Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-10-03

les can repair the damage between
here and Albuquerque. they will be
north end crews. At the very best
IT. will be three weeks before these
crews can meet In Shoemaker canyon
II Las Vegas people get their eastern
mails transferred by Saturday, they
may congratulate themselves. Every
man and team the company can Sc.
cure is being employed and the most
determined efforts are being made to
facilitate the work. Both the West.
ern Union and the Santa Fe expect to
get wires through to Ration tc1ay.
The havoc wrought by the floosl
about the old Moore place, occupied
by Mrs. Laird and daughter, was ap-
palling A mighty tide tore through
the fine orchard and grove of big cot
tonwoods uprooting great trees and
burying the whole lowland in several
feet OF mud. The farm house and
neighboring buildings, occupied by
quarrymen and natives were entirely
destroyed The fair and fertile ranch
and the home set In its beautiful
grove are a ruin and the savings of
a life time have been swept away.
The place bought by Sam Laird,
agent at Fort Bayard, for his mother,
had just been paid for. The sur.
rounding houses were rented to quar-.
rymen and the crops were unusually
good. Mrs. Laird and her daughter
are left homeless and penniless For
tunately, they remained in Watrous
the night Of the flood
1t was in this little ranch settle
ment, that six lives were lost. The
small adobe house of Felix ViIlarael
lay directly in the path of the torrent.
The details Of the tragedy which
robbed him of his family are covered
forever by the darkness and storm.
Not cry from the doomed house
was heard. One can only imagine the
frenzied horror Of the three women
and little child as they fled from
the tottering walls to be seized in the
awful and irresistible clutch of the
swollen current That the inhahi-
tants fled from the house Is quite GER
tain, else they must have been pin
ioned by the falling adobe walls.
The scene of the struggles OF the
Keys anf Brown and Stephens fam
lilies al the old Moore place is close
by. The seven or eight men who
worked so assiduously and at such
risk 10 rescue them are OF the stuff
of which heroes are made.
The flood was at its height though
the danger TO Watrous had apparent.
ly passed, when several men rode
over the hills that look down into the
valley near the bridge They heard
shouts for help from the grove. On
high stone wall nearest the hill
stood MIR. and Mrs. keyes. Two or
three horsemen rode into the treach.
erous flood and succeeded in getting
both 20 the nigh ground. Shouts
came from the trees in the midst of
F., the torrent The horsemen rode until
the ground sank beneath them and
they realized IL was certain death to
go farther. The Brown family was
! in a big cottonwood tree. The horse
men shouted for them to hold on and
that help would be brought as soon
as possible. For five awful hours.
Brown. his sfck wife and two children
| clad only In their night robes cung
TO the branches while the waters
ragged beneath. They said afterwards
that had IL not been for the encour-
agement shouted by tose across the
flood. they must have given up and
| dropped into the torrent.
The feat Of getting into the tree
was remarkable When the flood