Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1904-08-19

than that of Mrs. Hetty Ogle-the
patient heroine" of that awful occur
renee, the quietly faithful woman tele-
graph operator, who, doing her duty
with heroic fortitude and calmness,
stayed at her post in the face of GER
tain death, sending the messages that
were to save the lives of others. 1t
is doubtful, indeed, if history records
q Drawer action.
The Johnstown flood was the great
est, most awful water calamity ever
known to humanity. 1t came after
many and grave warnings. Because
the dam of the South Fork Lake had
never yielded, the people of JohnstOwn
believed that it never would yield.
And yet when thriving. prosperous
city of thirty thousand inhabitants had
been reduced to a horrible, tumbled
heap of evil, ill-smelling refuse, with
over three thousand helpless human
creatures hurried into eternity in the
short space of five minutes, there was
scarcely a survivor who could not re-
member serious and frequent indica-
tons of danger that duly needed might
have averted this catastrophe. For
several days previous to the breaking
of the dam the low-lying portions of
the city had been submerged beneath
a water-leyel fully four feet higher
than had ever before been known, so
largely had the steady pouring rain
of an entire week augmented the not
unusual floods. =
The city of Johnstown Ito refresh
memories burdened with the varied
accumulations of fifteen years. was
situated in the narrow. pointed valley
at the foot of the Allegheny Noun
tains, framed in by Stony Creek on
the one hand and the Connemaugh
River on the other. A steep hill and
gentle slope respectively edged the
framing streams. South Fork Lake,
originally a reservoir constructed by
the State of Pennsylvania as a feeder
for the old Pennsylvania Canal, but
later purchased and enlarged by the
South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club,
was between three hundred and four
hundred feet above the highest part
of Johnstown, and several miles back
of the city. This lake was three
miles long, from three thousand to
four thousand feet wide, and seventy
feet deep near the dam, that alone
held it back from the underlying val
ley. This dam, three hundred feet
wide at the bottom, twenty feet wide
at the top and eighty-five feet in
height, had been most solidly con-
Structed and pronounced absolutely
impregnable by competent engineers.
Generous and seemingly adequate
weirs and sluices had always con-
trolled and relieved the flow and over
flow of water previous to the unwont-
ed and irresistible rain torrents of that
awful week.
Late in the afternoon of Friday, May
81, however, Mr.. John G. PRke a
young civil engineer of Pittsburg, who
happened to be visiting friends at
South Fork Lake, bestowed upon the
dam a casual inspection, and saw with
horror that it could not long withstand
the force of the great waves already
dashing over it at intervals, and mo-
mentarily increased in number and
volume by the down-rushing, swollen,
tempestuous mountain streams that
fed and filed the basin. When the
arduous efforts of a large body of
hastily summoned workers proved in
adequate to relieve the overtaxed
sluices, Mr.. Parke leaped to the saddle
and dashed away to the South Fork
Railway Station, there to telegraph
the terrible news to Johnstown-help
less, unsuspecting, inevitably doomed.
Only by instant flight could its I'M
happy residents hope. to escape with
their lives.
To Mrs. Ogle, as manager of the
Western Union Telegraph Office at
Johnstown, came the dread message.
She must choose-and ON the instant
between heroism and desertion, be-
tween eowardice and death.
To leave her station at once to fee
to the hills for safety-this would
mean her own personal salvation, the
salvation of the beloved daughter,
who, always frail and delicate, would
never be able to attain safety unat-
tended, even did she consent to at
tempt flight without her mother 1t
would mean the warning of the equal
~ beloved sons unsuspectingly at work
in the city quite near. But it would
mean, no less, the desertion of her
post at the time of most paramount
need and duty; the death of many
others, who unWarned could have not
slightest chance of escape or prolonged
existence, and who might through her
own efforts be saved.
That the struggle was as severe as
it was brief can scarcely be doubted
Life is sweet to all, and it must have
seemed especially sweet just then to
Mrs. Ogle. BY no easy path had she
won her way to the serene tableland
of comfortable, well-provided middle
age that she then confronted. Keen
poverty, early widowhood, the grow
ing cares and responsibilities of the
young family that must be supported,
delicate health but recently conquered
AL these steps had been necessary
in order to reach her present peace of
mind and financial comfort And now
to leave it all, and in manner so dread
ful-what wonder she shivered and
shrank!
But the insidious temptation to pur-
chase this life at The cost of others was
speedily vanquished-ss Almost before
she turned from the key ticking out
the awful tidings Mrs. Ogle was on her
way to deliver the message into The |
keeping Of the no less heroic assistant. |
Daniel peyton. the Paul Revere Of iIle
Johnstown disaster. the man who.
riding madly through street after
street to call frantic, desperate. I'M