The Seaforth News, 1937-07-08, Page 7THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1937
THE SEAFORTH NEWS
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The Sea1orth Ne''r `s
Phone 84
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4 --•w u-,-..oa u*».olaseem-v.-ttd..wemeain.Ow«.....00
IN THE WAKE OF THE FLOOD
What happens after a flood in the
Ohio ,valley. ',People are busily settl-
ing in the .path of next year's flood.
Next year is a long way off, and
maybe the water won't rise so 'high.
Even industries are situated along the
low river Ibanics.
To Mrs. Blank on the muddy clay
flats the latest flood hall been consid-
erably less than disaster. She had
'conte out of the torrent with a care -
au] .coat, a 'plies'ti sofa, the framed
portrait of a dyspeptic -Looking patri-
arch done in oils .and, among many
other unexpected gifts .of chance, a
large hump -trunk +full of red window
curtains. All these and mare the web -
siding 'Ohio had cast at her rubber -
booted feet—except the caraeut coat.
And that had come out of the anagi'c
mountain of .clothing that had risen
overnight at the exhortation of the
Red Cross. I't didn't ifit, but a fur ,coat
was a 'fur coat and anyway it didn't
make a body look 'like a squaw like
Mrs. Blank's neighbors. They were
•tire sills of . the second floor you took
•to the boats. Home was home as it
always will be And you clung to it
whether it was a slab -sided shack or
a brass and granite palace. You le'ft it
+fghting. And when the terror had
gone you moved back—or rebuilt the
ruins. Where else would they go?
So you see how it is. And you the -
hold •the IO'hio River people 'bade on
the'flats 'settling down for next year's
Rood and 'knowing perfectly well
there will he one. Already the latest
deluge had been talked to death. Al-
ready they had. shoveled and 'sluiced
the 'Ohio's silt oat of its bedrooms.
Already a swiftly ,genenous, ,breaet-
beating, sentimental country was pro-
ceeding to forget. 'Pt had 'given the
Red 'Cross twenty million; and had
shuddered to lts heart's content over
its newspapers and newsreels. And
I1,I50,001? ;families h:ad (been given mon-
ey and materials with which to 're-
consteuct their homes — and await
next year's Hood. When next year's
flood came there would be twenty
million more, and the same tears
would he shed, the sante hands wrung
and the same vows be taken to "take
steps." 'Why not? This has been go-
ing on for a hundred years. And the
Ohio 'River, IVIoeher Mississippi's
most lavish .flood contributor, has
A benders Far cen-
turies,
going on water
turies, for unnumbered years ,before
the first white man took 'ap his insane
abode on the river's brim. The In-
dians had too much sense to live
with their feet in the water.
Condemnation and improvement of
the annually flooded clay 'banks,
dans and catchment basins. Oh, well
never mind. Important influential
personages were against all these.
However, let's get back where- it is'
Yet, all the personal selfishness
and industrial inconvenience which
stand in the way of honest •flood con
trot are the least of the causes Why
the ,heads of the army engineers and
Roosevelt's national resources are
splitting with pain. Floods can be
controller) to the 'last drop. It is whol-
ly possible so to rearrange the face of
the earth that 'Pittsburg's, Cincin-
nati's
incin-
natis and Louisville's latest Ifloods
would be their last. But it would cost
as unveil as it would to move all
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and .Lanisvilte,
from the richest palace, tallest build-
ing and heaviest railroad to the most
wretched tenement on the 'Hats. The
most they can hope for is protection
against moderate .floods, They'll have
to take the big ones and hope they'll
he few and reasonable.
Generally speaking, the Ohio's
floods have their causes at or above
its source—the confluence of the 'Al-
tegheny and the Monongahela rivers.
So they're building ten 'large darns,
that should cut ten feet off the crest
of the )Pittsburgh's area's flood.
