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DEDIGATION. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SURVIVING SUFFERERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 APPALLING CALAMITY AT JOHNSTOWN 
 
 AND 
 
 NEIGHBORING VILLAGES 
 
 THIS WORK 
 
 WHICH RELATES THE THRILLING STORY 
 
 OF THE GREAT DISASTER 
 
 IS DEDICATED. 
 
X hi E 
 
 JOHNSTOWN HORROR!!! 
 
 OR "\-. 
 
 VALLEY OF DEATHS^ 
 
 BEING 
 
 A COMPLETE AJJD THRILLING ACCOUNT OFTHE AWFUL 
 FLOOM AND THEIR APPALLING RBIH. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 Graphic Descriptions of the Terrible Rush of Waters; the 
 great Destruction of Houses, Factories, Churches, Towns, 
 and Thousands of Human Lives ; Heart-rending Scenes 
 of Agony, Separation of Loved Ones, Panic- 
 stricken Multitudes and their Frantic 
 Eifbrts to Escape a Horrible Fate, 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 THRILLING TALES OF HEROIC DEEDS; NARROW ESCAPES 
 
 FROM THE JAWS OF DEATH; FRIGHTFUL HAVOC BY 
 
 FIRE"; DREADFUL SUFFERINGS OF SURVIVORS; 
 
 PLUNDERING BODIES OF VICTIMS. ETC. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 Magnificent Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Quick 
 
 Aid from every City and State; Miilions of Dollars 
 
 Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers. 
 
 Stricken 
 
 By JAMES HERBERT WAI.KER, 
 
 THE WELL KNOWN AUTHOR. 
 
 FULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES OF THE GREAT CALAMITY. 
 
 NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa.; CHiCAcpf-'-EuEZrrTcwtt St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 ( R\ 
 
COFYRIGHTEDj l8'%9c 
 
>: 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 THE whole country was profoundly startled at the Terrible 
 Calamity which swept thousands of human beings to instant 
 death at Johnstown and the neighboring villages. The news 
 came with the suddenness of a lightning bolt falling from 
 a cloudless sky. A romantic valley, filled ^yith busy factories, 
 flourishing places of business, multitudes of happy homes and 
 families, was suddenly transformed into a scene of awful deso- 
 lation. Frightful ravages of Flood and Fire produced in one 
 short hour a destruction which surpasses the records of all 
 modem disasters. No calamity in recent times has so ap- 
 palled the civilized world. A peaceful, prosperous valley 
 was suddenly changed into a huge sepulchre, filled with the 
 shattered ruins of houses, factories, banks, churches, and the 
 ghastly corpses of the dead. 
 
 This book contains a thrilling description of this awful catas- 
 trophe, which shocked both hemispheres. It depicts with graphic 
 power the terrible scenes of the great disaster, and relates the 
 fearful story with masterly effect. 
 
 The work treats of the great storm which devastated the 
 country, deluging large sections, sweeping away bridges, 
 swelling rivulets to rivers, prostrating forests, and producing 
 incalculable damage to life and property; of the sudden rise 
 
 xi 
 
Xli 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 in the Conemaugh River and tributary streams, weakening the 
 dam thrown across the fated valley, and endangering the lives 
 of 50,000 people; of the heroic efforts of a little band of men 
 to stay the flood and avert the direful calamity ; of the swift 
 ride down the valley to warn the inhabitants of their impend- 
 ing fate, and save them from instant death ; of the breaking 
 away of the imprisoned waters after all efforts had failed to 
 hold them back; of the rush and roar of the mighty torrent, 
 plunging down the valley with sounds like advancing thunder, 
 reverberating like the booming of cannon among the hills ; of 
 the frightful havoc attending the mad flood descending with 
 incredible velocity, and a force which nothing could resist ; of 
 the rapid rise of the waters, flooding buildings, driving the 
 terrified inhabitants to the upper stories and roofs in the des- 
 perate effort to escape their doom ; of hundreds of houses crash- 
 ing down the surging river, carrying men, women and children 
 beyond the hope of rescue; of a night of horrors, multitudes 
 dying amid the awful terrors of flood and fire, plunged under 
 the wild torrent, buried in mire, or consumed in devouring 
 flames; of helpless creatures rending the air with pitiful screams 
 crying aloud in their agony, imploring help with outstretched 
 hands, and finally sinking with no one to save them, 
 
 Whole families were lost and obliterated, perishing together 
 in a watery tomb, or ground to atoms by floating timbers and 
 wreck; households were suddenly bereft — some of father?^ 
 Others of mothers, others of children, neighbors and friond ; 
 frantic efforts were made to rescue the victims of the flood, 
 render aid to those who were struggling against death, and 
 mitigate the terrors of the horrible disaster. There were noble 
 
PREFACE. xlil 
 
 Acts of heroism, strong men and frail women and children 
 putting their own lives in peril to save those of their loved 
 <)hes. 
 
 The terrible scene at Johnstown bridge, where thousands 
 were consumed was the greatest funeral pyre known in the his- 
 tory of the world. It was ghastly work-— that of recovering the 
 bodies of the dead; dragging them from the mire in which' 
 they were imbedded, from the ruins in which they were 
 crushed, or from the burning wreck which was consuming 
 tlicm. Hundreds of bodies were mutilated and disfigured be- 
 yond the possibility of identifying them, all traces of individual 
 form and features utterly destroyed. There were multitudes of 
 corpses awaiting cofiins for their burial, putrefying tinder the 
 sun, and filling the air with the sickening stench of death. 
 There were ghouls who robbed the bodies of the victims, 
 stripping off their jewels — even cutting off fingers to obtain 
 rings, and plundering pockets of their money. 
 
 Summary vengeance was inflicted upon prowling thieves* 
 some of whom were driven into the merciless waters to perish, 
 whilei others were shot or hanged by the neck until they were 
 dea<3. The burial of hundreds of the known and unknown, 
 without minister or obsequies, without friend or mourner, with- 
 out surviving relatives to take a last look or shed a tear, was 
 one of the appalling spectacles. There was the breathless sus- 
 pense and anxiety of those who feared the worst, who waited* 
 in vain for news of the safety of their friends, and at last werel 
 compelled to believe that their loved ones had perished. 
 
 The terrible shock attending the horrible accounts of the 
 great calamity, was followed by the sudden outburst and ex- 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 hibition of universal grief and sympathy. Despatches from 
 the President, Governors of States, and Mayors of Cities, 
 announced that speedy aid would be furnished. The magnifi- 
 cent charity that came to the rescue with millions of dollars, 
 immense contributions of food and clothing, personal services 
 and heroic efforts, is one impressive part of this graphic story. 
 Rich and poor alike gave freely, many persons dividing their 
 last dollar to aid those who had lost their alL 
 
 These thrilling scenes are depicted, and these wonderful facts 
 are related, in The Johnstown Horror, by eye-witnesses who 
 saw the fatal flood and its direful effects. No book so in- 
 tensely exciting has ever been issued. The graphic story has 
 mn awful fascination, and will be read throughout the land. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 rAGK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Appalling News, . . . . . • • i? 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Death and Desolation, . ... . • 5° 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 The Horrors Increase, . . . • • •74 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Multiplication of Terrors, .«•••• 104 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Awful Work of Death ii4 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 Shadows of Despair, ••.••• 139 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 Burial of the Victims, .••••• 14^ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Johnstown and its Industries, . . • • • i54 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 A View of the Wreck, . . . . • .164 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 Thrilling Experiences, ...... i8a 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 New Tales of Horror, . .... ao8 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 jFathetic Scenes, , ^ 245 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 Digging for the Dead, ••..», 17^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 Hairbreadth Escapes, ...... a88 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Terrible Pictures of Woe, . , , . , . j^ 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 Stories of the Floods . . . i . . j8o 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 On« Week after the Great Disaster, . • • , 431 
 
 CHAPTER XVin. 
 A Walk Through the Valley of Death, • • • 45S 
 
 ' CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A Day of Work and Wcw^hip, • . • . * 479 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Millions of Money for Johnstown, • • . , 489 
 
SOURCE OF THE CONEMAUGH RIVER. 
 
WT'^ 
 
 TEARING DOWN HOUSES IN JOHNSTOWN. 
 
SOLDIERS GUARDING A HUNGARIAN THIEF. 
 
- "j ' .y* ''^^i>\ ' !4]iiiai^.^i^i^i^^^i^Kte^ 
 
 RELIEF CORPS CROSSING THE ROPE BRIDGE. 
 
SEARCHING FOR LOST RELATIVES. 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 < 
 O 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR 
 
 OR 
 
 Valley of Death. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Appa.lling Ke^^rs. 
 
 On the advent of Summer, June ist, the country 
 vas horror-stricken by the announcement that a ter- 
 rible calamity had overtaken the Inhabitants of Johns- 
 town, and the neighboring villages. Instantly the 
 whole land was stirred by the startling news of this 
 great disaster. Its appalling magnitude, Its dreadful 
 suddenness, its scenes of terror and agony, the fate 
 of thousands swept to Instant death by a flood as 
 frightful as that of the cataract of Niagara, awakened 
 the profoundest horror. No calamity In the history 
 of modern times has so appalled the civilized world. 
 
 The following graphic pen-picture will give the 
 reader an accurate idea of the picturesque scene of 
 the disaster : 
 
 Away up in the misty crags of the Alleghanies some 
 tiny rills trickle and gurgle from a cleft in the mossy 
 
 {17) 
 
18 ]. THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 rocks. The drippllng waters, cinild perhaps in the 
 bleak and lonely fastness of the heights, hug and cod- 
 dle one another until they flash into a limpid pool. 
 A score of rivulets from all the mountain side babble 
 hither over rocky beds to join their companions. 
 Thence in rippling current they purl and tinkle down 
 the gende slopes, through bosky nooks sweet with tlie 
 odors of fir tree and pine, over meads dappled with the 
 scarlet snap-dragon and purple heath buds, now paus- 
 ing for a moment to Idle with a wood encircled lake, 
 now tumbling in opalescent cascade over a mossy 
 lurch, and then on again in cheerful, hurried course 
 down the Appalachian valley. 
 
 None stays their way. Here and there perhaps 
 some thrifty Pennsylvania Dutchman coaxes the saury 
 stream to turn his mill-wheel and every league or so 
 It fumes and frets a bit against some rustic bridge. 
 From these trifling tourneys though, it emerges only 
 the more eager and impetuous in its path toward the 
 
 towns below. 
 
 The Fatal River. 
 
 Coming nearer, step by step, to the busy haunts of 
 men, the dashhig brook takes on a more ambitious air. 
 Little by little it edges its narrow banks aside, drinks 
 in the waters of tributaries, swells with the copious 
 rainfall of the lower valley. From its ladder in the 
 Alleghanies it catches a glimpse of the steeples cf 
 Johnstown, red with the glow of the setting sun. 
 Again it spurts and spreads as if conscious of its new 
 importance, and the once tiny rill expands into the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 19 
 
 dignity of a river, a veritable river, with a name of its 
 own. Big with this sounding symbol of prowess it 
 rushes on as if to sweep by the teeming town in a 
 flood of majesty. To Its vast surprise the way is 
 barred. The hand of man has dared to check the will 
 of one that up to now has known no curb save those 
 the forest gods imposed. For an instant the waters, 
 taken aback by this strange audacity, hold themselves 
 in leash. Then, like erl king in the German legends, 
 they broaden out to engulf their opponent. In vain 
 they surge with crescent surface against the barrier of 
 stone. By day, by night, they beat and breast in 
 angry impotence against the ponderous wall of ma- 
 sonry that man has reared, for pleasure and profit, to 
 stem the mountain stream. 
 
 The Awful Hush of Waters. 
 
 Suddenly, maddened by the stubborn hindrance, the 
 river grows black and turgid. It rumbles and threat- 
 ens as if confident of an access of strength that laughs 
 at resistance. From far up the hillside comes a sound, 
 at first soft and soothing as the fount ins of LIndaraxa, 
 then rolling onward it takes the voluminous quaver of 
 a distant waterfall. Loudt r and louder, deeper and 
 deeper, nearer and nearer comes an awful crashing 
 and roaring, till Its echoes rebound from the crags of 
 the Alleghanles like peals of thunder and boom of 
 cannon. 
 
 On, on, down the steep valley trumpets the tcrrent 
 into the river at Jamestown. Joined to the waters 
 from the cloud kissed summits of Its source, the exui- 
 
20 THE JOHNSTOWN HORRuR. 
 
 tant Conemaugh, with a deafening din, dashes its way 
 through the barricade of stone and starts Uke a demon 
 on Its path of destruction. 
 
 Into Its maw It sucks a town. A town with all Its 
 hundreds of men and women and children, with its 
 marts of business, its homes, its factories and houses 
 oi worship. Then, insatiate still, with a blast like the 
 chrios of worlds dissolved, it rushes out to new desola- 
 tion, until Nature herself, awe stricken at the sight of 
 such ineffable woe, blinds her eyes to the uncanny 
 scene of death, and drops the pall of night upon the 
 earth. 
 
 Destruction Descended as a Bolt of Joye. 
 
 A fair town in a western valley of Pennsylvania, 
 happy in the arts of peace and prospering by its busy 
 manufactures, suddenly swept out of existence by a 
 gigantic flood and thousands of lives extinguished as 
 by one fell stroke — such has been the fate of Jf^hns- 
 town. 
 
 Never before in this country has there happened a 
 disaster of such appalling proportions. It is nece":sary 
 to refer to those which have occurred in the vallrys of 
 the great European rivers, where there is a densely 
 crowded population, to find a parallel. 
 The Horrors Unestimaled. 
 
 At first the horror was not all known. It could •>nly 
 be imperfectly surmised. Until a late hour on the fol- 
 lowing night there was no communication with the 
 hapless city. All that was positively known of Its 
 fate was seen from afar. It was said that out of all 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 21 
 
 the habitations, which had sheltered about twelve 
 thousand people before this awful doom had befallen, 
 only two were visible above the water. All the rest, 
 if this be true, had been swallowed up or else shat- 
 tered into pieces and Jiurled downward into the flood- 
 vexed valley below. 
 
 What has become of those twelve thousand inhab- 
 itants? Who can tell until after the waters have 
 wholly susided ? 
 
 Of course it is possible that many of them escaped. 
 Much hope is to be built upon the natural exaggeration 
 of first reports from the sorely distressed surrounding 
 region and the lack of actual knowledge, in the 
 absence of direct communication. But what suspense 
 must there be between now and the moment when 
 direct communication shall be opened ! 
 Heedless of Fate. 
 
 The valley of the Conemaugh in which Johnstown 
 stood lies between the steep walls of lofty hills. The 
 gathering of the rain into torrents in that region is 
 quick and precipitate. The river on one side roared 
 out its warning, but the people would not take heed 
 of the danger impending over them on the other side 
 — the great South Fork dam, two and a half miles up 
 the valley and looming one hundred feet in height 
 from base to top. Behind it were piled the waters, a 
 great, ponderous mass, like the treasured wrath of 
 fate. Their surface was about three hundred feet 
 above the deserted town. 
 
 If Noah's neighbors thought It would be only a little 
 
22 THE JOHNS1 OWN HORROR. 
 
 shower the people of Johnstown were yet more fool- 
 ish. The railroad officials had repeatedly told them 
 that the dam threatened destruction. They still per- 
 versely lulled themselves into a false security. The 
 blow came, when it did, like a flash. It was as if the 
 lieavens had fallen in liquid fury upon the earth. It 
 was as if ocean itself had been precipitated into an 
 abyss. The slow but inexorable march of the might- 
 iest glacier of the Alps, though comparable, was not 
 equal to this in force. The whole of a Pyramid, shot 
 from a colossal catapult, would not have been the petty 
 charge of a pea shooter to it. Imagine Niagara, or a 
 greater even than Niagara, falling upon an ordinary 
 collection of brick and wooden houses. 
 An Inconceivable Force. 
 
 The South Fork Reservoir was the largest in the 
 United States, and it contained millions of tons ot 
 water. When its fetters were loosened, crumbling 
 before it like sand, a building or even a rock that stood 
 in its path presented as much resistance as a card 
 house. The dread execution was little more than the 
 work of an instant. 
 
 The flood passed over the town as it would over a 
 pile of shingles, covering over or carrying with it 
 everything that stood in its way. It bounded down 
 the valley, wreaking destruction and death on each 
 hand and in its fore. Torrents that poured down 
 out of the wilds of the mountains swelled its vol- 
 ume. 
 
 All along from the point of its release it bore debris 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 23 
 
 and corpses as its hideous trophies. In a very brief 
 time it displayed some of both, as if in hellish glQc, to 
 the horrified eyes of Pittsburg, seventy-eight miles 
 west of the town of Johnstown that had been, having 
 danced them along on its exultant billows or rolled 
 them over and over in the depths of its dark current 
 all the way through the Conemaugh, the Kiskiminitas 
 and the Allegheny river. 
 
 It was like a fearful monster, gnashing its dripping 
 jaws in the scared face of the multitude, in the flesh of 
 its victims. 
 
 One eye-witness of the effects of the deluge declares 
 that he saw five hundred dead bodies. Hundreds were 
 counted by others. It will take many a day to make 
 up the death roll. It will take many a day to make up 
 the reckoning of the material loss. 
 
 If any pen could describe the scenes of terror, an- 
 gulsk and destruction which have taken place in Cone- 
 maugh Valley it could write an epic greater than the 
 •'Iliad.'* The accounts that come tell of hairbreadth 
 escapes, heartrending tragedies and deeds of heroism 
 almost without number. 
 
 A Climax of Horror. 
 
 As if to add a lurid touch of horror to the picture 
 that might surpass all the rest a conflagration came to 
 mock those who were in fear of drowning with a death 
 yet more terrible. Where the ruins of Johnstown, 
 composed mainly of timber, had been piled up forty 
 ieet high against a railroad bridge below the town a 
 fire was started and raged with eager fury. It is said 
 
24 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 that scores of persons were burned alive, their picN 
 cing cries appealing for aid to hundreds of spectators 
 who stood on the banks of the river, but could do 
 nothing 
 
 Western Pennsylvania is in mourning. Business 
 in the cities is virtually suspended and all minds are 
 bent upon this great horror, all hearts convulsed with 
 the common sorrow. 
 
 Heartrending' Scenes and Heroic Struggles for Life. 
 
 Another eye- witness describes the calamity as fol- 
 lows: A flood of death swept down the Alleghany 
 Mountains yesterday afternoon and last night. Almost 
 the entire city of Johnstown is swimming about in the 
 rushing, angry tide. Dead bodies are floating about 
 in every direction, and almost every piece of movable 
 timber is carrying from the doomed city a corpse of 
 humanIt)^ drifting with the raging waters. The dis- 
 aster overtook Johnstown about six o'clock last 
 evening. 
 
 As the train bearing the writer sped eastward, the 
 reports at each stop grew more appalling. At Derry 
 a group of railway officials were gathered who had 
 come fi-om Bolivar, the end of the passable portion of 
 the read westward. They had seen but a small por- 
 tion of the awful flood, but enough to allow them to 
 imaofine the rest. Down throucxh the Packsaddle came 
 the rushing waters. The wooded heights of the Alle= 
 ghanies looked down in wonder at the scene of the 
 most terrible destruction that ever struck the romantic 
 valley of the Coneir;^u?h 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 2b 
 
 The water was rising when the men left at six o'clock 
 at the rate of five feet an hour. Clinging to improvised 
 rafts, constructed in the death battle from floating 
 boards and timbers, were agonized men, women and 
 children their heartrending shrieks for help striking 
 horror to the breasts of the onlookers. Their criei 
 were of no avail. Carried along at railway speed on 
 the breast of this rushing torrent, no human ingenuity 
 could devise a means of rescue. 
 
 With pallid face and hair clinging wet and damp to 
 her cheek, a mother was seen grasping a floating tim- 
 ber, while on her other arm she held her babe, already 
 drowned. With a death-grip on a plank a strong man 
 just giving up hope cast an imploring look to those on 
 the bank, and an instant later he had sunk into the 
 waves. Prayers to God and cries to those in safety 
 rang above the roaring waves. 
 
 The special train pulled into Bolivar at half-past 
 eleven last night, and the trainmen were there notified 
 that further progress was impossible. The greatest 
 excitement prevailed at this place, and parties of citi- 
 zens are out all the time endeavoring to save the poor 
 unfortunates that are being hurled to eternity on the 
 rushing torrent. 
 
 Attempts at Rescue. 
 
 The tidal wave struck Bolivar just after dark, and 
 in five minutes the Conemaugh rose from six to forty 
 feet and the waters spread oul over the whole country. 
 Soon houses began floating down, and clinging to the 
 ;*4bris were men, women and ^l^Hdren shrieking for 
 
26 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 aid. A Targe number of citizens at once gathered on 
 the county bridge, and they were reinforced by a num- 
 ber from Garfield, a town on the opposite side of the 
 river. 
 
 They brought a number of ropes and these were 
 thrown over into the boiling waters as persons drifted 
 by In efforts to save some poor beings. For half an 
 hour all efforts were fruitless, until at last, when the 
 rescuers were about giving up all hope, a lltde boy, 
 astride a shingle roof, managed to catch hold of one 
 of the ropes. He caught it under his le^t arm and was 
 thrown violently against an abutment, but managed to 
 keep hold, and was successfully pulled on to the bridge 
 amid the cheers of the onlookers. His name was 
 Hessler and his rescuer was a trainman named Carney. 
 The lad was at once taken to the town of Garfield and 
 w^as cared for. The boy was aged about sixteen. His 
 story of the frightful calamity is as follows : 
 
 The Alarm. 
 
 "With my father I was spending the day at my 
 grandfather's house in Cambria City. In the house at 
 the time were Theodore, Edward and John Kintz, and 
 John Kintz, Jr.; Miss Mary Kintz, Mrs. Mary Kintz, 
 wife of John Kintz, Jr. ; Miss Treacy Kintz, Mrs. Rica 
 Smith, John Hirsch and four children, my father and 
 myself Shordy after five o'clock there was a noise of 
 roaring waters and screams of people. We looked 
 out the door and saw persons running. My father told 
 us to never mind, as the waters would not rise further. 
 
 " But soon we saw houses being swept away, and 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 27 
 
 then we ran up to the floor above. The house was 
 three stones, and we were at last forced to the top 
 one. In my fright I jumped on the bed. ^It was an 
 old fashioned one, with heavy posts. The water kept 
 rising and my bed was soon afloat. Gradually it was 
 lifted up. The air in the room grew dose and the 
 house was moving. Still the bed kept rising and 
 pressed the celling. At last the posts pushed against 
 the plaster. It yielded and a section of the roof gave 
 way. Then suddenly I found myself on the roof, and 
 was being carried down stream. 
 
 Saved. 
 
 **After a little this roof began to part, and I was 
 afraid I was going to be drowned, but just then an- 
 other house with a shingle roof floated by, and I 
 managed to crawl on it, and floated down until nearly 
 dead with cold, when I was saved. After I was freed 
 from the house I did not see my father. My grand- 
 father was on a tree, but he must have been drowned, 
 as the waters were rising fast. John Kintz, Jr., was 
 also on a tree. Miss Mary Kintz and Mrs. Mary 
 Kintz I saw drown. Miss Smith was also drowned. 
 John Hirsch was in a tree, but the four children were 
 drowned. The scenes were terrible. Live bodies 
 and corpses weie floating down with me and away 
 from me. I would see persons, hear them shriek, and 
 then they would disappear. All along the line were 
 people who were trying to save us, but they could do 
 nothing, and only a few were caught.'* 
 
 This boy's story is but one incident, and shows 
 
28 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 what happened to one family. No one knows what 
 has happened to the hundreds who were in the path 
 of the rushing water. It Is Impossible to get anything 
 in the way of news save meagre details. 
 
 An eye-witness at Bolivar Block Station tells a story 
 of unparalleled heroism that occurred at the lower 
 bridge which crosses the Conemaugh at this point. 
 A. Young, with two women was seen coming down the 
 river on a part of the floor. At the upper bridge a 
 rope was thrown down to them. This they all failed 
 to catch. Between the two bridges he was noticed to 
 point towards the elder woman, who, it is supposed, 
 was his mother. He was then seen to instruct the 
 women how to catch the rope that was lowered from 
 the other bridge. Down came the raft with a rush. 
 The brave man stood with his arms around the two 
 women. 
 
 Unavailing' Courage. 
 
 As they swept under the bridge he seized the rope. 
 He was jerked violently away from the two women, 
 who failed to get a hold on the rope. Seeing that 
 they would not be rescued, he dropped the rope and 
 fell back on the raft, which floated on down the river. 
 The current washed their frail craft in toward the 
 bank The young man was enabled to seize hold of 
 a branch of a tree. He aided the two women to get 
 up into the tree. 
 
 He held on with his hands and rested his feet on a 
 pile of driftwood. A piece of floating debris struck 
 the drift, sweeping it away. The man hung with his 
 
THE JOHNSTOAN HORROR. 29 
 
 body immersed in the water. A pile of drift soon 
 collected and he was enabled to get another insecure 
 footing. Up the river there was a sudden crash, and 
 a section of the bridge was swept away and floated 
 down the stream, striking the tree and washing it 
 av/ay. All three were thrown into the water and were 
 drowned before the eyes of the horrified spectators 
 just opposite the town of Bolivar. 
 
 Early in the evening a woman with her two children 
 was seen to pass under the bridge at Bolivar clinging 
 to the roof of a coal house. A rope was lowered to 
 her, but she shook her head and refused to desert the 
 children. It was rumored that all three were saved 
 at Cokeville, a few miles below Bolivar. A later re- 
 port from Lockport says that the residents succeeded 
 in rescuing five people from the flood, two women and 
 three men. One man succeeded in getting out of the 
 water unaided. They were taken care of by the peo- 
 ple of the town. 
 
 A Cliild's Faith. 
 
 A little girl passed under the bridge just before 
 dark. She was kneeling on a part of a floor and had 
 her hands clasped as if in prayer. Every effort w^as 
 made to save her, but they all proved futile. A rail- 
 roader who was standing by remarked that the piteous 
 appearance of the litde waif brought tears to his 
 eyes. All night long the crowd stood about the ruins 
 of the bridge which had been swept ?.way at Bolivar. 
 The water rushed past with a roar, carrying with it 
 parts of houses, furniture and trees. The flood had 
 
30 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 evidently spent Its force up the valley. No more 
 living persons were being carried past. Watchers 
 with lanterns remained along the banks until daybreak, 
 when the first view of the awful devastation of the 
 flood was witnessed. 
 
 Along the bank lay remnants of what had once been 
 dwelling houses and stores; here and there was an 
 uprooted tree. Piles of drift lay about, in some of 
 which bodies of the victims of the flood will be found. 
 Rescuing parties are being formed In all towns along 
 the railroad. Houses have been thrown open to refu- 
 gees, and every possible means Is being used to pro- 
 tect the homeless. 
 
 Wrecking: Trains to the Kescue. 
 
 The wrecking trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
 are slowly making their way east to the unfortunate 
 city. No effort was being made to repair the wrecks, 
 and the crews of the trains were organized Into rescu- 
 ing parties, and an effort will be made to send out a 
 mail train this morning. The chances are that they 
 will go no further east than Florence. There Is abso- 
 lutely no news from Johnstown. The little city Is 
 entirely cut off from communication with the outside 
 world. The damage done Is inestimable. No one can 
 tell Its extent. 
 
 The lltde telegraph stations along the road are iilled 
 with anxious groups of men who have friends and 
 relatives In Johnstown. The smallest Item of news Is 
 eagerly seized upon and circulated. If favorable they 
 have a moment of relief, if not their faces become more 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 31 
 
 gloomy. Harry Fisher, a young telegraph operator 
 who was at Bolivar when the first rush began, says : — 
 ''We knew nothing of the disaster until we noticed 
 the river slowly rising and then more rapidly. News 
 then reached us from Johnstown that the dam at South 
 Fork had burst. Within three hours the water in the 
 river rose at least twenty feet. Shortly before six 
 o'clock ruins of houses, beds, household utensils, bar- 
 rels and kegs came floating past the bridges. At eight 
 o'clock the water was within six feet of the roadbed ol 
 the bridge. The wreckage floated past without stop- 
 ping for at least two hours. Then It began to lessen, 
 and night coming suddenly upon us we could see no 
 more. The wreckage was floating by for a long time 
 before the first living persons passed. Fifteen people 
 that I saw were carried down by the river. One oi 
 these, a boy, was saved, and three of them were 
 drowned just directly below the town. It was an awful 
 sight and one that I will not soon forget." 
 
 Hundreds of animals lost their lives. The bodies of 
 horses, dogs and chickens floated past. The little boy 
 who was rescued at Bolivar had two dogs as compan- 
 ions during his fearful ride. The dogs were drowned 
 just before reaching the bridge. One old mule swam 
 past. Its shoulders were torn, but it was alive when 
 swept past the town. 
 
 Saved from a Watery Grave to Perish by Flames. 
 
 After a long, weary ride of eight or nine miles over 
 the worst of country roads New Florence, fourteen 
 miles ffOKi Johnstown, was reached. The road bed 
 
32 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 betv/een this place and Bolivar was washed out in many 
 places. The trackmen and the wreck crews were all 
 night In the most dangerous portions of the road. 
 
 The last man from Johnstown brought the informa- 
 tion that scarcely a house remained in the city. The 
 upper portion above the railroad bridge had been* 
 completely submerged. The water dammed up against 
 the viaduct, the wreckage and debris finishing the 
 work that the torrent had failed to accomplish. The 
 bridge at Johnstown proved too stanch for the fury of 
 the water. It is a heavy piece of masonry, and was 
 used as a viaduct by the old Pennsylvania Canal. 
 Some of the top stones were displaced. 
 
 The story reached here a short time ago that a 
 family consisting of father and mother and nine chil- 
 dren were washed away In a creek at Lockport. The 
 mother managed to reach the shore, but the husband 
 and children were carried out Into the Conemaugh to 
 drown. The woman is crazed over the terrible event. 
 A Night of Horror. 
 
 After night settled down upon the mountains the 
 horror of the scenes was enhanced. Above the roar 
 of the water could be heard the piteous appeals from 
 the unfortunate as they were carried by. To add 
 also to the terror of the night, a brilliant illumination 
 lit up the sky. This illumination could be plainly seen 
 from this place. 
 
 A message received from Sang Hollow stated that 
 this light came from a hundred burning wrecks of 
 houses that were piled upon the Johnstown Bridge, 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 33 
 
 A supervisor from up the road brought the informa- 
 tion that the wreckage at Johnstown was piled up forty 
 feet above the bridge. 
 
 The starthng news came in that more than a thou- 
 sand lives had been lost. This cannot be substan- 
 tiated. By actual count one hundred and ten people 
 had been seen floating past Sang Hollow before dark. 
 Forty-seven were counted passing New Florence and 
 the number had diminished to eight at Bolivar. The 
 darkness coming on stopped any further count, and it 
 was only by the agonizing cries that rang out above 
 the waters that it was known that a human being was 
 being carried to death. 
 
 An Irresistible Torrent. 
 
 The scenes along the river were wild in the extreme. 
 Although the water was subsiding, still as it dashed 
 against the rocks that filled the narrow channel of the 
 Conemaugh its spray was carried high up on the shore. 
 The towns all along the line of the railroad from 
 Johnstown west had received visitations. Many of 
 the houses in New Florence were partially under 
 water. At Bolivar the whole lower part of the town 
 was submerged. 
 
