Putnam patriot., 1913-09-05
pr su. Windows Byron D. Bugbee

the business section of the town2 Mii- lions of dollars in merchandise float in the buildings or in the steeets. Our imsginations are feeble indeed. have read many times of floods, spoken of them as I stirred my chocolate at breakfast and talked of other things. Such things happen we know, but our imaginations do no picture the details
 It is well indeed that they do not. l have my clock before me and eaeh half hour l go into the hall and throw my search light on to the water. It is still rising. The roar of the water chilIs me and 1 shrink from c m- plete realization of the damage to our home. How little nature takes ac- count of our stores, We struggle for A life time 10 accumulate a few goods and, with power and authority, Tn day she dispatches them to the rubbish heap. It is well that in reality We care little for things compared with the great issues of life. If one could but be kinG always, generous always,
 patient, strong, courageous, the things that perish would count for very little.
 What is the very worst that can befalR
 Loss of property? One can begin again. Loss of friends? This is sad beyond all else, hardest to be reconciled to. Loss of life? So very brief the transition, that this in itself causes no | terror, even at time when this possi- bility seems real. The glow in the l sky is stronger. We cannot but won
 der how near Us the center of this fire
 is. We dare not think fuyther. To
 torture ourselves by living in thought i where the fire is now raging would
 weaken our courage and could serve
 no end. Only hereafter let Us be kind, | let us care for those that are suffering ! let us work for spiritual life to gain mastery of ourselves, love and good will for our neighbors and friends, and 1 sympathy and generous help for those 1 in need, suppose our emotions are ! close at their extremes. Today l have ! been much diverted oy Charlotte. i Periodically she says with her thirteen
 years of experience behind her "I've
 never seen such a day. "and it's rain- ] ing too suddenly at intervals her
 thought of various things below stairs,
 the fact that the piano vas pumping | against the ceiling interested her, but l she was thoroughly reused only when i she realized that the drawings which l the life class had made with such ] painstaking care were in the water. | The children have been good, cheerful, sane. The furniture is pumping about below stars The fires are dying 1 down. The city is in darkness. EN- 1 cept ourselves few about us seem to 1 have even candles as a means ot ilIu- imitation and ours will last only ! through the night. What of tomorrow night and the next night and the neXt2
 l well realize that when the water re-
 cedes deposit of mud will remain too
 thick 10 be easily gotten away and ! lDGfC WILL III dtt AAhNtA@NNN ~ Aa1 streets, at least not in the section sur
 rounding us. Our porches and steps
 have been swept away. When at last
 the water goes, how shall we eontrive
 to get away or get help?
 II p. m.
 The children have been sleeping
 They are so very sgood-not nervous
 or irritable or weepy, just hungry and
 sleepy and helpful. They worked like
 Turks this morning. Without them l
 should have been helpless to save any
 thing. Charlotte remarked while the
 water was standing at the second hool 1 windows just below us, "~on | this m
 lure the crops in this vicinity Thi'
 morning, while was standing kne'
 deep in water trying to rescue ie"