The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1917-05-11

CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY JR
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first sight like the hand of man against
the hand of God. There was no more
room for engineering expedient. 1t
was chop and hew, break and pound.
dig and drive, carry and pile. Throw
ing off his coat, Vandeventer seized a
spade and began to work like any
other laborer, and the rest of the
higher men followed his example.
At six o'clock the blackness hanging
in the northwest began to turn their
way. 1t was coming down the noun
tain. 1t was headed for the valley.
Vandeventer saw 1t, every teamster,
every common laborer saw 1t. 1t was
coming. Unless heaven itself inter-
fered there would be more rain. They
had worked desperately before, but
now they applied themselves to their
tasks with kind of wild fury. A
sort of insanity took possession Of
them. They would not be beaten. They
cried, at first shrilly and then hoarsely
and raucously, encouraging words and
phrases from one to another; in words
vivid, profane, desperate. They stood
there and they heaved and dug and
piled and hammered and hurled and
drove flercely. 1t was a battle mad
ness that came into them. They saw
red like the berserker of old. Yes, 1t
was not unlike battle in other ways,
for with the rush of the northwest
storm came roaring mighty thunder
and vivid and terrifying lightning. 1t
was as If great darts of light literally
were hurled by some gigantic hand be-
hind the black screen of sweeping
cloud down upon the granite noun
tains. They saw splinters of fire where
the thunderbolts struck. The pealing
of thunder was appalling.
Their frail palisade backing was not
half completed. 1t must be raining
somewhere, for the water was still
slowly rising. It was five and half
feet now from the crest. It was hope
less If another rain fell, and the rain
was coming. There was an added chill
in the still air of the valley as the
storm drove down upon them. A few
of the fainter hearts flung down pick
and shovel and ak and stood craven.
Oaths, curses, blows even, from those
of the drawer sort shamed them into
work again. These brave hearts and
true might be swept away with the
dam if it gave way, but they would
not give up, and no man working with
them should flee his task or shirk his
duty. BY the living God, whose sport
and plaything they seemed to be- they
swore it; and so weak and strong,
bold and timid labored on-desper-
ate, resolved, godlike in their cour-
age and persistence.
The clouds were moving swiftly
now. To the east it had been clear,
but now 1t was also black, and then
with roar greater even than
a thousand thunderclaps, the wind
tore down the mountains, through the
narrow canyons, into the valleys
shrieking in the pines, and fell upon
them and hurled them down and
brushed them back. And after the
wind. the rain. A drop or two struck
Yandeventer's cheek; another, anoth.
er, and then the flood. He lifted his
head and stared and shook his fist at
the sky and turhed to the human ter
mites he commanded.
"Carry on, carry on, boys" he cried,
shrieking to be heard above the thun-
der peals, "well beat it YETI
A cheer rose about him and was
caught up and ran along the top Of
the great dam. The Mathematical yell
was such cry as men might give
vent to in the heat of battle, the ex-
element of wild charge, and then they
fell to it again. The more ignorant,
unaware of the feebleness of the pali-