Burt W. Houseman, 46, salesman, helped to save Walter W. Raines, 22, motion picture operator, from drowning, Delaware, Ohio, March 25, 1913. Raines and others were on a bridge when it was carried away by the floodwaters of the Olentangy River. Raines drifted a quarter-mile and took refuge in a tree, far from either bank. After several unsuccessful attempts had been made to reach him, Houseman and a companion heard of his plight. Neither was familiar with the locality. It was dark, and they could not see Raines, but in a leaky boat they started to the rescue. They crossed the main current, which flowed with a speed of about 10 m.p.h., and approached the tree, but they were swept past it. It required 15 minutes to row back to the tree from a point 100 feet downstream. Raines, who had become delirious, was taken into the boat, and the men started on the return trip. The boat was swept toward a tree in the main current, but the men escaped it and returned to the point where they had got Raines. Again they started across the current. They were swept close to the tree they had previously avoided, and the boat was carried far downstream toward a bridge over which the water was rushing with a roar. The men managed to get the boat into quiet water and then rowed to their starting point, which they reached 45 minutes after starting to the rescue. 11213-937
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