individual property to
the people of this place will reach $75,000, and at Mineral Point
$50,000.

For the purpose of seeing how the lake looked after all the water was
out of it, a trip was taken to it, fully three miles distant. The
driveway around it is fully thirty-five feet wide, and that was the
width at the point of the dam where the break occurred.

Like a Thunderbolt.

Imagine, if you can, a solid piece of ground, thirty-five feet wide and
over one hundred feet high, and then, again, that a space of two hundred
feet is cut out of it, through which is rushing over seven hundred acres
of water, and you can have only a faint conception of the terrible force
of the blow that came upon the people of this vicinity like a clap of
thunder out of a clear sky. It was irresistible in its power and carried
everything before it. After seeing the lake and the opening through the
dam it can be readily understood how that outbreak came to be so
destructive in its character.

The lake had been leaking, and a couple of Italians were at work just
over the point where the break occurred, and in an instant, without
warning, it gave way, and they were down in the whirling mass of water
and were swept into eternity. The people of this place had been told by
some of those who had been to the lake that it was leaking, but paid no
attention any more than to send telegrams to Johnstown and Mineral
Point.

Here's Another Paul Revere.

The first intimation the people had of the approach of the water was
from the seventeen-year-old son of John Baker. He was on the road on
horseback and noticed the water coming out of a cavity about five feet
in diameter, and not waiting to see any more he put spurs to his horse
and dashed for the town at breakneck speed. Some of the people of this
place saw him coming at great speed, waving his hat, and knowing
something was wrong at once gave the alarm, and grabbing their children
started for the high parts. When he arrived almost at Railroad street,
his own home, the water was already in the roadway, and in less than one
minute its whole bulk was coming, twisting trees and rolling rocks
before it.

[Illustration: RESCUES AT THE SIGNAL TOWER.]

In just eight minutes from the time he first saw it the water had
carried away the bridge and was on its career of death and destruction.
A train of Pullman cars for the East, due at South Fork at 2.55, was
standing on the track on the west side of t