The Fulfilment of a Prophecy

IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. VI. SEPTEMBER, 1903. No. 11.

THE FULFILMENT OF A PROPHECY.

THE TESTIMONY OF FLOODS.

BY B. H. ROBERTS.

It was in August, 1S31, when a company of ten or twelve men

might have been seen leaving Independence Landing, Jackson county, Missouri, in a number of canoes headed in the direction of St. Louis. By evening of the first day, they arrived at Port Sage, where one of the company secured a wild turkey, on which the party made an excellent supper. The journey was resumed the next morning; and continued three days without anything of special importance happening. The third day they encamped at Mcll- wain's bend, where the event which I desire to relate occurred. This company of men were Joseph Smith, the prophet, and a num- ber of associates, enroute from Zion, Independence, Missouri, for Kirtland, Ohio. They had made the journey to Missouri in order to find the location of the city of Zion, which the Book of Mormon predicts will be built upon the western hemisphere, and will be a city of refuge for the righteous in the last days, when the judgments of God sweep over the land. They had been successful

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in finding the location of the city, for by revelation God declared it to be at Independence, Jackson county, Missouri. God had also designed to reveal to these elders the site of the holy temple, on which the glory of God in the future should rest in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. Having obtained this knowledge, they were now returning eastward to visit the churches and bear witness to the world where the city of Zion should stand. In this company at Mcllwaine'sBend was Joseph, the prophet, Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, W. W. Phelps, Algernon S. Gilbert and Ezra Booth, but all the names of the party cannot be ascer- tained. While they encamped at Mcllwaine's Bend, W. W. Phelps, who has formulated in poetic expression some of the sublimest truths of "Mormonism," "saw, in open vision," says the Prophet Joseph, "the destroyer, in his most horrible power, riding upon thn face of -the waters. Others heard the noise, but saw not the vision." (History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 203.) The next morning, after prayer, the Prophet Joseph himself received a revelation, in which the following, on the same subject, occurs:

But verily I say unto you, that it is not needful for this whole com- pany of mine elders to be moving swiftly upon the waters, whilst the inhabitants on either side are perishing in unbelief; nevertheless, I suffer it, that ye might bear record; behold, there are many dangers upon the waters, and more especially hereafter; for I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger, many destructions upon the waters; yea, and especially upon these waters. * * * And now, behold, for your good I give unto you a commandment concerning these things; and I, the Lord, will reason with you, as with men in days of old. Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning, blessed the waters, but in the last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters; therefore, the days will come that no flesh shall be safe upon the waters; and it shall be said in days to come,

that none is able to go up to the land of Zion upon the waters, but he that is upright in heart. And, as I, the Lord, in the beginning, cursed the land, even so, in the last days have I blessed it, in its time, for the use of mv Saints, that they may partake of the fatness thereof. And now, I give unto you a commandment, that what I say unto you I say unto all, that you shall forewarn your brethren concerning these waters, that they come not in journeying upon them, lest their faith fail and

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they are caught in snares. I, the Lord, have decreed, and the destroyer rideth upon the face thereof; and I revoke not the decree. — (Doctrine and Covenants, sec. lxi: 3-6; 13-19.)

