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A TRIPLE NUMBER.
j JFOfiTY-yOUHTH YEAR
f
WIPED OUT BY WATER.
ijpnstown. the Pretty Mountain City, Swept From
'IT
: . the Surface of the Earth.
'3,000 TO lftOOO PEOPLE ARE MISSING.
The first Terrible News Far More Than Verified
- by the Latest Keports.
FIRE FINISHES ALL
Hundreds of Bodies Recovered, and the Seceding Waters
1 Disclose Many More.
CThe Whole Horror an Awful EealityNot a flideons Dream An Awful Stench From
' the Talley of the Conemaugh Aid for the Sufferers as Far as BecelvedMany
f- Prominent and Wealthy Hen Among the Drowned John Fulton, the Father of
the "Attempt at Prohibition, One of tie Tns Fire Breaks Out and Adds a Climai
f to the Work of the Flood A Hotel Filled With Guests, of Whom hut Seven Were
Bared The Police Force Increased to Keep Off Thietes, Who Are Growing Bolder
Some of the Scenes Beyond the Power of Imagination.
rraosi ora stait cokbespojtdssts.i
HOOTEBS-
TILL&P..
Sjar, June L-A
stench arises
throughout the
hole valley of
the Conemaugh.
It is more awful,
more fetid, a s
the hours go by.
"With each re
ceding ripple of
the sullen river,
a score of additional corpses are revealed,
with ghastly faces upturned to an un
friendly sty of clouds.
V cDeath stares you in the eyes at every turn.
3n cannot escape it, nor can you stay away
fifcn thedark, haunting- waters. Some
fcjRige lascination attracts you back, and
there you see -what -was not there before, an
other fresh body.
Not a Hideous Dream.
It is no hideous dream. Almighty God,
in the majesty of His swiftness, thrust His
arm across the mountain tops and trans
formed the rugged scenery of the Chestnut
Hidges, "Pactsaddle" and the sylvan glo
ries of Laurel Hill into a monstrous valley
of the shadow of death. Push your Tray
i HKUK
Midi's 1
I 11 1 g:f'--:KVB U
1 ScvVb"
A. COBNKB OP THE CAMBRIA IEON COMPANY'S MTIiT, NEXT TO THE BEIDOE.
cautiously up the tortuous gorge and you
suddenly come to a halt in a living hell.
This hell is Johnstown.
I reached Johnstown at 1220 this after
noon, by horse, across the mountain from
New Florence, a distance of 12 miles. Just
at the borders of the ruined city I met your
other staff corresponden t, who droTe over
land from Somerset.
The Pioneer of the Kcwssratberers.
Thus The Dispatch was the first news
paper in the United States to penetrate this
hole in the Allegheny Mountains which
was more completely shut off from the world
than Charleston was when an earthquake
shook her silent.
The nation wants the news. "Well, here
it is. Fifteen thousand people within a
radius of two miles of the pnblic square in
Johnstown are absolutely suffering for food
and clothing. Many are starving. Couriers
have been sent in every direction on horse
back to beg farmers to send in stores of pro--visions.
The Governor of the State has
beenrtelegrapbed to for aid.
Bntcberinc Blooded Stock Free.
A. J. Moiham, President of the Johnston
Company, has generously telegraphed a
New York firm for a train load of provi
sions. The Cambria Iron Company has
sent a corps of butchers to its farms, two
miles back in the country, to slaughter all
its blooded cattle for the supply of everyone
frA A formal appeal was sent out to
city of the Union, asking for food and
g quickly.
lumber of cussing people can only
LEFT BY THE FLOOD.
be conjectured. It is variously estimated
by some as "away up in. the hundreds" and
bv others
From S.000 to 10,000.
It begins to look as though the first esti
mate of 1,600 Trill not fall far short of the
mark. The most discouraging feature is
that no Johnstown people are found -who
can bring themselves to hope that the total
casualties Trill be under 500. Nobody puts
it less than that. The majority of the peo
ple say from 3,000 to 10,000, bnt in this, as
in all other great catastrophes, intense ex
citement is liable to interfere with accuracy.
As to the actual number of bodies being
taken from the water and debris. The Dis
patch telegrams from points below Johns
town will supply figures, ranging all the
way from the reported finding of over 100
bodies at Nmevah down to the sad discov
ery of one little girl's remains at Bolirar.