 The ride over the mountain road gave one a good 
 idea of the cause of this disaster. Every creek was a 
 rushing river and every rivulet a raging torrent. The 
 ground was water soaked, and when the immense 
 mountain district that drains into the Conemaugh 
 above South Fork is taken into consideration the 
 terrible volume of water that must have accumulated 
 3 
 
34 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 can be realized. Gathering, as it did, whnm a few 
 minutes, it came against the breast of the South Fork 
 dam with irresistible force. The frightened inhabi- 
 tants along the Conemaugh describe the flood as some- 
 thing awful. The first rise came almost without warn* 
 ing, and the torrent came roaring down the mountain 
 passes in one huge wave, several feet in height. After 
 the first swell the water continued to rise at a fearful rate. 
 Daylig-lit Bring-s No Relief. 
 
 The gray morning light does not seem to show 
 either hope or mitigation of the awful fears of the 
 night. It has been a hard night to everybody. The 
 overworked newspaper men, who have been without 
 rest and food since yesterday afternoon, and the 
 operators who have handled the messages are already 
 preparing for the work of the day. There has been a 
 long wrangle over the possession of a special train 
 for the press between rival newspaper men, and it has 
 delayed the work of others who are anxious to get 
 further east. 
 
 Even here, so far from the washed-out towns, seven 
 bodies have been found. Two were in a tree, a man 
 and a woman, where the flood had carried them. The 
 country people are coming into the town in large 
 numbers telling stories of disaster along the r./'er 
 banks in sequestered places. 
 
 Floating' Houses, 
 
 John McCarthey, a carpenter, who lives in Johns- 
 town, reached here about four o'clock. He left Johns- 
 town at half-past four yesterday afternoon and says th« 
 
^ nm JOHNSTOWN horror. 35 
 
 scene then was indescribable. The people had been 
 warned early in the morning to move to the highlands, 
 but they did not heed the warning, although it was re- 
 peated a number of times up to one o'clock, when the 
 water poured into Cinder street several feet deep. 
 Then the houses began rocking to and fro, and finally 
 the force of the current carried buildings across streets 
 and vacant lots and dashed them against each other, 
 breaking them into fragments. These buildings were 
 full of the people who had laughed at the cry of 
 danger. McCarthey says that in some cases he 
 counted as many as fifteen persons clinging to build- 
 ings. McCarthey' s wife was with him. She had three 
 sisters, who lived near her. They saw the house in 
 which these girls lived carried away, and then they 
 could endure the situation no longer and hurried away. 
 The husband feared his wife would go crazy. They 
 went inland along country roads until they reached 
 here. 
 
 It is said to be next to impossible to get to Johns- 
 town proper to-day in any manner except by rowboat. 
 The roads are cut up so that even the countrymen re- 
 fuse to travel over them in their roughest vehicles. 
 The only hope is to get Vvn'thin about three miles by a 
 special train or by hand car. 
 
 TJis Dead Cast Up. 
 
 Nine dead bodies have been picked up within the 
 limits of this borough since daylight. None of tliem 
 has yet been recognized. Five are women. One 
 woman, probably twenty-f^ve years old, had clasped in 
 
36 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 her arms a babe about six months old. The body of 
 a young man was discovered In the branches of a huge 
 tree which had been carried down the stream. All the 
 orchard crops and shrubbery along the banks of the 
 river have been destroyed. 
 
 The body of another woman has just been dis- 
 covered in the river here. Her foot was seen above 
 the surface of the water and a rope was fastened 
 about it 
 
 A Roof as a Haft. 
 
 John Webct and his wife, an old couple, Michael 
 Metzgar and John Forney were rescued near here 
 early this morning. They had been carried from their 
 home in Cambria City on the roof of the house. 
 There were seven others on the roof when it was 
 carried off, all of whom were drowned. They were 
 unknown to Weber, having drifted on to the roof from 
 floating debris. Weber and wife were thoroughly 
 drenched and were almost helpless from exposure. 
 They were unable to walk when taken off the roof at 
 this place. They are now at the hotel here. 
 
 Hundreds of people from Johnstown and up river 
 towns are hurrying here In search of friends and 
 relatives who were swept away In last night's flood. 
 The most Intense excitement prevails. The street 
 corners are crowded with pale and anxious people 
 who tell of the calamity with bated breath. Squire 
 Bennett has charge of the dead bodies, and he Is hav- 
 ing them properly cared for. They are being pre- 
 pared for burial, but will be held here for identification. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. ^f 
 
 Four boys have just come from the river bank 
 above here. They say that on the opposite side a 
 number of bodies can be seen lying in the mud. 
 They found the body of a woman on this side badly 
 bruised. 
 
 / R. B. Rodgers, Justice of the Peace at Nineveh, has 
 wired the Coroner at Greensburg that one hundred 
 dead bodies have been found at that place, and he 
 asks what Is to be done with them. From this one 
 can estimate that the loss of life will reach over one 
 thousand. 
 
 A report has just been received that twenty persons 
 are on an island near Nineveh and that men and 
 women are on a partly submerged tree. 
 
 A report has just reached here that at least one 
 hundred people were consumed in the flames at Johns- 
 town last night, but it cannot be verified here. The 
 air is filled with thrilling and most incredible stories, 
 but none of them have as yet been confirmed. It is 
 certain, however, that even the worst cannot be imag- 
 ined. 
 
 "Warning's Remembered Too L^ate. 
 
 It is very evident that more lives have been lost be- 
 cause of foolish incredulity than from ignorance of the 
 danger. For more than a year there have been fears 
 of an accident of just such a character. The founda- 
 tions of the dam were considered to be shaky early 
 last spring and many increasing leakages were reported 
 from time to time. 
 
 According to people who live in Johnstown and othei 
 
38 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROBL 
 
 towns on the line of the river, ample time was given 
 to the Johnstown folks by the railroad officials and by 
 other gendemen of standing and reputation. In 
 dozens, yes, hundreds of cases, this warning was ut- 
 terly disregarded, and those who heeded It early in the 
 day were looked upon as cowards, and many jeers 
 were uttered by lips that now are cold among the rank 
 grass beside the river. 
 
 There has grown up a bitter feeling among the sur- 
 viving sufferers ao-ainst those who owned the lake and 
 dam. and damage suits will be plentiful by and by. 
 
 The dam in Stony Creek, above Johnstown, broke 
 about noon yesterday and thousands of feet of lumber 
 passed down the stream. It is Impossible to tell what 
 the loss of life will be, but at nine o'clock the Coroner 
 of Westmoreland county sent a message out saying 
 that I GO bodies had been recovered at Nineveh, half- 
 way from here to Johnstown. Sober minded people do 
 not hesitate to say that 1,200 is moderate. 
 Fire's Awful Work. 
 
 ''How can anybody tell how many are dead?" said 
 a railroad engineer this morning. *T have been at 
 Long Hollow with my train since eleven o'clock yes- 
 terday, and I have seen fully five hundred persons lost 
 in the flood." 
 
 J. W. Esch, a brave railroad employee, saved six- 
 teen lives at Nineveh. 
 
 The most awful culmination of the awful night was 
 the roasting of a hundred or more persons In mid- 
 flood. The ruins of houses, old buildings and other 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR 39 
 
 Structures swept against the new railroad bridge at 
 Johnstown, and from an overturned stove or some such 
 cause the upper part of the wreckage caught fire. 
 
 There were crowds of men, women and children on 
 the wreck, and their screams were soon heard. They 
 were Hterally roasted on the flood. Soon after the fire 
 burned itself out other persons were thrown against 
 the mass. There were some fifty people In sight when 
 the ruins suddenly broke up and were swept under 
 the bridge Into the darkness. 
 
 The latest news from Johnstown is that but two 
 houses could be seen in the town. It Is also said that 
 only three houses remain in Cambria City. 
 
 The first authentic news was from W. N. Hays, of 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, who reached 
 New Florence at nine o'clock. He says the valley 
 towns are annihilated. 
 
 Destruction at Blairsville. 
 
 The flood In the Conemaugh River at this point Is 
 the heaviest ever known here. At this hour the rail- 
 road bridee between here and Blairsville Intersection 
 has been swept away, and also the new bridge at Coke- 
 ton, half a mile below. It Is now feared that the Iron 
 bridge at the lower end of this town will go. A living 
 woman and dead man, supposed to be her husband, 
 were seen going under the railroad bridge. They 
 were seen to come from under the bridge safely, but 
 shortly disappeared and were seen no more. ^ 
 
 A great many families lose their household goods 
 T.'he river is running full of timber, houses, goods, etc. 
 
40 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR- 
 
 The loss will be heavy. The excitement here is very 
 great. The river is still rising. There are some famil- 
 ies below the town in the second story of their houses 
 who cannot get out. It is feared that if the water 
 goes much higher the loss of life will be very great. 
 The railroad company had fourteen cars of coal on their 
 bridge when it went down, and all were swept down 
 the river. 
 
 The town bridge has just succumbed to the seeth- 
 ing floods, whose roar can be heard a long distance. 
 The water is still rising and it is thought that the Wesl 
 Pennsylvania Railroad will be without a single bridge. 
 It is reported that a man went down with the Blairs- 
 ville bridge while he was adjusting a headlight. 
 Havoc about Altoona. 
 
 The highest and most destructive flood that has 
 visited this place for fifty years occurred yesterday. 
 It has been raining continuously for the past twenty- 
 four hours. The Juniata river is ten feet above low 
 water mark and is still rising. The lower streets of 
 Gaysport bordering on the river bank are submerged, 
 and the water is two feet deep on the first floors of the 
 houses there. The water rose so rapidly that the 
 people had to be removed from the houses in boats 
 and wagons. Three railroad trestles and a number of 
 bridges over the streams have been carried away, and 
 railroad travel between this place and the surrounding 
 towns has been interrupted. 
 
 Property of all kinds was carried off. The truck 
 gardens and grain fields along the river were utterly 
 
TH'3: JOHNSTOWN HORROR- 41 
 
 destroyed, and the fences carried away. The iron 
 furnaces and rolling mills at this place and Duncan- 
 ville were compelled to shut down on account of the 
 high water. Keene & Babcock lost 300,000 brick in 
 the kiln ready to burn, G. W. Rhodes 350,000, and 
 Joseph Hart 15,000. It is estimated that the flood has 
 done over 1^50,000 damage in this vicinity. The fences 
 of the Blair County Agricultural Society were de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Alarm at York. 
 
 Last night was one of great alarm here. It rained 
 steadily all day, some of the showers being severe. 
 The great flood of 1884 is forcibly recalled. Many 
 families are moving out. At half-past one A. M. a 
 general alarm was sounded on the bells of the city. 
 
 The flood in the Susquehanna River here reached its 
 greatest height about six o'clock this morning, when 
 all bridofes save one were under water. Business 
 places and residences in the low section were flooded 
 to a great extent, and the damage in this city alone 
 amounts to $25,000 so far. The injury to the Spring 
 Grove paper mills near this city is heavy. By noon 
 the water had fallen sufficiently to restore travel over 
 nearly all the bridges. 
 
 A number of bridges in the county have been swept 
 av/ay, and the loss in the county exclusive of the. city 
 is estimated at $100,000. 
 
 In attempting to catch some driftwood James Mcll- 
 vaine lost his balance and fell into the raging current 
 and was drowned. 
 
42 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Sev^en bodies have been taken from the water and 
 debris on the river banks at New Florence. One body 
 has also been taken from the river at this point, that 
 of a young girl. None of them have been identi- 
 fied. 
 
 The whole face of the country between here and 
 New Florence Is under water, and houses, bridges and 
 buildings fill the fields and even perch upon the hill- 
 side all the way to Johnstown. . Great flocks of crows 
 are already filling the valley, while buzzards are almost 
 as frequently seen. The banks of the river are lined 
 with people who are looking as well for booty as for 
 bodies. Much valuable property was carried away 
 in the houses as well as from houses not washed 
 away. 
 
 The river has fallen again into Its channel, and noth- 
 ing in the stream itself except its red, angry color shows 
 the wild horror oClast night. It has fallen fully twenty 
 feet since midnight, and by to-night it will have attain- 
 ed its normal depth. 
 
 Painful Scenes. 
 
 At all points from Greensburg to Long Hollow, the 
 limit of the present trouble, scores of people throng 
 the stations begging and beseeching railroad men on 
 the repair trains to take them aboard, as* they are 
 almost frenzied with anxiety and apprehension in re- 
 gard to their friends who live at or near Johnstown. 
 Strong men are as tearful as the women who join in the 
 request. 
 
 Pitiable sights and scenes multiply more and more 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 43 
 
 rapidly. The Conemaugh is one great valley of mourn- 
 ing. Those who have not lost friends have lost their 
 house or their substance, and apparently the grief fcr 
 the one is as poignant as for the other. 
 They Were Warned. 
 
 The great volume of water struck Johnstown 
 about half-past five in the afternoon. It did not 
 find the people unprepared, as they had had no- 
 tice from South Fork that the dam was threatening to 
 go. Many, however, disregarded the notice and 
 remained in their houses in the lower part of 
 the city and were caught before they could get 
 out. 
 
 Superintendent Pitcairn, of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road, who has spent the entire day in assisting not 
 only those who were afflicted by the flood, but also in 
 an attempt to reopen his road, went home this morn- 
 ing. Before he left he issued an order to all Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad employees to keep a sharp lookout for 
 bodies, both in the river and in the bushes, and to 
 return them to their friends. 
 
 Assistant Superintendent Trump is still on the 
 ground near Lone Hollow directing the movements of 
 gravel and construction trains, which are arriving as 
 fast as they can be fitted up and started out. The 
 roadbeds of both the Pennsylvania and the West 
 Pennsylvania railroads are badly damaged, and it 
 will cost the latter, especially from the Bolivar Junc- 
 tion to Saltsburg, many thousands of dollars to repair 
 kijuries to embankments alone. 
 
44 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Iri Pittsburg there was but one topic of conversa- 
 tion, and that was the Johnstown deluge. Crowds of 
 eager w^atchers all day long besieged the newspaper 
 bulletin boards and rendered streets impassable in 
 their vicinity. Many of them had friends or relatives 
 in the stricken district, and " Names ! " ** Names ! " 
 was their cry. But there were no names. The 
 storm which had perhaps swept away their loved ones 
 had also carried away all means of communication 
 and their vigil was unrewarded. It is not yet known 
 whether the telegraph operator at Johnstown is dead 
 or alive. The nearest point to that city which can be 
 reached to-night is New Florence, and the one wire 
 there is used almost constantly by orders for coffins, 
 embalming fluid and preparing special cars to carry 
 the recovered dead to their homes. 
 
 Along the banks of the now turbulent Allegheny 
 were placed watchers for dead bodies, and all wreck- 
 age was carefully scanned Jbr the dead. The result of 
 this vigilance was the recovery of one body, that of a 
 woman floating down on a pile of debris. Seven 
 other bodies were seen, but could not be reached 
 owing to the swift moving wreckage by which they 
 were surrounded. 
 
 A Heartrending- Sig-lit. 
 
 A railroad conductor who arrived in the city this 
 morning sciid: — ** There is no telling how many lives 
 are lost. We got as far as Bolivar, and I tell you it is 
 a terrible sight. The body of a boy was picked up by 
 some of us there, and there were eleven bodies recov- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 45 
 
 ered altogether. I do not think that anyone g-ot into 
 Johnstown, and It is my opinion that theywill not g^t 
 in very soon. No one who is not on the grounds has 
 any idea of the damage done. It will be at least a 
 week before the extent of this flood is known, and then 
 1 think many bodies will never be recovered." 
 
 Assistant Superintendent Wilson, of the West 
 Pennsylvania Railroad, received the following despatch 
 from Nineveh to-day : — 
 
 "There appears to be a large number of people 
 lodged in the trees and rubbish along the line. Many, 
 are alive. Rescuing parties should be advised at 
 every station." 
 
 Another telegram from Nineveh said that up to noon 
 175 bodies had been taken from the river at that point. 
 
 The stage of water in the Allegheny this afternoon 
 became so alarming that residents living In the low- 
 lying districts began to remove their household effects 
 to a higher grade. The tracks of the Pittsburgh and 
 Western Railroad are under water in several places, 
 p^d great inconvenience is felt in moving trains. 
 Criminal Neglig-ence. 
 
 It was stated at the office of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road early this morning that the deaths would run up 
 into the thousands rather than hundreds, as was at first 
 supposed. Despatches received state that the stream 
 of human beings that was swept before the floods was 
 pitiful to behold. Men, women and children were 
 carried along frantically shrieking for help. Rescue 
 was impossible. 
 
46 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. ^ 
 
 Husbands were swept past their wives, and children 
 were borne along at a terrible speed to certain death 
 before the eyes of their terrorized and frantic parents. 
 It was said at the depot that it was impossible to 
 estimate the number whose lives were lost in the flood. 
 It will simply be a matter of conjecture for several 
 days as to who was lost and who escaped. 
 
 The people of Johnstown were warned of the pos- 
 sibility of the bursting of the dam during the morn- 
 ing, but very few if any of the inhabitants took the 
 warning seriously. Shortly after noon it gave way 
 about five miles above Johnstown, and sweeping 
 everything before it burst upon the town with terrible 
 force. 
 
 Everything was carried before it, and not an in- 
 stant's time was given to seek safety. Houses were 
 demolished, swept from their foundations and carried 
 in the flood to a culvert near the town. Here a mass 
 of all manner of debris soon lodged, and by evening It 
 had dammed the water back Into the city over the tops 
 of many of the still remaining chimneys. 
 The Dam Always a Menace. 
 
 Assistant Superintendent Trump, of the Pennsyl- 
 vania, is at Conemaugh, but the officials at the depot 
 had not been able to receive a line from him until as 
 late as half-past two o'clock this morning. It was said 
 also that it will be impossible to geta train through 
 either one way or the other for at least two or three 
 days. This applies also to the mails, as there is abso- 
 lutely no way of getting malls through 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 47 
 
 "We were afraid of that lake," said a gentleman 
 who had lived In Johnstown for years, *'we were 
 afraid of that lake seven years ago. No one could see 
 the Immense height to which that artificial dam had 
 been built without fearing the tremendous power of 
 the water behind It. I doubt If there was a man or 
 woman in Johnstown who at some time or other had 
 not feared and spoken of the terrible disaster that has 
 now come. 
 
 " People wondered and asked why the dam was not 
 strengthened, as It certainly had become weak, but 
 nothing was done, and by and by they talked less and 
 less about it as nothing happened, though now and 
 then some would shake their heads as though con- 
 scious that the fearful day would come some time 
 when their worst fears would be transcended by the 
 horror of the actual occurrence. 
 
 Converted Into a Liake. 
 
 "Johnstown is in a hollow between two rivers, and 
 that lake must have swept over the city at a depth of 
 forty feet. It cannot be, it is Impossible that such an 
 awful thing could happen to a city of ten thousand 
 Inhabitants, and if it has, thousands have lost their 
 lives, and men are to blame for It, for warnings have 
 been uttered a thousand times and have received no 
 attention.'* 
 
 The body of a Welsh woman, sixty years of age, 
 was taken from the river near the suspension bridge, 
 ac ten o'clock this morning. Four other bcdies were 
 ^en, but owing to the mass of wreckage which is 
 
48 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 comlnor down they could not be recovered, and passed 
 down the Ohio River. 
 
 A citizens* meeting has been (galled to devise means 
 to aid the sufferers. The Pennsylvania Railroad offic- 
 ials have already placed cars on Liberty street for the 
 purpose of receiving provisions and clothing, and up 
 to this hour many prominent merchants have made 
 heavy donations. 
 
 Anxiety of the People. 
 
 The difficulty of obtaining definite information 
 added tremendously to the excitement and apprehen- 
 sion of the people in Pittsburgh who had relatives and 
 friends at the scene of the disaster. 
 
 Members of the South Fork Club, and among them 
 some of the most eminent men in the Pittsburgh 
 financial and mercantile world, were in or near Johns- 
 town, and several of them were accompanied by their 
 wives and families. There happened to be also quite 
 a number of residents of Johnstown in Pittsburgh, 
 and when the news of the horror was confirmed and 
 the railroads bulletined the fact that no trains w^ould 
 go east last night the scene at Union Depot was 
 profoundly pathetic and exciting. But two trains were 
 sent out by the Pennsylvania road from the Union 
 station at Pittsburgh. 
 
 A despatch states that the Cambria Iron Company's 
 plant on the north side of the Conemaugh River at 
 Johnstown is a complete wreck. Until this despatch 
 was received it was not thougfit that this portion of 
 the plant had been seriously injured. It was knowu 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 49 
 
 thati the portion of the plant located on the south 
 bank of the river was washed away, and this was 
 thought to be the extent of the damage to the property 
 ©f that immense corporation. The plant Is said to be 
 iralued at ^5,000,000. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 OeatH and Desolation. 
 
 The terrible situation on the second day after the 
 great disaster only intensifies the horror. As informa- 
 tion becomes more full and accurate, it does not abate 
 one tittle of the awful havoc. Rather it adds to it, and 
 gives a thousand-fold terror to the dreadful calamity. 
 
 Not only do the scenes which are described appear 
 all the more dreadful, as is natural, the nearer they are 
 brought to the imagination, but it seems only too 
 probable that the final reckoning in loss of life and 
 material wealth will prove far more stupendous than 
 has even yet been supposed. 
 
 The very greatness of the destruction prevents the 
 possibility of an accurate estimate. Beneath the 
 ghastly ruins of the once happy towns and villages 
 along the pathway of the deluge, who shall say how 
 many victims lie buried ? Amid the rocks and woods 
 that border the broad track of the waters, who shall 
 say how many He bruised and mangled and unrecog- 
 nizable, wedged between boulders or massed amid 
 debris and rubbish, or hidden beneath the heaped-up 
 deposits of earth, and whether all of them shall ever 
 be found and given the last touching rites ? 
 
 Already the air of the lltde valley, which four days 
 ago was smiling with all the health of nature and the 
 
 (50) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 61 
 
 contentment of industrious man, is waxing pestiferous 
 with the awful odor of decaying- human bodies. Buz- 
 zards, invited by their disgusting instinct, gather for a 
 promised feast, and sit and glower on neighboring 
 perches or else circle round and round in the blue em- 
 pyrean over the location of unfriended corpses, known 
 only to their keen sense of smell or vision. 
 
 But another kind of buzzard, more disgusting, more 
 hideous, more vile, has hastened to this scene of woe 
 and anguish and desolation to exult over it to his 
 profit. Thugs and thieves in unclean hordes have 
 mysteriously turned up at Johnstown and its vicinity, 
 as hyenas in the desert seem to spring bodily out of 
 the deadily sand whenever the corpse of a gallant 
 warrior, abandoned by his kind, lies putrefying in the 
 night. 
 
 There is a cry from the afflicted community for the 
 policing of the devastated region, and there is no doubt 
 it is greatly needed. Happily, Nemesis does not sleep 
 this time in the face of such provocation as is given 
 her by these atrociously inhuman human beings. It is 
 a satisfaction to record that somethinof more than a 
 half dozen of them have been dealt with as promptly 
 and as mercilessly as they deserve. For such as they 
 there should be no code of pit}^ 
 
 There is an inexhaustible store of pathos and hero- 
 ism in the tale of this disaster. Of course, in all of its 
 awful details it never can be fitly written. One reason 
 is that too many of the witnesses of its more fearful 
 phases *' sleep the sleep that knows not waking/' 
 
52 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 But there is a greater reason, and that is that there is 
 a point In the intenser actuality of things at which all 
 human language fails to do justice to it. Yet — as 
 simply told as possible — there are many incidents of 
 this great tragedy which nothing has ever surpassed 
 or ever can surpass in impresslveness. It is a con- 
 solation, too, that human nature at such times does 
 betray here and there a gleam of that side of it which 
 gives forth a reflection of the Ideal manhood or woman- 
 hood. Bits of heroism and of tender devotedness 
 scattered throughout this dark, dismal picture of de- 
 struction and despair light It up with wonderful beauty, 
 and while they bring tears to the eyes of the sternest 
 reader, will serve as a grateful relief from the per- 
 vading hue of horror and blackness. 
 
 There Is the very gravest need of vigorous relief 
 measures in favor of the survivors of the flood. A 
 spontaneous movement in that direction has been 
 begun, but as yet lacks the efficiency only to be de- 
 rived from a general and organized co-operation. 
 Complete Annihilation. 
 
 When Superintendent Pitcairn telegraphed from 
 Johnstown to Pittsburgh Friday night that the town was 
 annihilated he came very close to the facts of the 
 case, although he had not seen the ill-fated city. To 
 say that Johnstown Is a wreck is but stating the facts 
 of the case. Nothing like it was ever seen in this 
 country. Where long rows of dwelling houses and 
 business blocks stood forty-eight hours ago, ruin and 
 desolation now reign supreme. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 53 
 
 The losses, however, are as nothing com- 
 pared to the frightful sacrifices of precious hu- 
 man lives. During Sunday Johnstown has been 
 drenched with the tears of stricken mortals, and 
 the air Is filled with sobs that come from 
 breaking hearts. There are scenes enacted here 
 every hour and every minute that affect all behold- 
 ers profoundly. When brave men die in battle, for 
 country or for principle, their loss can be reconciled to 
 the stern destinies of life. When homes are torn 
 asunder in an instant, and the loved ones hurled from 
 the arms of loving and devoted mothers, there Is an 
 element of sadness connected with the tragedy that 
 touches every heart. 
 
 The loss of life is simply dreadful. The most conser* 
 vative people declare that the number mill reach 5000^ 
 while others confidently assert that 8(XX) or lOflOO have 
 perished. 
 
 How Jolinstown Liooks after Flood and Fire Have Done 
 Their Worst. 
 
 An eye-witness writing from Pittsburgh says : — ^We 
 have just returned from a trip through what Is left of 
 Johnstown. The view from beyond Is almost Impossi- 
 ble to describe. To look upon It Is a sight that neither 
 war nor catastrophe can equal. House Is piled upon 
 house, not as we have seen In occasional floods of the 
 the Western rivers, but the remains of two and four 
 storied buildings piled upon the top of one another. 
 
 The ruins of what Is known as the Club House are 
 in perhaps the best condition of any In that portion 
 of the town, but it is certainly damaged beyond possi- 
 
54 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 bllity of repair. On the upper floor Jive todies are 
 lying unideyitified. One of them, a woman of genteel 
 birth, judging by her dress, is locked in one of the 
 small rooms to prevent a possibility of spoiliation by 
 wreckers, who are flocking to the spot from all direc- 
 tions and taking possession of everything they can get 
 hold of 
 
 Here and there bodies can be seen sticking in the 
 ruins. Some of the most prominent citizens are to be 
 seen working with might and main to get at the re- 
 mains of relatives whom they have located. 
 
 There is no doubt that, wild as the estimates of the 
 loss of life and damage to property have been, it is even 
 larger than there is any idea of 
 
 Close on to 2,000 residences lie in kindling wood at 
 the lower end of the .town. 
 
 Freaks of the Flood. 
 
 An idea of the eccentricity of the flood may be 
 gathered from the fact that houses that were situated 
 at Woodvale and points above Johnstown are piled at 
 the lower end of the town, while some massive houses 
 have been lifted and carried from the lower end as 
 far as the cemetery at the extreme upper portion of 
 the town. All through the ruins are scattered the 
 most costly furniture and store goods of all kinds. 
 Tliieves are Busy. 
 
 I Stood on the keyboard and strings of a piano 
 while I watched a number of thieves break into the 
 remnants of houses and pilfer them, while others 
 again had got at a supply of fine groceries and had 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 55 
 
 broken into a barrel of fine brandy, and were fairly 
 steeping themselves in it. I met quite a number of 
 Pittsburghers in the ruins looking for friends and rela- 
 tives. If the skiffs which were expected from Pitts- 
 burgh were there they w^ould be of vast assistance in 
 reaching the ruins, which are separated by the stream 
 of water descending from the hills. A great fear is 
 felt that there will be some difficulty in restoring the 
 stream to its proper channel. Its course now lies right 
 along Main street, and it is about two hundred yards 
 wide. 
 
 Something should be done to get the bodies of the 
 dead decently taken care of. The ruins are reeking 
 with the smell of decaying bodies. Right at the edge 
 of the ruins the decaying body of a stout colored 
 woman is lying like the remains of an animal, without 
 any one to identify and take care of it 
 LyncMng: the Grhouls. 
 
 A number of Hungarians collected about a number 
 of bodies at Cambria which had been washed up and 
 began rifling the trunks. After they had secured all 
 the contents they turned their attention to the dead. 
 
 The ghastly spectacle presented by the distorted 
 features of those who had lost their lives during the 
 flood had no influence upon the ghouls, who acted 
 more like wild beasts than human beings. They took 
 every article from the clothing on the dead bodies, not 
 leaving anything of value or anything that would serve 
 to identify the remains. 
 
 After the miscreants had removed all their plundex 
 
as THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 to dry ground a dispute arose over a division of th4 
 spoils. A pitched batde followed and for a time the 
 situation was alarming. Knives and clubs were used 
 freely. As a result several of the combatants were 
 seriously wounded and left on the ground, their fellow 
 countrymen not making any attempt to remove them 
 from the field of strife. 
 
 Johnstown, Pa., June 2, 1 1 A. M. 
 
 They have jnst hung a man over near the railroad to 
 the telegraph pole for cutting the finger off of a dead 
 woman in order to get a ring. 
 
 Vengeance, Swift and Sure. 
 
 The way of the transgressor in the desolated valley 
 of the Conemaugh is hard indeed. Each hour reveals 
 some new and horrible story of suffering and outrage, 
 and every succeeding hour brings news of swift and 
 merited punishment meted out to the fiends who have 
 dared to desecrate the stiff and mangled corpses in the 
 city of the dead, and torture the already half crazed 
 victims of the cruelest of modern catastrophes. 
 
 As the roads to the lands round about are opened 
 tales of almost indescribable horror come to light, and 
 deeds of the vilest nature, perpetrated in the darkness 
 of the night, are brought to light. 
 
 Followed by Avcn§lngr Farmers. 
 
 Just as the shadows began to fall upon the earth 
 last evening a party of thirteen Hungarians were 
 noticed stealthily picking their way along the banks of 
 the Conemaugh toward Sang Hollow. ISuspicious of 
 their purpose, several farmers armed themselves and 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 57 
 
 Started in pursuit. Soon their most horrible fears 
 were realized. The Hungarians were out for plun- 
 der. 
 
 Lying upon the shore they came upon the dead 
 and mangled body of a woman upon whose 
 person there were a number of trinkets and 
 jewelry and two diamond rings. In their eagerness 
 to secure the plunder, the Hungarians got into a 
 squabble, during which one of the number severed 
 the finger upon which were the rings, and started on 
 a run with his. fearful prize. The revolting nature of 
 the deed so wrought upon the pursuing farmers, who 
 by tills time were close at hand, that they gave Imme- 
 diate chase. Some of the Hungarians showed fight, but 
 being outnumbered were compelled to flee for their 
 lives. Nine of the brutes escaped, but four were 
 literally driven into the surging river and to their 
 death. The inhuman monster whose atrocious act 
 has been described was among the number of the In- 
 voluntary suicides. Another Incident of even greater 
 moment has just been brought to notice. 
 Anxious to be a Murderer. 
 
 At half-past eight this morning an old railroader who 
 had walked from Sang Hollow stepped up to a number 
 of men who were congregated on the platform stations 
 at Curranville and said : — '' Gentlemen, had I a shotgun 
 with me half an hour ago I would now be a murderer, 
 yet with no fear of ever having to suffer for my crime. 
 
