The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado Part 8

All during the night and until dawn revolver and rifle shots had sounded. Most of the shooting was in the bottoms near the river, but about midnight there was a lively volley of shots, evidently an exchange of bullets, believed to have been between soldiers and pillagers.

A robbery was thwarted when the police arrested a man who was escaping from the city with a satchel containing $50,000 in diamonds and jewelry which he had stolen from downtown jewelry shops.

"Beware of thieves and burglars," said an official bulletin given wide circulation. "Don't leave your houses without protection. It was thieves who scared you about the reservoir and natural gas explosion. The natural gas has been turned off and there is no danger of explosions."

REFUGEES IN FIGHTS

At three o'clock Friday morning it was unofficially announced that three pillagers had been shot to death in various parts of the city during the night.

Over in North Dayton, when the lowlands were inundated by the rush of the waters of the Mad River, the foreign population, which practically occupies that section, was driven to the upper floors and the housetops.

With the extinguis.h.i.+ng of the city's lights bedlam broke loose in various portions of North Dayton. Men in the frenzy of their trouble fell to desperate quarreling among themselves, and shots were heard at all hours of the day and night Wednesday and Thursday.

There were unconfirmed reports that more than a dozen murders had been committed. Troops were ordered into this district to stop the conflicts.

RESTORING SANITATION

Problems of sanitation, the water supply and the reconstruction of the wrecked sewer system were resumed by engineers. Citizens were ordered to dig cesspools in their yards and to get rid of all garbage. Members of the State Board of Health, bringing carloads of lime and other disinfectants, reached here to ward off disease.

A report was circulated that an epidemic of typhoid fever and pneumonia had developed in Riverdale and West Dayton. It was ascertained, however, that not a single well-developed case of either disease was known in the sections mentioned, although there was considerable sickness among the refugees, particularly women and children, due to privation.

Three deaths from diphtheria in other sections were reported by Secretary of Health Board Miller.

FEEDING THE HOMELESS

The food situation was much brighter. The trucks sent from the Cash Register Company, manned by men with military orders to confiscate potatoes and food from the farmers, brought back a good supply of vegetables and several relief trains reached the city.

The problem of providing for refugees was bravely faced by an army of workers, many of whom came from neighboring cities equipped with car loads and train loads of food.

"We can't tell how much we need," said John M. Patterson "and we don't know yet in just what shape we want some of the supplies. For instance, there came a carload of flour. We can use it later, but if that flour had been made into bread it would have been immediately available for the persons imprisoned in their homes whom it has been impossible to remove. We could take bread to them, but flour is not serviceable."

Many motor boats went into the flooded district taking food and water and bringing out persons who needed medical attention. Many of them were so weak from deprivation and suffering as to be scarcely able to move.

Hundreds were taken to the Cash Register Hospital and other places where they could be aided.

Among those taken out of the Algonquin Hotel were Stephen Patterson and his wife. Mr. Patterson is a brother of John H. Patterson, the cash register manufacturer. Great anxiety had been felt for their safety and also for Mrs. Frank Patterson, a sister-in-law. The latter was found in her home on West Fifth Street.

HUNDREDS STAND BY HOMES

In that section on the east side of the Miami River and north of the Mad River rescue work went forward with the two United States life-saving crews in charge. Hundreds of people living in upper stories and practically without food or water since Tuesday morning refused to leave their homes, believing they would have a better chance for safety there than elsewhere. Water and food were supplied them. Hundreds of others had left their homes, in some instances effecting exits by chopping holes through the roofs. Very few of these were accounted for.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.

While the flood was raging, hundreds of fires which started throughout the flooded States were left to consume millions of dollars worth of property, and to destroy many lives, because of the inability of the fire-fighters to get near the burning buildings]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.

President John H. Patterson, of the National Cash Register Company, third man from the right, directing the work of rescue at Dayton, Ohio.

Through his magnificent skill as an organizer, and his coolness of mind, scores of lives were saved that would otherwise have been lost, and a great deal of suffering was alleviated by his prompt measures of relief]

A central morgue was established at the Probate Court building, and as fast as possible identifications were made. Many of the bodies thus far recovered, however, presented difficulties in the way of identification.