Fire Adds Another'Awis! Horror.
v
We also found large fires raging in Johns
town, and the unaccessibillty of the in
terior oT the city prevented thorough in
vestigation of a report that many persons
have been burned to death. A detailed ao
count of these fires follow below.
It is true, as rumored, that nothing is
left of Johnstown proper. Large churches,
big hotels, substantial brick business
houses, and' even the beautiful public
liarary bnilding have been torn more com-
pletely asunder than though an earth
quake had occurred. In the old city of
Johnstown only one-third of the buildings
are left standing. Several suburban bor
oughs, really composing parts of Johnstown,
are utterly annihilated.
Dlany Wealthy. Well-Known Hen Gone.
Perhaps the day has revealed no more
startling fact than that several of the
wealthiest and most eminent citizens of
Johnstown were drowned, with their entire
families. The first is James McMi'llen,Jne
of the Yice Presidents of the great Cambria
Iron "Works. He was about 60 years of age,
and has long been a resident oi the city.
His residence was the handsomest and most
richly furnished in Johnstown. It was ut
terly demolished. He was a widower and
had living with him a widowed daughter
and her children. All went down the flood
with the bouse, and have not been heard o
since. His fortune was estimated at over a
million.
Prohibition's Father a Victim.
John Pulton, general manager of the
Cambria Iron "Works, was the second of this
group. He is said to be positively drowned,
with wife and children. No more popular
man lived in Cambria county than he. He
had become widely'known all over the
State as president of the Pennsylvania Con
stitutional Amendment Association, and
had been one oi the people instrumental in
bringing the present prohibition question to
a popnlar vote.
Howard J. Boberts, Cashier of the First
National Bank, and John Dibert, a hanker,
were also drowned. All of the family of
Mr. Boberts were saved except his son, who
perished with him.
Hon. Cyrus Elder, one of the greatest au
thorities on tariff in the "United States, and
solicitor for the Cambria Tron Company,
had just returnedJrom Chicago. He tried
to reach his home In a skiff, but failed, and
went to the home of his brother, Virgil, just
before the deluge came down from South
Fork. The house fell, bnt the family
managed to escape to the hills.
To-day Mr. Elder learned that his daugh
ter Genevieve and his little son had been
saved, but his 'wife and daughter Minnie
were lost
The Saddest Scenes Brer Witnessed.
Now to go from the rich to the poorer yic
tims and sufferers. Yon find them everywhere.
The road I traveled over the mountains this
morning is at best only a trail through dense
forests. I met no less than a score of crazed
- . v " '"''. aiSwIllKy-'.jf nil aprsl
VIEW OP FLOOD IN
women and broken-hearted men, trudging
across that mountain in the hope of reach
ing Florence or Bolivar, to find their miss
ing ones, dead or alive. Their questions
about bodies and rescued people were agon
izing, bnt they prepared me for worse to
come.
Sunshine never once dispersed the clouds
in the mountain country, to-day. It was high
noon when, descending the eastern slope,
Morrelville was seen in the distance. That
is one of the suburban wards of Johnstown.
It was
Net a Pretty View.
Ordinarily it would have been an arena of
hills, wavy in their alternating lines of
pine, fir and hemlock boughs, that wreathed
the white, trim honses of Morrelville around
about, but the clouds dropped their mist of
melancholy upon the landscape.
There was something about it all tha
even a mile away impressed one with a sense
of indescribable sadness. Drawing nearer
I hailed a stalwart fellow who was listlessly
carrying a bundle of clothes under his arm.
He kindly gave me the desired information
and then I asked him if he knew of any
casualties. The same sense of sadness that
the clouds overhead inspired hovered about
the man's answer:
Some of the Sorrowful Stories.
"I might tell you of my own," be replied.
"My name is Gabriel Fleck. My boy, aged
12 years, my wife's mother, and my three
sisters-in-law were all drowned before my
eyes. But there is still a merciful God in
heaven, for He has spared me my wife."
1 went a little farther. John D. Jones, a
former policeman, spurred a horse in the
opposite direction. Something inspired me
to speak to him, too. My inquiry brought
back this piteous reply: "I and a little son
are all who are alive of a family of 14. I
saw most of them go down."
It waB still a quarter of a mile to Morrel
ville. But here was the next testimony,
heard from a garden gate: "A friend of
mine, "W. S, "Weaver, a prominent confec
tioner, was saved by us; bnt 20 of his near
est relatives are all lost."