 "Two miles below here I watched three men going 
 along the banks stealing the jewels from the bodies of tha 
 
6S THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 dead loives and dauglUsrs of men who have been robbed 
 of all they held dear on earths 
 
 He had no sooner finished the last sentence than 
 five burly men, with looks of terrible determination 
 written on their faces, were on their way to the scene 
 of plunder, one with a coil of rope over his shoulder 
 and another with a revolver in his hand. In twenty 
 minutes, so it is stated, they had overtaken two of the 
 wretches, who were then in the act of cutting pieces 
 from the ears and finorers from the hands of the bodies 
 of two dead women. 
 
 Brutes at Bay. 
 
 With revolver levelled at the scoundrels the leader 
 of the posse shouted, *' Throw up your hands or I'll 
 blow your heads off!" With blanched faces and 
 trembling forms they obeyed the order and begged for 
 mercy. They were searched, and as their pockets 
 were emptied of their ghastly finds the indignation of 
 the crowd intensified, and when a bloody finger of an 
 infant^ encircled roith two tiny gold rings, was found 
 among the plunder in the leader's pocket, a cry went up 
 ''Lynch them I Lynch them!'' Without a moment's 
 delay ropes were thrown around their neclcs and they 
 were dangling to the limbs of a tree, in the branches of 
 which an hour before were entangled the bodies of a dead 
 father and son. 
 
 After the expiration of a half hour the ropes were 
 cut, and the bodies lowered and carried to a pile of 
 rocks in the forest on the hill above. It is hinted that 
 an Allegheny county official was one of the most prom- 
 inent actors in this justifiable homicide. 
 
iHE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 59 
 
 Another case of attempted lynching was witnessed 
 this evening near KernvIIIe. The man was observed 
 stealing valuable articles from the houses. He was 
 seized by a mob, a rope was placed around his neck 
 and he was jerked up into the air. The rope was tied 
 to the tree and his would-be lynchers left him. By- 
 standers cut him down before he was dead. The other 
 men did not interfere and he was allowed to go. The 
 man was so badly scared that he could not give his 
 name If he wanted to do so. 
 
 Two colored men were shot while robbing the dead 
 bodies, by the Pittsburgh police, who are doing guard 
 about the town. 
 
 Fiends in Human Form. 
 To one who saw bright, bustling Johnstown a week 
 ago the sight of Its present condition must cause a 
 thrill of horror, no matter how callous he might be. I 
 doubt jf any Incident of war or flood ever caused a 
 more sickening sight. Wretchedness of the most 
 pathetic kind met the gaze on every side. 
 
 Unlawfulaess runs riot If ever military aid was 
 needed now Is the time. The town is perfectly overrun 
 witJi thieves, many of them from Pittsburgh. The Hun- 
 garians are the worst. They seem to operate in reg- 
 ular organized bands. In Cambria City this morning 
 they entered a house, drove out the occupants at the 
 point of revolvers and took possession. They can be 
 constandy seen carrying large quantities of plunder to 
 the hills. 
 
 The number of drunken men- Is remarkable. Whis- 
 
GO THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 key seems marvelously plenty. Men are actually 
 caLvrying it around in pails. Barrels of the stuff are 
 constantly located among the drifts, and men are 
 scrambling over each other and fighting like wild 
 beasts in their mad search for it. 
 
 At the cemetery, at the upper end of the town, I 
 saw a sight that rivals the inferno. A number of 
 ghouls had found a lot of fine groceries, among them 
 a barrel of brandy, with which they were fairly stufifing 
 themselves. One huge fellow was standing on the 
 strings of an upright piano singing a profane song, 
 every little while breaking into a wild dance. A half 
 dozen others were engaged in a hand-to-hand fight 
 over the possession of some treasure stolen from a 
 ruined house, and the crowd around the barrel were 
 yelling like wild men. 
 
 The cry for help increases every hour. Something 
 must be done to get the bodies decently taken care of. 
 The ruins are reeking with the smell of decaying 
 bodies. At the very edge of the ruins the body of a 
 large colored woman, in an advanced state of decom- 
 position, is lying like the body of an animal. 
 Watclied Tlieir Friends Die. 
 
 The fire in the drift above the bridge is still burning 
 fiercely and will continue to do so for several days. 
 The skulls of six people can be seen sticking up out 
 of the ruins just above the east end of the bridge. 
 Nothing but the blackened skulls can be seen. They 
 are all together. 
 
 The sad scenes will never all be written. One lady 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 61 
 
 told me this morning of seeing her mother crushed to 
 pieces just before her eyes and the mangled body 
 carried off down the stream. William Yarner lost six 
 children and saved a baby about eighteen months old 
 His wife died just three weeks ago. An agetl German, 
 his wife and five daughters floated down on their 
 house to a point below Nineveh, where the house was 
 wrecked. The five daughters were drowned, but the 
 old man and his wife stuck in a tree and hung there 
 for twenty-four hours before they could be taken off. 
 Died Kissing Her Babe. 
 
 One of the most pitiful sights of this terrible dis- 
 aster came to my notice this afternoon, when the body 
 of a young lady was taken out of the Conemaugh 
 River. The woman was apparently quite young, 
 though her features were terribly disfigured. Nearly 
 all the clothing except the shoes was torn off the body. 
 The corpse was that of a mother, for although cold in 
 death the woman clasped a young male babe appar- 
 ently not more than a year old tightly in her arms. 
 The little one was huddled close up to its mother's 
 face, who when she realized their terrible fate, had ev- 
 idently raised the babe to her lips to imprint upon its 
 little lips the last motherly kiss it was to receive in this, 
 world. The sight was a pathetic one and turned many 
 a stout heart to tears. 
 
 Among the miraculous escapes to be recorded in 
 connection with the great disaster is that of George 
 J. Leas and his family. He resided on Iron street 
 When the rush of water came there were eight 
 
62 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 people on the roof. The little house swung around 
 off its moorings and floated about for nearly half an 
 hour before it came up against the bank of drift 
 above the stone bridge. A three-year-old girl with 
 sunny golden hair and dimpled cheeks prayed all the 
 while that God would save them, and it seemed that 
 God really ansv/ered the prayer of this innocent little 
 girl and directed the house against the drift, enabling 
 every one of the eight to get off. Mrs. Leas carried 
 the little girl in her arms, and how she got off she 
 doesn't know. Every house around them, she said, 
 was crushed, and the people either killed or drowned. 
 Thugs at Their Work. 
 
 One of the most dreadful features of this catastrophe 
 has been the miserable weakness displayed by the 
 authorities of Johnstown and the surrounding boroughs. 
 Johnstown needed them sadly for forty-eight hours. 
 There is supposed to be a Burgess, but like most bur- 
 gesses he is a shadowy and mythical personage. If 
 there had been concerted and intelligent action the fire 
 in the debris at the dam could have been extinguished 
 within a short time after it started. Too many cooks 
 spoiled this ghastly broth. 
 
 Even now if dynamite or some other explosive was 
 intelligently applied the huge mass of wreckage which 
 has up to the present time escaped the flame, and no 
 doubt contains a number of bodies, could be saved 
 from fire. 
 
 This, however, is a matter of small import compared 
 with the immunity granted the outrageous and open 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROIt 6? 
 
 graveyard robbery and disgusting thieveiy which have 
 thriven bravely since Friday morning. 
 
 Foreigners and natives carrying huge sacks, and in 
 some mstances even being assisted by horses and carts, 
 have been busily engaged hunting corpses and stealing 
 such valuables as were to be found in the wreckage. / 
 
 Dozens of barrels of strong liquor have been res- 
 cued by the Hungarian and Polish laborers from 
 among the ruins of saloons and hotels and the con- 
 tents of the same have been freely indulged in. This 
 has led to an alarming debauchery, which is on the 
 increase. All day the numbers of the drunken crowd 
 have been augmented from time to time by fresh 
 arrivals from the surrounding districts. 
 
 Those who have suffered from the tidal wave have 
 become much embittered against the law breakers. 
 There have been many small fights and several small 
 riots in consequence. This has been regarded with 
 apprehension by the State authorities, and Adjutant 
 General Hastings has arrived at Johnstown to ex- 
 amine into the condition of affairs and to guard the 
 desolated district with troops. The Eighteenth regi- 
 ment, of Pittsburgh, has tendered its services to this 
 work, but has received no reply to its tender. 
 
 General Hastings estimates that the loss of life is at 
 least eight thousand. 
 
 An employee of J. L. Gill, of Latrobe, says he and 
 thirty-five other men were in a three-story building in 
 Johnstown last night. They had been getting out logs 
 for the Johnstown Lumber Company. The man says 
 
^ THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 that the building was swept away and all the men 
 were drowned except Gill and his family. 
 Handling: the Dead. 
 
 The recovery of bodies has taken up the time of 
 thousands all day. The theory now is that most of 
 those killed by the torrent were burled beneath the 
 debris. 1 o-day's work in the ruins in a large degree 
 justifies this assumption. I saw six bodies taken out 
 of one pile of rubbish not eight feet square. 
 
 The truth is that bodies are almost as plentiful as 
 logs. The whirl of the waters puts the bodies under 
 and the logs and boards on top. The rigidity of arms 
 standing out at right angles to the bloated and 
 bruised bodies show that death in ninety-nine out of a 
 hundred cases took place amid the ruins — that is after 
 the wreck of houses had closed over them. 
 
 Dr. D. G. Foster, who has been here all day, is of 
 the opinion that most of the victims were killed by 
 coming into violent contact with objects in the river 
 and not by drowning. He found many fractured 
 skulls and on most heads blows that would have ren- 
 dered those receiving them instantly unconscious, and 
 the water did the rest 
 
 Kot fewer than three hundred bodies have been taken 
 from the river and rubbish to-day. It has been the labor 
 of all classes of citizens, and marvellous work has been 
 accomplished. The eastern end of Main street, through 
 which the waters tore most madly and destructively, and 
 in which they left their legacy of wrecked houses, fallen 
 trees and dead bodies in a greater degree than in any 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 65 
 
 other portion of the city, has been cleared and the re- 
 mains of over fifty have been taken out. 
 
 All over town the searchers have been equally suc- 
 cessful. As soon as a body is found it is placed on a 
 Htter and sent to the Morgue, where it is washed and 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE MORGUE. 
 
 placed on a board for several hours to await identifi- 
 cation. 
 
 The Morofue is the Fourth-ward school house, and 
 it has been surrounded all day by a crowd of several 
 thousand people. At first the crowd were disposed to 
 stop those bearing the stretchers, uncover the remains 
 
^(5 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 and view them, but this was found to be prolific not 
 only of great delay, also scenes of agony that not even 
 the bearers could endure. 
 
 Now a litter is guarded by a file of soldiers with 
 fixed bayonets, and the people are forced aside until 
 the Morgue is reached. It is astonishing to find how- 
 small a number of injured are in the city. Few sur- 
 vived. It was death or nothing with the demon of the 
 flood. 
 
 Now that an adequate idea of what has befallen them 
 has been reached, and the fact that a living has still to 
 be made, that plants must be taken care of, that con- 
 tracts must be filled, the business people of the city are 
 giving their attention to the future. Vice President 
 and Director James McMillan, of the Cambria Iron 
 Company, says their loss has been well nigh incalcula- 
 ble. They are not daunted, but will to-morrow begin 
 the work of clearing up the ruins of their mills prepar- 
 atory to rebuilding and repairing their works. They 
 will also immediately rebuild the Gautier Iron Works. 
 This is the disposition of all. 
 
 " Our pockets are light," they say, *'butif nothing 
 happens all of us will be In business again.'* The cen- 
 tral portion of Johnstown is as completely obliterated 
 as if it had never had foundation. The river has made 
 its bed upon the sites of hundreds of dwellings, and a 
 vast area of sand, mud and gravel marks the old 
 channel. 
 
 It is doubtful whether It will be possible even to 
 reclaim what was once the business portion of the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 67 
 
 city. The river will have to be returned to its old bed 
 in order to do this. 
 
 Among the lost is H. G. Rose, the District Attor- 
 ney of Cambria county, whose body was among the 
 first discovered. 
 
 Governor Foraker, of Ohio, this afternoon sent five 
 hundred tents to this city. They will be pitched on 
 the hillside to-morrow. They are sadly needed, as the 
 buildings that are left are either too damp or too un- 
 safe for occupancy. 
 
 Buryingr the Dead. 
 
 The work of burying the dead began this morning 
 and has been kept up till late this evening. The 
 bruising of the bodies by logs and trees and other 
 debris and other exposure in the water have tended to 
 hasten decomposition, which has set in in scores of 
 cases, making interment instantly necessary. 
 
 ^ Bodies are being buried as rapidly as they are iden- 
 tified. The work of Pittsburgh undertakers in exam- 
 ining the dead has rendered it possible to keep all 
 those embalmed two or three days longer, but this is 
 desirable only in cases where identification is dubious 
 and no claimants appear at all. 
 
 ^ To-day the cars sent out from Pittsburgh with pro- 
 visions for the living were hastily cleared in order to 
 contain the bodies of the dead intended for interment 
 in suburban cemeteries and in graveyards handy to 
 the city. 
 
 Formality is dispensed with. In some instances only 
 the undertaker and his assistants are present, and In 
 
68 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Others only one or two members of the family of the 
 dead. 
 
 The dead are more plentiful than the mourners. 
 
 Death has certainly dealt briefly with the stricken 
 city. "Let the dead bury the dead" has been more 
 nearly exemplified in this instance than In any other in 
 this country's history. The magnitude of the horror 
 increases with the hours. It is believed that not less 
 than two thousand of the drowned found lodgment 
 beneath the omnium gatherum in the triangle of ground 
 that the Conemaugh cut out of the bank between the 
 river and the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge. 
 
 The Greatest Funeral Pyre in History, 
 
 The victims were not upon it, but were parts of it. 
 Whole houses were washed into the apex of the trian- 
 gle. Hen coops, pigstys and stables were added to 
 the mass. Then a stove Ignited the mass and the 
 work of cremation began. It was a literal breast of 
 fire. The smoke arose in a huge funnel-shaped 
 cloud, and at times it changed to the form of an hour 
 glass. At night the flames united would light up this 
 misty remnant of mortality. The effect upon the 
 living, both ignorant and intelligent, was the same. 
 That volume of smoke with its dual form, produced a 
 feeling of awe in many that was superior in most cases 
 to that felt in the awful moment of the storm's wrath 
 on Friday. 
 
 Hundreds stood for hours regarding the smoke and 
 wondering whether it foreboded another visitation 
 more dire than its predecessor. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 69 
 
 The people hereabouts this morning awoke to find 
 that nothing was left but a mass of ashes, calcined 
 human bones, stoves, old iron and other approximately 
 indestructible matter, from which only a light blue 
 vapor was arising. General Hastings took precau- 
 tions to prevent the extension of the fire to another 
 huge pile, a short distance away, and this will be rum- 
 maged to-day for bodies of flood victims. 
 
 The Pittsburgh undertakers have contributed more 
 to facilitate the preparation of the dead for the graves 
 than all others besides. 
 
 There was a disposition on the part of many foreign- 
 ers and negroes to raid the houses, and do an all 
 around thieving business, but the measures adopted 
 by the police had a tendency to frighten them off in 
 nearly every case. 
 
 One man was caught in the act of robbing the body 
 of an old woman, but he protested that he had got 
 nothing and v/as released. He immediately dis- 
 appeared, and it was found afterward that he had 
 taken $ioo from the pocket of the corpse. 
 
 A half-breed negro yesterday and this morning was 
 doing a thriving business In collecting hams, shoulders, 
 chickens and even furniture. He had thieves in his 
 employ, and while to some of them he was paying reg- 
 ular salaries, others were doing the work for a drink 
 of whiskey. The authorities stopped this thing very 
 suddenly, but not until a number of the people threat- 
 ened to lynch the half breed. In one or two instance 
 very narrow escapes from the rope were made. 
 
70 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Thousands of coffins and rough boxes have already 
 arrived, and still the supply is short. They are brought 
 in marked to some undertaker, who has a list of his 
 dead, and as fast as the coffins come he v^rltes the name 
 of Its intended tenant and tells the friends (when there 
 are any) where to find it. 
 
 How a Funeral Takes Place. 
 
 Two of them go after it, and, carrying it between 
 them to the Morgue or to their homes, place the body 
 in it and take it to the burial grounds. 
 
 One unfortunate feature of the destruction is the fact 
 that some one has been drowned from nearly every 
 house in the city, and teams are procurable only with 
 the greatest difficulty. 
 
 Dead horses are seen ever^^-where. In one stable 
 two horses, fully harnessed, bridled and ready to be 
 taken out, stand dead In their stable, stiff and upright. 
 In a sand pile near the Pennsylvania Railroad depot a 
 horse's hind feet, rump and tall are all that can be 
 seen of him. He was caught in the rapidly running 
 waters and had been driven Into the sand. 
 
 The following telegram from Johnstown has been 
 received at Pittsburg : 
 
 " For God's sake tell the sIght-seers to keep away 
 from Johnstown for the present. What we want is 
 people to work, not to look on. ** Citizen's Commltte." 
 
 Three trains have already been sent out with' 
 crowded cargoes of sIght-seers. At every station 
 along the road excited crowds are waiting for an op- 
 portunity to get aboard. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 71 
 
 iTiat's what would have happened to the owners of 
 5>»)uth Fork if they had put in an appearance. 
 
 There is great indignation among the people of 
 Johnstown at the wealthy Pittsburghers who own 
 South Fork. They blame them severely for having 
 maintained such a frightfully dangerous institution 
 there. The feeling among the people was intense. 
 If any of the owners of the dam had put in an appear- 
 ance in Jofinstown they would have been lynched. 
 
 The dam has been a constant menace to this valley 
 ever since it has been in existence, and the feeling, 
 which has been bitter enough on the occasion of every 
 Hood hitherto, after this horrible disaster is now at 
 fever heat. 
 
 Without seeing the havoc created no idea can be 
 given of the area of the desolation or the extent of the 
 damage. 
 
 Only One I/eft to Mourn. 
 
 An utterly wretched woman stood by a muddy pool 
 of water, trying to find some trace of a once happy 
 home. She was half crazed with grief, and her eyes 
 were red and swollen. As I stepped to her side she 
 raised her pale and haggard face, crying: 
 
 ''They are all gone. Oh God be merciful to them. 
 My husband and my seven dear little children have 
 been swept down with the flood and I am left alone. 
 We were driven by the raging flood into the garret, 
 but the waters followed us there. Inch by inch it kept 
 rising until our head'j were crushing against the roof. 
 It was death to remain. So I raised a window and one 
 
72 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 by one placed my darlings on some drift wood, trust- 
 ing to the Great Creator. As I liberated the last one, 
 my sweet little boy, he looked at me and said : 
 
 " * Mamma, you always told me that the Lord would 
 care for me ; will he look after me now ? " 
 
 "I saw him drift away with his loving face turned 
 toward me, and with a prayer on my lips for his de- 
 liverance he passed from sight forever. The next 
 moment the roof crashed in and I floated outside to 
 be rescued fifteen hours later from the roof of a house 
 in Kernville. If I could only find one of my darlings, 
 I could bow to the will of God, but they all are gone. 
 I have lost everydiing on earth now but my life, and I 
 will return to my old Virginia home and lay me down 
 for my last great sleep.*' 
 
 A handsome woman, with hair as black as a raven's 
 wing, walked through the depot, where a dozen or 
 more bodies were awaiting burial. Passing from 
 one to another, she finally lifted the paper covering 
 from the face of a woman, young and with traces 
 of beauty showing through the stains of muddy water. 
 With a cry of anguish she reeled backward, to be 
 caught by a rugged man who chanced to be passing. 
 In a moment or so she had calmed herself sufificiently 
 to take one more look at the features of her dead. She 
 stood gazing at the unfortunate as if dumb. Finally 
 turning away with another wild burst of grief she 
 said : — 
 
 "And her beautiful hair all matted and her sweet 
 face bruised and stained with mud and water." 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 73 
 
 The dead woman was the sister of the mourner. 
 The body was placed In a coffin a few minutes later 
 and sent away to its narrow house. 
 
 These incidents are but fair samples of the scenes 
 familiar to every turn in this stricken city. 
 
 THE AWFUL RUSH OF WATERS, 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 The Horror Increases. 
 
 During the night thirty-three bodies were brought 
 to one house. As yet the relief force is not perfectly 
 organized and bodies are lying around on boards and 
 doors. Within twenty feet of where this was written 
 the dead body of a colored woman lies. 
 
 Provision has been made by the Relief Committee 
 for the sufferers to send despatches to all parts of the 
 country. The railroad company has a track through 
 to the bridge. The first train arrived about half-past 
 nine o'clock this morning. A man In a frail craft got 
 caught In the rapids at the railroad bridge, and it 
 looked as If he would Increase the already terrible list 
 of dead, but fortunately he caught on a rock, where he 
 now Is and Is liable to remain all day. 
 
 The question on every person's lips Is — Will the 
 Cambria Iron Company rebuild? The wire mill is 
 completely wrecked, but the walls of the rolling mill 
 are still standing. If they do not resume it is a ques- 
 tion whether the town will be rebuilt. The Hunga^ 
 rlans were beginning to pillage the houses, and the 
 arrival of police was most timely. Word had just been 
 received that all the men employed by Peabody, the 
 Pittsburgh contractor, have been saved. 
 
 (74) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 75 
 
 The worst part of this disaster has not been told. 
 Indeed, the most graphic description that can be writ- 
 ten will not tell half the tale. No pen can describe 
 nor tongue tell the vastness of this devastation. 
 
 I walked over the greater part of the wrecked town 
 this morning, and one could not have pictured such a 
 wreck, nor could one have imagined that an entire 
 town of this size could be so completely swept away. 
 
 A. J. Haws, one of the prominent men of the town, 
 was standing on the hillside this morning, taking a 
 view of the wreck. He said : 
 
 " I never saw anything like this, nor do I believe 
 anyone else ever did. No idea can be had of. the 
 tremendous loss of property here. It amounts up 
 into the millions. I am going to leave the place. I 
 never will build here.'* 
 
 I heard the superintendents and managers of the 
 Cambria Iron Works saying they doubted if the works 
 will be rebuilt. This would mean the death blow to 
 the place. Mr. Stackhouse, first vice-president of the 
 iron works, Is expected here to-day. Nothing can be 
 done until a meeting of the company Is held. 
 Preparations for Burial. 
 
 Adjutant General Hastings, who Is In charge of the 
 relief corps at the railroad station, has a force of car- 
 penters at work making rough boxes in which to bury 
 the dead. They will be buried on the hill, just above 
 the town, on ground belonging to the Cambria Iron 
 Company. The graves will be numbered. No one 
 will be buried that has not been identified without a 
 
76 
 
 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 careful description being taken. General Hastings 
 drove fifty-eight miles across the country in order to 
 get here, and as soon as he came took charge. He 
 has the whole town organized, and in connection with 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR BURIAL. 
 
 L. S. Smith has commenced the building of bridges 
 and clearing away the wrecks to get out the dead 
 bodies. 
 
 General Hastings has a large force of men clearing 
 private tracks of the Cambria Iron Company in order 
 that the small engines can be put to work bringing up 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 77 
 
 the dead that have been dragged out of the river at 
 points below. 
 
 The bodies are being brought up and laid out in 
 freight cars. Mr. Kittle, of Ebensburg, has been 
 deputized to take charge of the valuables taken from 
 the bodies and keep a registry of them, and also to 
 note any marks of identification that may be found. 
 A number of the bodies have been stripped of rings 
 or bracelets and other valuables. 
 
 Over six hundred corpses have now been taken out 
 on the south side of Stony Creek, the greater portion 
 of which have been identified. 
 
 Send Us Cpmns, 
 
 Preparations for their burial are being carried on as 
 
 rapidly as possible, and "coffins, coffins," is the cry. 
 
 No word has been received anywhere of any being 
 
 shipped. Even rough boxes will be gladly received. 
 
 Those that are being made, and in which many of the 
 
 bodies are being buried, are of rough unplancd 
 
 boards. One hundred dead bodies are laid out at the 
 
 soap factory, while two hundred or more people are 
 
 gathered there that are in great distress. Boats are 
 
 wanted. People have the greatest difficulty w getting 
 
 to the town. 
 
 Struggrling for Order. 
 
 Another account from Johnstown on the second day 
 after the disaster says : 
 
 The situation here has not changed, and yesterday s 
 estimates of the loss of life do not seem to be exag- 
 gerated. Six hundred bodies are now lying in Johns- 
 
78 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 town, and a large number have already been burle( . 
 Four immense relief trains arrived last night, and the 
 survivors are being well cared for. 
 
 Adjutant General Hastings, assisted by Mayor 
 Sanger, has taken command at Johnstov/n and vicinity. 
 Nothing is legal unless it bears the signature of the 
 former. The town itself is guarded by Company H, 
 Sixth regiment. Lieutenant Leggett in command. New 
 members were sworn in by him, and they are making 
 excellent soldiers. 
 
 Special police are numerous, and the regulations are 
 so strict that even the smoking of a cigar is prohibited. 
 General Hastings expresses the opinion that more 
 troops are necessary. 
 
 Mr. Alex. Hart is in charge of the special police. 
 He has lost his wife and family. Notwithstanding his 
 great misfortune he is doing the work of a Hercules 
 in his own way. 
 
 Firemen and Soldiers Arriving". 
 
 Chief Evans, of the Pittsburgh Fire Department, ar- 
 rived this evening with engines and several hose carts, 
 with a full complement of men. A large number of 
 Pittsburgh physicians came on the same train. 
 
 A squad of Battery B, under command of Lieuten- 
 ant Brown, the forerunners of the whole battery, ar- 
 rived at the improvised telegraph office at half-past six 
 o'clock. ^ Lieutenant Brown went at once to Adjutant 
 General Hastings and reported for duty. 
 
 A portion of the police force of Pittsburgh and Alle- 
 ghany are on duty, and better order is maintained than 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 79 
 
 prevailed yesterday. Communication has been re- 
 stored between Cambria City and Johnstown by a foot 
 bridge. 
 
 The work of repairing the tracks between Sang 
 Hollow and Johnstown is going on rapidly, and trains 
 will probably be running by to-morrow morning. Not 
 less than fifteen thousand strangers are here. 
 
 The unruly element has been put down and order is 
 now perfect. The Citizen's Committee are in charge 
 and have matters well organized. 
 
 A proclamation has just been issued that all men 
 who are able to work must report for work or leave 
 the place. "We have too much to do to support 
 idlers," says the Citizen's Committee, " And will not 
 abuse the generous help that is being sent by doing 
 so.'* From to-morrow all will be at work. 
 
 Money now is greatly needed to meet the heavy pay 
 rolls that will be incurred for the next two weeks. W. 
 C. Lewis, Chairman of the Finance Committee, is 
 ready to receive the same. 
 
 Fall of tlie Wall of Water. 
 
 Mr. Crouse, proprietor of the South Fork Fishing 
 Club Hotel, came to Johnstown this afternoon. He 
 says : — 
 
 "When the dam of Conemaugh Lake broke the 
 water seemed to leap, scarcely touching the ground. 
 It bounded down the valley, crashing and roaring, car- 
 rying everything before it. For a mile its front seemed 
 like a solid wall twenty feet high." 
 
 Freight Agent Dechert, when the great wall tliat 
 
80 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 held the body of water began to crumble at the top sent 
 a message begging the people of Johnstown for God's 
 sake to take to the hills. He reports no serious acci- 
 dents at South Fork. 
 
 Richard Davis ran to Prospect Hill when the water 
 raised. As to Mr. Dechert's message, he says just 
 such have been sent down at each flood since the lake 
 was made. The warning so often proved useless that 
 little attention was paid to it this time. **I cannot de- 
 scribe the mad rush," he said. ''At first it looked like 
 dust. That must have been the spray. I could see 
 houses going down before it like a child's play blocks 
 set on edge in a row. As it came nearer I could see 
 houses totter for a moment, then rise and the next 
 moment be crushed like Ggg shells against each other." 
 To Kise Plioenix-like. 
 
 James McMillin, vice-president of the Cambria Iron 
 Works, was met this afternoon. In a conversation he 
 said : 
 
 ** I do not know what our loss is. L cannot even 
 estimate, as I have not the faintest idea what it may 
 be. The upper mill is totally wrecked — damaged be- 
 yond all possibility of repairs. The lower mill is dam- 
 aged to such an extent that all machinery and build< 
 ings are useless. 
 
 *'The mills will be rebuilt immediately. I have sent 
 out orders that all men that can must report at the 
 mill to-morrow to commence cleaning up. I do not 
 think the building was insured against a flood. The 
 great thing we want is to get the mill in operation again.** 
 
THE VALLEY OF DEATH. 
 
ONLY A MINUTES WARNING. 
 
 A Li. LEKISHED IN THE FLOOD. 
 
SWEPT AWAY BY THE TORRENT. 
 
IVNCHING AND DKOWMNd 1 H 1 1 V Fb 
 
MADE ORPHANS BY THE FLOOD. 
 
VALLEY OF THE CONEMAUGH NEAR JOHNSTOWN. 
 
MEETING OF FRIENDS AND RELATIVES AFTER THE FLOOD. 
 
MOTHER AND BARE CAST UP BY THE WATERS. 
 
THE MILITIA AT REST. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 81 
 
 The Gautler Wire Works was completely destroyed. 
 The buildings will be immediately rebuilt and put in 
 operation as soon as possible. The loss at this point 
 is complete. The land on which it stood is to-day as 
 barren and desolate as if it were in the midst of the 
 Sahara Desert. 
 
 The Cambria Iron Company loses its great supply 
 stores. The damage to the stock alone will amount to 
 $50,000. 
 
 The building was valued at $150,000, and is a total 
 loss. The company offices which adjoins the store was 
 a handsome structure. It was protected by the first 
 building, but nevertheless is almost totally destroyed. 
 The Dartmouth Club,at which employees of the works 
 boarded, was carried away in the flood. It contained 
 many occupants at the time. None were saved. 
 
 Estimates of the losses of the Cambria Iron Com- 
 pany given are from $2,000,000 to $2,500,000. But 
 little of this can be recovered. 
 
 History of tlie Works. 
 The Cambria Iron Works at Johnstown were built in 
 1853. It was the second largest plant of its kind in 
 the country, and was completely swept away. Its 
 capacity of finished steel per annum was 180,000 net 
 tons of steel rails and 20,000 net toDs of steel in other 
 shapes. The mill turned out steel rails, spike bars, 
 angles, flats, rounds, axles, billets and wire rods. 
 There were nine Siemens and forty-two reverbatory 
 heating furnaces, one seven ton and two 6,000 pound 
 hammers and three trains of rolls. 
 
 
82 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 The Bessemer Steel Works made their first blow 
 July lo, 1 87 1, and they contained nine gross ton con- 
 verters, with an annual capacity of 200,000 net tons of 
 ingots. In 1878 two fifteen gross tons Siemens open- 
 hearth steel furnaces were built, with an annual 
 capacity of 20,oco net tons of ingots. 
 
 The Cambria Iron Company also owns the Gautler 
 Steel Works at Johnstown, which were erected in 
 1878. 
 
 The rolling mill produced annually 30,000 net tons 
 of merchant bar steel of every size and for every pur- 
 pose. The wire mill had a capacity alone of 30,000 
 tons of fence wire. 
 
 There are numerous bituminous coal mines near 
 
 Johnstown, operated by the Cambria Iron Company, 
 
 the Euclid Coal Company and private persons. There 
 
 were three woolen mills, employing over three hundred 
 
 hands and producing an annual product valued at 
 
 $300,000. 
 
 Awful Work of the Flames. 
 
 Fifty acres of town swept clean. One thousand two 
 hundred buildings destroyed. Eight thousand to ten 
 thousand lives lost. 
 
 That is the record of the Johnstown calamity as it 
 looked to me just before dark last night. Acres of 
 the town were turned into cemeteries, and miles of the 
 river bank were involuntary storage rooms for house- 
 hold goods. 
 
