nd and choked Wagner, who sought to restrain her.
The little boat swayed and was on the point of capsizing when the woman
suddenly became calm and began to pray.

A big sturdy man cried like a child in the offices of the National Cash
Register Company. He had been to the hospitals, the schools where
refugees are housed and to the churches--but in none of these was his
family.

In many similar cases relatives of the supposed dead were uncertain as
to the fate of the missing. The money loss was heavy, but nobody cared
about money loss, though it ran into the millions.

In this hour of Dayton's woe money apparently was the most useless thing
in the world.

A graphic story was told by Edsy Vincent, a member of the Dayton fire
department. His engine house was within a few doors of Taylor Street,
where the break of the levee occurred.

The department watchers, fearing being flood-bound, sounded the fire
call simultaneously with the break in the levee.

"When the horses, which were hitched in record time, reached the
street," said Vincent, "we were met by a wall of water which must have
been ten feet high. The driver was forced to turn and flee in the
opposite direction to save the team and the apparatus."

INSTANCES OF SELF-SACRIFICE

The dark colors in these incidents were lightened here and there by
stories of bravery exhibited by many of the flood prisoners.

A woman with three children marooned in the upper floor of her home on
the edge of the business district called to the oarsmen:

"I know you can't take me off!" she cried, "but for the love of humanity
take this loaf of bread and jug of molasses to Sarah Pruyn down the
street; I know she's starving."

Twice the boatmen attempted to take the food, but waves that eddied
about the submerged house hurled them back.

LOOTERS AT WORK

Numerous stories of looting were told, and many prisoners were locked
up. In most cases these had entered houses and had been searching for
valuables. A gang of roughs went through the southern part of the city
late at night instructing the people to extinguish all lights for fear
of a gas explosion and then began raiding. The police dispersed them.

All day and all night strings of automobiles were going back and forth.
Those coming to Dayton were seeking friends or relatives. Those going
back had people to take back with them.

At night the temperature dropped suddenly. A blinding snowstorm and high
winds followed clos