iron and steel;
But who shall say, tomorrow, today,
That we shall not halt on our onward way
To bow to the God at the wheel?

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[Illustration: HELPING HANDS]

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CHAPTER I

THE GREATEST CATACLYSM IN AMERICAN HISTORY

THE UNCONTROLLABLE FORCES OF NATURE--THE DEVASTATION OF OMAHA--THE
TERROR OF THE FLOOD--A VIVID PICTURE OF THE FLOOD--THE TRAGEDY OF
DEATH AND SUFFERING--THE SYMPATHY OF NATIONS--THE COURAGE OF THE
STRICKEN--MEN THAT SHOWED THEMSELVES HEROES.

Man is still the plaything of Nature. He boasts loudly of conquering it;
the earth gives a little shiver and his cities collapse like the house
of cards a child sets up. A French panegyrist said of our own Franklin:
"He snatched the scepter from tyrants and the lightning from the skies,"
but the lightning strikes man dead and consumes his home. He thinks he
has mastered the ocean, but the records of Lloyds refute him. He
declares his independence of the winds upon the ocean, and the winds
upon the land touch his proud constructions and they are wrecks.

He imprisons the waters behind a dam and fetters the current of the
rivers with bridges; they bestir themselves and the fetters snap, his
towns are washed away and thousands of dead bodies float down the angry
torrents. He burrows into the skin of the earth for treasure, and a
thousand men find a living grave. Man has extorted many secrets from
Nature; he can make a little use of a few of its forces; but he is
impotent before its power.

Thus we pause to reflect upon the most staggering and tragic cataclysm
of Nature that has been visited upon our country since first our
forefathers won it from the Indian--the unprecedented succession of
tornadoes, floods, storms and blizzards, which in March, 1913,
devastated vast areas of territory in Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and a
dozen other states, and which were followed fast by the ravages of fire,
famine and disease.

THE DEVASTATION OF OMAHA

The terrible suddenness and irresistible power of such catastrophes make
them an object of overwhelming fear. The evening of Easter Sunday in
Omaha was doubtless as placid and uneventful as a thousand predecessors,
until an appalling roar and increasing darkness announced to the
initiated the approach of a tornado,