The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1917-04-13
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY JR
coeYRIcnr er Elr1lnd n RrMlI oonpaNr

river III lHe rainy season OF some years
was so small as scarcely TO fill the res
ervoir, and it had been decided 10 store
all the flow Of the autumn and winter
so that even IL the spring rainy season
were deficient, the beginning of the
next summer would find the reservoir
full and the new irrigation system
could commence operations success.
fully.
Vandeventer, like the lost Abbott Of
the International, was also driver,
who spared neither his men nor him.
self. The work had proceeded with as
tonishing rapidly, although this was
partially accounted for by the fact
that the spillway, which should have
occupied their attention, had as yet
been only partially excavated. Now,
to those ignorant of engineering, an
earth dam may seem temporary ex-
pedient, although most Of the great ir-
rigation dams of the world are of that
character; and everybody knows that
If the water should rise high enough to
overflow an earth dam it would not last
longer than 1t takes to describe its
utter giving way. A flood would sweep
1t out of the way at once.
The device whereby possible. floods
are controlled and such dangers avert
ed, consists of broad channel at one
side of the dam, and at such dis
lance below its crest that If, through
any mischance or natural happening
such as the failure of the sluice gates,
excessive rains, cloudbursts, or floods
the height of the water is increased
until it promises to overflow the dam,
this opening will carry off the surplus
harmlessly. An earth dam without a
spillway would presage almost certain
destruction to all who lived in the val
ley below it.
In the case of the Picket Wire dam,
the spillway had to be cut and, in part,
blasted out of the mountain side-that
is, through the spur Of the mesa, which
reached down from its high wall
towards the narrows. There had been
a series of blunders and mishaps,
which included the explosion of a ship
ment of dynamite on the railroad, with
very disastrous consequences to accom-
panying rock crushers and mixers, and
other machinery. The spillway had not
been completed. Its opening should
have been about twelve feet below the
level of the dam. Vandeventer was not
responsible, of course. The chief engi-
neer had fumed and protested, but had
been directed by Headquarters to go
ahead with the other work and tackle
the spillway later. There was, indeed,
little reason to hold up the building of
that particular dam because of the
noncompletion Of the spillway.
That was a country, so the most de-
voted inhabitants freely admitted, in
which it was always safe to bet that
it would not rain, no matter how
threatening might be the appearance
of the sky; for in ninety-nine times out
Of hundred the negative would win
the bet. Said inhabitants did not say
the hundredth time might compensate
for all the other failures. The weather
was like the little girl with the pro-
verbal curl-when 1t did rain there
was no doubt in anybody's mind as to
the fact. Sometimes the. fountains of
the great deep, which, in Holy Scrip
ture at least, extended overhead, would
be broken open and the violence of, the
fall and the quantity of it, and sudden
ness of it, would be such that the West
erners would graphically call it
"cloudburst," which, indeed, it seemed
to be.
Outside the rainy season cloudbursts
were unheard of, and even in that sea
son extremely rare. For the valley
of the Picket Wire and in the plain
beneath carefully tabulated reports OF
the rainfall for years had been consid-
cred by the engineers. They had cho-
sen the right season for the building
Of the dam, but when its crest began
to rise above the designed level of the
spillway the delay in opening the chan
mel gave cause for some alarm. 1t Is
not the probable or certain that is
feared. An old version that, of "omne
ignotum pro magnificent is only the
unknown of which men are afraid, or
only the unknown to be feared ! Still
there vas nothing Vandeventer could
do but obey orders and go ahead. The
danger, after all, was trifling. Another
consequence of the waiting was that
in his inability to work on the spill
way, he had more hands to devote to
the dam and it rose the quicker.
ITO be continued)