The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-03-05

above the home OF Mrs. Eliza Crossett
where the Granite street bridge was
lodged, Superintendent Roberts, how
ever, had force of men at work clearing
the street bright and early this morning
and is making rapid progress. The ice is
particularly clear and solid and so offers
more resistance than it would had it been
more porous.
In spite of the pouring rain crowds of
| people we're coming down lower State
street all day to look at the raging water
and conjecture what might happen when
the ice jams above should break up. Ex-
cept the rising of the water and filling Of
the cellars, nothing startling occurred
till the early evening hour, when some
what to the evaporation of those who
had been watching and hoping to witness
! the event when it came, the great blocks
of ice came crashing and grinding down
| the river which flooded the Streets viii e
the depth of water on the sidewalks pre-
vented those who would have done so,
from going out
The electric lights went out, darkness
shut of the scene and only the pounding
off the ice, like the thunder of heavy can
non, as 1t was BONE onward and the
swash of the waters as they swept along
could be heard
Suddenly the noise ceased and within a
very short time the waters receded SO
that people could once more walk on the
sidewalk dry shod. With some anxiety
people sought slumber, only to be awak-
ened before midnight by the extinguish-
ing of lights and another bombardment of
ice artillery as though the besiegers were
demanding immediate surrender.
Large black objects went floating by,
that in the dim light add to the excited
imagination, resembled houses. Forum
ately the residents of this section of th
city are likely to escape with the flooding
of cellars and loss of some sleep. One
small boy, however, is mourning the loss
of his hen house which undoubtedly to
him is a serious calamity. The morning
light shows the road blocked with ice
cakes and the trees bordering the river
banks are cut and scared as though the
choppers had been at work,
IN OTHER PLACES.
In Barre dynamite was used to good
advantage on Saturday afternoon and
Sunday in breaking up and starting the.
ice in the river. Several narrow escapes
from drowning are reported. w. S. Bas-
sett and his clerk and George f. Mills,
formerly of this city, were caught in their
stonesheds and kept prisoners with moth
ing to eat or drink for fifteen hours. Low
er Granite street and all the sheds on
Burnham's meadow, with those of Bar
clay Brothers were under several feet o.
water on Saturday and Sunday and stone
cutting business was entirely suspended.
From other parts of the State come
stories of high water, damaged highways
and bridges swept away. So far as can
be learned no loss of life has occurred in
Vermont The big covered highway
bridge at Bethel village was carried away,
as was the bridge on the electric road
from ethel to Rochester, costing So 900
AT Essex Junction the dam, owned by
w. b. Johnson and Robert Avery, was
carried out, causing loss of some 50 900.
That village was in darkness Sunday
night, because of soaked belts in the
power house of the electric light plant
A washout between Jericho and Under
hill on the Burlington and Lamoille and
big ice jam at Cambridge completely tied
up railway traffic on that line. Another
washout of the railway track is reported
between Cambridge Junction and Fair
field.
St. Johnsbury Center was flooded, and
large part of Fairbanks village was un-
der water. The Passumpsic, Moose and
Sleeper rivers overhowed their banks,
flooding that valley as far south as Wells
River.
AT Sheldon Junction the iron bridge
across Black river was carried out, and
the tracks of the Boston & Maine railroad
were so badly washed and quilted as to be
unsafe for travel.
At Center Rutland the Otter Creek
flooded the streets, stopping street car
traffic High water is reported all the
way from Rutland to Burlington.
Only once since 1869 has the water
been so high at Pain6eld as it was on
Sunday. The ice went out between one
and two o'clock this morning. A shed
filled with wood, owned by J. B. Wells,
was washed away and tenement house
on School street owned by Rev. L. F
Fortney was badly damaged. The un-
derpinning of S. A. Batchelder's store
was shattered and the Martin bridge just
above the village was displaced. Alto
gether it was an anxious Sunday for
Plainhed.