"I understand the importance of having the militia there," he
telegraphed.

Soon afterward notice was posted in headquarters of the emergency
committee announcing that the city was under martial law, and several
companies of soldiers arrived from neighboring Ohio cities.

The soldiers were employed to patrol edges of the burned district, and
prevent looting of homes freed from the floods.

The hundreds of refugees in the Y. M. C. A. building and in the
Algonquin Hotel were facing possible short rations. Their food supplies
were becoming limited and drinking water was at a premium.

Forty boats were requisitioned by the city authorities and were
patroling the city in an effort to save life and property. These craft
were manned by volunteers.

In front of the Central Union Telegraph office the water was still
running so swiftly that horses could not go through it without swimming.
One boat went by with two men in it, rowing desperately, trying to keep
the bow to the waves. The boat overturned, but both men escaped drowning
by swimming to a lamp post. They clung to the post for half an hour
before a rope could be thrown to them. After repeated casts the line
fell near enough to them to be caught, and the men were drawn into the
second story window of the building.

The telephone employees in the building fished chairs, dry goods boxes
and a quantity of other floating property from the flood. The debris
swept down the main business street with such force that every plate
glass window was smashed.

Only one sizable building had collapsed up to noon so far as the
watchers in the telephone office could learn. This structure, an old
one, was a three-story affair, near Ludlow Street, occupied by a harness
manufacturing concern.

70,000 IMPRISONED BY THE WATER

More than 70,000 persons either were unable to reach their homes or,
held in their waterlocked houses, were unable to reach land.

While those marooned in the offices and hotels were in no immediate
danger of drowning there was no way food or drinking water could reach
them until the flood receded. Those in the residences, however, were in
constant danger both by flood and fire. First the frailer buildings were
swept into the stream, many showing the faces of women and children
peering from the windows. These were followed by more substantial brick
buildings, until it became evident that no house in the flood zone was
safe.

The houses as a rule lasted