Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-19
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

"And the Lord said unto Noah
For yet seven days and I will cause it
to rain upon the earth"
The United States Weather Bureau,
on March /, told the inhabitants of
Alabama, Mississippi and Northern
Florida, In seven days there will be a
flood in your rivers"
And the waters prevailed exceed
ingly upon the earth'--in Noai1's time
and all the high hills, that we're under
the whole heaven, were covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters
prevail, and the mountains were COW
cred"
A cubit is IS inches, so the waters
rose above the high hills some 221a
feet, and "all in whose nostrils was the
breath OF life, of all that was in the
dry land, died"
rose 2212 feet above Mount Ararat's
everlasting snowy peak.
In the present Alabama flood, the
waters rose suddenly in great oncom-
ing waves, from IS to so feet high so
that refugees by the thousands fed In
terror to trees and housetops. and some,
unable to reach safety quickly enough,
died-as in the days Of Noah.
After Noah had been floating about,
some five months, with no Red Cross
to bring aid, no airplanes to drop food
and medicine and clothes and shelter
tents out of the clouds, the flood began
to subside. so that by the end of the
seventh month the good ship, the Ark
not the one which brought over Viz
ginia genealogy-grounded on Ararat,
xrrkn oh, rriavnki0A~ fexIa
the great mountain named after the
little hill of Noah's birthplace, but just
the Insignificant hill of a few yards
height.
After that Ark had grounded. Noah
waited 40 days. while the roaring cata-
racts continued to drain of the water
He might have looked out of his ports
in vain search of the skies for the APP
proach of airplaneS bringing relief
None flew after that flood There was
not even one boat breasting the cur
rents.
1t is natural that the outf1owing
waters must have been carried in strong
currents freighted with unreasonable
debris, making navigation by small boats
very dangerous, even If such boats had
had rowers or gasoline power.
At last Noah sent out q raven to tell
the Red Cross what relief was needed
but the raven-"unlucky bird of hate
full name"-never even croaked, so that
a single r. C. nurse could come to
Noah's survivors.
Noah never thought to spread broad
strips of muslin on the deck Of the Ark
In the form of the letters YIN" That
would have brought the first doctor
AZ ,Ye1,
high, provided the aviators caught sight
thereof
If he had spread out on the deck
muslin letters IL feet high. "YO."
group of Red Gross nurses would have
responded, and If after the "YO" he
had signaled IA" they would have
brought home the bacon. and ZEE"
would have told the want of sugar.
"AF" means canned willie" which
Noah's party could have enjoyed as
much as did the AEF soldiers.
Noah never knew about what our
AEF soldiers knew by TINT" but he
might have signaled just mt" which
means choloride of lime, or ma"
meaning crenolin bandages. or mn"
meaning hospital equipment. and, by
adding Roman numbers telling how
many patients were in need, that many
accommodations would have been forth
coming--if Noah had had the Red Cross
of America back of him.
For example. Noah's family in the
Ark included his wife and his sons and
his sons wives-not less than six per-
sons. probably more: so the hospital
requisition might have been expressed
mn VI"-six cots and other equipment
for six patients.
Maybe there were babies on board