Daily Arizona silver belt. (Globe, Gila County, Ariz.) 1906-1929, 1908-08-05
WALNUT GLOVE DAM NORTHERN
A. T., WASHED OUT IN 1890

When the rainy season Ger,
When the sun comes down in June time,
And no cloud is in the skies;
When the hot wind sweeps across the
plains
And all vegetation dies.
Then they raise the ponderous check
gates
BY the mighty power of steam,
The sparkling water gushes forth
Along down the narrow stream,
To be gathered up in bitches
To wash the gold from out tn esand,
And conveyed upon the desert
To fertilize the land.
Twas in the winter of 80
And the snow lay on the hills,
Save ripping water through the gates
All else was calm and STILL
1t was lovely morning,
The sun had risen high
And sent a beam of golden light
Across the western sky.
A balmy breeze blew from the south,
Soft as the winds of May;
The birds sang sweetly in the trees
Among foothills bare and gray.
The farmer or the miners pick
Was heard from early dawn,
But as the night was nearing sudden
change came on.
Low in the west dark lowering CLOUDS
Were gathering thick and fast;
On and on came the rushing storm,
n n =. f,,1 tou
And when the mountainside was reach
ed
The rain began to fall,
The pine tree swayed before the winds
And darkness covered all.
II was a dark and gloomy night;
No star shot forth one ray
To guide weary traveller
On his homeward way;
And when the morning light appeared
Dark clouds lowered yet around;
The earth seemed one vast watery lake
And the rain came pouring down.
Down from the mountains came the
floods,
Rushed into the canyon below,
Piles upon piles heaped the foamine
water,
Increased by the melting snow.
On rushed the maddened water
\ With deafening thunder roar,
Rushing down the rugged mountain
sides,
| Sweeping all that stood before.
| Tearing rocks from off the bases,
On rushed the maddened jam
| Until il reached the placid lake
Held by the massive dam.
In rushed the angry waters
From o FER mountain side,
Poured in from every canyon,
The lake grew deep and wide.
Higher and higher rose the water
Upon the massive dam,
And through the rushing, Kissing sound
There came a stern command.
All hands on top the Townsend crawl,
There s danger down below;
The cursed waste gates are too small
The dam must surely go.
And if the dam should 60 tonight
Think how the coming morrow
Would tell tale of desolate homes
And valley draped in sorrow.
Then turning to man he said
Go down the valley, 60;
And do not stop until you have warne
Each settler down below.
Tell them the dam can never stand;
The waste gates are too small;
Unless they leave their homes in hast
They perish one and all.
The night passed on; twas almost tw'
The foreman and his crew
Fought hard against the hand of fate
Till the hour hand pointed two.
Then came cry from the further sid
Mingled with the crash;
The dam in the center has given ava.
The timbers are going to smash.
Forty foot high rolled the water
AS it washed through the chasm wild
Roaring and laundering like the Va
ley of He'll
As it rushed down the canyon side.
The hills and the mountain re-echoed
Like the rumbling Of an earthqual
shock,
AS it tore from the canyon the timbe
As it ground to powder the rock.
On down through the canyon to Il
valley,
The valley lay wrapped in sleep;
She stopped not for farm or town hous
Passed over and on with leap.
In those homes perchance some we
dreaming
: OF that last sad parting sigh,
> As they bid dear father and mother
And home Of their childhood good-by
, All, yes, perchanee some were dreamin
4 Whose faith wore the picture OF healt
= By ranching, mining or sluicing
i Some day to be burdened by wealth.
\ All, mortals, your dreams, how idle!
d Look, the water comes on with roa
y Your dreams they vanihs like SHADOW
q And the men, like their dreams, are
\ more.
y How little they thought Of the danger
\ Or rocked on the coming morrow,
q From friends and home to be taken
\ To awake at the judgment bar.
N r. g. GOODWIN.