Arrived nt last on the Scene.
In Morrelville at last. 'You want news,
do you?" remarked a pale-faced young
woman. "Go there to Young's livery
stable and look upstairs." I did so.
There, in a long barn of a hall, were
grouped some 80 people men, women and
children. They were wonnded from battles
with the debris, or sick from exposure.
Some were lying down, others sat up, while
a very few limped about. A singleconntry
surgeon labored among them. It was an im
provised hospital to make a city doctor
weep.
Over in Johnstown proper "it was found
that another hospital had been formed in
the Parks Opera House. Thirty-three
homeless persons were housed there. One
of these, Edward Fisher, a young man,
tried to commit suicide three times during
the previous night, because of grief over the
drowning of his parents and sisters.
A Hotelfnll, of People Drowned.
"When the Hurlburt House fell in, it is
said that S3 guests wire within its walls.
All were drowned except seven. The pro
prietor, Frank Bentford, was taved.
Mr. John Lowman, one of the promi
nent doctors here, was drowned. He
was one of the earliest surgeons to advocate
the system of immediate amputation, and
his loss Is a blow to science, he having been
practicing both surgery and medicine in
this county for over 60 years.
Chief Harris, of the police department,
saved himself and smallest child by .climb
ing ont on the roof of a neighbor's house.
His wife and eight children in attempting
to follow were all lost.
To-night twelve special policemen are
hiring all the assistants they can find to
stop
Wholesale Robberies that are Going On.
Thieves have grown so bold that they are
now carrying chisels with them to break
open safes' and ehettt. The Cambria and
PITTSBUKQ-, STJlTDAf JOKE 2, 1889.
Johnstown Companies have offered to pay
for all police protection for three days.
It is simply impossible to attempt to
count up the number of the dead. People
have gotten accustomed to estimating the
missing by the amount oi population in the
districts where loss of life was heaviest.
This is the way the number reaches a
thousand or more. Still, many of the
missing are known to have been rescued
alive below.
Fighting the Flames and Flood.
Fire was added to the terror of the flood
last night, and many, perhaps hundreds, of
persons, swept down from points above, per
ished within sight of the shore at the big
stone bridge of the Pennsylvania Bailroad.
Their cries -and groans could be heard
from the shore all last night by crowds who
were attempting to aid them. From East
Conemaugh hundreds of houses were
JOHNSTOWN THE OPEN SPACE WAS KNOWN
washed awayand lodged against the bridge.
Perhaps fire in a stove in one of the houses
started the flames.
As the houses dashed against the immense
stone structure and were crushed like egg
shells, the flames spread, and Johnstown
last night was illuminated by them so that
a person a mile away could see to read a
newspaper. The victims of the flood were
wedged in among shatteredboards and tim
bers, and so became
Victims of the Flames.
Persons who were on the Pennsylvania
Bailroad side of the Conemaugh this after
noon say the cries of the ill-fated people
could be heard issuing from the ruins as tne
flames spread toward them. The bridge it
self was intact, hut the approaches to it on
the east side were washed away by the
mighty wash of water, and a boiling, roar
ing torrent Eeethedhetween, either end of &
and the shore.
This afternoon men succeeded in reaching
the ruins, but were powerless to aid. No
appliances were at hand to do proper work,
and the people who are wedged in among
the ruins of their honses against the im
mense stone bridge, facing death by flood,
DEIPTWOOD ABOVE THE
by fire, by hunger and by exposure, are in
all human probability beyond hope. How
many of them are in this awful plight may
never be fully known. The only operator
here completely played out
Btofikl and Simpson.
THE MOBQTJE AT NINEVEH.
Over 123 Dead Bodies Collected There
Slessrs. LlntoD, McMillan nnd
Diebert Carried Away
nnd Drowned.
ITSOX A STAFT COBBESP ONDEJTT. J
Nineveh June 1. Midnight. The
scene in Theodore Nunsmaker's planing
mill at Nineveh, where 73 bodies are lying
stretched out cold in death, is simply
appalling. One can get no idea of the
feariul work of the waters until he has seen
these poor, , mangled, bespattered bodiesr
On the Indiana side of the river at this
place about 75 more bodies are laid out. In
the low Nineveh flats a number of other
bodies can be seen, bnt so far they have not
been recovered. Arms are protruding
above the water and sand, bnt the bodies
are in snch dangerous places that they
can't be secured without great peril. The
water has subsided somewhat, but the cur
rent in the stream is still strong and vio
lent. The wrecking train this afternoon col
lected 15 bodies between Derry and
Nineveh.
