The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-03-25
The DAYTON Flood

OaytOn woman went out TO learn Lne cause VI LIle
commotion that had seized upon the passersby
Looking up Wilkinson Street, she was appalled, to
see wall of water bearing down upon her like
herd of galloping gray horses. Transfxed with
horror, she almost unable to find refuge In
the upper story of her dwelling before the flood
had Numbered down the street and crashed
through her basement windows.
Thousands of others like her looked dumbly
out over the areas of what had just been city,
but had now become of heavy waters that
sucked about the buildings in black Whirl-pools
and turned every street into a race OF death.
Those abroad on the streets that gloomy morn
ing were obliged to take sudden refuge up the
first stairs that offered themselves. Husbands
were compelled to endure that reign OF agony
apart from their wives, while parents in many
instances were torn between terror for their own
safety and fears for their children who were ma
rooned somewhere in they knew not what place.
Mary caught abroad by the unexpected
flood ana barely able to save themselves by seiz-
ing overhanging limb or some building roof.
Many were lodged with drift wood and washed,
amid bodies of dead horses, against the walls.
More than hundred found no Judgment at all
until their bodies came to rest in quiet eddies far
below the town.
In thousand attics, families hudded with
out food drink warmth for days and nights.
During the day, they watched the flood, during
the night they watched the fires, when the whole
city was lighted weirdly as a in hell. What
agony the watchers must have endured as they
looked down on the burning districts fearing lest
their own loved ones be battling there between
the water and the flames. only those can know
Who endured those terrible hours.
To reinforce the flood and the fire, came the
calf %lo in hn
open. on bridges and on roofs of houses, who
were compelled to lie exposed until numbness
deadened their pains or rescuers carried them
away.
No battlefield ever witnessed finer heroisms
than these scenes. Men and boys threw caution
to the winds as they pushed their boats, often
improvised and unweldy, through the treacher-
Gus cross currents of the streets For three days
they worked from the earliest dawn far into the
night and would not yield their Places though
hunger and exposure drove many of them almost
mad Thousands wall; the city streets who
would walk them no longer had it not been for
those self-sacrifces.
The flood withdrew reluctantly. grudgingly.
Inch by inch it's waters ebbed away, but in de-
parting if to add insult to injury it left be-
hind such deposit of slime, of filth of malodor-
BUSINESS, as sickened the very soul. Fire is de-
mon, but flood is like serpent 1t nsinuated
itself into the most secret places. It did not
merely destroy but rather defiled and smeared
with it's slime the possessions of it's Victims pos
sessions which they could not keep yet dreaded
to throw away. Behind the wallpaper, into the
cracks of the floor, into every nook and Granny it
crept and pastered with filth and surrounding
with sickening smells everything that came in
its reach.
more melancholy lot of people never lived
than that forlorn line which waded ankle deep
through the mud back to what few days before
had been home. To drag out old and cherished
belongings reeking with slime and cast them
on Che streets to be carted to the dump was a
more disheartening business than the watching
of the waters. During those trying days, many
strong man crept YEARLY to private room to
throw himself sobbing the floor.
But the departing of the water drew forth
another flood, invisible imponderable but vast :
Il flood of brother-love and brother-will that had
it's rising in every town and hamlet in the nation
The same hand that smote the valley with devas-
tation struck. Is with Moses rod the hearts of
men until such tide Of benevolence was loos-
ened the world has seldom SEEM Basketfuls
wagon-loads, trains damned with food with
clothing with medicine, with necessares. came
rolling in to succor the stricken people Out of
homes, out of churches, of lodges of business
houses, of citizens organizations, out of indvd.
ual pockets, came the rills and streams of help.
funess which united to form such tide of cheer
and encouragement as lighted up the whole inun-
dated valley with new hopefulness. The flood
~ fko,o