Arizona republican., 1903-06-01
TOPEKA TERROR. Details of the Devastation
 by Fire and Flood STORY OF A MOTHER.
Who With Her Babe Clung Three Days
 to Tree Intellectually
ESTIMATE or Thf LOST
In Addition to the Known Dead Two Hundred Are Missing and They Are Most Likely Not All--Tale
 of the DisaSte to Be Told.

Topeka, Kans.. May 31.-There is ground for hope that the worst has passed but treacherous has the Kansas river proved itself today in the ris- ing of the water tonight. so slowly as to be almost imperceptible. The five mile stream is settling back into it's rightful channel. Up and down the official guage has fiuttered all day. Tonight, however, City Engineer Me Gable issued e bulletin giving out the cheering intelligence that the waters had subsided to the extent of exactly 7l2 inches. It may be few hours be- fore another drop will be noticed.
 With 175 or 200 lives lost. millions of dollars worth of property destroyed; hundreds of pistol shots as signals of distress, blended with agcnizing cries of unwilling inhabitants of tree tops and roofs of homes, and the waters creeping upward and then slowly sub siding and alternately changing hope to despair, the capital city has passed the memorable Sabbath day of its ex- istenCe.
 Through all this discomforting condi- tion of affairs was added the presence oi a cold, dismal rain. The ardor of the rescue work of the heroic rescuers was not abated in the least by the con dition which confronted them. For long dreary hours knee deep in water and some times in water up to their necks. they worked with might and main. Tonight they can proudly point to 900 or more rescued ones who oth- crwise might have been swept away in the current
 THE SUMMARY.
 Briefly stated the present condition Of the flood is this:
 One hundred to two hundred people drOVned.
 Eight thousand people without homes.
 Four million dollars worth of prop erty destroyed.
 Identified dead, five.
 Floating bodies seen, twenty.
 People missing. 200.
 Houses burned. as result of fire in lumber yard from slaking lime, proba- ply 200.
 Banks colla psed, two.
 Wholesale grocery stores flooded, two
 Big business blocks almost ready to crumble, fifty.
 Wholesale commission houses desert ed, six.
 City water works plant useless.
 The known dead:
 EARL RUPP.
 ORVILLE RUPP.
 Two RUPP girls.
 G. R. GARRETT'S five-year- son. Twenty unidentified bodies.
 ABANDONED HOPE.
 Twenty members of the rescuing party tell of how they saw people drop from houses only to ba swept away by the flood and others tell of men. who, terrified at the approach of the fire. dropped into the water where they sank and did not reappear.
 This estimated number of the dead does not include the large number classed missing who cannot other wise be accounted for. Neither does it include the number who are supposed 10 have lost their lives in the fire In the latter class, there is absolutely no means of arriving at even an approxi- mate number of victims. The water is si high and the current so strong that all that can be done now, is to rescue those in the buildings surrounded by water.
 FRIGHTFUL SUNDAY AFTERNOON
 At l o'clock this afternoon the north end of the Mellan bridge, the only way of reaching North Topeka, went out. All Of the pontoon bridges to the north side were washed out early this morn survivors then was by boats. A boat