Putnam patriot., 1913-09-05

Just as we completed this task the water, dark and muddy, began 10 ooze under the door in the dining room.
 As soon as we went upstairs l took of my shoes and stockings but before l had returned, in the course of a few minutes, the water had risen several inches. l waded to the kitchen where I recovered the dog, putting him on the third floor where he has been howl ing from fright and loneliness during the day. The girls have been most at- tentive to him. carrying him food and
 water and sitting with him by turns. After the dog had been disposed of l made further provision for food from the press and moved such provisions as we did not need to higher shelves. Although the water was rising rapidly,
 1 did not even then anticipate that 1t
 would reach much greater height and apparently our neighbors felt even
 less apprehension than ourselves, for
 while we were rescuing all movable things and providing ourselves with
 food, they were standing in groups on
 their porches where they remained un-
 til driven in by the rising water. We
 are on higher ground than our families
 and neighbors down the street so that
 for a space of time the water about us
 receded, but it must have been rising
 with alarming rupidity elsewhere. So
 much must this have been the ease
 that wonder, when my mind won t
 let the matter rest, what my own fam
 fly is doing, how provided, whether
 the water has reached the second floor,
 and if so what mother will be able to do.
 i Deceived by the slowness of the water in rising, we rested for time. l A little later however we began talk l ing the books from the lower steps to- i gether with rugs and smaller articles
 so that in the end we have them all, high and at least temporarily dry on 1 the second floor About nine o'clock i in the morning, the lower back door l was forced open. We stand in a bend i in the river and so in the strongest i flow of the current. With the opening
 of the door, the full force of the river
 rushed through the house. In the
 meantime the grand pIano had slipped quietly on it's side and then complete 1 ly over. The book shelves, desks, ] n ga lRf -f 1 the other. After the current entered
 the house, the furniture began to move from room to room. was thus able,
 by standing on the landing where the
 water was not so deep, to recover most i of our smaller pieces of furniture,
 chairs, light benches, cushions, all of
 the things that had been placed on 1 top of tables As the heavier pieces
 hoated past, sent them into the low CT hall out of the current, or tied them with cords to the stairway. AL about
 eleven the back porch cracked, swsyed and crashed into the flood where il was borne with immense velocity into i the current of .the river and so out of sight. To follow it, fear, are all such i pieces of furniture on the first floor as i have not been rescued. We shall be well satisfied if the house holds its
 moorings and no fire approaches us. About us, in two large sections the l sky is glowing with great ires. We
 sit here in the dim candle light listen ! ing to the cracking and pounding Of l the furniture against the pipes that re-
 echoes through the house; watching l the spreading glow in the sky and huge masses Of black smoke and wait l ing for we know not what. The lightning flashes brightly from time to time lighting up the unfriendiy turou-
 leni water, We gre provided for, but i how about cur friendss And. how ot