The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-27

member who is addressing the cham
Der The instruments are worked by
some electric arrangements and the
name of the member speaking is put
on from the press gallery. If an in
strument of that kind were used in
the Kansas legislature it is feared that
the names Of Fred Dumont Smith in
the senate and Young of Wilson in the
house would be up most Of the time.
@
KANSAS RECUPERATTvE POWER.
All day Thursday following the
heavy downpour Of the night before.
the state Journals telephones were
kept busy answering queries from
anxious people concerning the posi-
bility of another flood. The expert
ences of the last two years have put
on their guard the Inhabitants OF
North Topeka and other localities
reached by the floods, and consider
able anxiety is manifested whenever
there is an unusual rainfall.
It is not peculiar that people who
have been through two floods in con-
secutive years should be a little fear
ful of a repetition of those calamities
just at this time. It was on May %,
1903. just two years ago Sunday that
the great downpOur occurred in Cen
tral Kansas which resulted in the
most destructive flood in the history of
the country. 1t was two days later, on
Memorial Day, that the food reached
its height in Topeka.
That was a day which will always
be vivid in the minds of those who
went through it. People were par
alyzed with the awfulness of the
calamity. Thousands were driven
from their homes by the waters, many
people spent hours in a chilling rain
in treetops and on houses; dozens of
lives were lost; and millions Of dol
lars worth OF property were swept
away.
While there was another flood of
considerable proportions last year, it
was not nearly so destructive as that
of 1903, and there is little probability
of the repetition Of that experience.
At that time it had been raining over
Kansas for days, and the ground was
thoroughly saturated and the streams
We're bank full. On top of that came
a rainfall amounting to from six to ten
inches in a single evening and extend
ing over. eight or ten counties in Cen
trail and Northern Kansas, in the ter
IlLOEy GRAINED Dy the I'VE tributaries
Of the Kaw. The waters from this
great downpour came rushing down
into the Kaw valley simultaneously
and the great flood was the result.
A repetition of these condolences is
scarcely possible in another genera
ton. Should they ever occur again
the people will be far better prepared
for avoiding the consequences than
they were in 1903. Better drainage
has been provided and dykes have
been thrown UP to keep the water
out.
It is remarkable how quickly the
Kaw valley has recovered from the
great flood of 1903. Only here and
there are traces of the destruction dis
cernible It is true that in some local
tiles rich lands were covered by sand,
but in most places a deposit of silt was
left by the receding waters which
greatly enriched the soil. To go up
the valley the entire length of the
Kaw from Kansas City to Junction
City, and up the various tributaries,
the lands along which were sub
merged for days, one would not sus-
pect today that only two years ago
millions of dollars of property were
swept away by the waters. so speedily
does Kansas recuperate it's losses.