 From the half ruined parapet at the end of the stone 
 railroad bridge, in Johnstown proper, one sees sights 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 83 
 
 SO gruesome that none but the soulless Hungarian 
 and Italian laborers can command his emotions. 
 
 At my rigfit is a fiery pit iliat is now believed to hav^ 
 been the funeral jjyre of ahnost a thou-sajtd persons. 
 Streets ObUterated. 
 
 ITie fiercest rush of the current was straieht across 
 the lower, level part of Johnstown, where it entirely 
 obliterated Cinder, Washington, Market, Main and 
 Walnut streets. These streets were from a half to 
 three-quarters of a mile in length, and were closely 
 crowded alonor their entire course \vith dwelling-s and 
 other buildings, and there is now no more trace of 
 streets or houses than there is at low tide on the beach 
 at Far Rockaway. 
 
 In the once well populated boroughs of Conemaugh 
 and Woodvale there < re to-night literally but two 
 buildings left, one the shell of the Woodvale Woolen 
 Mill and the other a sturdy brick dwelling. 
 
 The buildings w^hich were swept from twenty out of 
 the thirt}' acres of devastated Johnstown were crowded 
 aofainst the lower end of the bis: stone bridcre in a mass 
 200 yards wide, 500 yards broad and from 60 to 100 
 feet deep. They were crushed and split out of shape 
 and packed together like playing cards. 
 
 When you realize that in nearly ever)' one of these 
 buildings there were at least one human being, while in 
 some there were as many as seventy -five, it is easy to 
 comprehend how awful it was when this mass began 
 to burn fiercely last night. It was known that a large 
 number of persons were imprisoned In the debris, for 
 
84 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 they could be plainly seen by those on shore, but if 
 was not until people stopped to think and to ask them 
 selves questions, which startled them in a ghastly way, 
 that the fact became plain that instead of a pitiful 
 hundred or two of victims at least a thousand were in 
 that roaring, crackling, loathsome, blazing mass upon 
 the surface of the water and in the huge, inaccessible 
 arches of the big bridge. 
 
 Charred Bodies. 
 
 Charred bodies could be seen here and there all 
 through the glowing embers. There was no attempt 
 to check the fire by tne autnondes, nor for that matter 
 did they try to stop the robbing of the dead, nor any 
 other glaring violation of law. The fire is spreading 
 toward a large block of crushed buildings further up 
 the stream. There is a broail stretch of angry water 
 above and below, while over there, just opposite the 
 end of the bridge, is the ruin of the great Cambria 
 Iron Works, which have been damaged to the extent 
 of over $1,000,000. 
 
 The Gautier Steel Works have been wiped away, 
 and are represented by a loss of $1,000,000 and a big 
 hole. 
 
 The Holbert House, owned by Renford Brothers, 
 lias entirely disappeared. It was a five story building, 
 was the leading hotel of Johnstown, and contained a 
 hundred rooms. Of the seventy-five guests who were 
 in it when the flood came, only eight have been saved* 
 Most of them were crushed by the fall of the walls 
 and flooring. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 85 
 
 Hundreds of searching parties are looking in the 
 muddy ponds and among the wreckage for bodies, 
 and they are being gathered in ghastly heaps. 
 
 In one building among the bloated victims, I sa\v 
 a young and well-dressed man and woman, still locked 
 in each other's arms, a young mother with her babQ 
 pressed with delirious tenacity to her breast, and on a 
 small pillow was a tiny babe a few hours old, which the 
 doctors said must have been born in the water. It is 
 said that 720 bodies have so far been recovered, or 
 have been located. 
 
 The coroner of Westmoreland county is ordering 
 coffins by the carload. 
 
 In the Ragingr \Taters. 
 
 A dispatch from Derry says : In this city the poor 
 people in the raging waters cried out for aid that never 
 came. More than one brave man risked his life in 
 trying to save those in the flood. Every hour details 
 of some heroic action are brought to light. In many 
 instances the victims displayed remarkable courage 
 and gave their chances for rescue to friends with them. 
 Sons stood back for mothers, and were lost while their 
 parents were taken out. Many a son went down to a 
 watery grave that a sister or a father might be saved. 
 Such instances of sacrifice in the face of fearful danger 
 are numerous. 
 
 The Force of the Waters. ' 
 
 One can estimate the force of the water when It is 
 known that it carried locomotives down the mountain 
 side and turned them upside down where they are now 
 
so THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 lying. Long trains of cars have been derailed and 
 carried great distances from the railroads. 
 
 The first sight that greeted the men at nine this 
 morning was the body of a beautiful woman lying 
 ^crushed and mangled under the ponderous wheels of 
 a gondola car. The clothing was torn to shreds. Dr 
 Berry said that he never saw such intense pain pic- 
 tured on a face before. 
 
 Terrible Stories. 
 
 At this time of writing it Is impossible to secure the 
 names of any of the lost. Every person one meets 
 along the road has some horrible tale of drowned and 
 dead bodies recovered. 
 
 One thousand people or more were burled and 
 crushed in the great fire. The flats below Conemaugh 
 are full of cars with many dead bodies lying under 
 them. At Sang Hollow a man named Duncan sat on 
 the roof of a house and saw his father and mother die 
 in the attiabelow him. The poor fellow was powerless 
 to help them, and he stood there wringing his hands 
 and tearing his hair. 
 
 A man was seen clinging to a tree, covered with 
 blood. He was lost with the others. 
 
 Long after dark the flames of fire shot high above 
 the burning mass of timber, lighting the vast flood of 
 rushing waters on all sides. 
 
 Tiie Dead. 
 
 Dead bodies are being picked up. The train master, 
 E. PItcairn, has been working manfully directing the 
 rescuing of dead bodies at Nineveh. In a ten acre 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 87 
 
 field seventy-five bodies were taken out within a half 
 mile of each other. Of this number only five were 
 men, the rest being women and children. Many beau- 
 tiful young girls, refined in features and handsomely 
 dressed, were found, and women and young mothers 
 with their hair matted with roots and leaves are con- 
 stantly being removed. 
 
 The wrecking crew which took out these bodies are 
 confident that 150 bodies are lying buried in the sand 
 and under the debris on those low-lying bottom lands. 
 Some of the bodies were horribly mangled, and the 
 features were twisted and contorted as if they had died 
 in the most excrutiating agony. Others are found 
 lying stretched out with calm faces. 
 
 Many a tear was dropped by the men as they 
 worked away removing the bodies. An old lady with 
 fine gray hair was picked up alive, although every 
 bone in her body was broken. Judging from the num- 
 ber of women and children found in the swamps of 
 Nineveh, the female portion of the population suffered 
 
 the most. 
 
 A Fatal Tree. 
 
 Mr. O' Conner was at Sang Hollow when the flood 
 began. He remained there through the afternoon and 
 night, and he states that there was a fatal tree on the 
 island against which a number of people were dashed 
 and instantly killed. Their bodies were almost tied in 
 a knot doubled over the tree by the force of the cur- 
 rent. Mr. O' Conner says that the first man who came 
 down had his brains knocked out against this obstruc- 
 
g8 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 tion. In fact, those who hit the tree met the same fate 
 and were Instantly killed under the pile of driftwood 
 collected there. He could give no estimate of the 
 number lost at this point, but says that it is certainly 
 large. 
 
 ^ Braves Death for His Family. 
 
 One of the most thrilling incidents of the disaster 
 was the performance of A. J. Leonard, whose family 
 reside in Morrellville, a short distance below this point 
 He was at work here, and hearing that his house had 
 been swept away determined at all hazards to ascer- 
 tain the fate of his family. The bridges having been 
 carried away he constructed a temporary raft, and 
 clinging to it as close as a cat to the side of a fence, 
 he pushed his frail craft out in the raging torrent and 
 started on a chase which, to all who were watching, 
 seemed to mean an embrace in death. 
 
 Heedless of cries ** For God's sake go back, you 
 will be drowned," and " Don't attempt it," he per- 
 severed. As the raft struck the current he threw off 
 his coat and in his shirt sleeves braved the stream. 
 Down plunged the boards and down went Leonard, 
 but as it rose he was seen still clinging. A mighty 
 shout arose from the throats of the hundreds on the 
 banks, who were now deeply interested, earnestly 
 hoping he would successfully ford the stream. 
 
 Down again went hls^bark, but nothing, it seemed, 
 could shake Leonard off. The craft shot up in the air 
 apparently ten or twelve feet, and Leonard stuck to it 
 tenaciously. Slowly but surely he worked his boat to 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 89 
 
 the Other side of the stream, and after what seemed an 
 awful suspense he finally landed amid ringing cheers 
 of men, women and children. 
 
 The last seen of him he was making his way down 
 a mountain road in the direction of the spot where his 
 house had lately stood. His family consisted of his 
 wife and three children. 
 
 An Angel in the Mud. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railroad Company*s operators at 
 Switch Corner, which Is near Sang Hollow, tell thrill- 
 ing stories of the scenes witnessed by them on Friday 
 afternoon and evening. Said one of them : 
 
 "In order to give you an idea of how the tidal wave 
 rose and fell, let me say that I kept a measure and 
 timed the rise and fall of the water, and in forty- 
 eight minutes It fell four and a half feet. 
 
 "I believe that when the water goes down about 
 seventy-five children and fifty grown persons will be 
 found among the weeds and bushes in the bend of the 
 river just below the tower. 
 
 ''There the current was very strong, and we saw 
 dozens of people swept under the trees, and I don't 
 believe that more than one in twenty came out on the 
 other side." 
 
 ** They found a little girl in white just now," said one 
 of the other operators. 
 
 "Good God!" said the chief operator, "she isn't 
 dead, is she ! " 
 
 " Yes ; they found her in a clump of willow bushes, 
 kneeling on a board, just about the way we saw her 
 
90 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 when she went down the river." Turning to me he 
 said : — 
 
 *'That was the saddest thing we saw all day yester- 
 day. Two men came down on a little raft, with a 
 lltde girl kneeling between them, and her hands raised 
 and praying. She came so close to us we could see 
 her face, and that she was crying. She had on a white 
 dress and looked like a little angel. She went under 
 that cursed shoot in the willow bushes at the bend like 
 all the rest, but we did hope she would get through 
 alive." 
 
 ** And so she was still kneeling,** he said to his com- 
 panion, who had brought the unwelcome news. 
 
 *' She sat there," was the reply, **as if she were still 
 praying, and there was a smile on her poor little face, 
 though her mouth was full of mud." 
 
 All agreed in saying that at least one hundred peo- 
 ple were drowned below Nineveh. 
 Direful Incidents. 
 
 The situation at Johnstown grows worse as fuller 
 particulars are being received in Pittsburgh. 
 
 This morning it was reported that three thousand 
 people were lost in the flood. In the afternoon this 
 number was increased to six thousand, and at this writ- 
 ing despatches place the number at ten thousand. 
 
 It is the most frightful destruction of life that has 
 ever been known in the United States. 
 Vampires at Hand. 
 
 It is stated that already a large gang of thieves and 
 vampires have descended on and near the place. Their 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 91 
 
 presumed purpose Is to rob the dead and ransack th^ 
 demolished buildings. 
 
 The Tenth regiment of the Pennsylvania National 
 Guard has been ordered out to protect property. 
 
 A telegram from Bolivar says Lockport did not 
 suffer much, but that sixty-five families were turned 
 out of their homes. The school at that place is filled 
 with mothers, fathers, daughters and children. 
 Noble Acts of Heroism. 
 
 Edward Dick, a young railroader living in the place, 
 saw an old man floating down the river on a tree 
 trunk whose agonized face and streaming gray hair 
 excited his compassion. He plunged into the torrent, 
 clothes and all, and brought the old man safely ashore. 
 Scarcely had he done this when the upper story of a 
 house floated by on which Mrs. Adams, of Cambria, 
 and her two children were borne. He plunged in 
 again, and while breaking through the tin roof of the 
 house cut an artery In his left wrist, but, although 
 weakened with loss of blood, succeeded in saving both 
 mother and children. 
 
 George Shore, another Lockport swimmer, pulled 
 out William Jones, of Cambria, who was almost ex- 
 hausted and could not possibly have survived another 
 twenty minutes in the water, 
 
 John Decker, who has some celebrity as a local 
 (puglllst, was also successful in saving a v/oman and 
 boy, but was nearly killed in a third attempt to reach 
 the middle of the river by being struck by a huge log. 
 
 The most miraculous fact about the people who 
 
92 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 reached Bolivar alive was how they passed through 
 the falls halfway between Lockport and Bolivar. The 
 seething waters rushed through that barrier of rock 
 with a noise which drowned that of all the passing 
 trains. Heavy trees were whirled high in the air out 
 of the water, and houses which reached there whole 
 were dashed to splinters against the rocks. » 
 
 A Tale of Horror. 
 
 On the floor of William Mancarro*s house, groaning 
 wich pain and grief, lay Patrick Madden, a furnace 
 man of the Cambria Iron Company. He told of his 
 terrible experience In a voice broken with emotion. 
 He said : ''When the Cambria Iron Company's bridge 
 gave way I was in the house of a neighbor, Edward 
 Garvey. We were caught through our own neglect, 
 like a great many others, and a few minutes before 
 the houses were struck Garv^ey remarked that he was 
 a good swimmer, and could get away no matter how 
 high the water rose. Ten minutes later I saw him and 
 his son-in-law drowned. 
 
 " No human being could swim in that terrible tor- 
 rent of debris. After the South Fork reservoir broke 
 I was flung out of the building and saw, when I rose 
 to the surface of the water, my wife hanging upon a 
 piece of scantling. She let it go and was drowned 
 almost within reach of my arm and I could not help or 
 save her. I caught a log and floated with it five or six 
 miles, but it was knocked from under me when I went 
 over the dam. I then caught a bale of hay and was 
 taken out by Mr. Morenrow. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 133 
 
 A despatch from Greensburg says the day express, 
 which left Pittsburgh at eight o'clock on Friday morn- 
 ing was lying at Johnstown in the evening at the time 
 the awful rush of waters came down the mountains. 
 We have been informed by one who was there that the 
 coach next to the baggage car was struck by the rag- 
 ing flood, and with its human freight cut loose from 
 the rest of the train and carried down the stream. All 
 on board, it is feared, perished. Of the passengers 
 who were left on the track, fifteen or more who endea- 
 vored to flee to the mountains were caught, it is 
 thought, by the flood, and likewise carried to destruc- 
 tion. Samuel Bell, of Latrobe, was conductor on the 
 train, and he describes the scene as the most appalling 
 and heart-rending he ever witnessed. 
 
 A special despatch from Latrobe says : — "The spe- 
 cial train which left the Union Station, Pittsburgh, at 
 half-past one arrived at Nineveh Station, nine miles 
 from Johnstown, last evening at five o'clock. The 
 train was composed of four coaches and locomotive, 
 and carried, at the lowest calculation, over nine hundred 
 persons, including the members of the press. The 
 passengers were packed in like sardines and many were 
 compelled to hang out upon the platform. A large 
 proportion of the passengers were curiosity seekers, 
 while there was a large sprinkling of suspicious looking 
 characters, who had every appearance of being crooks 
 and wreckers, such as visit all like disasters for the sole 
 purpose of plundering and committing kindred dep- 
 redations. 
 
94 
 
 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 When the train reached Nineveh the report spreao 
 through it that a number of bodies had been fished out 
 of the water and were awaiting identification at a neigh- 
 boring planing mill. I stopped off to investigate the 
 rumor, while the balance of the party journeyed on 
 
 TAKING DEAD BODIES FROM A ROOF. 
 
 toward Sang Hollow, the nearest approach to Johns- 
 town by rail. I visited Mumaker's planing mills and 
 found that the report was true. 
 
 All day long the rescuers had been at work, and at 
 this writing (six o'clock) they have taken out seventy- 
 eight dead bodies, the majority of whom are women 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 95 
 
 and children. The bodies are horribly mutilated and 
 covered with mud and blood. Fifteen of them are 
 those of men. Their terribly mutilated condition makes 
 identification for the present almost impossible. One 
 of the bodies found was that of a woman, apparently 
 about thirty-five years of age. 
 
 Every conveyance that could be used has been 
 pressed into service. Latrobe is all agog with excite- 
 ment over the great disaster. Almost every train 
 takes out a load of roughs and thugs who are bent on 
 mischief. They resemble the mob that came to Pitts- 
 burgh during the riots. 
 
 Measures of Kelief. 
 
 Pittsburgh is In a wild state of excitement. A large 
 mass meeting was held yesterday afternoon and in a 
 short space of time $i,ooo was subscribed for the suf- 
 ferers. 
 
 The Pennsylvania company has been running trains 
 every hour to the scene of the disaster or as near it as 
 they can get. Provisions and a large volunteer relief 
 corps have been sent up. The physicians have had 
 an enthusiastic meeting at which one and all freely of- 
 fered their services. 
 
 The latest project is to have the wounded and the 
 survivors who fled to the hillsides from the angry rush 
 of waters brought to Pittsburgh. The Exposition So- 
 ciety has offered the use of its splendid new building 
 as a temporary hospital. All the hospitals in the city 
 have also offered to care for the sufferers free of 
 charge to the full limit of their capacity. 
 
96 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Word has been received at Allegheny Junction, 
 twenty-two miles above Pittsburgh, from Leechburg 
 that a woman and two children were seen floating past 
 there at five o'clock yesterday morning on top of some 
 wreckage. They were alive, and their pitiful cries for 
 help drew the attention of the people on the shore. Some 
 men got a boat and endeavored to reach the sufferers. 
 
 As they rowed out in the stream the woman could 
 be heard calling to them to save the children first. 
 
 The men made a gallant effort. It was all without 
 avail, as the strong current and floating masses of 
 debris prevented them from reaching the victims, and 
 the latter floated on down the stream until their de- 
 spairing cries could no longer be heard. 
 
 Mrs. Chambers, of Apollo, was swept away when 
 her house was wrecked during the night. She had 
 gone to bed when the flood came and she had not 
 time to dress. Fortunately she managed to secure a 
 hold on some wreckage which was being carried past 
 her. She kept her hold until her cries were heard by 
 some men a short distance above Leechburg. They 
 got out a boat and succeeded in reaching her, and took 
 her to a house near the bank of the river. When they 
 got her there it was found that she was badly bruised 
 and all her clothing had been torn off by the debris 
 with which she had come in contact, leaving her 
 entirely naked. She was also rescued at Natrona. 
 A Lucky Change of llesidence. 
 
 Mr. F. J. Moore, of the Western Union office in 
 this city, is giving thanks to-day for the fortunate es- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 97 
 
 cape of his wife and two children from the devastated 
 city. As if by some foreknowledge of the impending 
 disaster, Mr. Moore had arranged to have his family 
 move yesterday from Johnstown and join him in this 
 city. Their household goods were shipped on Thurs^ 
 day, and yesterday just in time to save themselves, the 
 little party departed in the single train which miade the 
 trip between Johnstown and Pittsburgh. I called on 
 Mrs. Moore at her husband's apartments, No. 4 Web- 
 ster avenue, and found her completely prostratjpd by 
 the news of the final catastrophe, coupled with the 
 dangerous experience through which she and her little 
 ones had passed. 
 
 " Oh, it was terrible," she said. " The reservoir had 
 broken, and before we got out of the house the water 
 filled the cellar, and on the way to the depot it was up 
 to the carriage bed. Our train left at a quarter to two 
 P. M., and at that hour the flood had commenced to 
 rise with terrible rapidity. Houses and sheds were 
 carried away, and two men were drowned almost under 
 our very eyes. People gathered on the roofs to take 
 refuge from the water which poured into the lower 
 rooms of their dwellings, and many families took fright 
 and became scattered beyond hope of being reunited. 
 Just as the train pulled out I saw a woman crying bit- 
 terly. Her house had been flooded and she had 
 escaped, leaving her husband behind, and her fears for 
 his safety made her almost crazy. Our house was in 
 the lower part of the town, and it makes me shudder 
 to think what would have happened had we remained 
 7 
 
98 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 in It an hour longer. So far as I know we were the 
 only passengers from Johnstown on the train, and 
 therefore I suppose we are the only persons who 
 got away In time to escape the culminating dis- 
 aster." 
 
 Mrs. Moore's little son told me hov/ he had seen the 
 rats driven out of their holes by the flood and running 
 along the tops of the fences. Mr. Moore endeavored 
 to get to Johnstown yesterday, but was prevented by 
 tlie suspension of traffic and says he is very glad of it. 
 What tlie Eye Hatli Seen. 
 
 The scenes at Heanemyer's planing mill at Nineveh, 
 where the dead bodies are lying, are never to be for- 
 gotten. The torn, bruised and mutilated bodies of the 
 victims are lying in a row on the floor of the planing 
 mill which looks more like the field of Bull Run after 
 that disasterous battle than a work shop. The majority 
 of the bodies are nude, their clothlnor havino- been torn 
 off All along the river bits of clothing — a tiny shoe, 
 a baby dress, a mother s evening wrapper, a father's 
 coat, and In fact every article of weamng apparel 
 imaginable may be seen hanging to stumps of trees 
 and scattered on the bank. 
 
 One of the most pitiful sights of this terrible disas 
 ter came to my notice this afternoon when the body of 
 a young lady was taken out of the Conemaugh river. 
 The woman was apparently quite young, though her 
 features were terribly disfigured. Nearly all the cloth- 
 ing excepting the shoes was torn off the body. The 
 corpse was that of a mother, for although cold In death 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 99 
 
 she clasped a young male babe, apparently not more 
 than a year old, tightly in her arms. The little one 
 was huddled close up to the face of the mother, who 
 when she realized their terrible fate had evidently 
 raised it to her lips to imprint upon its lips the last kiss 
 it was to receive in this world. The sight forced many 
 a stout heart to shed tears. The limp bodies, wdth, 
 matted hair, some with holes in their heads, eyes 
 knocked out and all bespattered with blood were a 
 ghastly spectacle. 
 
 Story of Tlie First Fugitives. 
 
 The first survivors of the Johnstown wreck who ar- 
 rived in the city last night were Joseph and Henry 
 LaufferandLewDalmeyer, three well known Pittburgh- 
 ers. They endured considerable hardship and had 
 several narrow escapes with their lives. Their story 
 of the disaster can best be told in their own lan- 
 guage. Joe, the youngest of the Lauffer brothers, 
 said : — 
 
 " My brother and I left on Thursday for Johnstown. 
 The night we arrived there it rained continually, and 
 on Friday morning it began to flood. I started for the 
 Cambria store at a quarter past eight on Friday, and in 
 fifteen minutes afterward I had to get out of the store- 
 in a wagon, the water was running so rapidly. We 
 then arrived at the station and • took the day express 
 and went as far as Conemaugh, where we had to stop. 
 The limited, however got through, and just as we were 
 about to start the bridge at South Fork gave way with 
 a terrific crash, and we had to stay there. We then 
 
100 - THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 went to Johnstown. This was at a quarter to ten in 
 the morning, when the flood was jiast beginning. The 
 whole city of Johnstown was Inundated and the people 
 all moved up to the second floor. 
 
 Mountains of Water. 
 
 "Now this is where the trouble occurred. These 
 poor unfortunates did not know the reservoir would 
 burst, and there are no skiffs in Johnstown to escape 
 in. When the South Fork basin gave way mountains 
 of water twenty feet high came rushing down the Con- 
 emaugh River, carrying before them death and destruc- 
 tion. I shall never forget the harrowing scene. Just 
 think of it ! thousands of people, men, women and chil- 
 dren, struggling and weeping and wailing as they were 
 being carried suddenly away in the raging current. 
 Houses were picked up as if they were but a feather, 
 and their inmates were all carried away with fhem, 
 while cries of *God help me ! ' * Save me !' 'I am drown- 
 ing ! * ' My child ! ' and the like were heard on all sides. 
 Those who were lucky enough to escape went to the 
 mountains, and there they beheld the poor unfortu- 
 nates being crushed among the debris to death without 
 any chance of being rescued. Here and there a body 
 was seen to make a wild leap into the air and then sink 
 to the bottom. 
 
 ** At the stone bridge of the Pennsylvania company 
 people were dashed to death against the piers. When 
 the fire started there hundreds of bodies were burned. 
 Many lookersron up on the mountains, especially the 
 iwtDmen, fainted. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 101 
 
 Mr. Lauffer's brother, Harry, then told his part of 
 the tal@, which was not less interesting. He said : — . 
 " We had the most narrow escapes of anybody, and I 
 tell you we don't want to be around when anything of 
 that kind occurs again. 
 
 "The scenes at Johnstown have not In the least 
 been exaggerated, and indeed the worst is to be heard. 
 When we got to Conemaugh and just as we were 
 about to start the bridge gave way. This left the day 
 express, the accommodation, a special train and a 
 freight train at the station. Above was the South 
 Fork water basin, and all of the trains were well filled. 
 We were discussing the situation when suddenly, with- 
 out any warning, the whistles of every engine began 
 to shriek, and in the noise could be heard the warning 
 of the first engineer, * My God ! Rush to the mounr 
 tains, the reservoir has burst.' Then, with a thunder- 
 ing like peal came the mad rush of waters. No soon- 
 er had the cry been heard than those who could with 
 a wild leap rushed from the train and up the moun- 
 tains. To tell this story takes some time, but the 
 moments in which the horrible scene was enacted were 
 few. Then came the tornado of water, leaping and 
 rushing with tremendous farce. The waves had angry 
 crests of white and their roar was something deafenings 
 In one terrible sv/ath they caught the four trains and 
 lifted three of them right off the track, as if they were 
 only a cork. There they floated in the river. Think 
 of it, three large locomotives and finely varnished Pull- 
 mans floating around, and above all the hundreds of 
 
102 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 poor unfortunates who were unable to escape from 
 the car swiftly drifting toward death. Just as we were 
 about to leap from the car I saw a mother, with a 
 smiling, blue eyed baby In her arms. I snatched it 
 from her and leaped from the train just as it was lifted 
 off of the track. The mother and child were saved, 
 but if one more minute had elapsed we all would have 
 perished. 
 
 Beyond the Power of Words. 
 
 " During all of this time the waters kept rusliing 
 down the Gonemaugh and through the beautiful town 
 of Johnstown, picking up everything and sparing 
 nothing. 
 
 The mountains by this time were black wiih people, 
 and the moans and sighs from those below brought 
 tears to the eyes of the most stony hearted. There In 
 that terrible rampage were brothers, sisters, wives and 
 husbands, and from the mountain could be seen the 
 panic stricken marks in the faces of those who were 
 struggling between life and death. I really am unable 
 to do justice to the scene, and its details are almost be 
 yond my power to relate. Then came the burning of 
 the debris near the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge The 
 scene was too sickening to endure. We left the spot 
 and journeyed across country and delivered many 
 notes, letters, etc., that were intrusted to us. 
 
 We rode thirty-one miles in a buckboard, then 
 walked six miles, reached Blairsville and journeyed 
 again on foot to what is called the *' Bow," and from 
 thence we arrived home. On our way we met Mr. F. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 IDS 
 
 Thompson, a friend of ours, who resides in Nineveh, 
 and he stated that rescuing parties were busy all day 
 at Annom. One hundred and seventy-five bodies 
 were recovered at that place. An old couple about 
 sixty years of age were rescued from a tree, on which 
 they came floating down the stream. They were 
 clasped in each other's arms. 
 
 President Harrison's private secretary, Elijah Hal- 
 ford, and wife, were on the train which was swept 
 away, but escaped and were in the mountains when I 
 left. 
 
 Among the lost are Colonel John P. Linton and his 
 wife and children. Colonel Linton was prominent in 
 the Grand Army of the Republic and in the Knights of 
 Pythias and other orders. He was formerly Auditor 
 General of Pennsylvania. 
 
 NINEVEH STATION. WHERE TWO HUNDRED BODIES VER? f^OUND- 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mtiltlplication of Terrors. 
 
 ' The handsome brick High School Building is dam* 
 aged to such an extent that It will have to be rebuilt 
 The water attained the height of the window sills of 
 the second floor. Its upper stories formed a refuge 
 for many persons. All Saturday afternoon two little 
 girls could be seen at the windows frantically calling 
 for aid. They had spent all night and the day in the 
 building, cut off from all aid. Without food and drink- 
 ing water their condition was lametable. Late in the 
 evening the children were removed to higher ground 
 and properly cared for. 
 
 A number of persons had been taken from this 
 building earlier in the day, but in the excitement the 
 children were forgotten. Their names could not be 
 
 obtained. 
 
 Death in Many Forms. 
 
 Morrell Institute, a beautiful building and the old 
 homestead of the Morrell family, is totally ruined. The 
 water has weakened the walls and foundations to such 
 an extent that there is danger of its collapsing. Many 
 families took refuge in this building and were saved. 
 Now that tne waters have receded there is danger from 
 falling walls. All day long the crashing of walls could 
 be heard across the river. Before daybreak this morn« 
 
 (104^ 
 
THE JOHNaTOWN HORROR. 106 
 
 ing the sounds could not but make one shudder at the 
 very thought of the horrible deaths that awaited many 
 who had escaped the devastating flood. 
 
 Library Hall was another of the fine buildings of the 
 many in the city that is destroyed. Of the Episcopal 
 church not a vestige remains. Where it once stood, 
 there is now a placid lake. The parsonage is swept 
 away, and the rector of the church, Rev. Mr. Diller, 
 was drowned. 
 
 Buried Under Falling Buildings. 
 
 The church was one of the first buildings to fall. It 
 carried with it several of the surrounding houses. 
 Many of them were occupied The victims were swept 
 into the comparatively still waters at the bridge, and 
 there met death either by fire or water. 
 
 James M. Walters, an attorney, spent the night in 
 Alma Hall and relates a thrilling story. One of the 
 most curious occurrences of the whole disaster was 
 how Mr. Walters got to the hall. He has his office 
 on the second floor. His home is at No. 135 Walnut 
 street. He says he was in the house with his family 
 when the waters struck it. All was carried away. Mr. 
 Walter's family drifted on a roof in another direction. 
 He passed down several streets and alleys until he 
 came to the hall. His dwelling struck that edifice and 
 he was thrown into his own office. 
 
 Long, Dark Niglit of Terror. 
 
 About two hundred persons had taken refuge in the 
 hall, and were on the second, third and fourth stories. 
 The men held a meeting and drew up some rul^ 
 
106 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 which all were bound to respect. Mr. Walters was 
 chosen president. Rev. Mr. Beale was put in charge 
 of the first floor, A. M. Hart of the second floor, 
 Doctor Matthews of the fourth floor. No lights were 
 allowed, and the whole night was spent in darkness. 
 The sick were cared for. The weaker women and 
 children had the best accommodations that could be 
 had, while the others had to wait. The scenes were 
 most agonizing. Heartrending shrieks, sobs and moans 
 pierced the gloomy darkness. The crying of children 
 mingled with the suppressed sobs of the women. Un- 
 der the guardianship of the men all took more hope. 
 No one slept during all the long dark night. Many 
 knelt for hours in prayer, their supplications mingling 
 with the roar cf the waters and the shrieks of the 
 dying in the surrounding houses. In all this misery 
 two women gave premature birth to children. 
 Here is a Hero. 
 Dr. Matthews is a hero. Several of his ribs were 
 crushed by a tailing timber and his pains were most 
 severe, yet through all he attended the sick. When 
 two women in a house across the street shouted for 
 help he with two other brave young men climbed 
 across the drift and ministered to their wants. No one 
 died during the night, but women and children sur- 
 rendered their lives on the succeeding day as a result 
 of terror and fatigue. Miss Rose Young, one of the 
 young ladies in the hall, was frightfully cut and bruised. 
 Mrs. Young had a leg broken. All of Mr. Walter's 
 fcunily were saved. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 107 
 
 While the loss of property about Brookville, the 
 lumber centre of Pennsylvania, by the great flood has 
 been enormous, variously estimated at from $250,000 
 to $500,000, not a single life has been lost. At least 
 there have been none reported so far, and I have trav- 
 elled over the line from Red Bank, on the Valley road, 
 to Dubois, on the low grade division. Every creek is 
 swollen to many times its natural size. A great deal 
 of the low-lying farm lands and roads in places have 
 water enough over them to float an ordinary steam- 
 boat. 
 