This prediction concerning the destruction upon the waters, and more especially upon the waters upon which these men were then traveling, was uttered seventy-two years ago, and from time to time there has been great destruction wrought by the Missouri and its tributaries; but more especially in the events of the pres- ent year of 1903 has the truth of this remarkable predic- tion of the "Mormon" prophet and the vision of Elder W. W. Phelps been vindicated. For weeks, during the last days of May and the early days of June, the press of the coun- try teemed with reports of the destruction wrought in the local- ities especially referred to in the prediction just quoted. High water trouble began on the Lower Mississippi as early as the month of March, and about the middle of that month, the Mississippi, at Memphis, registered on the gauge 39.8 feet the highest ever — recorded. This circumstance created great alarm throughout the Lower Mississippi country, and the press of the United States dis- cussed quite generally the necessity for governmental action to provide for strengthening the Mississippi levees, the necessity of forest preservation on the head waters of our great streams, and also the building of reservoirs in the same region for the purpose of holding back freshet waters, and thus prevent the possibility of such floods as were threatening to overwhelm the Lower Missis- sippi country. A few weeks later, points in Kansas and Missouri became the flooded region, and the disasters are thus described by an eastern journal: The floods that wrought so much havoc along the Kansas and Missouri riv- ers have now subsided, so that their direful results can be calmly calculated by the authorities of the many cities and towns relieved from the awful strain of the three days of death and devastation. Minds unclouded by the fe»r of pending disaster look upon wretched homes and hopes, fearful loss of life, blotting out of families, irreparable wrenching apart of parents and children, brother and sister, sweetheart and betrothed, and finally, upon the terrible commercial loss that is represented in figures that climb close to the quarter of a billion mark. Kansas City and Topeka suffered the most serious losses in lives and prop- erty, although all along the course of the Kansas, or, as it is locally called, th e

804 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Kaw river, the damage was great, and in many of the riverside towns there was a loss of life from the sudden encroachment of the angry waters. The physical conditions against which the submerged cities had to battle during the height of the flood are thus briefly summarized: Train service annulled. Waterworks shut down. Street cars stopped. Fire companies paralyzed. Electric light plants out of business. Not a manufacturing plant in operation. Wholesale mercantile district submerged under fifteen feet of water. Water rushing through streets like mill races. Fires breaking out in spots in the flooded district. Kansas City, Kan., and the nearby towns, suffered most. The towns of Armourdale, Argentine and Harlem have been completely wiped off the map, and are now lying submerged by the widening river. No living human being remains in the unfortunate towns. Kansas City, Kan., was cut off for three days from communication with the outside world except by trolley to Leavenworth, from which point relief was rushed to the stricken city. The population of 20,000 was starving, and fought like wild beasts for the 100,000 rations that were hurried to them from the fort. The hospitals of the city were soon filled and the post office was turned into one for the occasion. Thieves, taking advantage of the situation, looted and raided the houses that had been deserted by the occupants. Bands of citizens were organized to patrol the streets, and armed with guns they shot the ghouls without mercy. One thousand regulars were asked for to preserve order in the stricken city. Kansas City, Mo., just across the river in ordinary times, but now cut off by a sea of raging waters, was powerless to assist her neighbor. Only one bridge that had formerly connected the two cities was left standing, and that was sur- rounded by miles of water. Families caught by the floods in their homes fled to the roofs of houses and cried for help. Their destitute situation was apparent from the highlands, but there was no way to reach them. No boat could live in the rushing torrent of the Kaw. These marooned families vainly hoisted white flags of distress, and while their awful plight was plainly visible to those on shore, there was no way in which succor could be sent to them. The victims shrieked in their agony, and their pitiful cries were plainly heard by those whojwere powerless to aid them Some daring rescues were made, but hundreds were perforce left to the. mercy of the flood. Men and women could be seen clinging to the roofs of houses until hunger and exhaustion drove them into frenzy, when one by one they slipped off into the raging flood, which whirled away their bodies to cast them up on the shores below. Below Kansas City, in the truck gardening district, scores of families took refuge in the tree tops. An heroic effort to save them was made by two men, who put off in a skiff at 5 o'clock Monday afternoon, and returned at 11 o'clock at night with a pitiful story of a vain effort to save the women and children, who were eventually swept away by the rushing current. "I saw women and children in the tree tops by scores," said one of the men. "They could not be rescued with any number of boats. It will only be a

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matter of time when they will grow weak with hunger and exposure and drop into the flood. "The tree? to which they cling with the hope of rescue have proved their undoing. The water rushes between these trees at twenty miles an hour. If they were out in the open on house tops it would be an easy matter to reach them; but as it is, no boat could live in that current. We could only go within hailing distance of them. But the poor unfortunate creatures bad no other ref- uge than the trees. Their houses had been swept away."