They were taken to the planing mill and
placed in rows about the establishment. No
one can have any idea what the bodies
looked like until he has seen them. Borne
of them had their skulls knocked fnas If
some brute had hit them with a bludgeon.
Fine looking women
Had TJslr Gashes. -
on their cheeks, and ,the delicate hands
were scratched and tonkas if they had
been dragged through, a briar' patch
Their faces were smaller and distorted;
mouths were drawn out ot shape and the
eyeballs were in some instances filled with
mud as were also the ears. Their slender
garments were bedraggled with leaves,
weeds and grass, mixed with mud. Thelit
tie children arranged in rows looked for all
the world like large Chinese dolls with their
round bloated faces and bloody skins. Many
of the bodies were covered with blood, and
bruised horribly. They were tossed about
buffeted by the currents and dashed against
rocks and debris until they were scarcely
recognizable by friends. (
"When the waters subsided somewhat the
AS IEON STEEET.
bodies were left lying in the mud and grass
along.the shores where they are being picked
up as fast as they can be found.
Bodies Under the Grass.
Close observers going along in the trains
can see lots of bodies partially covered with
grass and driftwood. In some places the
debris is piled up as high as a house, and
it is supposed bodies are lying under these
masses.
Everywhere on the shores the stream
the bushes and tress have caught various
articles ot clothing. At one point a lady's
chip hat ornamented the top of a young 1
luiuii, uuu ciowes eaougu, raggea ana torn,
can be picked up to complete anv gentle
man's or lady's wardrobe.
Among the bodies lying at Nineveh
was that of a woman with a young,
babe in her arms. Her limbs had
stiffened about the child, and in
that position she was stretched out on the
floor. Most of the victims at Nineveh are
women. A big, brawny mill hand with
hob-nailed shoes on his feet and his hair
.propped close to the head, was placed beside
'the dead body of a handsome looking man
with a mustache and side whiskers.
How They Compared.
He appeared to have been a pro
fessional man, judging from his
exterior. Innocent little fellows with
their discolored faces upturned and wearing
a calm expression, brought tears to many an
eye. Some of the bodies lacked shoes, and
til " "nW PV )
BEIDOE, SHOWING VIEWS OF THE CAMBRIA IEON COMPAHT.
it has beet learned since that these people
worked at night and slept during the day.
A cripple was noticed among the ladies,
the one limb having been shorter than the
other, Tfad the thick sole and high, narrow
French heel were prominent. But it was
the horrible mangling of the bodies that
made the picture in the sawmill so fright
ful and disagreeable.
About 5 o'clock in the afternoon Under
takers Sampson and Devore arrived from
Pittsburg with a boxcar 'load of ronch cas
kets, and as Soon as the bodies could be pre
pared they were placed in the boxes. The
citizens kindly furnished sheets and gar
ments to cover the nude persons.
Late last night people abont Derry were
willing to wager that the loss of life would
not be
Less Than 10,000
but undoubtedly these figures are too high
by a half. Certain it is that the actual loss
of life will never be known. The bodies in
the fire can be seen burning up, and some
will be carried into the Ohio and never
recovered.
At Johnstown last night the survivors of
the flood were suffering for the necessaries
of life. It is almost impossible to get pro
visions into the town. Bread and other
eatables aro taken to Sang Hollow, and car
ried in baskets four miles across the country.
Nine people were in the tower at Johns
town when the flood came. Chief Lineman
H. A Jackson, of Denny, happened to be
one of the number. Only one of the nine
escaped. Mr. Jackson, Mrs. Ogle, the ope
rator, and her daughter were carried away
and drowned yesterday morning. The bod
ies were recoyed and identified last evening.
Two sleepers of the day express lying at
Conemaugh were burned some time during
yesterday. One of the coaches of the de
layed train, full of people,
Was Carried 08",
and it is reported that only nine of the pas
sengers were saved.
The track of the Pennsylvania road la 10
badlytornupthat Assistant Superintend
ent Trump, who has been over the ground,
says that it will take two months to put the
road bed in shape for laying the rails. This
means that travel on the great Trunk line
will be interrupted for that period.
At Bolivar yesterday the river was full of
floating canned fruit, vegetables, etc. A
large crowd of men and women were en-
aged catching the cans, and filling big"
askets.
