The Washington times., 1912-03-05

OtN conversation Of this sort
was heard on all sides, and
the crowd began TO dispersc,
only those lingering behind who
lad friends or relatives that had
been struck down at the fatal wall. II
turned out that not more than one or
two had been mortally shocked. The
rest were able to limp away, and many
had fully recovered within Ave minutes
after suffering the shock. In half an
hour not a dozen persons were In sight
from the ark
But when the retresting throngs drew
near the shores of the sound and the
East river which had expanded into a
there had been perceptible rise since
they set out to capture the ark, they
began to shake their heads and fear
once more entered their hearts.
Thousands then and there resolved
that they would not lose another in
slant i'm setting out for high land, ur
me HUDSON, In Connecticut, among the
nils OF New Jersey. In fact, many had
ALREADY ned thither, some escaping on
aeros: and hosts would now have fol-
lowed but for marvellous change that
came just before nightfall and prevent
ed them
For some days the heavens had alter.
natGly darkened and ightened, as
gushes OF mist came and went, but
there had been no actual rain. Now
without warning, steady downpour bC :
gan. Even at the beginning 1t would
have been called, in ordinary times. a
veritable cloudburst; but 1t rapidly
grew worse and worse, until there was
no word In the vernacular or in the
teTTm!nology. of science to describe it.
mountains Of the great deep were bro
ken up, and the windows of heaven
we're opened" Tho water thundered
upon the roofs and poured off them in
torrents. In five minutes every slopng
become N ri ~,
every level place a swelling lake. Peo-
pie caught out of doors were almost
beaten to the ground by the force of the
water falling upon them as II they had
Deen standing under a cataract.
In short time every cellar and every
Easement was filled to overhowing, and
In the avenues the food, tapping every
instant higher upon the doorstes and
ing. bearing in its awful embrace pieces
OF furniture, clothing, bedding washed
out OF ground-hoor rooms-and alas!
human beings; some mOtionless, already
merctfully deprived of life, but others
struggling and shouting for aid which
could not be given.
SO terrible a spectacle no one had ever
looked upon, no one had ever imagined.
Those who beheld it were too stunned
to cry out, too overwhelmed with ter
ror and horror to utter a word. They
stood or fell into chairs or upon the
floor, trembling in every limb, with star
ihB eyes anu jaws,
awaiting their fate.
AS night came on there was no light
The awful darkness of the Third Sign
once more settled upon the great city,
but now 1t was not the terror OF indefi-
mite expectation that crushed down the
souls of men and women-it was the
weight of doom accomplished!
There was no longer any room for
self-deCeption; every quaking heart felt
row that the nebula had come. Cosmo
Nersal had been right!
After the water had attained a GER
tain height in the streets and yards, de-
pending upon the ratio between the
amount of descending from the sky and
that which could find its way to the
rivers, the food for the time being rose
no higher. The actual drowning of New
York could not happen until the Hudson
and the East river should become SO
swollen that the water would stand
above the level of the highest buildings
and turn the whole region rouTd about
as far as the Orange hills, the Ramapo
mountains, the Highlands and the
Housatonic hills into an inland sea.
But before we tell that story we must
return to see what was going on at
Mineoia, Cosmo Versal on that awful
night when New York first knew be-
yond the shadow Of a doubt or the
CLEAN of a hope that it was doomed,
presided over a remarkable assembly in
the grand saloon of his ark.