;:currying around prospecting the de-
bris, wrapped iu 'blankets. She and
her neighbors were 'back again on the
,flats_ Their men were digging oat. Of
course some of the quickly built
houses they had lived in had surrend-
ered to the water and were now scat-
tered down along the 'floodway in
crazy piles of warped 'planking and
smashed clapboard, But mast of the
houses had survived, They budged' in
queer places, of course, and ttiany of
them had taken on,precarious slants
and sudden angles. But .what had
happened downriver had happened
above and there were Latently of vag-
rant timbers and other materials with
which to patch and brace. Anyway
Mrs. Blank and her neighbors were
,hack on the river fiats, And there, as
far at they knew, they were going to
stay, Floods came and 'Floods went
and it scat forever the same. When
the waters entered your front door
you merely retreated to the second
floor (if there was a second floor)
and when the river came lapping at
In '1584 the !flood reached a peak of
seventy feet at (Cincinnati. There 'have
been a number of floods at Cincinnati
seine bat,, until January of this year,
nothing threatening to 'break I118/8l's
record, .Since 111811114' Cincinnati has
done a lot of pu'ble-service building—
waterworks, sewers, power plants and
so ou, They were 'built by 'gentlemen
who had the flood habit in mind but
who,had become convinced that 113134
had said the last word. The water
was never going to •exceed that 70
foot mark. Just how they arrived at
that comfortable state of mind is not
no record. In January it reached 180
feet at Cincinnati. But right now you
can fiend otherwise normal 'gentlemen
in Cincinnati who are talking of eigh-
ty ifeet .as the ultimate. In Wheeling'
they are inclined to congratulate
themselves (because 'their flood this
year was slightly. less than in ilgn6,
('herefore natters are on the mend
and 'there's no use getting unduly
warmed up, IB+ut Louisville, 'thsee
fourths of which was cinder water
h in the
hotel lob-
bies,
,caditsh caught
is demanding that the entire
country become ,excited. Pittsburgh,
which escaped the worst Of this
year's iflood, isn't particularly inter-
ested in Louisville. Of course dikes
and dams are not the 'whole solution.
But
You have heard enough h of thatt
here and elsewhere. The dismal fact
is that we have learned that we Matt -
not 'farm our cleared lands to aridity,
destroy natural vegetation, strip mil-
lions of acres of forest without re-
plaecntent and ;build mills, factories
and railroads an land which properly
belongs to rivere and not suffer the
damp consequences. But well not •go
into that,
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SEAFORTH. ONTARIO.
thinking absently of a discussion I
had heard a few evenings 'befoae, }
Two trappers .w'honi niy father knew
had stayed overnight at our house an/
their way to their trap line on Rapid
(Liver. Of course the tatlk in the ev-
ening had ,been of hunting and trap-
ping and dogs.:and guns, andthe op-
itiions differed as widely. as opinions
on such matters usually do. Finally
the trappers had got into an argument
as to whether a cougar, as 'the hunt-
ers of that locality call the mountain
lion, ever screams.
One maintained that in ranting the
Rocky` Mountains for twenty years
he had hunted and kiltled dozens o,s
cougars and had neves- beard one
make a louder noise than the 'faanious
whistling or spitting sound they emit
When trapped or cornered by dogs.
He was sure they 'never screamed.
His canupanion was equably 'certain
that they did scream, For one had fol-
lowed Ihim for many miles when he
was carrying hone a saddle of 'veni-
son after a tang day's . burst id the
Coeur d'Alene: !Darkness had overta-
ken hint several miles :from camp, and
the cougar had picked up his trail and
followed hint all the way, screaming
every :few minutes, ''W'hen he reach.
ed his shack the 'cougar climbed up
into some rooks tbehind it' and
screamed at intervals for an hour or
so. He wasn't much afraid, he said,
but it made him lonesome.
My trip .up the mountain was un-
eventful, but as I had started rather
late it was two o'clock in the after-
noon when I reached the timber, and
by the time I had knocked the four
or five inehes of snow off my bolts
and packed tltent snugly in the sled
I saw that I ,should have no time to
waste if I was to get the horses car-
ed fur^.'before nightfall. There was no
stable, but I tied the horses in a lean-
to woodshed and let the mare and
colt cone in behind theme I did not
tie the mare,aas I ,waa sure she would
not leave. Then •I built a fire in the
state fireplace and heated and a.te.
my supper.
Porcupines. had ''gnawed holes in
the door and' ha the `'floor where
grease had been spilled sit previous
cooking operations, and part of one
of the two hoards that made the nar-
row door had been knocked from the
cleats and was lying Rist outside, but
I leaned it against the opening from
odd times father and lI went to the the inside and drought no' more ab -
hills a short distance away and out it. 1 sat awhile by the firelight
brought back a wagonload of straight,
slender poles, with whichwe added
to our corrals and sheds. But when
we needed material for a roof it 'be-
came necessary to go over a bad
mountain mad to a :piece of timber
about twelve tniles away, where
grew the trees of a kind and size suit-
able to be rived Into shakes, or clap-
boards, as we called the large 'home-
made shingles.
One evening about the middle of
November, as we sat round the fire-
place after supper, my father said:
-We need one more load of shake
holes, and I am afraid that if we
.Ioe't get them down off the moon -
edit within a few Say:: the snow will
'w too deep. I had planned for us
both to go to -morrow, but there is so
much I want to do here that T think
I'll let you go alone. You shouldn't
have any trouble if you chain a drag -
log to the sled' before you start down
the steepest place."
