The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-14
REMINISCENT OF THE. TIME
WHEN ST. Paul HID f FLOOD

Sudden the bitches swell. the meadows
Red. from the hills, innumerable streams
Tumultuous roar; and high above it's
The river lifts; before whose rushing tide,
Herds. fiocks, and cottages and SWANS,
Roll mingled down, all that the winds had
spared
In one wild moment ruined."-Thomson.
Yes, that was a terrible flood that
swept along the Mississippi valley in
June of 81" said the old resident,
land Widow Hogan, who lived some
where about Chicago avenue, was so
intent upon saving her pig that she
barely escaped with her life. What!
You never heard about the Widow
Hogan and her pig? Well. we'll! I
must tell you about that!
THAT June freshet, as those floods
were then called. came like the most
of them came in those days, utterly
without a sign of warning. Two
Frenchmen| can recall but one of
their names. Prenault-had been fish
ing or duck hunting. and upon their
return home they noticed a very rapid
rising of the waters. They had no
idea Of a food; they had heard moth
ing, for the news did not travel in
those days like it does not. But by the
time they were about a half-mile be-
lew Pigs Eye they came to the CON
clusion that nothing else than the
June freshet could cause such a rise
as that. They made for home as fast
as possible-they lived somewhere
about Mendota-and by the time they
were at Chicago avenue the swirl of
the rushing waters was so great as to
cause them to put in for land. The
river was full of floating timber, and
the flood was bringing with it all
manner of brush, making it very I'M
desirable as a boating place..
Luckily for the Widow Hogan, the
Frenchmen put in just at the point
where stood her shanty. As they
neared the place they heard a frantic
voice complaining in vigorous tones
about the lack of attention Providence
was directing that way, and mingled
with these complaints were sundry di-
rect1ons to some apparently obstrep-
erous being.
"Wonderingly, the two rowed up to
the shanty and beheld tn. lone wom-
an endeavoring to her utmost to ner-
suade a small and scrawny pig to en-
ter a rickety rowboat from the door
step. The animal was not in 2. com
plant mood, and resented in noisy
terms all forcible attempts at getting
him to leave the house. He was afraid
to trust his precious hide to the frail
bark wherein the widow had cast all
her hopes, n 1t Is generally supposed
that had the two hunters not come
up then the widow and her broth Of
a pig" might be wrangling there still.
when morning broke the whole
West sic was In Undated. At that
time quite a little settlement had
sprung up over there, though none of
the streets were as yet elevated. The
entire place was one vast waste of
rapidly rising water. Small houses
were floating about. fl miles were to
be seen, with all theft little collections
Of household goods, floating about in
boats or on improvised RATS.
And some of those RATS were H.
diorous in the extreme-that is. thew
were to n possessed of a very keen
sense Of the ridiculous; unless one
was Of the most l~ighthearted nature
the impression received was very likely
to be the opposite of humorous. Some
OF these RATS were formed of pieces
Of furniture. and sections Of beds ap-
peared to have had the preference. r
remember that curious craft had
been made by two families, and the
four corners Of the rude affair were
four washtubs sitting upon their bot
toms in the water. They made a