Year: 1874




The marvellous escape of young Dun
ming at Leeds has already been alluded
to, but his story is so interesting that it is
worth giving in detail. When The alarm
was given he was at his work in the
spool-room of the Nonotuck silk works,
and, rushing out of the mill, his first
thought, of course, was for his family.
He found that his father, wife and three
children had all left the house. He shout
ed to them to run for their lives, at the
same time pointing to them what direc-
tion to take. His wife and children
obeyed him and were saved; but his
father, an old man of seventy.eight
thinking that something might be got out
of the house before the flood reached it,
went back. In dashed the son after him,
begging him TO leave the doomed build.
ing. While raising one of the windows
the floor gave way beneath their feet, and
his father disappeared from his sight
The young man had just time to Chamber
out of the window, and as the house tipped
over crawled up its side to the roof just as
the building broke up, leaving him but a
fragment to cling 10 for his life, and on
he went sailing down that awful food in
full sight of wife and children, who, as they
looked ON in terror and agony, expected
momentarily TO see him sink beneath the
Surging mass. In few seconds his frail
raft was crushed like an eggshell, but his
presence of mind never deserted him. He
jumped for another, and when that was
gone for yet another. He was Fastening
down with the current at terrific speed
and, intent on the fearful task he had in
hand, never once thought of the dams to-
ward which he was Fastening. The first
one is reached in that awful crash and jam
He is hurled seemingly twenty feet in the
air, to come down and be submerged for
the first time far beneath the waves. As
he came TO the surface again and clasped
another piece of driftwood he realized
with an intensity unimaginable by those
whose lives have never been imperiled
that another and higher dam was but a
short distance below, and that he had alb.
solutely no hope tor life unless he es.
caped from the flood before that point
was reached but fortunately the swollen
mass of water and debris at that moment
surged toward shore, and seizing an OPP
pOrtunity which seemed to be providen.
italy presented he clambered across
some broken roots, which served him as
a bridge and with leap again had
fOothOld on the earth. The feelings of
man who, like him, had scarcely a hope
of life, on finding himself escaped from
the jaws of death cannot be depicted.
Only cool and intrepid man could have
passed through that experience, and pos.
sibly Mr.. Dunning could not but for his
experiences before as raftsman in Can.
adian waters. He had been swept half
mile down the river and was utterly ex-
hausted by the intense strain on mind and
body, nerve and muscle, yet as he lay on
the bank for a moment to get his breath
he could not suppress a smile al the ap-
pearance of man who escaped from the
flood near the same place by seizing hold
of the limbs of large tree on the bank.
Fleshy though he was, this man went up
that tree like a squirrel, and did not stop
until he was at least thirty feet above the
water


Mr.. Dunning describes as the most ap-
palling incident of the memorable ride
the heartrending screams and groans of
women and children in houses that were
swept down with him and seemed TO be
beneath him. He says they will ring in
his ears till the latest day of his life
Cor. N. Y. Herald.