T eagerly agreed, for I enjoyed'. the
trips, even though I :knew that:I
should have to stay all night alone in
a deserted cabin near where we had
cut and piled ,the bolts in the early
fall. The Following morning we hitch-
ed our work team to, a sled, and fa-
ther advised me to throw in a set of
einsle harness and to lead Pally, a
mare with a young colt, along, to use
in case li had trouble on one or two
strep pulls or found the snow deeper
than we had. expected. 'With a bed-
roll, some food 'for thyself and hay for
the horses and a .3040 rifle stowed
in the sled I started.
I drove stately, for though the
snow was not deep we were ,breaking
a new read through it and the sled
dragged heavily. Furthermore, mach
sf the twelve 'miles was up grade, and
.,some- of the pitches were so steep
that I had to stop the horses to let
them rest a bit—not to satisfactory a
procedure with a s'lecl as with a wa-
gon, for there were no brakes or
b'lock's to take the weight off the
team. The, nitre made some trouble,
as she did tat lead well and continu-
ally worried about her colt, 'which
would lagbehind when it wasn't
tasking about nin the lead to the eon-,
t,sion of the plodding team.
1 lied little time to look about, but
now and. theta I saw a blue grouse
hurl diett at the base of a scraggly
pine or sitting motionless on a
branch. its dark plumage 'blending
with its surroundings. Not many ani-
mals were out, Bears were asleep,
squirrels and ship milks in their
nests Mink and martens were, active,
but their paths tie gong the streams,
and ate seldom sees then until they
are 'trapped: .
As we slipped' along with chains
jingling and the breath of the horses
Steaming lit the .f+rasty air ,T was
THE I•NT.RUDER
In the fall of MS I was sixteen
Years old and was living with my fa-
ttier and mother on a stock ranch.
near the Little Salmon River in west-
ern itdaho. The country is high, and
the winters are long;, aside from a
garden of vegetables our famming,was
limited to the .growing of ttniothy
hay. We irrigated the land From the
creek that ran through the ranch and
cut several 'hundred tons of hay,
which we stored in ;great ricks and
feet in winter to cattle that' rangedthe
mountains near by in sunnier. Our
buildings were few and small, and at
Dt HI Mei
111 183
e ndropra'elto>r"
Electra Therapist — tstassage
Office Commercial Hotel
I -fours -Mon.. and Thurs. after
neons and by appointment
FOOT CORRECTION
by manipulation—ISun-ray treat"
meat
Phone 027.
i
FISHER tREUNIO'N".
Forster's Bridge, 'well-known reun-
ion and picnic site in Colborne town-
ship, was the scene of a :gathering of
the Fisher 'clan on Thursday after-
noon, Dominion Day, mare i titan two
:hundred persons attending from To-
ronto, . ,Guelph Kitchener, Landon,
Walton, Clinton, Sea,forth, Londees-.
bolo, 'Gorlerioh and Colborne town—
ship. The Fishers are descendants of
(Mi'c'hael Fisher, 'first settler in the
Bentniller district, who had a ,grant of
one thousand acres from the Canada.
Company, Mr: Thos. j, McIdc,tael;
of Seaforeh, was president of the ga-
thering, and Mr. ,Ross Fisher, of Col-
borne township; was secretary -treas-
urer. . Mr. 'WM. Hill,o
township, was named president for
the 1.91318 reunion, which will the held
at the same place the last Saturday in
June, 'Tmhe oldest and youngest at the
reunion were Rev. Peter Cohen of •
Kitchener, aged eighty-four,, and the.
twenty -four -days -old daughter of :VIr.
and Mrs. Witmer Rutledge, of Nile.
)George Feagan and Mere Cunning-
ham, both of Colborne township,
were tied for largest family honors.
Each numbered ten in his family, ani
alt were present, Mr, and Mrs. Chas.
Oke, of 'Goderleh, were the couple
Longest married, Their wedded life
has extended ,over :forty-eight years.
\4r. W. J. Bracewell, of Toronto was
the, ane travelling the longest dis-
tance to attend the reunion, An after-
noon of sports; contests and races
was held under the direction of bIr.
Peter Fisher, of .Colborne township, ,
assisted by Mr. R. H. Long, of 'God-
erich, The 'results were as follow!
Seven to ten years—iGirls, ElbIa
Fisher, Colborne; boys, Billy Risher,
Colborne.
Six years and under—(Gerald Fish-
er, Cotbarne.
Ten years and .under, stunt Me--
Girls,
ace—Girls, Donna Fisher,. Colborne; boys,
Billy Fisher,, Colborne.
'Potato race, twelve to sixteen years
—Harold Feagan, Colborne,
'Mee's hop, step and jump-lEilmer
Fisher, Colborne.
Thread the needle 'race—)Ross and
Norma Fisher, Colborne,
'K'ick the . shoe contest—!Norma
Fisher, Colborne.