The valley of the Conemaugh was flooded
with a lake of water a mile wide. The sub
sidence of the muddy flood leaves the m:
on tne trees in tne meadows.
Wife and Child Drowned.
Just opposite Lacolle a man. his wife
child clung to a tree all night long. In the
morning the people on the other side called
to them to hang on and they would .rescue
them. "When the water had fallen a little
the man dropped down from his position.
In assisting his wife and child they stepped
on the same debris, which gave way beneath
them, and they were rushed out to the cen
ter of the stream, where they sank before
the distracted husband's eyes.
Poor Steve Glucis, who 'lost his wife and
five children, traveled around with the
wreckers. "With tears in his eyes and heart
broken, he carefully scrutinized the bloody
and mangled faces of the women. Once he
thought he had found his wife, but when he
saw the bodies at Nineveh he got confused
and couldn't tell which one, if any, belonged
to him.
Damage In the Monntnlns.
One of the trainmen came down the moun
tain yesterday from South Fork. He reports
that this place and Mineral Point have
been washed away. "With the exception of a
few houses on the high grounds there isn't
a dwelling between Conemaugh and South
Fork. The trainman says that the moun
tain has been cut into deep gullies by the
flood.
At Lacolle a few bodies were discovered
under a pile of driftwood, and some persons
spent the afternoon trying to get them out.
In Conemaugh the round honses and en
gines were moved and carried away. A
flour mill and half of a cotton mill are all
that is left of the town of "Woodvale, and
Cambria City is entirely gone. A nnmber
of people were forced to remain in the mar
ket nouse ana steel worts all night.
Prominent People Lost.
It is reported that B. J. Linton, a promi
nent attorney of Johnstown, and his family;
John Diebert, the banker, and his familv,
and M. C. McMillen, of the Cambria Iron
Company, were drowned. The last seen of
Mr. Linton, his wife and children, they
were on the roof of his big brick house.
Anothe7! house struck it, when the walls
separa' 1 and the party fell between and
were tbst. Even the large brick Morreil
mansion is said to be.out of plumb.
Ex-Mayor Chalmer Dick, in speaking of
the flood said: '! was playing in the yard
with my little daughter, and a neignbor's
child was on the swing. All at once with
out any warning the water rnshed down
upon me. I grabbed my little girl, and
was reaching out to take hold of the other
child, when quick as a wink, she was car
ried off. I managed to get ont alive with
my daughter, but how it happened I do not
know.
Went Down Like Flies.
"The water must have come down 30 feet
deep. I saw people drown like flies all
around me."
At 11 o'clock last night the wrecked
houses were still burning. The fire was
not violent, bnt steady and intensely hot.
A number of bodies were seen burning up,
bnt the people have been dead for some
time. It loots as it the fire will continne
to burn for a couple of days.
At New Florence last evening the bodies
of 11 women and 3 children had been
recovered. One body was identified as Mrs.
Boorshee.
T. "W. Kirlend, a jeweler, whose place of
business was opposite the Cambria Library,
was seen at Sang Hollow. He says he was
rescued from tUe flood, but his wife and
three children were drowned. His store was
carried off, and he has lost everything be
has in the world. Mr. Kirlend was very
much dejected, and
His Heart Saddened.
More than once he wished he had gone
down with his family. He recovered the
bodies of two of his children.
w. w
Mrs. Bovle, the woman saved at Sock
port, who lost nine children, is said to be
raving mad. She continually calls for her
dead children and cannot be comforted.
Mr. Kerlind claims that the people were
not notified that a break in the dam was ex
pected. His little baby was strangled in
his arms, and his boy was drowned, while
he was powerless to 'save either, and only
escaped himself by a miracle.
John Diebert's fine brick house is
said to have collapsed with the fam
ily in it, and it is supposed they
are all lost. All the houses on "Walnut
street were washed away, and a person can
see from the corner of "Walnut to the
stone Methodist chnrch. There isn't a
honsi, either, on Maple avenue.
Two Girls MlssinK.
Miss Beam, a sister of the new Alle
gheny pitcher, and Miss Goldie, both of
Latrobe, were visiting in Johnstown. They
are missing, and their parents and friends
are afraid they have been drowned. A body
floated past Sang Hollow about 6 o'clock
last evening.
It was reported tbat so far 60 bodies have
been found in Morrellville.
