Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1894 — FLOOD'S WILD SWEEP. [ARTICLE]

FLOOD'S WILD SWEEP.

KEYSTONE STATE THE SCENE OF A DELUGE. Horror* of the Johnstown Flowd May Be Repeated Williamsport, Lock Haven and Other Towne Are Under Water—Several People Drowned. Great Damage Done. Furious floods have broken loose throughout Central and Western Pennsylvania and already great damage has been done. They are sweeping down every valley, carrying destruction to villages, hamlets and cities, and the loss to property of all kinds wili be enormous. Several people have been drowned and it is feared that there will be great Ices of life, as the floods are the worst that have occurred in this State since 1889, the year of the Johnstown calamity. The beautiful city of Williamsport that suffered so severely in 1889, is threatened 1 with destruction, and people fear that the horrors of five years ago may be repeated in the Susquehanna Valley. Steady rain pouring down for three days swelled all the streams, and numerous cloud-bu’ sts along the tributaries of the Susquehanna River have caused the streams to overflow their banks. The great lumber boom near Williamsport broke. There were 175,000,000 feet of logs in the boom, and they rushed down the river and will be a complete loss. The Susquehanna River has been rising steadily according to dispatches. Nearly the entire business portion of Williamsport is under water. The Western Union Telegraph office, which is situation < n comparatively high ground had three feet of water on the floor, and the telegraph operators were forced to abandon their instruments and seek a ptace of safety. Passenger trains on the Pennsylvania Road are only running as far as Dewart, and no trains are running over the Northern Central Railroad between Williamsport and Elmira. * Williamsport Under Water. At one o’clock Monday afternoon the water in the river had reached a height of thirty-one feet above low water, one foot highe • than the disastrous flood of 1 889. The entire city is under water, which ranges in depth from four to twenty feet. All the logs of the boom have been swept away, as well as many sawmills and houses in the lower part part of the city. Not a telegraph ortelephone wire is working out of the city, with the single exception of a shaky long-distance telephone wire which was placed at the disposal of the Associated Press correspondent. The loss has already reached more than a million dollars, and, the dispatch says, unless relief soon comes, it will be three times as much. The boom at Lock Haven broke and 15,00:1,000 feet of logs have been lost. The Upper Linden boom also broke. It contained 10,000,030 feet of logs, and they have gone down. There are about 150,000,000 feet of logs in the main b om and half as many more in the city mill-ponds that may go on a twenty-five foot flood. There has been no telegraphic communication with Lock Haven since 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon, at which hour the telegraph operator was driven from his office by the rising flood. The flood there is very high, and between Eellefon'e and Rising Springs two spans oi one of the railroad bridges were carried away. There is a sevenfoot flood in Lycoming creek, and at Rising Springs the water is eighteen inches higher than it was in 1889.

Sparks from the Wires. Jared Benson, a pioneer of StPaul, Minn., is dead at the age of 72 years. I Philip Merkel, a carpenter, was j killed at Quincy, 111., by tailing from a building. John Massa, a hotel proprietor at Illiopolis, 111., fell from a boat and was drowned. WETTER’S<«ircus was damaged $lO,. OCO by a winiand rain storm at Canalport, Ohio. Charles Richards, a farmer, was killed near Vincennes, Ind., by a bursting grindstone. Gen. Frye, the commonweal leader, was refused permission to hold a meeti ing in Cincinnati. The City Council of Mu catine, la., has fixed the saloon license at SI,OOO under the new mulct law. Miss Pearl Manuel committed suicide at Elgin, 111., by taking cyanide of potassium. No cause for her action is known. Health officers of Illinois met at Springfield and formed an organization calculated to improve their general efficiency. All employes of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad have been requested by the company to submit to Vaccination. James Talbot, administrator of the Davis estate, has commenced action to l recover stock in the bank at Butte, ■ Mont M valued at $1,000,000. I Julius Schwabacher, son of a rich : dsstTer at Peoria, 111., caught in the i act of committing a burglarv. has been declared insane. ■ Data concerning the identity of movements of anarchists in possession of the French Government is to be given other countries. Cincinnati authorities forced food down the throat of Father O’Grady, the murderer of Mollie Gilmartin, who I was starving himself. i Efforts are being made by promoters of the exposition at Atlanta, Ga., to secure the Government building used at the World’s Fair. Frank Belt, after being terribly beaten, was robbed of SBOO nearßaberton, Ohio. Five men are under arrest i charged with the crime. For killing his unfaithful wife, Wiil--1 iam McKeill paid the extreme penalty I of the law at Mobile, Ala. i A warrant has b:en issued for : Bookkeeper J. J. Kean, of the Harlem : Fiver Bank at New York, on a charge i of having embezzled $19,000. j The Knights of Honor at their Cin- : cinnati convention decided to refer the question of a 'mitting women to the Older to the subordinate lodges. Frank Goodale, a well known jockey, was thrown from the horse Judo- e I Payne at I.ouisvi le and trampled 'to ■. death by the horses following him. j Strikers at Massillion, 0., have he- ' gun a system of relief on the theory that the strike will not bo called off. ' The seventy-five striking miners who have been at Elmwood, 111., trying to induce men there to strike' have given up the buttle and gone home. Mrs. Math,da A. Patterson, of Chicago, has petitioned Congress to appropriate $5,000,600 to purchase lands on which to settle unemployed thousands. Ben Kilzman, aged 18. son of Conductor Kilzman, of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Road, fell between two cars at Winona, Minn., and was killed.