 Leaving Pittsburgh Saturday morning on the valley 
 road, we ran past millions and millions of feet of lum- 
 ber. ' From the city to the junction opposite Freeport 
 die river was almost choked with debris of broken and 
 shattered houses. In places the river was fairly black 
 with floating masses of lath, shingks, roofs, floors and 
 other lumber that had formerly been houses. The 
 sight was appalling and spoke louder than any pen 
 can describe. 
 
 At Red Bank the river was filled with a different 
 kind of lumber, including huge saw logs ready for 
 cutting. From the estimates of an old lumber man 
 who was on the train I was told that between the 
 stations named we passed at least ten million feet of 
 lumber, which means a loss of fully $100,000 to the 
 owners. A big portion of this came out of the 
 Clarion river, the estimated money loss from that 
 section alone being anywhere from $500,000 to 
 Jt7 50,00a 
 
108 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, • 
 
 All along the Allegheny river were gathered people 
 trying to catch the logs, risking their lives, for the logs 
 swept down the river in a current that was running 
 fully ten miles an hour. The work was very hazard- 
 ous. The catchers are allowed by law six and a quar- 
 ter cents for each log captured, and the river was 
 almost lined with people trying to save the property. 
 
 At Red Bank, which we left at noon, there were at 
 least six feet of water expected from Oil City, and with 
 it, according to the reports from up the river, was an 
 immense amount of lumber. Leaving the valley road 
 at Red Bank we went up the low grade division to 
 Bryant, where immense sawmills, the largest in the 
 vicinity are located. The current was rushing along 
 at a rate anywhere from twelve to fifteen miles an 
 hour, tossing the huge logs around like so many 
 toothpicks and carrying everything before them. So 
 great was the current and mass of logs that the big 
 iron bridge at Reynoldsville, sixteen miles above 
 Brookvillc, was swept away, as were two wagon 
 bridges and several small foot bridges. 
 
 Hundreds Homeless and Snfiering-. 
 
 Many houses here and there along Red Bank 
 Creek were turned upside down, some of them float- 
 ing clear away, while the more secure ones were 
 flooded wifh water clear into the second floors. Many 
 of the smaller cottages and shanties were covered, 
 leaving only the peaks of the roofs sticking out to 
 show the spots that families had but a few hours before 
 called home. All along the railroad track was piled 
 
' THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 109 
 
 the few household effects, furniture, bedding, tables 
 and clothes which the poor owners had saved before 
 they were forced out on the high ground. These 
 same people had gone to bed last evening thinking 
 themselves safe from the high water, only to be wak- 
 ened about midnight by the noise of the rushing floods 
 and the huge saw logs bumping against their homes. 
 The very narrow escapes that some of them made 
 while getting their families into places of safety would 
 fill many pages of this book. 
 
 Floating to Safety on Saw L.ogs. 
 One man had to mount the different members of his 
 family on logs. The mother and children alike sat 
 astride of them, and then, with the father on the other 
 end, were poled across to the high ground. 
 
 Another man, whose house was in a worse place, 
 swam ashore and, throwing a rope back to the mother, 
 who was surrounded on the porch of the house by the 
 children, yelled for her to tie one end to the little ones 
 so he could pull them over the fast running water. 
 This operation was continued until the entire family 
 was rescued. 
 
 Willing workers from the neighborhood were not 
 long in getting huge bonfires started, and with the aid 
 of these and dry clothing brought in haste by people 
 whose homes stood on higher ground the family were 
 soon warmed. 
 
 The same willing hands hastily constructed sheds, 
 and with immense bonfires the people were kept warm 
 till daylight Others, more fortunate, were able to 
 
110 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROK. 
 
 save enough from their houses to make themselves 
 comfortable for a short season of camping. One poor 
 lamily I noticed had saved enough carpet to make a 
 tent out of, and under this temporary shelter the 
 mother was doing her best to prepare a meal and at' 
 tend to her other household duties. 
 
 Sheltered by Friendly Neigrhbors, 
 
 In Brookvill-e a great many houses were submerged, 
 but no lives were lost While the people were driven 
 from their homes, they were more fortunate than the 
 people of Bryants, because they could at once find 
 shelter under the roofs of the neighbors' houses. 
 
 All of the saw mills, the chief industry of the town, 
 were closed down. Some because the water was over 
 the first floor, and others because their entire working 
 force were on the creek trying to construct temporary 
 booms, by which they expected to save at least a por 
 tion of the property from being swept away. One man 
 rigged a boom with the aid of a cable i,6oo feet long 
 and thick enough to hold the heaviest steamer. About 
 fifty logs were chained together for further protection. 
 This arrangement for a time checked the mass of logs, 
 but just when ever^^body was thinking it would stop 
 the output a small dam gave way, bringing down with 
 it another half million feet of lumber. When this struck 
 the temporary boom it parted, as if the huge cable was 
 a piece of thread, and the logs shot past. 
 
 Just at Bryants, however, a gorge formed shortly 
 after two o'clock Friday afternoon, and within a re- 
 markably short time there was a pile of logs wedged 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. Ill 
 
 {n that stretched back fully a quarter of a mile and the 
 top of which was more than ten feet high. This of 
 course changed the course of the stream a little, but 
 the natural gorge had saved enough logs to amount to 
 more than ^100,000 in money. 
 
 The following comments by one of our journals sum 
 up the situation after receiving the dreadful news of the 
 three preceding days : 
 
 The Great Calamity. 
 
 The appalling catastrophy which has spread such 
 awful havoc through the teeming valley of the Cone- 
 maugh almost surpasses belief and fairly staggers im- 
 agination. Without yet measuring its dire extent, 
 enough is known to rank it as the greatest calamity of 
 the natural elements which this country has ever wit- 
 nessed. Nothing in our history short of the deadly 
 blight of battle has approached this frightful cataclysm, 
 and no battle, though destroying more life, has ever 
 left such a gliastly trail of horror and devastation. It 
 seems more like one of those terrible convulsions of 
 nature from which we have hitherto been happily 
 spared, but which at rare intervals have swallowed 
 up whole communities in remote South American or 
 oiiental lands. 
 
 Ingenious and masterful as the human intellect is in 
 guiding and controlling the ordinary forces of nature,^ 
 how impotent and insignificant it appears in the pres-^ 
 ence of such a transcendent disaster ! It is well nigh 
 inconceivable that a great section throbbing with pop- 
 ulous towns, and resonant with the hum of industry, 
 
112 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 should be wiped out in the twinkling of an eye by a 
 mighty, raging torrent, more consuming than fire and 
 more violent than the earthquake. The suddenness 
 of the blow and the impossibility of communicating 
 with the scene add to the terror of the event. The 
 sickening spectacle of ruin and death which will be re- 
 vealed when the veil of darkness is lifted is left to con- 
 jecture. The imagination can scarcely picture the 
 dread realities, and it would be difficult to overdraw 
 the awful features of a calamity which has every ele* 
 ment of horror. 
 
 The River and Lake, 
 Nature is so framed at the fated point for such a dis- 
 aster that man was called upon for unceasing vigi- 
 lance. The Conemaugh makes its channel through a 
 narrow valley between high ranges. Numerous streams 
 drain the surrounding mountains into its current. 
 Along its course swarm frequent hamlets busy with 
 the wealth dug from the seams of the earth. The 
 chief of these towns, the seat of an immense industry, 
 lies in a little basin where the gap broadens to take in 
 a converging stream and then immediately narrows 
 again, no outlet save the constricted waterway. High 
 above stands a great lake which is held in check only 
 by an artificial barrier, and which, if once unchained, 
 must pour Its resistless torrent through this narrow 
 gorge like a besom of destruction overwhelming every- 
 thing before it. There were all the elements of an 
 unparalleled disaster. Years of immunity had given 
 a feeling of security for all time without some exti^ 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 113 
 
 ordinary and unexpected occasion. But the occasion 
 appeared when in unforseen force the rains descended 
 and the floods came, and to-day desolation reigns, 
 A Direful Calamity. 
 
 It is impossible yet to measure the extent of the cal- 
 amity. But the destruction of life and property must 
 be something that it is appalling to think of, and the 
 sorrow and suffering to follow are incalculable. A 
 solemn obligation devolves upon the people of the 
 whole country. We can not remedy the past but we 
 can alleviate the present and the future. Thousands of 
 families are homeless and destitute; thousands are 
 without means of support; perchance, thousands are 
 bereft of the strong arms upon which they have relied. 
 There is an instant, earnest demand for help. Let 
 there be immediate, energetic, generous action. Let 
 us do our part to relieve the anguish and mitigate the 
 suffering of a community upon whom has fallen the 
 most terrible visitation in all our history. 
 An Historic Catastrophe. 
 
 When an American Charles Reade wishes in the 
 future to weave into the woof of his novel the account 
 of some great public calamity he will portray the mis- 
 fortune which overwhelmed the towns and villages 
 lying in the valley of the Conemaugh River. The 
 bursting of a reservoir, and the ensuing scenes of 
 death and destruction, which are so vividly described 
 in *' Put Yourself in His Place," were not the creatures 
 of Mr. Reade's imagination, but actual occurrences. 
 The novelist obtained facts and incidents for one of the 
 8 
 
114 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 most striking chapters in all of his works from the 
 events which followed the breaking of the Dale Dyke 
 embankment at Sheffield, England, in March, 1864, 
 when 238 lives were lost and property valued at mil 
 lions was destroyed. 
 
 It will need even more vivid and vigorous descrip- 
 tive powers than Mr. Reade possessed to adequately 
 delineate the scene of destruction and death now pre- 
 sented in Johnstown and the adjacent villages. The 
 Sheffield calamity, disastrous as it proved to be, was a 
 small affair when compared with this latest reservoir 
 accident. The Mill River reservoir disaster of May, 
 1874, with its 200 lives lost and $1,500,000 of property 
 destroyed, almost sinks into insignificance beside it 
 The only recorded calamity of the kind which any- 
 w^here approaches it occurred in Estrecho de Rientes, 
 in Spain, in April, 1802, when a dam burst and 
 drowned 600 persons and swept $7,000,000 worth of 
 property away. But above all these calamities in sad 
 pre-eminence will stand the Conemaugh disaster. 
 
 But dark as the picture is, it will doubtless be re- 
 lieved by many acts of heroism. The world will wait 
 to learn if there was not present at Conemaugh some 
 Myron Day, whose ride on his bareback steed before 
 the advancing wall of water that burst from Mill River 
 Dam in 1874, shouting to the unsuspecting people as 
 he rode : " The reservoir is breaking ! The flood is 
 coming ! Fly ! Fly for your lives," was the one miti- 
 gating circumstance in that scene of woe and destruc- 
 tion. When the full story of the Conemaugh calamity 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 115 
 
 IS told It will, doubtless, be found that there were many 
 deeds of heroism performed, many noble sacrifices 
 made and many an act as brave as any performed on 
 the field of battle. Already we are told of husbands 
 and mothers who preferred to share a watery grave 
 with their wives and children sooner than accept safety 
 alone. 
 
 Such a calamity, while It makes the heart sick with 
 its story of death and suffering, always serves to bring 
 out the better and higher qualities In men and women, 
 and to Illustrate how closely all mankind are bound to- 
 gether by ties of sympathy and compassion. This 
 fact will be made evident now by the open-handed lib- 
 erality which will quickly flow in to relieve the suffering, 
 and, as far as possible, to repair the loss caused by 
 this historic calamity. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Tine A^^ful Work: of Deatti. 
 
 The record of June 3rd continues as follows : The 
 h\ rror of the situation does not lessen. The latest 
 er^imate of the number of dead is an official one by 
 A Ijutant General Hastings, and it places the number 
 between 12,000 and 15,000. 
 
 The uncovering of hundreds of bodies by the reces- 
 slon of the waters has already filled the air with pesti- 
 lential odors. The worst is feared for the surviving 
 population, who must breathe this poisoned atmos- 
 phere. Sharp measures prompted by sheer necessity 
 have resulted in an almost complete subsidence of 
 cowardly efforts to profit by the results of the disaster. 
 Thieves have slunk into places of darkness and are no 
 longer to be seen at their unholy work. 
 
 All thoughts are now fixed upon the hideous revela- 
 tion that awaits the light of day, when the waters shall 
 have entirely quitted the ruins that now lie beneath 
 them, and shall have exposed the thousands upon 
 thousands of corpses that are massed there. 
 
 A sad and gloomy sky, almost as sad and gloomy 
 as the human faces under It, shrouded Johnstown to- 
 day. Rain fell all day and added to the miseries of 
 the wretched people. The great plain where the best 
 part of Johnstown used to stand was half covered with 
 
 (116) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 117 
 
 water. The few sidewalks in the part that escaped 
 the flood were inches thick with black, sticky mud, 
 through which tramped a steady procession of poor 
 women who are left utterly destitute. The tents where 
 the people are housed who cannot find other shelter 
 were cold and cheerless. 
 
 A Great Tomb. 
 
 The town seemed like a great tomb. The people 
 of Johnstown have supped so full of horrors that they 
 go about in a sort of a daze and only half conscious 
 of their griefs. Every hour, as one goes through the 
 streets, he hears neighbors greeting each other and 
 then inquiring without show of feeling how many each 
 had lost in his family. To-day I heard a gray haired 
 man hail another across the street with this question. 
 
 "I lost five ; all are gone but Mary and I," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "I am worse off than that," said the first old gentle- 
 man. "I have only my grandson left. Seven of us 
 gone.*' 
 
 And so they passed on without apparent excitement. 
 They and everyone else had heard so much of these 
 melancholy conversations that somehow the calamity 
 had lost its significance to them. They treat it exactly 
 as if the dead persons had gone away and were com- 
 ing back in a week. 
 
 Tlie Ghastly Search. 
 
 The melancholy task of searching the ruins for more 
 bodies went on to-day in the soaking rain. There 
 were little crowds of morbid curiosity hunters around 
 
118 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 each knot of workingmen, but they were not residents 
 of Johnstown. All their curiosity in that direction 
 was satiated long ago. Even those who come in from 
 neighboring towns with the idea of a day's strange and 
 ghasdy experiences did not care to be near after they 
 had seen one body exhumed. There were hundreds 
 and thousands of these visitors from the country to- 
 day. The effect of the dreadful things they saw and 
 heard was to drive most of them to drink. By noon 
 the streets were beginning to be full of boisverous and 
 noisy countrymen, who were trying to counteract the 
 strain on their nerves with unnatural excitement 
 Then the chief of police, foreseeing the unseemly 
 sights that were likely to disgrace the streets, drove 
 out and kept out all the visitors who had not some 
 good reason for their presence. After that and far 
 into the evening all the country roads were filled with 
 drunken stragglers, who were trying to forget what 
 they had seen. 
 
 One thing that makes the work of searching for the 
 bodies very slow is the strange way that great masses 
 of objects were rolled into intricate masses of rubbish. 
 Horrible Masses. 
 
 As the flood came down the valley of the So^th Fork 
 it obliterated the suburb of Woodvale, where not a 
 house was left, nor a trace of one. The material they 
 had contained rolled on down the valley, over and over, 
 grinding it up to pulp and finally leaving it against an 
 unusually firm foundation or in the bed of an eddy. 
 The masses contain human bodies, but it is slow work 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 119 
 
 to pick them to pieces. In the side of one of them I 
 saw the remnants of a carnage, the body of a harness- 
 ed horse, a baby cradle and a doll, a tress of woman's 
 
 THE REMAINS OF CAMBRIA CITY, 
 
 hair, a rocking horse, and a piece of beefsteak still 
 hanging on a hook. 
 
 The city is now very much better patrolled than It 
 has been at any time since the flood occurred. Many 
 members of the police force of Pittsburgh came in and 
 
120 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 offered their services. One of them showed his spirit 
 during the first hour by striking a man, whom he saw 
 opening a trunk among the rubbish, a tremendous blow 
 over the head which knocked him senseless. Several 
 big trunks and safes lie in full sight on the desolate 
 plain In the lower part of the town, but no one dared 
 to touch them after that. 
 
 The German Catholic Church at Cambria City, a 
 short distance west of Johnstown, Is almost a complete 
 wreck. Rather a singular coincidence In connection 
 with the destruction of the above Is that the Immacu- 
 late Conception, that stood in the northwest corner of 
 the lecture room.s, stands just as It w^as when last seen. 
 The figure, which is wax, was not even scratched, and the 
 clothes, which are made of white silk and deep duchess 
 lace, were spotless. This seems strange, when the rag- 
 ing water destroyed everything else In the building. 
 Hundreds of persons visited the place during the day. 
 Ten Bodies an Hour. 
 
 Bodies are now being brought In at lower Cambria 
 at the rate of ten per hour. 
 
 A man named Dougherty tells a thrilling story of a 
 ride down the river on a log. When the waters 
 struck the roof of the house on which he had taken 
 shelter he jumped astride a telegraph pole, riding a 
 distance of some twenty- three miles, from Johnstown to 
 Bolivar, before he was rescued. 
 
 Many Inquiries have been made as to why the militia 
 did not respond when ordered out by Adjutant Gen^ 
 eral Hastings. '*In the first; place It Is beyond tho 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 121 
 
 General's authority to order troops to a scene of this 
 kind unless the Governor first issues a proclamation^ 
 then it becomes his duty to issue orders." The Gen- 
 eral said he was notified that the Pittsburgh troops, 
 consisting of the Fourteenth and Eighteenth regi- 
 ments, had tendered their services, and no doubt would 
 have been of great service. The General consulted 
 with the Chief Burgess of Johnstown and Sheriff of 
 Cambria county in regard to calling the troops to the 
 scene, but both officials strenuously objected, as they 
 claimed the people would object to anything of this 
 kind. As a proof of this not a breach of peace was 
 committed last night in Johnstown and vicinity. 
 
 It has not been generally believed that the district 
 in the neighborhood of Kernville would be so ex- 
 tremely prolific of corpses as it has proven to be. I 
 visited that part of the town where both the river and 
 Stony Creek have done their worst. I found that 
 within the past twenty-four hours almost one thousand 
 bodies had been recovered or were in sight. The 
 place is one great repository of the dead. 
 The Total May K^ever he Known, 
 
 The developments of every hour make it more and 
 more apparent that the exact number of lives lost in 
 the Johnstown horror will never be known. All esti- 
 mates made to this time are conservative, and when 
 all is known will doubtless be found to have been too 
 small. Over one thousand bodies have been found 
 since sunrise to-day, and the most skeptical concede 
 that the remains of thousands more rest beneath the 
 
122 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 debris above the Johnstown bridge. The population 
 of Johnstown, the surrounding towns and the portion 
 of the valley affected by the flood is, or was, from 50,- 
 000 to 55,000. Numerous leading citizens of Johns- 
 town, who survived the flood, have been interviewed, 
 and the concensus of opinion was that fully thirty per 
 cent, of the residents of Johnstown and Cambria had 
 been victims of the continued disasters of fire and 
 water. If this be true, the total loss of life in the 
 entire valley cannot be less than seven or eight thou- 
 sand and possibly much greater. Of the thousands 
 who were devoured by the flames and whose ashes 
 rest beneath the smoking debris above Johnstown 
 bridge, no definite information can ever be obtained. 
 Hundreds Carried Miles Away. 
 As little will be learned of hundreds that sank be- 
 neath the current and were borne swiftly down the 
 Conemaugh only to be deposited hundreds of miles 
 below on the banks and In the driftwood of the raging 
 Ohio. Probably one-third of the dead will never be 
 recovered, and it will take a list of the missing weeks 
 hence to enable even a close estimate to be made of the 
 number of lives that were lost. That this estimate can 
 never be accurate will be understood when it is remem* 
 bered that in many instances whole families and their 
 relatives were swept away, and found a common grave 
 beneath the wild waste of waters. The total destruc- 
 tion of the city leaves no data to even demonstrate that 
 the names of these unfortunates ever found place on 
 the pages of eternity's history. 
 
THE I jHNSTOWN HORROR. 123 
 
 "All indications point to the fact that the death list 
 will reach over five thousand names, and in my opinion 
 the missing v/ill reach eight thousand in number/* de- 
 clared General D. H. Hastings to-night. 
 
 At present there are said to have been twenty-two 
 hundred bodies recovered. The great difficulties ex- 
 perienced in getting a correct list is the great number 
 of morgues. There is no central bureau of informa- 
 tion, and to communicate with the different dead 
 houses is the work of hours. The journey from the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad morgue to the one in the Fourth 
 ward school house in Johnstown occupies at least one 
 hour. This renders it impossible to reach all of them 
 in one day, particularly as some of the morgues are 
 situated at points inaccessible from Johnstown. At 
 six o'clock in the evening the 630th body had been re- 
 covered at the Cambria depository for corpses. 
 'None Left to Care for the Dead. 
 Kernville is in a deplorable condition. The living 
 are unable to take care of the dead. The majority of 
 the inhabitants of the town were drowned. A lean-to 
 of boards has been erected on the only street remain- 
 ing in the town. This is the headquarters for the com- 
 mittee that controls the dead. As quickly as the dead 
 are brought to this point they are placed in boxes and 
 then taken to the cemetery and buried. 
 
 A supply store has opened in the town. A milk- 
 man who was overcharging for milk narrowly escaped 
 lynching. The infuriated men appropriated all his 
 milk and distributed it among the poor and then drove 
 
124 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 him out of the town. The body of the Hungarian 
 who was lynched in an orchard was removed by his 
 friends during the night. 
 
 There is but one street left in th^ town. About 
 one hundred and fifty-five houses are standing where 
 once there stood a thousand. None of the large 
 buildings In what was once a thriving little borough 
 have escaped. One thousand people Is a low estimate 
 of the number of lives lost from this town, but few 
 of the bodies have been recovered. It Is directly 
 above the ruins and the bodies have floated down 
 into them, where they burned. A walk through 
 the town revealed a desolate sight. Only about 
 twenty-five able-bodied men have survived and are 
 able to render any assistance. Men and women can 
 be seen with black eyes, bruised faces and cut heads. 
 Useless Calls for Help. 
 
 The appearance of some of the ladles Is heart-rend- 
 ing. They were Injured In the flood, and since that 
 have not slept. Their faces have turned a sickly yel- 
 low and dark rings surround the eyes. Many have 
 succumbed to nervous prostration. For two days but 
 little assistance could be rendered them. The wounded 
 remained uncared for In some of the houses cut ofl*by 
 the water, and died from their injuries alone. Some 
 were alive on Sunday, and their sboui:* could be heard 
 by the people on the shore. 
 
 A man Is now In a temporary jnil lu wnat is left of 
 the town. He was caught stealing a gold watch. A 
 shot was fired at him but he was not wounded. The 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 125 
 
 only thing that saved him from lynching was the small- 
 ness of the crowd. His sentence will be the heaviest 
 that can be given him. 
 
 Services in the chapel from which the bodies were 
 buried consisted merely of a prayer by one of the sur- 
 vors. No minister was present. Each coffin had a 
 descriptive card on it, and on the graves a similar card 
 was placed, so that bodies can be removed later by 
 friends. 
 
 There are about thirty Catholic priests and nuns 
 here. The sisters are devoting themselves to the 
 cure of the sick and injured In the hospitals, while the 
 priests are doing anything and everything and making 
 themselves generally useful. Bishop Phelan, who 
 reached here on Sunday evening, returned to Pitts- 
 burgh on the three o'clock train yesterday afternoon. 
 He has organized the Catholic forces in this neighbor- 
 hood, and all are devoting themselves to hard work as- 
 siduously. 
 
 Mr. Berlin, who heeded the warning as to the dan- 
 ger of the dam, had hurried his wife and two children 
 to the hills, but returned himself to save some things 
 from his house. While in the building the flood struck 
 it and swept it away, jamming it among a lot of other 
 houses and hurling them all around with a regular 
 churning motion. Mr. Derlin was in a fix, but went 
 to his top story, clambered to the roof and escaped 
 from there to solid structures and then to the ground. 
 His property was entirely ruined, but he thinks him' 
 self fortunate in saving his family. 
 
126 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Where Woodvale once stood there is now a, sea of 
 mud, broken but rarely by a pile of wreckage. I 
 waded through mud and water up the valley to-day 
 over the site of the former village. As has been often 
 stated, nothing is standing but the old woollen mills. 
 The place is swept bare of all other buildings but the 
 ruins of the Gautier wire mill. The boilers of this 
 great works were carried one hundred yards from their 
 foundations. Pieces of engines, rolls and other ma- 
 chinery were swept far away from where they once 
 stood. The wreck of a hose carriage is sticking up 
 out of the mud. It belonged to the crack company of 
 Johnstown. The engine house is swept away and the 
 cellar is filled with mud, so that the site is obliterated. 
 
 A German watchman was on guard at the mill when 
 the waters came. He ran for the hillside and suc- 
 ceeded in escaping. He tells a graphic story of the 
 appearance of the water as it swept down the valley. 
 He declares that the first wave was as high as the 
 third story of a house. 
 
 The place is deserted. No effort is being made to 
 clean off the streets. The mire has formed the grave 
 for many a poor victim. Arms and legs are protrud- 
 ing from the mud and it makes the most sickening of 
 
 pictures. 
 
 General Hastings' Keport^ 
 
 In answer to questions from Governor Beaver, 
 Adjutant-General Hastings has telegraphed the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 •*Good order prevailed throughout the city and 
 
IHE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 127 
 
 vicinity last night. Police arrangements are excellent. 
 Not one arrest made. No need of sending troops. 
 The Mayor of Johnstown and the Sheriff of Cambria 
 county, with whom I am in constant communication* 
 request that no troops be sent. I concur in their, 
 judgment. There is a great outside clamor for troops J 
 Do not send tents. Have nine hundred here, which 
 are sufficient. I advise you to make a call on the 
 general public for money and other assistance." 
 
 ''About two thousand bodies have been rescued and 
 the work of embalming and burying the dead is going 
 on with regularity. There Is plenty of medical assist- 
 ance. Vv'e have a bountiful supply of food and cloth- 
 ing to-day, and the fullest telegraphic facilities are af- 
 forded and all inquiries are promptly answered. 
 
 "Have you any instructions or inquiries? The 
 most conservative estimates here place the number of 
 lives lost at fully 5,000. The prevailing impression is 
 that the loss will reach from 8,000 to 10,000. There 
 are many widows and orphans and a great many 
 wounded— im.possible to give an estimate. Property 
 destroyed will reach $25,000,000. The popular esti- 
 mate will reach $40,000,000 to $50,000,000. 
 
 'T will issue a proclamation to-night to the people 
 of the country and to all who sympathize with suffer- 
 ing to give aid to our deeply afflicted people. Tell 
 them to be of good cheer, that the sympathies of all 
 our people, irrespective of section, are with them, and 
 wherever the news of their calamity has been carried 
 responses of sympathy and aid are coming in. A sin- 
 
128 
 
 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROK 
 
 gle subscription from England just received is for 
 $1,000." 
 
 Grand View Cemetery has three hundred buried in 
 It All met death in the flood. They have thirty-five 
 men digging graves. Seven hundred dead bodies in 
 the hospital on Bedford street, Conneaut. One hun- 
 dred dead bodies in the school-house hospital, Adam 
 street, Conneaut. Three hundred bodies found to-day 
 in the sand banks along Stony Creek, vicinity of the 
 Baltimore and Ohio ; 182 bodies at Nineveh. 
 
 ON A MISSION OF MBRCY. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 StiadoAATs of Despair. 
 
 Another graphic account of the fearful calamity is 
 .'furnished by an eye-witness : The dark disaster of 
 the day with its attendant terrors thrilled the world and 
 drew two continents closer together in the bonds of 
 sympathy that bind humanity to man. The midnight 
 terrors of Ashtabula and Chats worth evoked tears of 
 pity from every fireside in Christendom, but the true 
 story of Johnstown, when all is known, w^ill stand sol- 
 itary and alone as the acme of man*s affliction by the 
 potent forces to which humanity is ever subject. 
 
 The menacing clouds still hover darkly over tlie 
 valley of death, and the muttering thunder that ever 
 and anon reverberates faintly in the distance seems 
 the sardonic chuckle of the demon of destruction as he 
 pursues his way to other lands and other homes. 
 The Waters Receding. 
 
 But the modern deluge has done its worst for Johns- 
 town. The waters are rapidly subsiding, but the angry 
 torrents still eddy around Ararat, and the winged mes- 
 senger of peace has not yet appeared to tell the pa- 
 thetic tale of those who escaped the devastation. 
 
 It is not a hackneyed utterance to say that no pen 
 can adequately depict the horrors of this twin disaster 
 — holocaust and deluge. The deep emotions that well 
 9 (129) 
 
130 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 from the heart of every spectator find most eloquent 
 expression in silence — the silence that bespeaks rec- 
 ognition of man's subserviency to the elements and 
 impotence to avert catastrophe. The insignificance of 
 human life is only fully realized by those who witness 
 such scenes as Johnstown, Chatsworth and Ashtabula, 
 and to those whose memory retains the picture of hor 
 ror the dread experience cannot fail to be a fitting les- 
 son. 
 
 A Dreary Morning'. 
 
 This morning opened dark and dreary. Great 
 drops of rain fell occasionally and another storm seems 
 imminent. Every one feels thankfijl though that the 
 weather still remains cold, and that the gradual putre- 
 faction of the hundreds of bodies that still line the 
 streams and He hidden under the miles of driftwood 
 and debris is not unduly hastened. 
 
 The peculiar stench of decaying human flesh is 
 plainly perceptible to the senses as one ascends the 
 bank of Stony Creek for a half mile along the smould 
 ering ruins of the wreck, and the most skeptical now 
 conceive the worst and realize that hundreds — aye, 
 perhaps thousands — of bodies He charred and black- 
 ened beneath this great funeral pyre. Searchers wan- 
 der wearily over this smoking mass, and as occasion- 
 ally a sudden shout comes over the waters, the patient 
 watchers on the hill realize that another ghastly dis- 
 covery has been added to that long list of revelations 
 that chill every heart and draw tears to the eyes of 
 pessimists. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 131 
 
 From the banks many charred remains o! rictims of 
 flames and flood are plainly visible to the n^iked eye, 
 as the retreating waters reluctantly give up their dead 
 Beneath almost every log or blackened beam a glisten 
 ing skull or the blanched remnants of ribs or limbs 
 mark all that remains of life's hopes and dreams. 
 
 Since ten o'clock last night the fire engines have 
 been busy. Water has been constantly playing on the 
 burning ruins. At times the fire seems almost extin- 
 guished, but fitful flames suddenly break out afresh in 
 some new quarter, and again the water and flames 
 wage fierce combat. 
 
 The Count is Still liacMng". 
 
 As yet there Is no telling hov/ many lives have been 
 lost. Adjutant General Hastings, who has charge of 
 everything, stated this morning that he supposed there 
 were at least two thousand people under the burning 
 debris, but the only way to find out how many lives 
 were lost was to take a census of the people now liv- 
 ing and subtract that from the census before the flood. 
 Said he, "In my opinion there are any way from 
 twelve thousand to fifteen thousand lost." 
 