A gentleman from Johnstown who saw
the flood said that the water flowed diagonal
ly across the streets from the Cone
maugh to the Stony creek, and that
when the honses blocked the water
under the railroad bridge it was this
reaction ot the violent flood that produced
the damage. He claims that all the houses
were floated up the stream. Main and
"Washington slreeta are completely washed
ont, and the water is now pouring through
them like a big river. The Baltimore and
Ohio depotisstandingon"Wa8hington street.
The officials of the latter road think they
will be in running shape by to-night.
Will the Town be Kebnllt T
People are alreadv beginning to speculate
as to whether the town will be built up
again or cdL Many are inclined to believe
Continued on Seventh Page.
v
n
AS THIS CITY SEES IT?
Graphic Narratives of
JdDrned, and the
irKe:
A CELLING TIE
The Awful Impossibility of
All Fere -Laid
roTSt.
SMi
PITTSBURG READY WITH 100,000 RELIEF..
The Frightful Facts Beginning
From This
A Magnificent Movement of Belief Fa!rly Under Way--A Few Floaters Canght Here-In
cidents of Thrilling Interest at Home-Odd Thing3J?onnd Afloat, and Some Thins
Yalnable-Doctors Subscribe and Are Beady to 60 at Once-Questions as to P03
sible Besponsibility..
Here is just how it looks to one just re
turned, after viewing 400 of the recovered
bodies:
A torrent which was almost as tumultuous
as the "Whirlpool Bapids of the Niagara
river; yellow as the Upper Missouri, and
defiantly threatening as the cross-seas of
Lake Michigan, surged and roared yester
day through a large part of the Cambria
Iron "Works at Johnstown. The Cone
maugh river after sweeping before it nearly
every house from the South Fork station of
the Pennsylvania Bailroad to the great
railroad bridge at Johnstown, carrying
away almost one-half of Johnstown itself,
and every village between the two points,
had cut for itself a new channel.
On Friday morning Johnstown had seven
bridges. On Friday evening it had none.
On Friday morning the Conemaugh river
made an abrupt turn at the point where
Stony creek emptied into it.
The Transformation.
On Friday evening there was no channel
except that which the high hills made, for
all between was one raging, angry, wrath
ful lake of waters, which remorselessly en
gulfed life and property. On Saturday the
waters had much receded, and then it was
found that the usually placid river had
found a new channel. The railroad bridge
no longer spanned the river, because the
embankment on the north shore had been
swept away, and tossing, fretting and surg
ing the yellow tide flowed in its new found
avenue. The six other bridges which had
cost time and money need never again be
erected on the bases of their former piers,
because the piers may now become the base
of other structures.
Above the railroad bridge there rose the
smoke and flame of a conflagration which
meant the total extinction of vast amounts
of property and the cremation of many
human bodies
Fortunately Already Dead.
The swirl of the gigantic current had
piled against and above the bridge across
the debris, in which even entire houses
were to be seenand in which human lives
were sacrificed. This debris had taken fire
and burned with a fury that was almost un
accountable, abovo the waters in which it
was imbedded.
At Cambria City, in Johnstown itself, at
Nineveh, New Florence, Bolivar and other
places below there was already gathered
yesterday an appalling number of corpses,
and the number continued to increase as
rapidly as the waters receded.
"What the total number of lives lost may
be It will take many days yet to determine.
That it is enormous is already known. By
last evening over 400 bodies had been recov
ered, and the lowest estimate placed the loss
of life at 1,200 to 1,600, while it may even
reach 3,000 to 4,000.
May Never be Knows.
It is probable that an accurate count will
never be made, as in many instances entire
families and groups of families met death
of whose memories their fellow beings know
nothing.
That such a disaster, unparalleled upon
the American continent, could occur stag
gers comprehension. Tet there is an ex
plainable cause. .Extraordinarily heavy
rains caused a pressure upon the Cone
maugh dam, which it could not withstand,
and a volume of water greater than was ever
before gathered in o3e reservoir war hurled
down a narrow" valley, bearing upon the
crest of its gigantic wave Instant and awful
death and widespread destruction.
The money loss will be enormous, but no
one stops now to count or think of that.
Greed stands in awe at the spectacle of
hundreds and thousands of lost lives.
It will be days' before the material valley
of the Conemaugh will recover from the
shook; it will be years before the people of
the nation will forget the disaster which has
been so great as to benumb understanding,
much less description. Dawson.
