Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-11-18

which had rushed. it must be remem'
bered, through nearly incandescent gaps
in the sea defenses. and this vast up
rush of vapor soon yelled the t1aring
centers Of explosion altogether.
"The waters came at last, an ad-
vancing cascade. 1t was like broad
roller sweeping across the country.
They came with deep roaring sound
l had expected Niagara, but the total
fall of the front could not have been
much more than twelve feet. Our
barge hesitatcd for moment. took a
dose over her bows and then lifted. l
signaled for full speed ahead and
brought her head upstream and held
on like grim death to keep her there.
"There was wind about as strong
rs the food. and | found we were
pounding against every conceivable
buoyant object that had been between
US and the sea- The only light in the
world now came from our lamps, the
steam became impenetrabe at score
OF yards from the boat, and the roar
Of the wind and water cut us off from
all remoter sounds. The black shining
waters sWirled by. coming into the
light Of our lamps out Of an ebony
blackness and vanishing again into i'm
penetrable black. And Oh the waters
came shapes. came things that flashed
for q hnlf sinh
merged boat, now COW, now huge
fragment of a houses timberings. now
middle Of packing cases and scat
folding. The things clapped into sight
like something shown by the opening
Of a shutter and then bumped shatter-
ingly against us or rushed by us. Once
l saw very clearly mans white face.
All the while a group of laboring, half
submerged trees remained ahead of us.
drawing very slowly nearer steered
course to avoid them. They seemed
20 gesticulate frantic despair against
the black steam clouds behind. Once a
great branch detached itself and tore
shuddering by me. We did on the
whole make Roadway The last | saw
Of Vreugde biz vrede before the night
swallowed it was almost dead astern
Of us.
Morning found Barnet still af1oat.
The bows Of his barge had been bad
~ strained. and his men were pumping
or baling In relays. He got about
dozen half drowned people aboard
whose boat had capsized near him, and
he had three other boats in tow. He
was atloat and somewhere between
Amsterdam and Alkmaar, but he could
not tell where. 1t was a day that was
still half night Gray waters stretch
ed In every direction under a dark gray
sky, and out of the waves rose the up
per part of houses, in many cases
ruined, the tops of trees, windmills-in
fact, the upper third Of all the familiar
Dutch scenery-and on it there drifted
dimly seen hotilla of barges, small
boats, many overturned, furniture,
RATS, timbering and miscellaneous OBJ
jects.
The drowned were under water that
morning. Only here and there did a
dead COW or stiff figure still clinging
stoutly to u box or chair or suchlike
buoy hint at the hidden massacre 1t
was not till the Thursday that the
dead came to the surface in any
quantity. The view was bounded on
every side by a gray mist that closed
overhead in gray canopy. The air
c1p1rpf1 in tho q ftornoon and thor, for
away to the west under great banks
of steam and dust. the flaming red
eruption Of the atomic bombs became
visible across the waste of water
They showed fat and sullen through
the mist, like London sunsets "They
sat upon the sea-" says Barnet, like
frayed out water lilies of fame"
Barnet seems to have spent the
morning In rescue work along the
track of the canal, in helping people
who were adrift, in picking up derelict
| boats and in taking people out of i'm
periled houses. He found other mill
tary barges similarly employed. and it
was only as the day wore on and the
immediate appeals for aid were salts
fed that he thought of food and drink
Tor his men and what course be had
better pursue. They had little cheese,
but no water. "Orders," that mysteri-
GUS direction. had at last altogether
disappeared. He perceived he had now
to act upon his own responsibility.
| "One's sense was Of a destruction 50
! farreaching and of world so altered
that 1t seemed foolish to 90 in any d.
rection and expect to find things as
they had been before the war began.
l sat on the quarter deck with Myths,
my engineer. and Kemp and two others
OF the noncon1missioned officers, and
we consulted upon our line of action.
We were foodless and aimless. We
agreed that our fighting value was ex-
tremely small and that our first duty
was to get ourselves in touch with food
and instructions again. Whatever plan
of campaign had directed our move
ments was manifestly smashed to bits
Myths was of opinion that we could
take line westward and get back to
England across the North sea- He cal
culated that with such a motor barge
as ours 1t would be possible to reach
the Yorkshire coast within four and
twenty hours But this idea l over
ruled because of the shortness of our
provisions and more particularly be-
cause Of our urgent need Of water.
! Every boat we drew near now hail
ed us for water, and their demands did
much to exasperate our thirst. de-
cided that If we went away to the
south we should reach billy country or