 Up to this morning people living here who lost whole 
 families or parts of families hardly seemed to realize 
 what a dreadful calamity had befallen them. To-day^ 
 however, they are beginning to understand the situa- 
 tion. Agony is stamped on the faces of every one, 
 and It Is truly a city of mourning. 
 
 The point of observation is on the hillside, midway 
 between the woolen mills of Woodvale and Johnstown 
 
132 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 proper, which I reached to-day after a journey through 
 the portions of the city from which the waters, reced- 
 ing fast, are revealing scenes of unparalleled horror. 
 From the point on the hillside referred to an excellent 
 view of the site of the town can be obtained. Here it 
 can be seen that from the line of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad, which winds along the base of Prospect Hill, 
 to a point at which St. John's Catholic Church formerly 
 stood, and from the stone bridge to Conemaugh, on 
 the Conemaugh River, but twelve houses by actual 
 count remain, and they are in such a condition as to be 
 practically useless. To any one familiar with the 
 geography of the iron city of Cambria county this will 
 convey a vivid Idea of a swarth averaging one-half 
 mile In width and three miles in length. In all the 
 length and breadth of the most peaceful and cosdy 
 portion of Johnstown not a shingle remains except 
 those adhering to the buildings mentioned. 
 Houses Upside Down, 
 
 But do not think for an instant that this comprehends 
 in full the awfulness of the scene. What has just been 
 mentioned Is a large waste of territory swept as clean 
 as if by a gigantic broom. In the other direction 
 some few of the houses still remain, but they are up- 
 side down, piled on top of each other, and in many 
 ways so torn asunder that not a single one of them is 
 available for any purpose whatever. It is in this dis- 
 trict that the loss of life has been heartrending. Bodies 
 are being dug up in every direction. 
 
 On the main street, from which the waters have re- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 133 
 
 ceded sufficiently to render access and work possible, 
 bodies are being exhumed. They are as thick as pota- 
 toes in a field. Those in charge seem to have the 
 utmost difficulty in securing the removal of bodies 
 after they have been found. 
 
 The bodies are lying among the mass of wrecked 
 buildines as thick as flies. The fire in the drift above 
 the bridge is under control and is being rapidly 
 smothered by the Pittsburgh firemen in charge of the 
 work. About seven o'clock this morning a crowd of 
 Battery B boys discovered a family of five people in the 
 smoking and burned ruins above the bridge. They took 
 out father, mother and three children, all terribly burned 
 and mutilated. The little girl had an arm torn off. 
 Finding" the Dead. 
 
 The work of rescuing the bodies from the mud and 
 debris has only fairly begun, and yet each move in 
 that direction reveals more fully the horrible extent of 
 the calamity. It is estimated that already i,8oo corpses 
 have been found in all parts of the valley and given 
 some little attention-. Many of them were so mangled 
 as to be beyond identification. 
 
 A regularly organized force of men has been at 
 work most of the day upon the mass of debris about 
 the stone bridge. Early in the forenoon ten bodies 
 were found close together. There was nothing to 
 identify them, as they were burnt almost to a crisp. 
 Several of them must have belonged to one house- 
 hold, as they were taken from under the blackened 
 timbers of a single roof. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 155 
 
 Soon after a man, woman and child were taken from 
 the ruins. The child was clasped in the arms of the wo- 
 man, and the trio were evidently husband, wife and child. 
 
 It is a most distressing sight to see the relatives of 
 people supposed to be lost standing around and 
 watching every body as it is pulled out, and acting 
 more like maniacs than sensible people. 
 
 As the work progressed the number of the ghastly 
 finds increased. The various parties of workmen 
 turned out from ten to fifteen bodies and fragments of 
 bodies an hour all day long.. 
 
 Many of the corpses found had valuables still clasped 
 
 in their hands. One woman taken from the mill this 
 
 morning had several diamond rings and earrings, a roll 
 
 of government bonds and some money clasped in her 
 
 hands. She was a widow, and was very wealthy. 
 
 Her body has been embalmed and is at the house of 
 
 relatives. 
 
 Suicide Brought Relief. 
 
 From under the large brick school-house 124 bodies 
 were taken last night and to-day, and in every corner 
 and place the bodies are being found and buried as fast 
 as possible. The necessity for speedy burial is becom- 
 ing manifest, and the stench is sickening. A number 
 of bodies have been found with a bullet hole in them, 
 she ving conclusively that in their maddening fright 
 suicide was resorted to by many. 
 
 Work was commenced during the day on the south 
 side of the town. It is supposed that five hundred or 
 six hundred bodies will be found in that locality. 
 
13(5 THE JOHNSTOWN HORKOR. 
 
 About twelve o'clock ten bodies were taken out 
 of the wreck near the Cambria Library. On account of 
 the bruised and mangled condition, some having faces 
 crushed In, it was impossible to Identify them. It is 
 supposed they were guests at the Hurlbert House, 
 which is completely demolished. 
 
 Eight bodies were recovered near the Methodist 
 Church at eleven o'clock. It is said that fully one hun- 
 dred and fifty bodies were found last evening in a sort 
 of pocket below the Pennsylvania Railroad signal 
 tower at Sang Hollow, where it was expected there 
 would be a big find. 
 
 Kernville One Vast Morg^uc. 
 
 Over one thousand bodies have been taken from the 
 river, dragged from the sluggish pools of mud or dug 
 out of the sand about Kernville during the day. Three 
 hundred of them were spread out upon the dry sand 
 along the river's bank at one time this afternoon. The 
 sight Is one that cannot be described, and is one of 
 rhe most distressing ever witnessed. A crowd of at 
 least five hundred were gathered around, endeavoring 
 to find the bodies of some friends or relatives. There 
 were no coffins there at the time and the bodies had 
 to be laid on the ground. However, five hundred cof- 
 fins are on the way here, and the undertakers have 
 'sent for five hundred additional ones. Kernville from 
 now on will be the place where most of the bodies will 
 be found. The water has fallen so much that it is possi- 
 ble to get at the bodies. However, all the bodies have 
 to be dug out of the sand, and it causes no end of work. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 137 
 
 tt IS thought that most of the bodies that will be 
 found at Kernville are under a large pile of debris, 
 about an acre in length. This is where most of the 
 buildings drifted, and it is natural to suppose that the 
 bodies floated with them. A rain is now falling, but 
 this does not interfere with the work. Most of the 
 rescuing party have been up for two days, yet they 
 work with a determination that is wonderful. 
 Kineveli, the City of tlie Dead. 
 
 Nineveh is literally a city of the dead. The endre 
 place is filled with corpses. At the depot eighty-seven 
 coffins were piled up and boxed. On the streets 
 coffin boxes covered the sidewalks. Improvised 
 undertaking shops have embalmed and placed in their 
 shrouds 198 persons. The dead were strewn about the 
 town in all conceivable places where their bodies would 
 be protected from the thoughtless feet of the living. 
 
 Most of the bodies embalmed last night had been 
 taken out of the river in the morning by the people at 
 Nineveh, who worked incessantly night and day 
 searching the river. The bodies when found were 
 placed in a four-horse wagon, frequently twelve at a 
 time, and driven away. Of the bodies taken out near 
 Moorhead fully three-fourths are women and the rest 
 children. But few men are found there. In one row 
 at the planing mill to-day were eighteen children's 
 bodies awaiting embalming. Next to them was a 
 woman whose head had been crushed in so as to 
 destroy her features. On her hand were three 
 diamond rings. 
 
138 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Di. Graff, of the State Board of Health, stationed 
 at Nineveh, states that up till ten o'clock this morning 
 they had embalmed about two hundred bodies, and by 
 noon to-day would about double that number, as they 
 were fishing bodies out of the river at this point at the 
 •arate of one every five minutes. In the driftwood and 
 debris bodies are being exhumed, and an additional 
 force of undertakers has been despatched to this 
 place. 
 
 la a Chamel House, 
 
 At the public school-house the scene beggars de- 
 scription. Boards have, been laid from desk to desk, 
 and as fast as the hands of a large body of men and 
 women can put the remains in recognizable shape they 
 are laid out for possible identification and removed as 
 quickly as possible. Seventy-five still remain, although 
 many have been taken away, and they are being 
 brought In every moment. It Is something horrifying 
 to see one portion of the huge school taken up by 
 corpses, each with a clean white sheet covering It, and 
 on the other side of the room a promiscuous heap of 
 bodies in all sorts of shapes and conditions, looking 
 for all the world like decaying tree trunks. Among 
 the number identified are two beautiful young ladies 
 named respectively Mrs. Richardson, who was a 
 teacher In the kindergarten school, and Miss Lottie 
 ' Yost, whose sister I afterwards noticed at one of the 
 corners near by, weeping as If her very heart was 
 broken. Not a single acquaintance did she count In 
 all of the great throng who passed her by, although 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 139 
 
 many tendered sincere sympathy, which was accentu- 
 ated by their own losses. 
 
 Liost and Found. 
 
 At the station of Johnstown proper this morning 
 the following names were added to the list of bodies 
 found and identified : Charles Marshall, one of the 
 engineers Cambria Company. A touching incident In 
 connection with his death is that he had been married 
 but a short time and his widow is heartbroken. 
 Order at any Cost. 
 
 Ex-Sheriff C. L. Dick, who was at one time Burgess 
 of Johnstown, has charge of a large number of special 
 deputies guarding the river at various points. He 
 and a posse of his men caught seven Hungarians 
 robbing dead bodies In Kernville early this morning, 
 and threw them all Into the river and drowned them. 
 He says he has made up his mind to stand no more 
 nonsense with this class of persons, and he has given 
 orders to his men to drown, shoot or hang any man 
 caught stealing from the dead. He said the dead 
 bodies of the Huns can be found In the creek. 
 
 Sheriff Dick, or ^'Chall" as he Is familiarly called, 
 is a tall, slim man, and Is well known In Pittsburgh, 
 principally to sportsmen. He is a first-class wing 
 shot, and during the past year he has won several live 
 bird matches. He Is slow to anger, but when forced 
 into a fight his courage is unfailing. 
 
 Shooting" Looters on the Wing", 
 
 Dick wears corduroy breeches, a large hat, a cart' 
 ridge belt, and is armed with a Winchester rifle. He 
 
140 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 is a crack shot and has taken charge of the deputies 
 in the wrecked portion of the city. Yesterday after- 
 noon he discovered two men and a woman cutting" the 
 finger from a dead woman to get her rings. The 
 Winchester rifle cracked twice in quick succession, and 
 the right arm of each man dropped, helplessly shat- 
 tered by a bullet. The woman was not harmed, but 
 she was so badly frightened that she will not rob 
 corpses again. Some five robbers altogether were 
 shot during the afternoon, and two of them were 
 killed. 
 
 The lynchlngs in the Johnstown district so far num- 
 ber from sixteen to twenty. 
 
 Treasure Lying- Loose. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, and the way that the town is 
 most thoroughly under martial law, the pilfering still 
 goes on. The wreck is a gold mine for pilferers. A 
 Hungarian woman fished out a trunk down in Cambria 
 City yesterday, and on breaking it open found $7,500 
 in it. Another w^oman found a jewel box containing 
 several rings and a gold watch. In one house in 
 Johnstown there is $1,700 in money, but it is impossi- 
 ble to get at it. 
 
 Hanged and Riddled with Bullets. 
 
 Quite an exciting scene took place in the borough 
 of Johnstow^n last night. A Hungarian was discovered 
 by two men in the act of blowing up the safe in the 
 First National Bank Building with dynamite. A cry 
 was raised, and in a few minutes a crowd had col- 
 lected and the cry of " Lynch him 1 " was raised, and 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 141 
 
 in less time than it takes to tell it the man was strung 
 up to a tree in what was once about the central por- 
 tion of Johnstown. Not content with this the Vigilance 
 Committee riddled the man's body full of bullets. He 
 remained hanging to the tree for several hours, when 
 some person cut him down and buried him with the 
 other dead. 
 
 The stealing by Hungarians at Cambria City and 
 points along the railroad has almost ceased. The re- 
 port of several lynchings and the drowning of two 
 Italians while being pursued by citizens yesterday, put 
 an end to the pilfering for a time. 
 
 While Deputy Sheriff Rose was patrolling the river 
 bank he found two Hungarians attempting to rob 
 several bodies, and at once gave chase. The men 
 started for the woods when he pulled out a pistol and 
 shot twice, wounding both men badly. From the 
 latest reports the men are still living, but they are in 
 a critical condition. 
 
 Cutting: Off a Head for a Necklace, ' 
 
 It is reported that two Hungarians found the body 
 of a lady between Woodvale and Conemaugh who had 
 a valuable necklace on. The devils dragged her out 
 of the water and severed her head from her body to 
 get the necklace. At eleven o'clock to-day the woods 
 w^ere being scoured for the men who are supposed to 
 be guilty of the crime. 
 
 Pickets Set, Strang'ers excluded. 
 
 Up till noon to-day General Hastings has had his 
 headquarters on the east side of the river, but this 
 
142 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 morning he came over to the burning debris, followed 
 by about one hundred and twenty-five men carrying 
 coffins. He started to work immediately, and has 
 ordered men from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and ali 
 eastern towns to do laboring work. 
 
 The Citizen's Committee are making desperate 
 efforts to preserve peace, and the Hungarians at Cam- 
 bria City are being kept in their houses by men with 
 clubs, who will not permit them to go outside. There 
 seems considerable race prejudice at Cambria City, 
 and trouble may follow, as both the English and Hun- 
 garians are getting worked up to a considerable 
 extent. 
 
 The Sheriff has taken charge of Johnstown and 
 armed men are this morning patrolling the city. The 
 people who have been properly in the limits are per- 
 mitted to enter the city if they are known, but other- 
 wise it is impossible to get into the town. The reg- 
 ulation seems harsh, but it is a necessity. 
 Troops Sent Home. 
 
 Battery B, of Pittsburgh, arrived In the city this 
 morning under command of Lieutenant Sheppard, who 
 went to the quarters of Adjutant-General Hastings in 
 the railroad watch tower. The General had just got 
 up, and as the officer approached the General said: — 
 
 ** Who sent you here ? " 
 
 *T was sent here by the Chamber of Comm.erce," 
 replied the Lieutenant. 
 
 '*Well, I want to state that there are only four 
 people who can order you out, viz. : — The Governor, 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. j 13 
 
 Adjutant-General, Major General and the Commander 
 of the Second Brigade. You have committed a 
 serious breach of discipUne, and my advice to you is 
 to get back to Pittsburgh as soon as possible, or you 
 may be mustered out of service. I am surprised that 
 you should attempt such an act without any authority 
 whatever." 
 
 This seemed to settle the matter, and the batters- 
 started back to Pittsburgh. In justice to Lieutenant 
 Sheppard it might be stated that he was told that an 
 order was issued by the Governor. General Hastings 
 stated afterwards that the sending down of the soldiers 
 was like waving a red flag, and it would only tend to 
 create trouble. He said everything was quiet here, 
 and it was an insult to the citizens of Johnstown to 
 send soldiers here at present. 
 
 Extortioners Held in Cliecl?:. 
 A riot was almost caused by the exorbitant prices 
 that v/ere charged for food. One storekeeper in Mill- 
 ville borough w^as charging $5 a sack for flour and 
 seventy-five cents for sandwiches on Sunday. This 
 caused considerable complaint and the citizens grew 
 desperate. They promptly took by force all the con- 
 tents of the store. As a result this morning all the 
 stores have been put under charge of the police. An 
 inventory was taken and the proprietor was paid the 
 market price for his stock. 
 
 A strong guard is kept at the office of the Cambria 
 Iron Company. Saturday was pay day at the works, 
 and $80,000 is in the safe. This became known, and 
 
f 44 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 ^.he officials are afraid that an attempt would be made 
 to rob the place. 
 
 Sheriff Dick and a posse of his men got into a riot 
 this afternoon with a crowd of Hungarians at Cam- 
 bria City. The Hungarians got the better of him, and 
 he called on a squad of Battery B boys, who charged 
 with drawn sabres, and soon had the crowd on the 
 
 run. 
 
 Men Hard at Work. 
 
 Order is slowly arising out of chaos. The survivors 
 are slowly realizing what is the best course to pursue. 
 The great cry is for men. Men who will work and not 
 stand idly by and do nothing but gaze at the ruins. 
 The following order was posted on a telegraph pole in 
 Johnstown to-day: — 
 
 " Notice — During the day men who have been idle 
 have been begged to aid us in clearing the town, and 
 many have not refused to work. We are now so 
 organized that employment can be found for every man 
 who wants to work, and men offered work who refuse 
 to take the same and who are able to work must leave 
 Johnstown for the present. We cannot afford to feed 
 men who will not work. All work will be paid for. 
 Strangers and idlers who refuse to work will be ejected 
 from Johnstown. 
 
 ** By order of Citizens' Committee." 
 Turning" Away the Idlers. 
 
 Officers were stationed at every avenue and rail- 
 road that enters the town. All suspicious looking 
 characters are stopped. But one question is asked. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 145 
 
 It IS, " Will you work ? " If an affirmative answer is 
 given a man escorts him to the employment bureau, 
 where he is put to work. If not, he is turned back. 
 The committee has driven one or two men out of the 
 town. There is a lot of idle vagabond negroes m 
 Johnstown who will not work. It is likely that a com- 
 mittee will escort them out of town. They have caused 
 the most trouble during the past terrible days. 
 
 It is a fact, although a disagreeable one to say, that 
 not a few of the relief committees who came to this 
 city, came only out of curiosity and positively refused 
 to do any work, but would hang around the cars eat- 
 ing food. The leaders of the committee then had to 
 do all the work. They deserve much credit 
 Begging for Help. 
 
 An old man sat on a chair placed on a box at the 
 intersection of two streets in Johnstown and begged 
 for men. ''For God's sake," he said, ''can we not 
 find men. Will not some of you men help ? Look at 
 these men w^ho have not slept for three days and are 
 dropping with fatigue. We will pay well. For God's 
 sake help us." Tears rolled down his cheeks as he 
 spoke. Then he would threaten the group of idlers 
 standing by and again plead with them. Every man 
 it seems wants to be a policeman. 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 Burial of tine Victims. 
 
 Hundreds have been laid away in shallow trenches 
 without forms, ceremonies or mourners. All day long 
 the work of burial has been going on. There was no 
 time for religious ceremonies or mourning and many 
 a mangled form was coffined with no sign of mourning 
 save the honest sympathy of the brave men who 
 handled them. As fast as the wagons that are gather- 
 ing up the corpses along the stream arrive with their 
 ghastly loads they are emptied and return again to 
 the banks of the merciless Conemaugh to find other 
 victims among the driftwood in the underbrush, or half 
 buried in the mud. The coffins are now beginning to 
 arrive, and on many streets on the hillside they are 
 stacked as high as the second and third stoiy windows. 
 
 At Kernville the people are not so fortunate. It 
 would seem that every man is his own coffin maker, 
 and many a man can be seen here and there claiming 
 the boards of what remains of his house in which per- 
 haps he has found the remains of a loved one, and 
 busily patching them together with nails and hoops or' 
 any available thing to hold the body. 
 
 When the corpses are found they are taken to the 
 nearest dead house and are carefully washed. They 
 are then laid out in rows to await identification. 
 
 (146) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 147 
 
 Cards are pinned to their breasts as soon as they aie 
 identified, and their names will be marked on the 
 headboards at the graves. 
 
 Wholesale Funerals. 
 
 There were many rude funerals in the upper part 
 of the town. The coffins were conveyed to the cem- 
 eteries in wagons, each one carrying two, three or 
 more. 
 
 At Long View Cemetery and at one or two other 
 points long trenches have been dug to receive the 
 coffins. The trenches are only about three feet deep, 
 it being thought unnecessary to bury deeper, as 
 almost all the bodies will be removed by friends. 
 Nearly three hundred bodies were buried thus to-day. 
 
 There will be no public ceremony, no funeral dirge, 
 and but few weeping mourners. The people are too 
 much impressed with the necessity of immediate and 
 constant work to think of personal grief. 
 
 The twenty-six bodies taken to the hose house in 
 Minersville were buried shortly after ten o'clock yes- 
 terday morning. Of the twenty-six, thirteen were 
 identified. Eight women, a baby and four men v/ere 
 buried without having been identified. 
 
 All day yesterday men were engaged in burying the 
 dead. They ran short of coffins, and in order to dis- 
 pose of the rapidly decomposing bodies they built rough 
 boxes out of the floating lumber that was caught. In 
 ihis way they buried temporarily over fifty bodies in the 
 cemetery just above the town. 
 
 Putrefaction of dead bodies threatens the health of 
 
148 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR 
 
 the whole re glon. Now that the waters are fast shrink- 
 ing back from the horrid work of their own doing and 
 are uncovering thousands of putrid and ill-smelling 
 corpses the fearful danger of pestilence is espied, 
 stalking in the wake of more violent destruction. 
 
 The air is already reeking with infectious filth, and 
 the alarm is widespread among the desolated and over- 
 wrought population. 
 
 Cremation Best. 
 
 Incident to this phase of the situation the chief sen- 
 sation of the morning was the united remonstrance of 
 the physicians against the extinguishment of the burn- 
 ing wreck of the demolished town which is piled up 
 against the bridge. They maintain, with a philosophy 
 that to anxious searchers seems heartless, that hun- 
 dreds, if not thousands, of lifeless and decaying bodies 
 lie beneath this mass of burning ruins. 
 
 *Tt would be better," they say, ''to permit Nature's 
 greatest scavenger — the flames — to pursue his work 
 unmolested than to expose to further decay the horde 
 of putrefying bodies that lie beneath this debris. 
 There can be but one result. Days will elapse before 
 the rubbish can be sufficiently removed to permit the 
 recovery of these bodies, and long before that every 
 corpse will be a putrid mass, giving forth those fright- 
 ful emanations of decaying human flesh that in a 
 crowded community like this can have but one result 
 — the dreadful typhus. Every battlefield has demon- 
 strated the necessity of the hasty interment of decay- 
 ing bodies, and the stench that already arl'^es is a fore- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 149 
 
 runner of impending danger. Burn the wreck, bum 
 
 the wreck." 
 
 Sorrow Rejects Safety. 
 
 A loud cry of indignation arose from the lips of the 
 vast multitude and the warnings of science were lost 
 in the eager demands of those that sought the remains 
 of the near and dear. The hose was again turned 
 upon the hissing mass, and rapidly the flames yielded 
 to the supremacy of water. 
 
 It is almost impossible to conceive the extent of 
 these smoking ruins. An area of eight or ten acres 
 above the dam is covered to a depth of forty feet with 
 shattered houses, borne from the resident centre of 
 Johnstown. In each of these houses, it is estimated, 
 there were from one to twenty or twenty-five people. 
 This Is accepted as data upon which to estimate the 
 number that perished on this spot, and if the data be 
 correct the bodies that lie beneath these ruins must 
 run well up into the thousands. 
 
 Members of the State Board of Health arrived in 
 Nineveh this morning and determined to proceed at 
 once to dredge the river, to clean it of the dead and 
 prevent the spreading of disease. To this end they 
 have wired the State Department to furnish them with 
 the proper appliances. 
 
 Drinking: Poisoned Water. 
 
 From other points in this and connecting valleys 
 the same fear of pestilence is expi ejsed. The cities 
 of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, which have a population 
 of three hundred and fifty thousand and drink the 
 
150 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROIt 
 
 waters of the Allegheny River, down which corpses 
 and debris from Johnstown must flow unless stopped 
 above, are in danger of an epidemic. The water is 
 to-day thick with mud, and bodies have been found as 
 far south of here as Beaver, a distance of thirty miles 
 below Pittsburgh. To go this distance the bodies 
 followed the Conemaugh from Johnstown to the KIs- 
 klmlnetas, at Blalrsvllle, joining the Allegheny at 
 Freeport, and the Ohio here, the entire distance from 
 this point being about one hundred and fifty miles. 
 
 **ThIs is a very serious matter," said a prominent 
 Pittsburgh physician who is here to me to-day, ''and 
 one that demands the immediate attention of the 
 Board of Health officials. The flood of water that 
 swept through Johnstown has cleaned out hundreds of 
 cesspools. These and the barnyards' manure and the 
 dirt from henneries and swamps that were swept by 
 the waters have all been carried down into the Alle- 
 gheny River. In addition to this there are the bodies 
 of persons drowned. Some of these will, in all likeli- 
 hood, be secreted among the debris and never be 
 found. Hundreds of carcasses of animals of various 
 kinds are also in the river. 
 
 Typhus Dreaded. 
 
 " These will decay, throwing out an animal poison. 
 This filth and poisonous matter is being carried into 
 the Allegheny, and will be pumped up Into the reser- 
 voir and distributed throughout the city. The result 
 is a cause for serious apprehension. Take, for ex- 
 ample, the town of Hazleton, Pa. There the filth 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 151 
 
 from some outhouse was carried Into the reservoir and 
 distributed through the town. The result was a ty- 
 phoid fever epidemic and hundreds of people lost their 
 lives. The water that we are drinking to-day Is some- 
 thing fearful to behold." 
 
 The municipal authorities of Pittsburgh have issued 
 a notice embodying the above facts. 
 Sanitary Work. 
 
 A message was received by the Relief Committee 
 this morning confirming the report that for the health 
 of the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny It is abso- 
 lutely necessary that steps be taken Immediately to re- 
 move the bodies and drift from the river, and begging 
 the committee to take early action. The contract for 
 clearing the river was awarded to Captain Jutte, and 
 he will start up the Allegheny this afternoon as far as 
 Freeport, and then work down. His instructions are 
 to clear the river thoroughly of anything that might in 
 any way affect the water supply. 
 
 Helping Hands. 
 
 The work of relief at the scene of the great disaster 
 is going on rapidly. The Alliance (Ohio) Relief 
 Committee arrived here this morning on a special 
 train with five carloads of provisions. The party is 
 composed of the most prominent Iron and steel mer- 
 chants of Alliance. 
 
 They have just returned from a tour of the ruined 
 town They have been up to Stony Creek, a distance 
 of five miles and up the Conemaugh River toward 
 South Fork, a distance of two miles. 
 
152 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 In describing their trip, one of their number said:— 
 ** I tell you the half has never been told. It is impos- 
 
 DISTRIBUTING SUPPLIES FROM THE RELIEF TRA.IN. 
 
 sibie to tell the terrible tale. I thought I had seen 
 horrible sights, and I served five years in the War of 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 153 
 
 the Rebellion, but in all my life it has never been my 
 lot to look upon such ghastly sights as I have wit- 
 nessed to-day. 
 
 ''While making the circuit of the ruined places we 
 saw 103 bodies taken out of the debris along the bank 
 of the river and Stony Creek. Of this number, we 
 identified six of the victims as our friends." 
 
 SCENE ON SOUTH CLINTON STREET, 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Jotinstown and. Its Industries. 
 
 At this point of our narrative a sketch of Johnstown, 
 where the most frightful havoc of the flood occurred, 
 will interest the reader. 
 
 The following description and history of the Cam- 
 bria Iron Company's Works, at Johnstown, is taken 
 from a report prepared by the State Bureau of Indus- 
 trial Statistics : 
 
 The great works operated by the Cambria Iron 
 Company originated in a few widely separated char- 
 coal furnaces, which were built by pioneer Iron 
 workers in the early years of this century. It was 
 chartered under the general law authorizing the incor- 
 poration of iron manufacturing companies, in the year 
 1852. The purpose was to operate four old-fashioned 
 charcoal furnaces, located in and about Johnstown, 
 some of which had been erected many years before. 
 Johnstown was then a village of 1300 inhabitants. The 
 Pennsylvania Railroad had only been extended thus 
 far in 1852, and the early iron manufacturers rightly 
 foresaw a great future for the industry at this point. 
 Immense Furnaces. 
 
 Coal, iron and limestone were abundant, and the 
 new railroad would enable them to find ready mar- 
 kets for their products. In 1853 the construction of 
 
 (154) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 155 
 
 four coke furnaces was commenced, and it was two 
 years before the first was completed, while some pro- 
 gress was made on the other three. England was then 
 shipping rails into this country under a low duty, and 
 the iron industry, then in its infancy, was struggling for 
 existence. 
 
 ; The furnaces at Johnstown labored under greater 
 difficulties in the years between 1852 and 1861 than 
 can be appreciated at this late day. Had it not been 
 for a few patriotic citizens in Philadelphia, who loaned 
 their credit and means to the failing company, the city 
 of Johnstown would possibly never have been built. 
 Notwithstanding the protecting care of the Philadelphia 
 merchants, the company in Johnstown was unable to 
 continue in business, and suspended in 1854. Among 
 its heaviest creditors in Philadelphia were Oliver Mar- 
 tin and Martin, Morrell & Co. More money was sub- 
 scribed, but the establishment failed again in 1855. D. 
 J. Morrell, however, formed a new company with new 
 
 credit. 
 
 Recovery From a Great Fire. 
 
 The year of 1856, the first after the lease w^as made, 
 was one of great financial depression, and the follow- 
 ing year was worse. To render the situation still 
 more gloomy a fire broke out in June, 1857, and in 
 three hours the large mill was a mass of ruins. Men 
 stood in double ranks passing water from the Cone- 
 maugh river, 300 yards distant, with which to fight the 
 flames. So great was the energy, determination and 
 financial ability of the new company that in one week 
 
156 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 after the fire the furnaces and rolls were once more in 
 operation under a temporary structure. At this early 
 stage in the manufacturing the management found it 
 advisable to abandon the original and widely sep* 
 arated charcoal furnaces and depend on newly con- 
 structed coke furnaces. As soon as practicable after 
 the fire a permanent brick mill was erected, and the 
 company was once more fully equipped. When the 
 war came and with it the Morrill tariff of 1861 a 
 broader field was opened up. Industry and activity 
 in business became general ; new life was infused into 
 every enterprise. In 1862 the lease by which the 
 company had been successfully operated for seven 
 years expired, and by a reorganization the present 
 company was formed. 
 
 Advent of Steel Kails. 
 A new era in the manufacture of iron and steel 
 was now about to dawn upon the American people. 
 In this year 1870 there were 49,757 tons of steel pro- 
 duced in the United States, while in 1880 the produc- 
 tion was 1,058,314 tons. Open hearth steel, crucible 
 steel and blister steel, prior to this, had been the prin- 
 cipal products, but were manufactured by processes 
 too slow and too expensive to take the place of iron. 
 The durability of steel over iron, particularly for rails,: 
 had long been known, but its cost of production pre- 
 vented its use. In 1857 one steel rail was sent to 
 Derby, England, and laid down on the Midland Rail- 
 road, at a place where the travel was so great that 
 iron rails then in use had to be renewed sometimes as 
 

 ..vvvvV BUaS^^? RESERVOIR _^j^- 
 
 
 . Rii'T . 
 
 ^\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 N> 
 
 /^ 
 
 aCAP OF THE CONEMAUGH VALLEY. 
 
158 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 often as once in three months. In June, 1873, after 
 sixteen years of use, the rail, being well worn, was 
 taken out. During its time 1,250,000 trains, not to 
 speak of the detached engines, etc., had passed over 
 it. This was the first steel rail, now called Bessemer 
 rail, ever used. 
 
 About ten years ago the Cambria Iron Company 
 arranged with Dr. J. H. Gautier & Sons, of Jersey 
 City, to organize a limited partnership association 
 under the name of ** The Gautier Steel Company, 
 Limited," to manufacture, at Johnstown, wire and 
 various other forms of merchant steel. Within less 
 than a mile from the main works extensive mills were 
 erected and the business soon grew to great propor- 
 tions. In a few years so much additional capital was 
 required, owing to the rapidly Increasing business, 
 that Dr. Gautier, then far advanced In life, wished to 
 be relieved of the cares and duties incident to the 
 growing trade, and the Cambria Iron Company be- 
 came the purchaser of his works. "The Gautier 
 Steel Company, Limited," went out of existence and 
 the works are now known as the ** Gautier Steel 
 Department of Cambria Iron Company." 
 Description of tlie Works. 
 
