ere able to get to the flood section Thursday by a circuitous route
about twenty-five miles long. All manner of vehicles and pedestrians
crowded the road throughout the day, and at the end of the way pathetic
reunions of families separated since Tuesday took place in the muddy,
flood-swept streets.

Daniel A. Poling, general secretary of the Ohio Christian Endeavor
Society, issued an appeal to the 160,000 Christian Endeavorers in the
state, urging them to forward contributions to state headquarters.

West Columbus remained virtually under martial law. Militia companies on
duty were ordered to shoot looters on sight. Thousands of curious people
and those with friends and relatives in the flooded districts were kept
out of the west side by police and troopers. The city relief station, at
the city hall, and the newspapers maintained and compiled lists of the
rescued, as well as lists of the dead.

By Friday order was being rapidly evolved out of chaos, and missing
loved ones were being accounted for by hundreds. Ample shelter and food
were being provided for the thousands of homeless.

Flood waters drained off from the devastated districts, railroad service
was slowly resumed and telegraph and telephone wires were being
restrung.

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING ONE OF THE CIRCUITOUS ROUTES BY WHICH NEWS OF
THE FLOOD WAS CARRIED TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD]

GOVERNOR COX INDEFATIGABLE

For three days Governor Cox tirelessly accomplished the work of a dozen
men, laboring from daylight to long past midnight to aid the
unfortunates of Ohio. His hand guided everything done in the work of
rescue and on Friday he turned his attention to new problems of
preventing epidemics, safeguarding life and property, relieving the
sufferings of surviving flood victims and the care of the dead.

The hero of the Dayton disaster, John A. Bell, the telephone official
who, marooned in a business block had been keeping Governor Cox informed
every half hour of conditions in the stricken city and delivering orders
through boatmen who rowed to his window, called the State House at
daybreak and greeted the Executive with a cheery "Good morning,
Governor. The sun is shining in Dayton."

But sunshine gave way to a blizzard like a snowstorm later in the day
and the reports coming from Bell were less cheering as the day advanced.

On Friday the Governor seized the railways to insure passage of relief
trains and to keep sightseers and looters away from t