Boot and shoe race—iDtnna Fisher,
Colborne.
entree -begged race—'Ernest (Fisher
and Richard Jeffery, Goderich,
Sack race --Billy' Fisher, Colborne,
Nail driving can:test-'Mrs. Fletcher
Fisher; Colborne.
1.VDF-yard +dash—lKen 'Fisher, Col -
•borne.
Wheelbrcrrow race -Earl
and Carl' Fisher, Colborne.:
:Most graceful walker—Mr
Fiiniere, London.
looking through some old ntagirines
I 'found, and then pulled a$i niy boots
and went to 'bed in 'a high bunk nail-
ed to the cabin wall, Where I soon
fell asleep.
I was disturbed once or twice by
noise made by the Horses, but did,ttot
fully awaken for some time, when I
hecane,, conscious that Polly was
neighing in au unusual way and run-
ning about, and that the other Horses
were snorting and pawing. I did not
open the door, but went to the little
rite -patted window and looked out.
The cabin stood in a small clearing
and in the starlight I could see the
.stare. 'hut not tile colt. I thought
,r.thably it hal ;treated away iron
her and causes the pasties 'Potty wool'
now trot a little way to the timber
and then come racing back, neighing
lirilly
and' tatting, with her head
held high Then she went rohnd
where 1 :could not see 'her and seent-
ed.'to be more quiet. •
1 had about decided to pull on my
boots and go out to see what the
trouble was when the board that I"
had placed against the door felt to the
floor with a slam. I was beginning to
Feel a little nervous. and at the noise.
T sforted sharply and looked toward
the door. fn place of the missing
hoard and with his head and one paw
across the lower' :cleat of . the dear
stood a huge cougar.
My rrffle leaned against the :wall do
the opposite .corner of the room, but
I had used my ax to stake some fine
kindling, and it stood almost at my
hand. I seized it and stepped ;'toward
the brute,.' for I was struck with ter-
ror at the thought .of its coming m
side. As I did so he drew backoind
crouched down in. the, snow. By peer-
ing rnun,d the edge of the door I
could see him, but 1 feared, 1 could
not strike quic,k'ly and with 'force if
he spring through the opening, as I
Momentarily expected hill 'to do. lI
was terribly afraid to go the 'few feet
to niy Title, .1 began talking in law
tones; t"Go 'way from here! Get outl"
At the annus of my'voce the cougar
because uneasy, and tresentlyt heard
his sort 'tread as he left his position
by th., do,ar and passed from sight
rnurtd the c or t r of the mhin the
horses once so e -?began their hart -I
iitg, and tine stare San into ti' timber.
I hastily stood the board in place ,but
e,•ruld not 'fasten it securely. There
was nothing lease in the cabin to'
aroo against it; 'even the ,table; was
built against the lags,
As T fumbled in the dankness Inc
my rifle-1.heard a heavy thud, and
the shingles on the 'flimsy .roof of the
lean-to rattled as the big cat climbed
across then and +upon the steeper
roof of the mans Ib.uilding tin •wh'ich 11
stood. IFor a ,few ntotnents .all was
still, 'and thea the air was rent by
Tilos.
such a quavering scream as 1 had
never heard' before. C'hi'lls ran,' up and
dawn ray sine 'both 'front cold and
terror, At intervals of a few seconds
the screams 'w'ece 'repeated,,, and be-
tween diem I could hear the 'brute's
claws an the shingles as be picked up,
first one forepaw and 'then the oilier,
as la' house cat;sometimes does.
I knew )taw easily one rake of the
paw could open a rent in the roof. lit
occurred to me finally that d had a
r411 rigid that I could fire through the
thiti hoards. I could only guess where
to Sim, but the crash of the gun curt
short one of the screams "tied with a
'ileal of floundering tate huge 'b'ody
;'rolled off the roof and continued its
struggle in the snow beside the ,cabin.
There was no window on that side,
but.1 knocked the chinking from, be-
tween the logs with my ax handle
and eventually made out a dark ob-
ject dragging itself slowly toward the
shadow of the pines. I fired into, it
repeatedly and then watched but it;
did not move on. I was shivering, -to;V
I built a big blaze in the ;fireplace
and kept it going the rest of the
night. Front between thelogsIoulcl•,
;ee the dead net t When I exams}
ed the body the nest Mousing I fotutai;
the marks of several 'bullets, b falaa
think it was first one that had passed
tIr.melt the abdomen and, cutting
,he spine, bei earal:yze:1 the cougar,
I dragged the carcass of the beast on
top of the sled and tattled it 'home.
After Itearin.>; the affair talked over
by. the men of the neigh'borhood.. I
decided that the cougar had, been.in
the habit of Sleeping in the bunk in
the cabin and had perhaps no inters -
tion of 'molesting me. The aimais
have 'been known ,to inhabit ,deserted
bnrildings,