Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-04-20

through in ever-increaSing volume, but
the flow into the reservoir was far
greater than the spillway's capacity.
Still the sight of the rushing water
encouraged the men. Every one of
them felt that if the palisade held the
discharge would be increased enough
to stop the rise, but at present the eff
feet was small BY nine o'clock it was
within foot of the top. They began
to measure it's rise by inches. Although
the dam had been carefully kept level
as it was built, the trample of horses
and men, the present digging and pali-
sading and revettfng had caused little
depressions. Now the water rose to
the level. Here and there it began to
trickle over!
The rain coming down from the
mountain tops was as cold as ice, yet
the men were in a fever of excitement.
They had got their second wind. They
were too enthused too desperate, to
feel their weariness. They had not
worked before as they did then. 1t
was the last possible nervous outburst
with most of them. They could keep
| it up little longer-till they dropped
dead. AS the mad thoroughbred falls
in his stride on the track, pushed be-
yond his power of endurance, as even
| the. common carthorse can be made to
go until he drops, so these men, white,
haggard, nervous, drawn-faced, sweat
mingling with the rain on their sodden
bodies, would go till they broke. They
had not quite reached that point yet.
There were some five hundred heavy
cement bags which had been filled with
sand and piled up on the roadway at
convenient points. AS a forlorn hope,
as q last try, Vandeventer called all
the diggers and ditchers, and hewerS
and drivers, and bade them tackle the
| SandbagS. The timber wall that rose
to four or five feet was now packed to
IL height of three with an unequal wall
of earth.
The waves were beginning to roll
against the rampant, although their
force as yet was broken by the brush
wood. Vandeventer jumped up on the
paliSade near the center. There were
some large logs there where he could
stand and whence he could get as
clear view of the whole top of the
dam as was possible through the driv-
ing rain.
There" shouted the engineer, point,
ing to a red trickle-it seemed to him
like blood, taking it's hideous hue
from the red clay of the banks-where
the water had found a low spot and
was washing across the top and
trickling through the new wall anG
down on the other side. Even as he
pointed, the trickle became a stream
and the stream bade fair to be flood
Men ran and dropped sandbags ovel
in front of the palisade, right whert
the leak had occurred Other mel
heaped up the earth behind the wall
seeking to smother it and stop it. Th,
d water checked there, they We're forcet
l. to do the same thing at another place
s Desperately they dropped their sand
o bags, sturdily they piled their shovel
k in the mud; scrambling and yelling
5, they ran from leak to leak. They lift
y ed the heavy bags of sand as if the
n had been loaves of bread and iamme
st them down. They swung pick an
Ie shovel like toys, although the raj
y. made all the earth sticky mud an
ID the work all the harder. The waite
c. was clear over the top of the dam nov
lg and streaming through the revetmer
to of brush and surging against the pal
1T SADIE. Where it did not let the waite
~ through the line of StakaS 1voc ho1iy
lt ming to bend backward.