WHAT MAY HAPPEN.

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 July 1905, Page 1

WHAT MAY HAPPEN.

LET GKEY-MOUTH BEWARE. Mr friend Peter (a very estimable iap, by the way) went out on a fishing expedieion to the Twelve Mile the other day, and took a quantity of ginger beer with him, as the water out that way is said to be unfit for human, or inhuman, consumption. On the return journey, however, the strong sea air and (he ginger in the beer got the better of him. So he Jay down somewhere on the North Beat'll for a nap. lie remembers no more till the next morning, when he Wolfe With a specie of dark brown Sunday morning taste in his mouth, and looking around, lie espied a whisky* bottle not fur from him. He made a 1 bee line for the said bottle, but 1 t’o liisr disgust it did not coniojit a stimulant, but only the following lines scribbled on the back of a' collier’s pay ticket. By the aid of a' pair of forecops and a looking glass, J haVe made them out as follows : fTHe flood 1 came down one winter’s \ night’, and 1 raged in its might and main, Tlie streams had 1 risen’and overflowed, 1 Twas caused 1 by tlie warm north 1 rain; . , And 1 tlie snow on the Hundred'peaks of tlie Alps ’ileatli the fa” had melted aWay, - ■ Viid swelled 1 the torrent a thousandfold'.. till its wrath ho man could stay. So down it rushed through gorge and gule.H and expansive river bed', And the settlers’ hearts on the flats had quailed, and wore filled with an anxious dread ; The forest giants tottered and idl as the awful current 1 raged; While stock soon sank beneath ua waves, for relentless wu 1 it raged. ;

15ni Mill it rose, mi destruction bent, ;s’!i| roared in its fiendish glee, li>j mighty mini outstretching wide as i ii b'ii'o i 1 s prey to the sea; 1 !; :i b>.idge and dredge gave way to it, end nssunder. were speedily torn, A;. ! !bey tossed on its waters like corks in n glass, as along they word rapidly borne. Bni its terrible hunger was unappeastid when it readied the town of Grey, 'A hen the people Were wakened fwtn out t'udr sleep by p. boll at tiro dawn of day ; fbe flung and Hash of the bell rang out above the Hood's dull roar, So townsmen hastened to leave their homes—they bad heard that sound before. I lie streets soon til led with an anxious crowd wlm, with bated breath, £ discussed n "— chances of how the wharf would stand or whether the wall they could trust, Fi r the boats at their moorings tugged and strained at the ropes that held 1 hem in thrall. As the river roared and lashed their sides ns it rushed along the wall. A.s the rain kept on the multitude - were (speechless and quite d&niayed, They saw the Cobden bridge wds | doomed, for at every wave it swayed ; While over tli.e wall' the flood now rushed from the Railway Station down. They know if that structure should collapse there was no hope for the town. But now a thundering shout went ’tip that the wharf was fast giving way,' And people made for higher ground'; it was safe no longer to stay. Then down it sank with one long swish and made a terrible breach; While the river came like an avalancllfe as though anxious the ocean to reach. Houses floated and drifted away like dots on that mighty flood, The town was levelled, and a river bed soon marked the place where it stood | 1 And all through the night the people watched their homes go out to sh 3; And when morning came the wreckage Was strewn o’er a vast expanse of lea. The flood went down, but GreymoUth was a wreck indeed complete, For tree trunks lay and boulders * marked whore once bad been a street : While people, ruined and homeless; walked, their eyes bedimmed with tears, Fur in that ‘day and night they htttl lost the savings of many long years. , ?¥■ But; sadder than damage to homes er streets was the many liven &*<ft were lost, ivr Grcymonth learned it* folly too late, and learned it With bitter cost.; So they locked the doer when the steed was gone, and a great stone wall was placed Where what was called a wharf had once our river front disgraced. ' Row this was years and years ago, and floods have come and gone, But along that massive wall of stone their energies have been short: And now, when young bloods Isuph at floods, the old men rise and frown, And curse the day that GrUyMlfith, met the one that wrecked the Uwii —THE-SLOGGER.