A summary of the destruction to property in this region of country by reason of the floods, was given in the press dispatches of June 7, as follows:

The extent of damage to the railroads operating in and out of Kansas City caused by the flood, can scarcely be estimated. Outside of the very consider- able item involved in loss to freight in cars and buildings, nearly all lines out of Kansas City suffered severe losses in washed-out track and destroyed bridges. The loss in freight flooded and burned, up and down the river, may- amount to The Burlington estimates its loss in its $2,000,000 or $3,000,000. freight house alone at $500,000. Each of the other roads lost as much. Kansas has suffered as a result of the recent floods more than any other state. No exact figures of the loss sustained can, of course, be given, but the damage done in the principal cities, in addition to that in two hundred smaller towns is estimated as follows: North Topeka $ 500,000 Lawrence 250,000 Salina 200,000 Manhattan 150,000 Junction City 100,000 Solomon 50,000 Abilene 150,000 Lindsborg 100,000 Hutchinson 100,000 Minneapolis 100,000 Emporia 65,000 Florence _, . . . . 50,000 Lincoln Center 50,000 Atchison 100,000 Argentine 2,000,000 Kansas City, Kan., and suburbs 8,000,000

Total $11,965,000 The lowest estimate that can be made on the loss done to crops is $5,000,000.

The number of lives lost is unknown. The impression given by the dispatches of the daily press as to the number of lives lost is doubtless an exaggeration. The magazines for July that deal with the subject of the Missouri and Kaw river floods charge that the daily papers greatly exaggerated the losses

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sustained, especially by the farmers; and yet this same magazine, The American Review of Reviews, July, 1903, estimates the loss in Kansas City alone at $7,000,000; and speaking of the loss of stock and property in the Kaw valley, it remarks that "it is no light thing for a thriving section to have ten million dollars or more swept away" (p. 77). So that this conservative magazine, after having an opportunity to correct and comment upon what it calls the exaggerations of the daily papers, places the losses sus- tained in the flooded districts even beyond the high mark of the passages quoted in this writing from the daily press, while such descriptive passages of the flood as these are found in the same magazine: The storm center was the valley of the Kansas or Kaw river, which reaches two hundred miles due west from Kansas City. * * * Havoc resulted in the villages — buildings were moved from foundations, stores collapsed, homes were flooded, while here and there life was lost. When the waters of these branches were gathered into the Kaw itself, and

that usually lazy, aimless, prairie river became a raging waste of destruction, the real danger began. Topeka and Kansas City were to be the victims of the current. * * * When the flood reached Kansas City and encountered the Missouri, swolen by the rains in its own terri- tory, therecame the most calamitous experience of the city's history. Six fine railway bridges were swept away; buildings standing in the current were carried off by the stream; brick buildings collapsed; rail- way cars floated about the yards like boxes; cattle were caught in the stock yards; five thousand hogs were fed for four days in the sec- ond story of one of the packing houses. For two days the city was without gas, electric light, water, or street-car service. The danger of the submerged section, the struggle to rescue the people, the whirling desolation of waters, all combined to throw the city into a sort of panic. When it was over, it was found that only one railway bridge remained, and that five hundred houses and small stores were destroyed; but, ow- ing to the warnings and the rescue work, less than a score of lives were lost. * * *

On the northwestern portion of the rain area, the Platte and Des Moines rivers shared in the high waters; Omaha, Lincoln, Des Moines, and Keokuk had their streets turned into canals and their lawns made ponds. All this heaped-up rainfall came pouring into the Missouri and the Mississippi. Jefferson City and Hannibal took their turn at high water. Boats went across country twelve miles near the former place.

