By that time multitudes of
men had fought their way to their
homes aud panic was everywhere.
ct the people sent out and bought
candles from half submerged stores
or lighted lamps-and waited. That
was all they could do except to busy
themselves lifting their valuables 10
upper stories or the upholstered fur
niture on tables or pianos. Thous-
ands of families, having done all this
they cOnld, gathered in their upper
stories and waited, somebody going
down every few minutes to see the
stage of water marked by heavy
piece Of furniture or on wall or stair
way or door post, always returning
with the same repOrt-"rising."
By o'clock the wind was blowing
ninety miles an hour and houses be-
gan to 60 down. AS people felt their
homes giving away or beginning to
lift from their foundations, or heard
the roofs torn off, they ran out into
the food. Where they could they
waded. Where the water was too
deep to wade the first floating thing
that came along was caught-section
OF fence or piece of roof, weather.
boarding or flooring, table or door or
shutter. Sometimes something large
enough to carry family would be
caught and all embark together.
Sometimes there would be divisions
and good-byes forever, because those
driven forth were at the mercy of the
wind and waves and capricious cur
rents and eddies, and some would
drift one way and some another.
They would paddle and drift and
steer and swim for the nearest build
ing that promised a moment of safe
ty. By o'clock every house then
left standing was filled with strang-
ers. Nobody asked any questions.
Rich and poor, black and white, herd
ed together. Often it happened that
the buildings in which these gather
ings of frightened people had assem-
bled began to totter and the occu-
pants all rushed out together in wild
scrambles for new RATS, new refugees,
& few more minutes of life and strug-
gle. Often it happened, too, without
warning, these refugees came crashing
down, crushing and drowning resi-
dents and refugees together.
A big woman, five feet and nine
lches high, with the shoulders of a
mato athlete and straight nose and
gray eyes set far apart, evidences of
an ancestry which must have been
heroic, told me that as she crouched
on panel of fence and drifted in
the darkness and driving rain and
wind, she heard women's
voices every minute shrieking, "Oh,
my God.' THAT" she said, "alwavs
meant death. The women all said