MBS. HAiFOED'3 ESCAPE.
The President's Secretary's Wife and
Daughters Caoelit In the Flood.
The wife and two daughters of E. "W.
Halford, President Harrison's Secretary,
were nearly victims of the flood. They
were In a train which was canghf In the
torrent, and one car, containing 13 persons,
FIVE CENTS 4
Those Who Haie Re-;
Scenes at Home.
OF 400 BODIES.-
Kecognizing Them When
Out in Rows.
to be Vaguely Eealized, Even
Distance;
was swept away. Mrs. Halford and daugh-
ters were rescued by the trainmen and
taken to Ebensburg, whence they will be)
sent to "Washington.
A DAT EVENTFUL HEBE.
About 8100,000 In Cash or Cheeks Raised
oa the Spar of the Moment Sympathy
Unexnmpled Becinnlca- to Show
Itself Most Worthily The
Hirer Banks and
Bulletins.
Such a day as Pittsburg passed, from a
sympathetic standpoint, she has seldom if
ever known before. Think of snch milk of
human kindness as carries in cream upon
its surface, with scarcely time for the cream
to form, $100,000 in cash and checks as tha
result of one day's united effort for there-i
lief of neighboring sufferers. k
But Pittsburg only just began her noble
work of relief yesterdayt It is fair, from
such a splendid start, to presume that much''
more in the same line is to follow forthwith-,'
and that not one of those in distress from
the pangs of death at their heartstrings shall
be left also to suffer of privation and physit
cal pain for one moment longer tinis abso
lutely necessary. . 't
These manifestations of sorrowingc
pathy will doubtless not wait uppnfb pas
sage of a Sabbath day, for the Lord of tha
Sabbath laid down a higher rule than that
for all who would do good and relieve dis
tress upon His day.
"While there is sorrow and sympathy in
Pittsburg on every hand, there is something -decidedly
more dreadful in Johnstown.
This city began nobly to show appreciation,
of the fact yesterday; now let the good worst'
goon.
At Hirer Banks nnd Bulletins.
All day long the crowds, upon whom a
sort of stupor seemed to have fallen when
they realized that even imagination failed
to take in the reported horrors of the catas4
trophe, drifted to and from the river bants.
The throngs of appalled and excited peopla
who gathered on the sidewalks and block-,
aded the way in front oi the bulletins oa
The Dispatch and other Fifth avenue
newspaper offices only melted away to bo
replaced by other throngs as eager; and then
these again joined in the general drift to.
ward the fateful river. And this kept up
from early morning till late at night.
Never in these parts was 1st of Jnne so
cool without rain. The chill which tha
mountain deluge had put upon the air was
felt in the bones. The treacherous waters
gliding in ever-growing volume between
the wharves glistened brightly without
being warmed by the sun; and thousands all
day hung over the bridge-rails, scanning
with a fascination which held them ever in
tent the flotsam and jetsam the clumps of
wreckage that came thick and fast from tha
scene of the disaster near 100 miles away.
This was the spectacle along the river at 9
o'clock; it continued till mid-day; and aa
the afternoon wore on the crowds tending
thither from all parts of the city and gath
ered on the bridges grew only more eager,
more immense. &
Comparisons Failed.
Greater floods had been seen in the Alfer
gheny, but never one with history so tragio
with thonsands of lives destroyed for a
swift record. The spring freshets of years
past, which came with the melting of tha
mountain snows and the breaking up of the
great ice gorges had swept larger areas and
inundated Pittsburg and the sister city tor
blocks on every side as in '&; but this
murderous flood, which now rolled in snake
like swirls under its freight of broken
houses, with once in a while the ghastly
face of some human victim, or the body of a
domestic animal telling the story of death,
had a fatal and horrible record beyond
previous thought or precedent. It was with
apparent difficulty that many of the spec
taiors urew away irom suem coaKuipuuua
of the spectacle, filled as it was, every few,
moments, by some new suggestion of tha
horrible.
Bnt the humane, urgent impulse to help
the suffering, and to help them at once, waa
the motive influence of the day everywhere
through the city. Before the ink was yet
dry upon the morning papers, telling of
frightful disaster, active, earnest men wera
afoot in every quarter organizing means oil
relief. The arrangements for trains to carry '
ings; thoVsenerous and unstinted money con
tributionsvtendered from all sides, told nobly,
spontaneously, of the feeling which was uni
versal. As the announcements of large con--:
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