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Another magazine, The Clever, published at Kansas City, Mis- souri, July, 1903, making the Kansas and Missouri floods its lead- ing features, has the following descriptive passages:

Looking over toward a section of Armourdale called "Seldom Seen," where the water was the deepest and the current the strongest, the spectator could see large houses rise from their foundations and float away down the stream, to be battered to pieces against the stronger buildings, and then float on down the stream or pile in an incongruous mass against some obstruction. To the north, the Missouri river was sending down her volume of flood and destruction. The north levee was submerged. The railroad tracks, never before inundated, were lost to view. The "East Bottoms" were part of the great ocean. Families had fled for their lives in the murky, rainy night before. * * * All day long Sunday the bluffs overlooking the flooded district were crowded with thousands of people anxious to know the extent of the damage. People from the flooded district calmly watched their homes float down the river. The cries of the poor unfortunates who had delayed leaving their abodes mingled with the rush of the waters, and the rescuers nobly struggled against many adversities in giving aid^to the beleagured ones. Sunday night fires started in a dozen different places in the flooded dis- tricts, and the fire departments were powerless. On Monday the water was everywhere it was on Sunday at sundown, and in many places not then affected. The "East Bottoms" were submerged. The gasworks were encroached upon and during the day were shut down, adding new trouble to the rest, for with this stopped the only means thousands of families have of cooking their meals. The shortage of water was still more a hardship. Suffering for the actual water to drink was everywhere. The danger of fire grew hourly. Buildings were affected by the torrents of water, and began to crumble. Train service was annulled, and the street <;ars were stilled. There were no electric lights, and the streets were patrolled by armed soldiers. Over all, the dun clouds hung and the rain fell mournfully and incessantly. * * * On either side, far up and down the river, places that once teemed with human habitations were washed away or buried beneath a mass of debris.

On the 8th of June the press dispatches chronicled the fact that The entire group of east side cities lying north of East St. Louis and including Venice, Madison, West Madison, Newport, Brooklyn, and Granite City, are under from ten to eighteen feet of water, which is still rising, and deaths from drowning are variously estimated at from five to

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twenty. Eight thousand persons were driven from their homes. * *

In East St. Louis, on proclamation Mayor Cook, business is sus- of pended, the saloons are closed, and everybody is at work on the levees in a desperate effort to save the city, which is from one to four feet be-

low the level of the water that presses up against the embankments. A hastily constructed levee of sandbags and mud is all that stands be- tween the city and almost complete submersion. If the levee gives way, all the main part of the city will be quickly flooded and not a street in the business section will be left out of water.

The river at East St. Louis rose higher than it ever was, ex- cept in 1844, a number of people were drowned in this disaster, and it was only by extra exertion in building up the levees that East St. Louis was saved from destruction. Damages to rail- road property alone it was estimated amounted to upwards of

two millions of dollars. About the same time great floods in South Carolina were reported through the press dispatches. The loss in property was reported to be upwards of three million five hundred thousand dollars. The loss of human life was variously estimated. "At Clifton alone," says one report, "one hundred mill operatives are missing, all are believed to be lost, and hundreds are rendered des- titute by the ravages of the storm." Scarcely had the daily press ceased to tell of these disasters by floods in the Middle West and South, when it was called upon to chronicle the sad disaster at Heppner, Oregon, which was down what was destroyed by a great flood of water that rushed calbd Willow Creek. Heppner was a town of 1250 inhabitants, county seat of Morrow county. A mighty wall of water swept through the town, dealing death and destruction. Dispatches estimated the number of deaths as running from three hundred and and property loss was reckoned at one fifty to five hundred,

million. The Heppner flood was supposed to have been occasioned by one or more cloudbursts, but in any event it comes within the predicted disasters that are brought about by the curse of God upon the waters. It seems to me worth while to note these current events

which bear witness to the divine inspiration which rested upon the prophet Joseph Smith. No greater evidence can be given