 The blast furnaces, steel works and rolling mills of 
 the company are situated upon what was originally a 
 river flat, where the valley of the Conemaugh ex- 
 panded somewhat just below the borough of Johns- 
 town, and now forming part of Millville Borough. The 
 arrangement of the works has been necessarily gov- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 169 
 
 emed by the fact that they have gradually expanded 
 from the original rolling-mill and four old style blast 
 furnaces to thei*- present character and capacity of 
 which some idea may be obtained by the condensed 
 description given below. 
 
 The Johnstown furnaces, Nos.^^j<^3 and 4, form' 
 one complete plant, with stacks ^^venty-five feet high,* 
 sixteen feet diameter of bosh. Steam is generated in 
 forty boilers, fired by furnace gas, for eight vertical di- 
 rect-acting blowing engines. Nos. 5 and 6 blast fur- 
 naces form together a" second plant with stacks 
 seventy-five feet high, nineteen feet diameter of bosh. 
 No. 5 has iron hot blast stoves and No. 6 has four 
 Whitwell fire-brick hot blast stoves. The furnaces 
 have together six blowing engines exactly like those 
 at Nos. I, 2, 3 and 4 furnaces. The engines are sup- 
 plied with steam by thirty-two cylinder boilers. 
 Marvelous Machinery. 
 
 The Bessemer plant was the sixth started in the 
 United States (July, 1871). The main building is 102 
 feet in width by 165 feet in length. The cupolas are 
 six in number. Blast is supplied from eight Baker 
 rotary pressure blowers driven by engines sixteen 
 inches by twenty-four inches, at 110 revolutions per 
 minute. The cupolas are located on either side of 
 die main trough. Into which they are tapped, and 
 down which the melted metal is directed into a ten-ton[ 
 ladle set on a hydraulic weighing platform, where it is 
 stored until the converters are ready to receive it. 
 There are two vessels of eight and a half tons 
 
160 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 capacity each, the products being distributed b) a 
 hydraulic ladle crane. The vessels are blown by 
 three engines. The Bessemer works are supplied 
 with steam by a battery of twenty-one tubular boIlerSc 
 The best average, although not the very highest 
 work done in the Bessemer department is 103 heats 
 of eight and a half tons each for twenty-four hours. 
 The best weekly record reached 1,847 ^o^s of ingots, 
 the best monthly record of 20,304 tons, and the best 
 daily output, 900 tons ingots. All grades of steel are 
 made in the converters from the softest wire and 
 bridge stock to spring steel. All the special stock, 
 that is other than rails, is carefully analyzed by heats, 
 and the physical properties are determined by a ten- 
 sion test. 
 
 Ponderous Steam-Haminers. 
 
 The open hearth building, 120 feet in width by 153 
 feet in length, contains three Pernot revolving hearth 
 furnaces of fifteen tons capacity each, supplied with 
 natural gas. A separate pit with a hydraulic ladla 
 crane of twenty tons capacity is located in front c;f 
 each pan. In a portion of the mill building, originally 
 used as a puddle mill, is located the bolt and nut 
 works, wherein are made track bolts and machine 
 bolts. This department is equipped with bolt-heading 
 and nut making machines, cutting, tapping and facing 
 machines, and produces about one thousand kegs of 
 finished track bolts, of 200 pounds each, per month, 
 besides machine bolts. Near this, also, are located 
 the axle and forging shops, in the old puddle mill 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 161 
 
 building. The axle shop has three steam hammers to 
 lorgc and ten machines to cut off, centre and turn 
 axle.3. The capacity of this shop is loo finished steel 
 axlns per day. All axles are toughened and annealed 
 by a patented process, giving the strongest axle pos- 
 sible. In the forging plant, located in the same build- 
 ing, there is an 18,000 pound Bement hammer, and a 
 ten-ton traveling crane to convey forgings from the 
 furnaces to the hammer. There are two furnaces for 
 heating large ingots and blooms for forgings. 
 
 A ventilating fan supplies fresh air to the mills 
 through pipes located overhead, and having oudets 
 I7ear the heating furnaces. One hundred thousand 
 cubic feet of fresh air per minute is distributed 
 throughout the mills. The mill has in addition to its 
 boilers, over the headng-furnaces, a brick and iron 
 building, located near the rail mill, 205 feet long and 
 45 feet wide, containing twenty-four tubular boilers, 
 aggregating about 2000 horse-power. 
 Tons of Barbed Wire. 
 
 The " Gautier Steel Department " consists of a brick 
 building 200 feet by 500 feet, where the wire is an- 
 nealed, drawn and finished; a brick warehouse 373 
 feet by 43 feet ; many shops, offices, etc. ; the barb 
 wire mill, 50 feet by 256 feet, where the celebrated 
 Cambria Link barb wire is made ; and the main mer- 
 chant mill, 725 feet by 250 feet. These mills produce 
 wire, shafdng, springs, plowshare, rake and harrow 
 teeth and other kinds of agricultural implement 
 steel. In 1887 they produced 50,000 tons of this 
 11 
 
IgJ THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 material, which was marketed mainly in the Western 
 states. 
 
 Grouped with the principal mills are the foundries, 
 pattern and other shops, drafting offices, time offices, 
 etc., all structures being of a firm and substantial 
 character. The company operates about thirty-five 
 miles of railroad tracks, employing in this service 
 twenty-four locomotives, and it owns 1 500 cars. 
 
 In the fall of t886 natural gas was introduced into 
 the works 
 
 Building- up Jolmstown. 
 
 Anxious to secure employment for the daughters 
 and widows of the employees of the company who 
 were willing to work, its management erected a 
 woolen mill which now employs about 300 persons. 
 Amusements were not neglected, and the people of 
 Johnstov/n are indebted to the company for the erec- 
 tion of an opera house, where dramatic entertainments 
 are given. 
 
 The company owns 700 houses, which are rented 
 exclusively to employees. The handsome library 
 erected by the company and presented to the town 
 was stocked with nearly 7000 volumes. The Cambria 
 Hospital is also under the control of the beneficial 
 association of the works. The Cambria Clubhouse is 
 a very neat pressed brick building on the corner of 
 Main and Federal streets. It was first operated in 
 1 88 1, and is used exclusively for the entertainment of 
 the guests of the company and such of their employees 
 as can be accommodated. The store building occu^ 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. • 163 
 
 pied by Wood, Morrell & Co., limited, i*^ a four-story 
 brick structure on Washington street, with three large 
 store rooms on the first floor, the remainder of the 
 building being used for various forms of merchandise. 
 
 Including the surrounding boroughs, Kernville, 
 Morrellville and Cambria City, all of which are built 
 up solidly to Johnstown proper, the population is 
 about 30,000. The Cambria Iron Company employs, 
 in Johnstown, about 7500 people, which would cer- 
 tainly indicate a population of not less than 20,000 
 depending upon the company for a livelihood. 
 
 A large proportion of the population of Johnstown 
 are citizens of foreign birth, or their immediate de- 
 scendants. Those of German, Irish, Welsh and Eng- 
 lish birth or extraction predominate, with a few 
 Swedes and Frenchmen. As a rule the working 
 people and their families are well dressed and order- 
 ly ; in this they are above the average. Most of the 
 older workmen of the company, owing largely to Its 
 liberal policy, own their houses, and many of them 
 hav^e houses for rent 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 View of thie Wreclc. 
 
 Each visitor to the scene of the great disaste> wit«^ 
 nessed sights .and received impressions different from 
 all others. The following graphic account will thrill 
 every reader : 
 
 The most exaggerative Imagination cannci: too 
 strongly picture the awful harvest of death, the wreck 
 which accompanied that terrible deluge last Friday 
 afternoon. I succeeded in crossing from the north 
 side of the Little Conemaugh, a short distance above 
 the point, to the sandy, muddy desert strewn with 
 remnants of the buildings and personal property of 
 those who know not their loss. 
 
 It is almost an impossibility to gain access to the 
 region, and it was accomplished only after much 
 difficulty In crossing the swiftly running stream. 
 
 Standing at a point in this abode of thousands of 
 dead the work of the great flood can be more ade- 
 quately measured than from any one place in the de- 
 vastated region. Here I first realized the appalling loss 
 of life and the terrible destruction of property. 
 
 It was about ten o'clock when the waters of Stony 
 Creek rose, overflowed their banks and what is known 
 as the ** flats," which includes the entire business por- 
 tion of the city of Johnstown. The Little Conemaugh 
 
 (164) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 165 
 
 was running high at the same time, and it had also 
 overreached the Hmit of its banks. The water of both 
 streams soon submerged the lower portion of the 
 town. Up to this time there was no intimation that a 
 terrible disaster was imminent. The water poured 
 into the cellars of the houses in the lower districts and 
 rose several inches in the streets, but as that had oc- 
 curred before the people took no alarm. 
 
 Shortly after twelve o'clock the first drowning oc- 
 curred. This was not because of the deluge, it was 
 simply the carelessness of the victim, who was a driver 
 for the Cambria Iron Company, in stepping into a 
 cellar which had been filled with water. The water 
 continued to rise, and at twelve o'clock had reached 
 that part of the city about a block from the point be- 
 tween Stony Creek and the Little Conemaugh. 
 Topography of the Place. 
 
 The topography of Johnstown is almost precisely 
 like that of Pittsburgh, only in a diminished degree. 
 Stony Creek comes in from the mountains on the 
 northeast, and the 'kittle Conemaugh comes in from 
 the northwest, forming the Conemaugh at Johnstown, 
 precisely as the Allegheny and Monongahela form the 
 Ohio at Pittsburgh. On the west side of Stony Creek 
 are mountains rising to a great height, and almost per- 
 pendicularly from the water. On the north side of the 
 Conemaugh River mountains equally as high as those 
 on Stony Creek confine that river to its course. The 
 hills in Johnstown start nearly a half mile from the 
 business section of the city. This leaves a territory 
 
ie« THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 between the two rivers of about four hundred acres 
 This was covered by costly buildings, factories and 
 other important manufactories. 
 
 When the waters of South Fork and Little Cone- 
 maugh broke over their banks into that portion of the 
 city known as the '* flats," the business community 
 turned Its attention to putting endangered merchan- 
 dise in a place of safety. 
 
 First Alarm. 
 
 In the homes of the people the women began 
 gathering household articles of any kind that may 
 have been in the cellar. Little attention was paid to 
 the water beyond this. 
 
 Looking from the " flats" at Johnstown toward and 
 following the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, which 
 wind along the Little Conemaugh, the village of 
 Woodville stands, or did stand, within sight of the 
 '* flats," and is really a continuation of the city at this 
 point. 
 
 The mountains on the south side of the Little Co- 
 nemaugh rise here and form a narrow valley where 
 Woodville was located. Next joining this, without 
 any perceptible break in the houses, was the town of 
 East Conemaugh. The extreme eastern limit of East 
 Conemaugh Is about a mile and a half from Johns- 
 town ''flats." 
 
 A Narrow Chasm. 
 
 The valley narrows as It reaches eastward, and in a 
 narrow chasm three miles from Johnstown "flats" Is 
 the litde settlement of Mineral Point A few of the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 167 
 
 houses have found a place on the mountain side out of 
 harm's way, and so they still stand. 
 
 At East Conemaugh there is located a roundhouse 
 of the Pennsylvania Railroad, for the housing of loco* 
 motives used to assist trains over the mountains. 
 The inhabitants of this place were all employees of 
 the Pennsylvania and the Gautier Steel Works, of the 
 Cambria Iron Company. The inhabitants numbered 
 about 1,500 people. Like East Conemaugh, 2,000 or 
 2,500 people, who lived at Woodville,were employees of 
 the same corporation and the woolen mills located there. 
 
 Just below Woodville the mountains upon the south 
 bank of the Conemaugh disappear and form the com- 
 mencement of the Johnstown ** flats," The Gautier 
 Steel Works of the Cambria Iron Company are 
 located at this point, on the south bank. The Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad traverses the opposite bank, and 
 makes a long curve from this point up to East Con- 
 emaugh. 
 
 Timely Warning- to Escape. 
 
 At what is known as the point where Stony Creek 
 and the Little Conemaugh form the Conemaugh the 
 mountains followed by Stony Creek take an abrupt 
 turn northward, and the waters of the Little Cone- 
 maugh flow into the Conemaugh at right angles with 
 these mountains. I 
 
 A few hundred feet below this point the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad bridge crosses the Conemaugh River. 
 The bridge is a massive stone structure. From the 
 east end of the bridge there is a heavy fill of fr<Mn 
 
168 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 thirty to forty feet high to Johnstown Station, a dis- 
 tance of a quarter of a mile. 
 
 Within a few feet of the station a wagon bridge 
 crosses the LItde Conemaugh, five hundred feet above 
 the point connecdng the "flats " and the country upon 
 the north side of the river. 
 
 The Cambria Iron Company's Bessemer department 
 lies along the north bank of the Conemaugh, com- 
 mencing at the fill, and extends for over two miles 
 down the Conemaugh River upon its northern bank. 
 
 Below the Cambria Iron Company's property is 
 Mlllvllle Borough, and on the hill back of MlllvIUe 
 Borough is MInersville properly — the Second ward of 
 Mlllvllle Borough. 
 
 The First ward of Mlllvllle was washed away com- 
 pletely. 
 
 While the damage from a pecuniary sense was large, 
 the loss of life was quite small, Inasmuch as the people 
 had timely warning to escape. 
 
 Below the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge at Johns- 
 town, upon the south bank of the Conemaugh, was 
 the large settlement of Cambria. It had a population 
 of some five thousand people. At Cambria the moun- 
 tain retreats for several hundred feet, leaving a level of 
 two or three hundred acres In extent. Just below the 
 bridge the Conemaugh River makes a wide curve 
 around this level. About eight or nine hundred houses 
 stood upon this level. 
 
 Below Cambria stands Morrellville, a place about 
 equal in size to Cambria. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 169 
 
 From this description of the location of Johnstown 
 and neighboring settlements the course of the waters 
 may be better understood when described. It was 
 about ten minutes to three o'clock Friday afternoon 
 when Mr. West, of the local office of the Pennsylva- 
 nia Railroad at Johnstown, received a dispatch from 
 the South Fork station, advising him to notify the in- 
 habitants that the big dam in the South Fork, above the 
 city, was about to break. He at once despatched 
 couriers to various parts of the city, and a small sec- 
 tion was notified of the impending danger. The 
 messenger was answered with, 
 
 *' We will wait until we see the water." 
 Others called ''Chestnuts!'' and not one In fifty 
 of the people who received the warning gave heed 
 
 to It. 
 
 Tlie Debris of Three Towns. 
 
 With the waters standing several inches deep in the 
 streets of the " flats " of the city the deluge from South 
 Fork Lake, burst the dam and rushed full upon Johns- 
 town shortly after five o'clock on Friday afternoon the 
 last day of May. 
 
 First it swept the houses from Mineral Point down 
 into East Conemaugh. When the flood reached East 
 Conemaugh the town was wiped out. This mass of 
 debris was borne on to Johnstown, reinforced by the 
 (material of three towns. 
 
 The Gautier steel department of the Cambria Iron 
 Company was the first property attacked in the city 
 proper Huge rolls, furnaces and all the machinery 
 
170 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 in the great mills, costing ^6,DOO,ooo, were swept away 
 in a moment, and to-day there is not the slightest evi- 
 dence that the mill ever stood there. 
 
 Swept From the Koofs. 
 
 Westward from this point the flood swept over the 
 flats. The houses, as soon as the water reached them, 
 were lifted from their foundation and hurled against 
 their neighbors*. The people who at the first crash of 
 their property managed to reach the roof or some 
 other floating material were carried on until their frail 
 support was driven against the next obstruction, when 
 they went down in the crash together. 
 
 The portion of the "flats" submerged is bounded 
 by Clinton street to the Little Conemaugh River, to 
 the point at Stony Creek, then back to Clinton street 
 by way of Bedford. 
 
 This region has an area of one mile squa*^e, shaped 
 like a heart, and in this district there are not more than 
 a dozen buildings that are not total wrecks. 
 
 Ten per cent, of this district is so covered with 
 mud, stones, rocks and other material, where costly 
 buildings once stood, that it will require excavating 
 from eight to twenty feet to reach the streets of the 
 city. 
 
 Remnants of the City. 
 
 Of the houses standing there is the Methodist 
 church, the club house, James McMillen's residence,^ 
 the Morrell mansion, Dr. Lohman's house and the 
 First ward school building. 
 
 The Fourth ward school house and the Cainbru 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 171 
 
 Iror» Works' general office building are the only build- 
 ings standing on the north side of the river from the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad bridge to the limits of the ''fiats." 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railroad, from its station In Johns- 
 town City nearly to Wilmore, a distance of seven 
 miles, had a magnificent road bed of solid rock. From 
 East Conemaugh to the point in Johnstown opposite 
 the Gautier Steel Works, this road bed, ballast and all 
 are gone. Only a few rails may occasionally be seen 
 in the river below. 
 
 Frealis of the Flood. 
 
 When the crash came in Johnstown the houses were 
 crushed as easily by the huge mass as so many build- 
 ings of sand, making much the same sound as if a pen 
 cil were drawn over the slats of a shutter. Houses 
 were torn from their foundations and torn to pieces 
 before their occupants realized their danger. Hun- 
 dreds of these people w^ere crushed to death, while 
 others were rescued by heroic men ; but the lives of 
 the majority were prolonged a few minutes, when they 
 met a more horrible death further down the stream. 
 
 There is a narrow strip extending from the club 
 house to the point which, in some singular manner, 
 escaped the mass of filling that was distributed on the 
 flats. This strip is about 200 feep wide, 300 long and 
 from 3 to 20 feet deep. What queer turn the flood 
 took to thus spare this section, when the surrounding 
 territory was covered with mud, stones and other ma- 
 terial, is a mystery. It is, however, one of the remark' 
 able turns of the flood. 
 
172 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 The German Catholic Church is standing, but is in 
 an exceedingly shaky condition and may fall at any 
 minute. This and Dr. Lohman's residence are the 
 only buildings on the plot standing between Main 
 street, Clinton street, Railroad street and the Little 
 iConemaugh. 
 
 ' The destruction of life in this district was too awful 
 to contemplate. It is estimated that not more than 
 one thousand people escaped with their lives, and it is 
 believed that there were fully five thousand persons 
 remaining in the district when the flood came down. " 
 The flood wiped out the ''flat" with the exception of 
 the buildings noted. The water was twenty feet high 
 here and hurled acres upon acres of houses against 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge which held it and 
 dammed the water up until it was forty feet high. 
 The mass accumulated until the weight became so 
 great that it broke through the fill east of the bridge 
 and the debris started out of the temporary reservoir 
 with an awful rush. 
 
 It was something near five o'clock when the fill 
 broke. The water rushed across the Cambria flats 
 and swept every house away with the exception of a 
 portion of a brewery. There is nothing else standing 
 in this district which resembles a house. 
 
 The Johnstown Post Office Building, with all the 
 office money and stamps, was carried away in the 
 flood. The Postmaster himself escaped with great 
 difficulty. 
 
 The dam broke in the centre at three o'clock on 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 173 
 
 Friday afternoon, and at four o'clock it was dry. 
 That ^reat body of water passed out in one hour. 
 Park & Van Buren, who are building a new draining 
 system at the lake, tried to avert the disaster by dig- 
 ging a sluiceway on one side to ease the pressure on 
 the dam. They had about forty men at work and didi 
 all they could, but without avail. The water passed 
 over the dam about a foot above its top, beginning at 
 about half-past two. Whatever happened in the way 
 of a cloud burst took place during the night. There 
 had been but little rain up to dark. When the work- 
 men woke in the morning the lake was very full and 
 was rising at the rate of a foot an hour. It kept on 
 rising until at two o'clock it first began breaking over 
 the dam and undermining it. Men were sent three or 
 four times during the day to warn people below of 
 their danger. 
 
 The Break Two Hundred Feet Wide. . 
 When the final break came, at three o'clock, there 
 was a sound Hke tremendous and continued peals of 
 thunder; rocks, trees and earth were shot up into 
 mid-air in great columns, and then the wave started 
 down the ravine. A farmer, who escaped, said that 
 the water did not come down like a wave, but jumped 
 on his house and beat it to fragments in an instant 
 He was safe upon the hillside, but his wife and two 
 children were killed. At the present time the lake 
 looks like a cross between the crater of a volcano and 
 a huge mud puddle with stumps of trees and rocks 
 scattered over it. There is a small stream of muddy 
 
174 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 water running through the centre of the lake site. Tlie 
 dam was seventy feet high and the break is about two 
 hundred feet wide, and there is but a small portion of 
 the dam left on either side. No damao^e was done to 
 any of the buildings belonging to the club. The whole 
 south fork is swept, with not a tree standing. There 
 are but one or two small streams showing here and 
 there in the lake. A great many of the workmen 
 carried off baskets full of fish caught in the mud. 
 Three Millions Indemnity. 
 
 It is reported that the Sportsman's Association, 
 which owned the South Fork dam, was required to file 
 an indemnity bond of $3,000,000 before their charter 
 was issued. When the bill granting them these privi^ 
 leges was before the Legislature the representatives 
 from Cambria and Blair counties vigorously opposed 
 its passage and only gave way, it is said, upon con- 
 dition that such an indemnifying bond was filed. This 
 bond was to be filed with the prothonotary of Cambria 
 county. '^ 
 
 Father Boyle, of Ebensburg, said the records at the 
 county seat had no trace of such a bond. He found 
 the record of the charter, but nothing about the bond. 
 As the association Is known to be composed of very 
 wealthy people, there is much talk here of their being 
 compelled to pay at least a part of the damages. 
 The Rain Bid It. 
 
 It begins to dawn on us that the catastrophe was 
 brought about not merely by the bursting of the dam 
 />f the old canal reservoir, but by a rainfall exceeding 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 175 
 
 In depth and area all previously recorded phenomena 
 of the kind. The whole drainage basin of the Kiski- 
 minetas, and more particularly that of the Conemaugh, 
 was affected. An area of probably more than 600 
 square miles poured its precipitation through the nar- 
 row valley in which Johnstown and associate villages 
 are located. It is easy to see how, with a rainfall 
 similar to that which caused the Butcher Run disas- 
 ter of a few years ago, fully from thirty to fifty times 
 as much water became destructive. The whole of the 
 water of the lake would pass Suspension Bridge at 
 Pittsburgh inside of from seven to ten minutes, while 
 the gorge at Johnstown, narrowed by the activity of 
 mines for generations past, was clearly insufficient to 
 allow a free course for Stony Creek alone, which is a 
 stream heading away up in Somerset county, twenty- 
 five or thirty miles south of Johnstown. That the rain- 
 fall of the entire Allegheny Mountain system was un- 
 precedented is clearly demonstrated to any one who 
 has watched the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers 
 for the past three days, and this view may serve to 
 correct the impression in the public mind that would 
 localize the causes of the widespread disaster to the 
 bursting of any single dam. 
 
 Banger Was Anticipated. 
 Charles Parke, of Philadelphia, the civil engineer in 
 the employ of the South Fork Fishing Club, in com- 
 pany with George C.Wilson, ex-United States District 
 Attorney, and several other members of the club, 
 reached Johnstown and brought with them the first 
 
176 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 batch of authoritative news from Conemaugh Lake, 
 the bursting of which, it is universally conceded, 
 caused the disaster. 
 
 Mr. Parke was at first averse to talking, and seemed 
 more interested in informing his friends in the Quaker 
 City that he was still in the land of the living. On 
 being pressed he denied most emphatically that the 
 dam had burst, and proceeded to explain that he first 
 commenced to anticipate danger on Friday morning, 
 when the water in the lake commenced to rise at a 
 rapid rate. Immediately he turned his force of twenty- 
 five Italians to opening an extra waste sluiceway in 
 addition to the one thac had always answered before. 
 
 The five members of the club on hand all worked 
 
 like horses, but their efforts were in vain, and at three 
 
 o'clock the supporting wall gave way with a sound 
 
 that seemed like distant thunder and the work was 
 
 done. 
 
 The Governor's Appeal. 
 
 Harrisburg, Pa., June 3, 1886. — The Governor 
 issued the follov/ing : — 
 
 " Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
 ** Executive Chamber, 
 "Harrisburg, Pa., June 3, 1889. 
 
 '*To the People of the United States: — 
 
 " The Executive of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-/ 
 vania has refrained hitherto from making any appeal 
 to the people for their benefactions, in order that he 
 might receive definite and reliable information from 
 the centres of disaster during the late floods, which 
 
 1 
 
THE JOHNSTOv\ N HORROR. 177 
 
 have been unprecedented in the history of the State 
 or nation. Communication by wire has been estab- 
 lished with Johr^town to-day. The civil authorities 
 are in control, the Adjutant General of the State co- 
 operating with them ; order has been restored and- is 
 likely to continue. Newspaper reports as t® the loss 
 of life and property have not been exaggerated. 
 
 ''The valley of the Conemaugh, which is peculiar, 
 has been swept from one end to the other as with the 
 besom of destruction. It contained a population of 
 forty thousand to fifty thousand people, living for the 
 most part along the banks of a small river confined 
 within narrow limits. The most conservative esti- 
 mates place the loss of Hfe at 5,000 human beings, 
 and of property at twenty-five millions. [The reader 
 will understand that this and previous estimates wers 
 the first and were far too small] Whole towns have 
 been utterly destroyed. Not a vestige remains. In 
 the more substantial towns the better buildings, to a 
 certain extent, remain, but in a damaged condition. 
 Those who are least able to bear it have suffered 
 
 the loss of everything. 
 
 '■' The most pressing needs, so far as food is con- 
 cerned, have been supplied. Shoes and clothing of 
 all sorts for men, women and children are greatly 
 needed. Money is also urgently required to remove 
 the debris, bury the dead, and care temporarily for 
 the widows and orphans and for the homeless gener- 
 ally. Other localities have suffered to some extent in 
 the same way, but not in the same degree. 
 12 
 
i78 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 "Late advices seem to indicate that there is great 
 
 loss of life and destruction of property along the west 
 
 branch of the Susquehanna and in localities from 
 
 •which we can get no definite information. What does 
 
 come, however, is of the most appalling character, 
 
 and it is expected that the details will add new horrorg 
 
 to the situation. 
 
 Generous Responses. 
 
 ** The responses from within and without the State 
 have been most generous and cheering. North and 
 South, East and West, from the United States and 
 from England, there comes the same hearty, generous 
 response of sympathy and help. The President, Gov- 
 ernors of States, Mayors of cities, and individuals and 
 communities, private and municipal corporations, seem 
 to vie with each other In their expressions of sympathy 
 and in their contributions of substantial aid. But, 
 gratifying as these responses are, there Is no danger 
 of their exceeding the necessities of the situation. 
 Organized Distribution. 
 
 " A careful organization has been made upon the 
 ground for the distribution of whatever assistance is 
 furnished. The Adjutant General of the State is there 
 as the representative of the State authorities and giv- 
 ing personal attention, in connection with the Chief 
 Burgess of Johnstown and a committee of relief to the 
 distribution of the help which is- furnished. 
 
 **A large force will be employed at once to remove 
 die debris and bury the dead, so as to avoid disease 
 and epidemic. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 179 
 
 "The people of the Commonwealth and others 
 whose unselfish generosity- is hereby heartily apprecia- 
 ted and acknowledged may be assured that their con- 
 tributions will be made to bring their benefactions to 
 the immediate and direct relief of those for whose 
 
 benefit they are intended. 
 
 ** James A. Beaver. 
 
 •* By the Governor, Charles W. Stone, Secretary 
 of the Commonwealth." 
 
 Alive to tlie Situation. 
 
 The Masonic Relief Committee which went from 
 Pittsburgh to Johnstown telegraphed President Har- 
 rison, urging the appointment of a national com- 
 mission to take charge of sanitary affairs at the scene 
 of the disaster. It was urged that the presence of so 
 many decaying corpses would breed a pestilence 
 there, besides polluting the water of the streams 
 affecting all the country between Pittsburgh and New- 
 Orleans. 
 
 The disasters in Pennsylvania were the subject of a 
 conference at the White House between the President, 
 General Noble, the Secretary of the Interior, and Sur- 
 geon General Hamilton. The particular topic v/hich 
 engaged their attention was the possibility of the pol- 
 lution of the water-supply of towns along the Cone- 
 maugh river by the many dead bodies floating down 
 the stream. 
 
 The President was desirous that this new source of 
 danger should be cut off, if any measures which could 
 be taken by the government could accomplish it. It 
 
180 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 was suggested that the decomposition of so much 
 human flesh and the settling of the decomposing frag- 
 ments into the bed of the stream might make the 
 water so foul as to breed disease and scatter death in 
 a new form among the surviving dwellers in the 
 
 valley. 
 
 Not Afraid of a Plagriie. 
 
 Surgeon General Hamilton expressed the opinion 
 that the danger was not so great as might be supposed. 
 There would be no pollution from those bodies taken 
 from the river before decomposition set in, and the 
 force of the freshet would tend to clear the river bed 
 of any impurities in it rather than make new deposits. 
 The argument which had the most weight, however, 
 with the President was the efficiency of the local 
 authorities. Pennsylvania has a State Board of Health 
 and is a State with ample means at her disposal, both 
 in money and men, and if there is any danger of this 
 sort her local officials were able to deal with it. This 
 was practically the decision of the conference. The 
 gentlemen will meet again, if necessary, and stand 
 ready to render every assistance which the situation 
 calls for, but they will leave the control of the matter 
 with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until it ap- 
 pears that she is unable to cope with it. 
 
 Governor Beaver to the President* 
 
 The following telegram was received by President 
 Harrison from Governor Beaver, who made his way 
 from York to Harrisburg : — 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 181 
 
 *'Harrisburg, Pa., June 3, 1889. 
 •*To the President, Washington : — 
 
 "The Sheriff of Cambria county says everything is 
 quiet and that he can control the situation without the 
 aid of troops. The people are fairly housed and good 
 order prevails. The supply of food so far is equal to 
 the demand, but supplies of food and clothing are still 
 greatly needed^ 
 
 " Conservative estimates place the loss of life at 
 from five thousand to ten thousand, and loss of prop- 
 erty at from $25,000,000 to $40,000,000. The people 
 are at work heroically, and will have a large force to- 
 morrow clearing away the debris. 
 
 **The sympathies of the world are freely expressed. 
 One telegram from England gives $1,000. I will is- 
 sue a general appeal to the public to-night. Help 
 comes from all quarters. Its universality greatly en- 
 courages our people. I will communicate with you 
 promptly if anything unusual occurs. 
 
 ** James A. Beaver.** 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 Tti^iliir^g HxperierLoes, 
 
 Johnstown, Pa., Jane 3, 1889. — Innumerable tales 
 of thrilling individual expeiiences, each one more hor- 
 rible than the others, are told. 
 
 Frank McDonald, a condactor on the Somerset 
 branch of the Baltimore and Ohio, was at the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad depot in this place when the flood 
 came. He says that when he first saw the flood it was 
 thirty feet high and gradually rose to ai: least forty feet. 
 
 " There is no doubt that the South Fork Dam was 
 the cause of the disaster," said Mr. McDonald. *' Fif- 
 teen minutes before the flood came Decker, the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad agent read me a telegram that he 
 had just received saying that the South Fork Dam 
 had broken. As soon as he heard this the people in 
 station, numbering six hundred, made a rush for a hill. 
 I certainly think I saw one thousand bodies go ovei 
 the bridge. The first house that came down struck 
 the bridge and at once took fire, and as fast as thf 
 others rame down they were consumed. 
 
