The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-07
2s OR 30 ARE DROWNED
Damage to Industries Will
 Reach Into Millions.
Corrential Rains Cause Sudden Rise in the Pacolet and the Crest Swept All Before It--Rail-
 roads Heavy Losers.

spartanburg. s. C., June GA torrential rainstcrm visited this region between last midnight and dawn today. resulting in general devastation and destruction of life and property.
 All the bridges and trestles on the main line of the Southern Railway were washed away. The greatest destruction of life and property occurred at the Paco- let and Clifton and Glendale cotton mills. Wires are down and reports conflicting. but 1t seems certain that twenty five or thirty persons were drowned, mostly mill operatives.
 The following is partial list of those who lost their lives by the inundation at Clifton
 Augustus Calvert and wife, Miss Lizzie Calvert M. Felix. Mrs. W. B. Tinsley. Morlay Sims, Mrs. B. F. Johnson and four children. Mrs. Maggie Kirby. Mrs, John Owens, Roy Owens, Garland Long. Mrs. Long, Miss Fleta Gosa.
 Will Be in Need of Bread.
 The ill-fated Pacolet cotton mills were the heaviest property losers, President Victor Montgomery estimating the dam age to the plant at N.250,0o0 About 1,200 operatives in these mills are thrown out ot work and within a few days will be tn need of daily bread.
 At 6 o'clock this morning 1t was mo- ticed that the water was rising rapidly In the Pacolet river, but no special import ance was attached to 1t by the mill oper- atives, who began to form in xne to enter the mills. At mills No. and the water pressure soon became dangerous, the boil CT rooms were submerged and the work men rvarA. ord ar.tf4 ASArkr
 A little later the fary of the raging river struck mill No. 1, sweeping the plant entirely away. The strong curren, then swept against No. 2, demolishing that mill and leaving only the cloth room standing. The big bridge over the Pacolet river. a steel structure. was then car ried away by the furious water which had burst through the dams, The ware room with nearly A,00o bales of cotton and 1000 bales of domestic cloth followed, all the cotton being carried down stream,
 At Pacolet mill No. 8. one half the side of the main building were washed away. The main building. supported by a thick brick wall, is still standing but Is very shaky and may collapse at any time. The boiler room is gone, but the smokestack is yet standing.
 Machinery All Ruined.
 The dam at No. is intact. Ali the machinery in this mill is ruined.
 At Glendale, four warehouses filled with cotton and cotton products were swept away. along with the dam across Lawson's Fork and the trestle of the City Electric Railroad. The mill al Glendale was not materially damaged
 At Converse the main building of the Clifton factory collapsed, and the water rose till the second floor of the mill was four feet deep-forty or fifty feet above the ordinary water mark. The Converse Mill is utterly demolished, nothing stand ing except the picker room building which Is badly wrecked
 Clifton Mill No. also lost its boiler room. machine shop. engine room anC | smokestack. President Twichell coult not estimate the loss tonight. He ha! not been able yet to visit the ruins O the plants. The Whitney Mills at Law son Fork was damaged by the water ant some houses and a steel bridge at tha point were swept away. At the Tuca paua Mills the water rose to the secon, noor of the building and eonsidera bl, damaged the machinery.