The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1917-05-24

thousand thunderclaps, the wind
tore down the mOuntaihs. through the
narrow canyons, into the valleys,
shrieklng 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
Vandeventer's cheek; another, anOth-
er, and then the flood. He lifted his
head and stared and shook his fist at
the sky and turned to the human ter
mites he commanded.
Garry on, carry on, boys" he cried,
shrleking to be heard above the thun-
der peals, "we1l beat 1t yet"
A cheer rose about him and was
caught up and ran along the top of
the great dam. The half-maniacal yell
was such a cry us men might give
vent to In the heat Of battle, the ex-
cltement of wild charge, and then they
fell to 1t again. The more ignorant,
unaware of the feeh' 1ness Of the pail
sade, the more knowing Indifferent to
1t, seeing only the job, alike realized
only their duty to fight on, to answer
the appeal to their manhood, to refuse
to admit defeat even when life trem-
bled in the balance.
Yes, to use the ancient smile again,
the fountains of the great deep were
broken open. What had befallen them
before was nothing to this. The hard
rain of the night seemed trifiing COM
pared to this avalanche of water. This
was cloudburst indeed. And to
make it worse, to make their task
harder, to render their efforts useless,
the high wind roaring down the valley
piled the water up and drove 1t In
thunderous assaulting waves against
the great mound Of earth on which the
men struggled and labOred frantically
Vandeventer, shovel in hand-he did
not dare to throw it down, lest his ac'
tion be miscOnstrued--went from gang
to gang, from man to man, talking tC
them, appealing to them, pointing out
weaknesses here and there, inspiring
them, holding them up as a man might
hold stricken line against the on
slaught of victorious and Overwhelm
ing force. And agalnSt wind and rair
in that thick darkness, blinded by the
flashing lightning, stunned by the peal
ing thunder, with zeal superhumar
| they toiled on and on and on.
Back and forth went the chief, show
ing himself leader of leaders, anC
wherever he stopped the fury and des
peratlOn of the effort to stem the tide
increased. When he came ploddlnl
along the muddy roadway to the par
committed to Meade ne did not flnC
the engineer.
where's Roberts" he yelled above
the noise of the storm.
"He and two men have gone, sir.
"Gone?" cried Vandeventer, cut Il
the heart at what he thought was &
desertion. "Well," he shouted, reallz
ing there was nothing he could do ther
and that he had neither breath mol
time to waste, there's more need fol
the rest of us to take their places"
He drew a man or two from the
other gangs to re-enforce this danger
point and himself directed their work
Now it takes time for water to rise
five feet, even In clOudburst or 0
succession Of them. The rain constant
ly seemed to increase as the vino
drove 1t on. Vandeventer knew thai
the dam was doomed, that the sluicG
and the half-fnished spillway com
bined could discharge only a small part
Of the flow, but he knew that he would
have two hours at least to work be
fore the water could pass the crest
undermine, and batter down the pail
side and begin to trickle over. Just
as soon as 1t did roll over the top
unless they could stop 1t, the whole
thing was gone. For those two hours
the supermen labOred unremittingly il
the downpour with persistent and he
roic courage that should have been re
corded in song and story but which
was not. 1t was remembered aftel
Il while by none save few. To th'
many 1t was only "all in the day!
work !"
The undersluiCe in the side of thu
dam which would later serve as head
gate for the canal had been intended
to pass the smaller floods which nigh
occur during the construction and haC
been open since the rain began. L
carried off great volume Of water
but hopelessly little in comparison will
the flood. Foot by foot in the torren
tial downpOur the water rose. At hal
after eight it reached the level of thu
spiIlway and commenced to rusl
through In ever-increasing volume, bu
the flow into the reservoir was fal
greater than the spillway's capacity.
Still the sight Of the rushing watel
encouraged the men. Every one o.
them felt that If the palisade held tn,
discharge would be increased enough
to stop the rise. but at present the eff
feet was small. BY nine o'clock 1t wal
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