Colonel Zimmerman reported that boatloads of provisions continuously were going into the still inundated districts. Milk for babies and medicine for invalids were not forgotten by the rescue squads. Governor c.o.x solved the problem of getting milk for Dayton's babies by confiscating in the name of the State the entire output of the Marysville dairies, and having it sent to the stricken city. The state also seized two cars of eggs at Springfield found in a railroad yard and sent them to Dayton.

PATTERSON CONTINUES n.o.bLE WORK

The dead bodies were placed in coffins as soon as they were identified.

These coffins and decent burial for the victims were paid for by the President of the National Cash Register Company, who footed most of the bills in the tremendous and efficient work of relief.

The weather was bitter cold, but the rain ceased to fall. Thousands of survivors who spent two nights marooned in buildings without light, heat or food on Friday night slept in warm beds.

CHAPTER V

THE RECUPERATION OF DAYTON

SPIRITS GO UP--SECRETARY OF WAR GARRISON ON THE SCENE--CLEARING AWAY THE DEBRIS--BOAT CREWS SAVE 979--RELIEF ON BUSINESS BASIS--STRICT SANITARY MEASURES--TALES OF THE RESCUED--A SUMMARY OF WORK ACCOMPLISHED--RAILROADS AGAIN WORKING--COMMISSION GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED--A HOME OF TENTS--MILLIONAIRES IN THE BREAD-LINE--ORVILLE WRIGHT'S ESCAPE--DEATH AND PROPERTY LOSS--THE TASK OF REBUILDING.

Dayton pa.s.sed Friday night in terror because of constant shooting by the militiamen. Just how many looters were killed was unknown, as information was refused. The facts figure only in military reports.

Fifty shots were fired between midnight and three o'clock Sat.u.r.day morning within hearing of the main hospital quarters in the National Cash Register Building. Civil workers in the center of the town, where efforts were being made to clear away debris, reported that five looters were shot after midnight.

One of these was a negro who had succeeded in entering a Madison Street house where he was seen by a militiaman and shot in the act of looting.

It is declared that only one of the five men shot was killed.

Orders were issued to the soldiers to inflict summary execution on corpse robbers--ghouls who sneaked through the business and residence streets like hyenas after a battle.

Dayton came out in force on Sat.u.r.day to look around and judge for itself the extent of the tragedy that confronted its people. Business men with forces of a.s.sistants penetrated the business section and set about the task of learning whether they had been stripped of their possessions completely.

Haggard faces, worn out with sleepless nights and days of weary struggle and apprehension for the future, brightened with the flush of new-born hope as some of the searchers found that the flood had not proved completely disastrous for them.

Scores of business interests, not alone in the central section, but as well in the outlying manufacturing districts, faced ruin. The work of reconstruction, already in the forming, meant for them going back to the beginning for a fresh start, but on every hand one heard in spite of this words of hope and cheerfulness that the disaster was no greater.

SPIRITS GO UP

The bitter cold gave way to a day of suns.h.i.+ne and comparative warmth.

The military authorities lifted the ban on uninterrupted travel about the city. This privilege and the brightness of the day brought most of the people out of their discouragement and great throngs appeared on the streets. They found the death toll smaller than they had expected and the property damage, while almost crus.h.i.+ng in the size of the figures it represented, not so utterly annihilating as was generally feared.

Military engineering experts began the work of extricating Dayton from its covering of debris, and its menace to general public health. H. E.

Talbot, of Dayton, who built the Soo Locks, was placed in charge and the Pennsylvania Railroad sent in seventy-five engineers to a.s.sist him.

While fifty additional experts appeared from other points, the Ohio National Guard Battalion of Engineers from Cleveland became a part of the organization to "sweep up" the city.

Relief from the suffering because of the closing down of the public utilities bade fair to be accomplished by Sunday. The city lived up to its motto "Dayton does" with the amendment that if it cannot find a way it will make one.