 Saw a Thousand Persons Burn. 
 
 " I believe I am safe in saying that I saw one thous- 
 and bodies burn. It reminded me of a lot of flies on 
 fly paper struggling to get away, with no hope and no 
 chance to save them. 
 
 (1^2) 
 

 
 ■Im-M^gji 
 
 (183^ 
 
184 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 *' I have no idea that had the bridge been blown up 
 the loss of life would have been any less. They would 
 have floated a little further with the same certain 
 death. Then, again, it was impossible for any one to 
 have reached the bridge in order to blow it out, for 
 the waters came so fast that no one could have done it 
 
 " I saw fifteen to eighteen bodies go over the bridge 
 at the same time. 
 
 ** I offered a man J20 to row me across the river, 
 but could get no one to go, and finally had to build a 
 boat and get across that way." 
 
 It required some exercise of acrobatic agility to get 
 into or out of the town. A slide, a series of frightful 
 tosses from side to side, a run and you had crossed 
 the narrow rope bridge which spanned the chasm dug 
 by the waters between the stone bridge and Johns- 
 town. Crossing the bridge was an exciting task. Yet 
 many women accomplished it rather than remain in 
 Johnstown. The bridge pitched like a ship in a storm. 
 Within two Inches of your feet rushed the muddy 
 waters of the Conemaugh. There were no ropes to 
 guide one and creeping was more convenient than 
 walking. 
 
 One had to cross the Conemaugh at a second point 
 m order to reach Johnstown proper. This was accom- 
 plished by a skiff ferry. The ferryman clung to a 
 rope and pulled the load over. 
 
 Confusion Worse Confounded. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the appearance of Main 
 street Whole houses have been swept down this one 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 185 
 
 Street and become lodged. The wreck is piled as high 
 as the second story windows. The reporter could 
 step from the wreck into the auditorium of the Opera 
 House. The ruins consists of parts of houses, trees, 
 saw logs, reels from the wire factory. Many houses 
 have their side walls and roofs torn up, and you can 
 walk directly into what had been second story bed- 
 rooms, or go in by way of the top. Further up town a 
 raft of logs lodged in the street and did great damage. 
 
 The best way to get an idea of the wreck is to take 
 a number of children's blocks, place them closely to- 
 gether and draw your hand through them_. 
 
 At the commencement of the wreckage, which is at 
 the opening of the valley of the Conemaugh, one can 
 look up the valley for miles and not see a house. 
 Nothing stands but an old woolen mill. 
 As Seen by an Eye-Witness. 
 
 Charles Luther is the name of the boy who stood 
 on an adjacent elevation and saw the whole flood. He 
 said he heard a grinding noise far up the valley, and 
 looking up he could see a dark line moving slowly to- 
 ward him. He saw that it was made up of liouses. On 
 they came like the hand of a giant clearing off his tables. 
 High in the air would be tossed a log or beam, 
 which fell back with a crash. Down the valley it 
 moved sedately and across the little mountain city. 
 For ten minutes nothing but moving houses were seen, 
 and then the waters came with a roar and a rush. 
 This lasted for two hours, and then it began to hovt 
 more steadily. 
 
186 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 The pillaging of the houses in Johnstown is some- 
 thing awful to contemplate and describe. It makes 
 one feel almost ashamed to call himself a man and 
 know that others who bear the same name have con- 
 verted themselves into human vultures, preying on the 
 'dead. Men are carrying shotguns and revolvers, and 
 woe betide the stranger who looks even suspiciously 
 at any article. Goods of great value were being sold 
 in town to-day for a drink of whiskey. 
 
 A supply store has been established in the Fourth 
 ward in Johnstown. A line of men, women and chil- 
 dren, extending for a square, waited patiently to have 
 their wants supplied. 
 
 An Improvised Morgue. 
 
 The school house has been converted into a morgue, 
 and the dead are being buried from this place. A 
 hospital has been opened near by and is full of pa- 
 tients. One of the victims was removed from a piece 
 of wreckage in which he had been imprisoned 
 three days. His leg was broken and his face badly 
 bruised. He was delirious when rescued. 
 
 In some places it is said the railroad tracks were 
 scooped out to a depth of twenty feet. A train of 
 cars, all loaded, were run on the Conemaugh bridge. 
 They, with the bridge, now lie in the wreckage at this 
 point. The Pennsylvania Railroad loses thirty-five 
 engines and many cars. 
 
 Fire Still Kag-iiig. 
 
 The cling-cllng-clang of the engines has a homelike 
 sound. The fire has spread steadily all day and the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 187 
 
 upper part of the drift is burning to-night. The fire 
 engine is stationed on the river bank and a line of 
 hose laid far up the track to the coal mine. The 
 flames to-night are higher than ever before, and by its 
 
 FIREMEN ON DUTY AT THE BRIDGE. 
 
 jight long lines of the curious can be seen along the 
 banks. 
 
 The natural gas has been shut off, owing to the 
 many leaks in Johnstown. No fire is allowed in the 
 
188 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 city. The walls of many houses are falling. Their 
 crash can be heard across the river, where the newspa* 
 per men are located. In the walk through the town 
 to day the word "danger," could be noticed, painted 
 by the rescuers on the walls. 
 
 Cremated. 
 
 One of the Catholic churches in the town was 
 burned on Saturday. A house drifted down against it 
 and set it on fire. A funeral was being held at the 
 church at the time of the flood. The congregation de- 
 serted the church and the body was burned with the 
 building. Two large trees passed entirely through a 
 brick Catholic church located near the centre of the 
 town. The building still stands, but is a total wreck. 
 
 Colonel Norman M. Smith, of Pittsburgh, while re- 
 turning from Johnstown after a visit to Adjutant Gen- 
 eral Hastings, was knocked from the temporary bridge 
 into the river and carried down stream a couple of 
 hundred yards before he was able to swim ashore. He 
 
 was not hurt. 
 
 A liUcky IBscape. 
 
 O. J. Palmer, travelling salesman for a Pittsburgh 
 meat house, was on the ill-fated day express, one car 
 of which was washed away. He narrowly escaped 
 drowning, and tells a horrible tale of his experience 
 on that occasion. The engineer, the fireman and 
 himself, when they saw the flood coming, got upon the 
 top of the car, and when the coach was carried away 
 they caught the driftwood, and fortunately it was car- 
 ried near the shore and they escaped to the hills, Mr. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 189 
 
 Palmer walked a distance of twenty miles around the 
 
 flooded district to a nearby railroad station on this 
 
 side« 
 
 Freaks of the Disaster, 
 
 A novel scene was witnessed yesterday near Johns- 
 town borough. Some women who managed to 
 escape from the town proper had to wear men's 
 clothes, as their own had been torn off by the flood. 
 
 The force of the flood can be estimated by the fact 
 that it carried three cars a mile and a half and the 
 tender of an engine weighing twelve tons was carried 
 fourteen miles down the river. A team of horses 
 which was standing on Main street just before the 
 flood was found a mile and a quarter below the town 
 yesterday. ^ 
 
 The damage to the Cambria Iron Works was not so 
 great as at first reported. The ends of the blooming 
 mill and open hearth furnace buildings were crushed 
 in by the force of the flood. The water rushed 
 through the mill and tore a great pile of machinery 
 from its fastenings and caused other damage. The 
 Bessemer steel mill is almost a ruin. The rolling and 
 wire mills and the six blast furnaces were not much 
 damaged. This morning the company put a large 
 force of men at work and are making strenuous 
 efforts to have at least a portion of the plant in oper- 
 ation within a few weeks. This has given encourage- 
 ment to the stricken people of Johnstown, and they 
 now seem to have some hope, although so many of 
 their loved ones have met their death. The mill yard, 
 
190 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 with its numerous railroad tracks, is nothing but a 
 waste. Large piles of pig metal were scattered in 
 every direction. All the loose debris is being gath- 
 ered into heaps and burned. 
 
 Hurled to a Place of Safety. 
 
 A pitiful sight was that of an old, gray haired man 
 named Norn. He was walking around among the 
 mass of debris, looking for his family. He had just 
 sat down to eat his supper when the crash came, and 
 the whole family, consisting of wife and eight children, 
 were buried beneath the collapsed house. He was 
 carried down the river to the railroad bridge on a 
 plank. Just at the bridge a cross-tie struck him with 
 such force that he was shot clear upon the pier and 
 was safe. But he is a mass of bruises and cuts from 
 head to foot. He refused to go to the hospital until 
 he found the bodies of his loved ones. 
 Heroism in Bright Relief. 
 
 A Paul Revere lies somewhere among the dead. 
 Who he is is now known, and his ride will be famous 
 in history. Mounted on a grand, big bay horse, he 
 came riding down the pike which passes through 
 Conemaugh to Johnstown, like some angel of wrath of 
 old, shouting his warning : ** Run for your lives to 
 the hills ! Run to the hills ! " 
 
 A Cloud of Kuin. 
 
 The people crowded out of their houses along the 
 thickly settled streets awestruck and wondering. 
 No one knew the man, and some thought he was a 
 maniac and laughed. On and on, at a deadly pace, he 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 191 
 
 rode, and shrilly rang out his awful cry. In a few mo- 
 ments, however, there came a cloud of ruin down the 
 broad streets, down the narrow alleys, grinding, twist- 
 ing, hurling, overturning, crashing — annihilating the 
 weak and the strong. It was the charge of the flood, 
 wearing its coronet of ruin and devastation, which 
 grew at every Instant of its progress. Forty feet high, 
 some say, thirty according to others, w^as this sea, and 
 it travelled with a swiftness like that which lay in the 
 heels of Mercury. 
 
 On and on raced the rider, on and on rushed the 
 v/ave. Dozens of people took heed of the warning 
 and ran up to the hills. 
 
 Poor, faithful rider, it was an unequal contest Just 
 as he turned to cross the railroad bridge the mighty 
 wall fell upon him, and horse, rider and bridge all went 
 out into chaos together. 
 
 A few feet further on several cars of the Pennsylva- 
 nia Railroad train from Pittsburgh were caught up and 
 hurried into the caldron, and the heart of the town 
 was reached. 
 
 The hero had turned neither to right nor left for 
 himself, but rode on to death for his townsmen. He 
 v/as overwhelmed by the current at the bridge and 
 drowned. A party of searchers found the body of this 
 man and his horse. He was still in the saddle. In a 
 short time the man was identified as Daniel Periton, 
 son of a merchant of Johnstown, a young man of re- 
 markable courage. He is no longer the unknown 
 hero, for the name of Daniel Periton will live in fame 
 
192 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 as long as the history of this calamity is remembered 
 by the people of this country. 
 
 A Devoted Operator. 
 
 Mrs. Ogle, the manager of the Western Union, whc 
 died at her post, will go down in history as a heroine 
 of the highest order. Notwithstanding the repeated 
 notifications which she received to get out of reach of 
 the approaching danger, she stood by the instruments 
 with unflinching loyalty and undaunted courage, send« 
 ing words of v/arning to those in danger in the valley 
 below. When every station in the path of the coming 
 torrent had been warned she wired her companion at 
 South Fork, ''This is my last message," and as such 
 it shall always be remembered as her last words on 
 earth, for at that very moment the torrent engulfed 
 her and bore her from her post on earth to her post 
 of honor in the great beyond. 
 
 Another Hero. 
 
 A telegraph operator at the railroad station above 
 Mineral Point, which is just in the gorge a short dis- 
 tance below the dam, and the last telegraph station 
 above Conemaugh, had seen the waters rising, and 
 had heard of the first break in the dam. Two hours 
 before the final break came he sent a messao^e to his 
 wife at Mineral Point to prepare for the flood. It 
 read : " Dress the three children in their best Sunday 
 clothes. Gather together what valuables you can 
 easily carry and leave the house. Go to the stable on 
 the hillside. Stay there until the water reaches it; 
 
^ THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 193 
 
 then run to the mountain. The dam is breaking. The 
 flood is coming. Lose no time." 
 
 His wife showed the message to her friends, but 
 they laughed at her. They even persuaded her to not 
 heed her husband's command. The wife went home 
 and about her work. Meanwhile the telegraph opera- 
 tor was busy with his ticker. Down to Conemaugh 
 he wired the warning. He also sent it on to Johns- 
 town, then he ticked on, giving each minute bulletins 
 of the break. As the water came down he sent 
 message after message, telling its progress. Finally 
 came the flood. He saw houses and bodies swept 
 past him. His last message was : "The Vv^ater is all 
 around me ; I cannot stay longer, and, for God's sake, 
 all fly." Then he jumped out of his tower window 
 and ran up the mountain just in time to save himself. 
 A whole town came past as he turned and looked. 
 Great masses of houses plunged up. He saw people 
 on roofs yelling and crying, and then saw collisions of 
 houses, which caused the buildings to crush and 
 crumble like paper. 
 
 Racing- witli Death. 
 
 All the time he felt that his family v/ere safe. But 
 it was not so with them. When the roar of approach- 
 ing water came the people of Mineral Point thought 
 of their warning. The wife gathered her children and 
 started to run. As she v/ent she forgot her husband's 
 advice to go to the mountain and fled down the street 
 to the lowlands. Suddenly she remembered she had 
 left the key of her home in the door. She took the 
 13 
 
1^ THE JOHNSTOWN nORROR. ^ 
 
 children and ran back. As she neared the house the 
 water came and forced them up between the two 
 houses. The only outlet was toward the mountain, 
 and she ran that way with her children. The water 
 chased her, but she and the children managed to 
 clamber up far enough to escape. Thus it was that 
 an accident saved their lives. Only three houses and 
 a school-house were saved at Mineral Point. 
 A Dang-erous Venture. 
 
 One of the most thrilling incidents of the disaster 
 was the performance of A. J. Leonard, whose family 
 reside in Morrellville. He was at work, and hearing 
 that his house had been swept away determined at all 
 hazards to ascertain the fate of his family. The bridges 
 having been carried away he constructed a temporary 
 raft, and clinging to it as close as a cat to the side of 
 a fence, he pushed his frail craft out into the raging 
 torrent and started on a chase which, to all who were 
 watching, seemed to mean an embrace In death. 
 
 Heedless of cries ''For God's sake go back, you 
 will be drowned." *' Don't attempt it," he persevered. 
 As the raft struck the current he pulled off his coat 
 and In his shirt sleeves braved the stream. Down 
 plunged the boards and down v/ent Leonard, but as 
 it arose he was seen still clinging. A mighty shoutj 
 arose from the throats of the hundreds on the banks^/ 
 who were now deeply interested, earnestly hoping he 
 would successfully ford the stream. 
 
 Down again went his bark, but nothing, It seemed, 
 could shake Leonard off. The craft shot up In the air 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 195 
 
 apparently ten or twelve feet, and Leonard stuck to it 
 tenaciously. Slowly but surely he worked his boat to 
 the other side of the stream, and after what seemed an 
 awful suspense he finally landed amid ringing cheers 
 of men, women and children. 
 
 The last seen of him he was making his way down'^ 
 a mountain road in the direction of the spot where his 
 house had lately stood. His family consisted of his 
 wife and three children. 
 
 A Thrillingr Escape. 
 
 Henry D. Thomas, a well-known dry goods mer- 
 chant, tells the following stoiy : '' I was caught right 
 between a plank and a stone wall and was held in that 
 position for a long time. The water came rushing 
 down and forced the plank against my chest. I felt 
 as if it were going through me, when suddenly the 
 plank gave way, and I fell into the water. I grabbed 
 the plank quickly and in some unaccountable way 
 managed to get the forepart of my body on it, and in 
 that way I was carried down the stream. All around 
 me were people struggling and drowning, \vhlle bodies 
 floated like corks on the water. Some were crying for 
 help, others were praying aloud for mercy and a few 
 were singing as If to keep up their courage. 
 
 A large raft which went by bore a whole family, and 
 they were singing, *' Nearer my God to Thee." In the 
 midst of their song the raft struck a large tree and 
 went to splinters. There were one or two wild cries 
 and then silence. The horror of that time is wath me 
 day and night. It Would have driven a weak-minded 
 person crazy. 
 
19G THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 ** The true condition of things that night can never 
 be adequately described in words. The water came 
 down through a narrow gorge, which in places was 
 hardly two hundred feet wide. The broken dam was 
 at an elevation of about five hundred feet above Johns- 
 town. The railroad bridge across the Conemaugh 
 River is at the lower side of Johnstown, and the river 
 is joined there by another mountain stream from the 
 northeast. It was here that the debris collected and 
 caught fire, and I doubt if it will ever be known how 
 many perished there. The water came down with the 
 speed of a locomotive. The people there are abso- 
 lutely paralyzed — so much so that they speak of their 
 losses in a most indifferent way. I heard two men in 
 conversation. One said: 'Well, I lost a wife and 
 three children/ * That's nothing,* said the other; *I 
 lost a wife and six children.* 
 
 The Sudden Break. 
 
 A man named Maguire was met on his way from 
 South Fork to Johnstown. He said he was standing 
 on the edofe of the lake when the walls burst. The 
 waters were rising all day and were on a level with a 
 pile of dirt which he said was above the walls of the 
 dam. All of a sudden it burst with a report like a 
 cannon and the water started down the mountain side, 
 sweeping before it the trees as if they were chips. 
 Bowlders were rolled down as if they were marbles. 
 The roar was deafening. The lake was emotied in 
 an hour 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 197 
 
 At the time there were about forty men at work up 
 there, building a new draining system at the lake for 
 Messrs. Parke and Van Buren. They did all they 
 could to try and avert the disaster by digging a sluice- 
 way on one side to ease the pressure on the dam, but 
 their efforts were fruitless. 
 
 *' It was about half-past two o'clock when the water 
 reached the top of the dam. At first it was just a 
 narrow white stream trickling down the face of the 
 dam, soon its proportions began to grow with alarm- 
 ing rapidity, and in an extremely short space of time 
 a volume of water a foot in thickness was passing over 
 the top of the dam. 
 
 *' There had been little rain up to dark. Whatever 
 happened in the way of a cloud burst took place dur- 
 ing the night. When the workmen woke in the 
 morning the lake was very full and was rising at the 
 rate of a foot an hour. 
 
 " When at two o'clock the water began to flow over 
 the dam, the work of undermining began. Men were 
 sent three or four times during the day 
 
 To Warn the People 
 below of their danger. At three o'clock there was a 
 sound like tremendous and continued peals of thunder. 
 The earth seemed to shake and vibrate beneath o'j^ 
 feet 
 
 "There was a rush of wind, the trees swayed to and 
 fro, the air was full of fine spray or mist : then looking 
 down just in front of the dam we saw trees, rocks and 
 earth shot up into mid-air In great columns. It 
 
198 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 seemed as though some great unseen force was at 
 work wantonly destroying everything ; then the great 
 wave, foaming, boiling and hissing, dashing clouds of 
 spray hundreds of feet in height as it came against 
 some obstruction in the way of its mad rush, clearing 
 everything away before it, started on its terrible 
 death-dealing mission down the fatal valley." 
 Engineer Henry's Awtul Kace. 
 
 Engineer Henry, of the second section of the ex- 
 press train, No. 8, which was caught at Conemaugh, 
 tells a thrilling story. His train was caught in the 
 midst of the wave and were the only cars that were 
 not destroyed. '' It was an awful sight," he said. **I 
 have often seen pictures of flood scenes, and I thought 
 they were exaggerations, but what I witnessed last 
 Friday changes my former belief To see that im- 
 mense volume of water, fully fifty feet high, rushing 
 madly down the valley, sweeping everything before it, 
 was a thrilling sight. It is engraved indelibly on my 
 memory. Even now I can see that mad torrent 
 carrying death and destruction before it. 
 
 **The second section of No. 8, on which I was, was 
 due at John-town about 10.15 in the morning. We 
 arrived mere safely, and were told to follow the first 
 section. When we arrived at Conemaugh the first sec- 
 tion and the mail were there. Washouts further up 
 the mountain prevented our going, so we could do 
 nothing but sit around and discuss the situation. The 
 creek at Conemaugh was swollen high, almost over- 
 flowing. The heavens werr pounng rain, but this did 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 199 
 
 not prevent nearly all the inhabitants of the town from 
 gathering along its banks. They watched 
 
 The Waters Go Basiling 
 by and wondered whether the creek could get much 
 higher. But a few inches more and it would overflow 
 its banks. There seemed to be a feeling of uneasiness 
 among the people. They seemed to fear that some- 
 thing awful was going to happen. Their suspicions 
 were strengthened by the fact that warning had come 
 down the valley for the people to be on the lookout. 
 The rains had swelled everything to the bursting 
 point. The day passed slowly, however. 
 
 Noon came and went, and still nothing happened. 
 We could not proceed, nor could we go back, as the 
 tracks about a mile below Conemaugh had been 
 washed away, so there was nothing for us to do but to 
 wait and see what would come next. 
 
 Some time after 3 o'clock Friday afternoon I went 
 into the train despatcher's office to learn the latest 
 news. I had not been there long when I heard a 
 fierce whistling from an engine away up the mountain. 
 Rushing out I found dozens of mxen standing around. 
 Fear had blanched every cheek. The loud and con- 
 tinued whisding had made every one feel that some- 
 thing serious was going to happen. In a few. mo- 
 ments I could hear a train rattling dovm the mountain. 
 About five hundred yards above Conemaugh the 
 tracks make a slight curve and we could not see be- 
 yond this. The suspense was something awful. We 
 did not know what was coming, but no one could get 
 
200 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 rid of the thought that something was wrong at the 
 dam. 
 
 ''Our suspense was not very long, however. 
 Nearer and nearer the train came, the thundering 
 sound still accompanying It. There seemed to be 
 something behind the tram, as there was a dull, rumb- 
 ling sound which I knew did not come from the train. 
 Nearer and nearer it came ; a moment more and It 
 would reach the curve. The next instant there burst 
 upon our eyes a sight that made every heart stand 
 still. Rushing around the curve, snorting and tear- 
 ing, came an engine and several gravel cars. The 
 train appeared to be putting forth every effort to go 
 /aster. Nearer It came, belching forth smoke and 
 whistling long and loud. But 
 
 The Most TerriMe Sight 
 was to follow. Tv/enty feet behind came surging 
 along a mad rush of v*^ater fully fifty feet high. Like 
 the train, it seemed to be putting forth every effort to 
 push along faster. Such an awful race we never be- 
 fore witnessed. For an instant the people seemed 
 paralyzed with horror. They knew not what to do, 
 but in a moment they realized that a second's delay 
 meant death to them. With one accord they rushed 
 to the high lands a few hundred feet away. Most of 
 them succeeded in reaching that place and were safe. 
 
 ** I thought of the passengers in my train. The 
 second section of No. 8 had three sleepers. In these 
 three cars were about thirty people, who rushed 
 through the train crying to the others * Save your- 
 
(201) 
 
202 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 selves ! * Then came a scene of the wildest confusion. 
 Ladles and children shrieked and the men seemed 
 terror-stricken. I succeeded In helping some ladles 
 and children off the train and up to the highlands. 
 Running back, I caught up two children and ran for 
 imy life to a higher place. Thank God, I was quicker 
 (than the flood ! I deposited my load in safety on the 
 high land just as it swept past us. 
 
 *' For nearly an hour we stood watching the mad 
 flood go rushing by. The water was full of debris. 
 When the flood caught Conemaugh it dashed against 
 the little town with a mighty crash. The water did 
 not lift the houses up and carry them off, but crushed 
 them one against the other and broke them up like so 
 many egg shells. Before the flood came there was a 
 pretty little town. When the waters passed on there 
 was nothing but 
 
 Few Broken Boards 
 to mark the central portion of the city. It was swept 
 as clean as a newly brushed floor. When the flood 
 passed onward down the valley I went over to my 
 train. It had been moved back about twenty yards, 
 but it was not damaged. About fifty persons had re- 
 mained In the train and they were safe. Of the three 
 trains ours was the luckiest. The engines of both the 
 others had been swept off the track and one or two 
 cars in each train had met the same fate. 
 
 What saved our train was the fact that just at the 
 curve which I mentioned the valley spread out. The 
 valley is six or seven hundred yards broad where our 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 203 
 
 train was standing. This, of course, let the floods 
 pass out. It was only twenty feet high when it struck 
 our train, which was about in the middle of the valley. 
 
 This fact, together with the elevation of the track, 
 was all that saved us. We stayed that night in the 
 houses in Conemaugh that had not been destroyed. 
 The next morning I started down the valley and by 4 
 o'clock in the afternoon had reached Conemaugh fur- 
 nace, eight miles west of Johnstown. Then I got a 
 team and came home. 
 
 In my tramp down the valley I saw some awful 
 sights. On the tree branches hung shreds of clothing 
 torn from the unfortunates as they were whirled along 
 in the terrible rush of the torrent. Dead bodies were 
 lying by scores along the banks of the creeks. One 
 woman I helped drag from the mud had tightly 
 clutched in her hand a paper. We tore it out of her 
 hand and found it to be a badly water-soaked photo- 
 graph. It was probably a picture of the drowned 
 
 woman." 
 
 OTer tlie Bridg-e. 
 
 Frank McDonald, a railroad conductor, says: 'T 
 certainly think I saw 1,000 bodies go over the bridge. 
 The first house that came down struck the bridge and 
 at once took fire, and as fast as they came down they 
 were consumed. I believe I am safe in saying I saw 
 1,000 bodies burn. It reminded me of a lot of flies on 
 fly-paper struggling to get away, with no hope and no 
 chance to save them. I have no idea that had the 
 bridge been blown up the loss of life would have been 
 
204 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 any less. They woud have floated a little further 
 with the same certain death. Then, again, It was 
 impossible for any one to have reached the bridge in 
 order to blow it up, for the waters came so fast that 
 no one could have done it. I saw fifteen to eighteen 
 bodies go over the bridge. At the same time I offered 
 a man twenty dollars to row me across the river, but 
 could get no one to go, and I finally had to build a 
 boat and get across that way." ^ 
 
 Nothing seems to have withstood the merciless 
 sweep of the mighty on-rush of pent-up Conemaugh. 
 As for the houses of the town a thousand of them lie 
 piled up in a smouldering mass to the right of Cone- 
 maugh bridge. 
 
 At the present moment, away down in its terrible 
 depths, this mass of torn and twisted timbers and dead 
 humanity is slowly burning, and the light curling 
 smoke that rises as high almost as the mountain, and 
 the sickening smell that comes from the centre of this 
 fearful funeral pile tell that the unseen fire Is feeding 
 on other fuel than the rafters and roofs that once shel- 
 tered the population of Johnstown. 
 A Ghastly Scene. 
 
 The mind is filled with horror at the supreme deso* 
 lation that pervades the whole scene. It is small 
 wonder that the pen cannot in the hands of the most 
 skillful even pretend to convey one-hundredth part of 
 what is seen and heard every hour in the day In this 
 fearful place. At the present moment firemen and 
 others are out on that ghastly aggregation of wood- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 205 
 
 work and human kind jammed against the unyielding 
 mass of arched masonry. 
 
 Round them curls the white smoke from the smould- 
 ering interior of the heaped up houses of Johnstown, 
 Every now and then the gleam of an axe and a group 
 of stooping forms tell that another ghastly find has 
 been made, and a whisper goes round among the 
 hundreds of watchers that other bodies are being 
 brought to light. 
 
 How many hundreds or thousands there are who 
 found death by fire at this awful spot will never be 
 known, and the people are already giving up hopes of 
 ever reaching the knowledge of how their loved and 
 lost ones met their doom, whether in the fierce, angry 
 embrace of the waters of Conemaugh, or in the deadly 
 grip of the fire fiend, who claimed the homes of Johns- 
 town for his own above the fatal bridge. 
 
 Every hour it becomes more and more apparent 
 that the exact number of lives lost will never be known. 
 Up to the present time the disposition has been to un^ 
 der rather than overestimate the number of lives 
 
 sacrificed. 
 
 A Motlier Kescued by Her Daughter. 
 
 A daughter of John Duncan, superintendent of the 
 Johnstown Street Car Company, had an awful strug- 
 gle in rescuing her mother and baby sister. Mrs. 
 Duncan and family had taken refuge on a roof, when 
 a large log came floating down the river, striking the 
 house widi immense force, knocking Mrs. Duncan and 
 daughter into the fast running river. Seeing what had 
 
206 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 happened, Alvanla, her fifteen-year-old daughter, 
 leaped Into the water, and after a hard struggle landed 
 both on the roof of the house. 
 
 The members of the Cambria Club tell of their bat- 
 tle for life in the following manner : They were about 
 to sit down to dinner when they heard the crash, and' 
 knowing what had occurred fney started for the attic: 
 just as the flood was upon them. When the members 
 were assured of their safety they at once commenced 
 saving others by grasping them as they floated by on 
 tree tops, houses, etc. In this manner they saved 
 seventy persons from death. 
 
 The Clock Stopped at 5.20. 
 
 One of the queerest sight in the centre of the town 
 is a three-story brick residence standing with one wall, 
 the others having disappeared completely, leaving the 
 floors supported by the partitions. In one of the up- 
 per rooms can be seen a mantel with a lambrequin on 
 it and a clock stopped at twenty minutes after five. In 
 front of the clock is a lady's fan, though from the 
 marks on the wall-paper the water has been over all 
 these things. 
 
 In the upper part of the town, where the back water 
 from the flood went into the valley with diminished 
 force, there are many strange scenes. There the 
 houses were toppled over one after another in a row, 
 and left where they lay. One of them was turned 
 completely over and stands with its roof on the foun- 
 dations of another house and its base in the air. The 
 owner came back, and getting into his house through 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. - 207 
 
 the windows walked about on his ceiling. Out of this 
 house a woman and her two children escaped safely 
 and were but little hurt, although they were stood on 
 their heads In the whirl. Every house has Its own 
 story. From one a woman shut up in her garret es« 
 caped by chopping a hole In the roof. From another 
 a Hungarian named Grevins leaped to the shore as It' 
 went whirling past and fell twenty-five feet upon a pile 
 of metal and escaped with a broken leg. Another is 
 said to have come all the way from very near the start 
 of the flood and to have circled around with the back 
 water and finally landed on the flats at the city site, 
 v»rhere it is still pointed out 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 New Tales of Horror. 
 
 The accounts contained in the foregoing chapters 
 bring this appalling story of death down to June 4th. 
 We continue the narrative as given from day to day 
 by eye-witnesses, as this Is the only method by which 
 a full and accurate description of Johnstown's 
 unspeakable horror can be obtained. 
 
 On the morning of June 5th one of the leading 
 journals contained the following announcements, 
 printed in large type, and preceding Its vivid account 
 of the terrible situation at Johnstown. 
 
 Death, ruin, plague ! Threatened outbreak of dis- 
 ease in the fate stricken valley. Awful effluvia from 
 corpses ! Swift and decisive means must be taken to 
 clear away the masses of putrefying matter that un- 
 derlie the wreck of what was once a town. Proposed 
 use of explosives. Crowds of refugees are already 
 attacked by pneumonia and the germs of typhus 
 pervade both air and water. Victims yet unnum- 
 bered. Dreadful discoveries hourly made ! Heaps 
 of the drowned, the mangled and the burned are 
 found in pockets between rocks and under packed 
 accumulations of sand ! Pennsylvania regiments 
 ordered to the scene to keep ward over an afflicted 
 and heart-broken people. Blame where it belongs. 
 
 (208) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 209 
 
 The ears of the inhabitants were dulled to fear by 
 warnings many times repeated— forty- two years ago 
 the dam broke — vivid stories of witnesses of the great 
 tragedy — the owners of the lake must bear a gigantic 
 burden of remorse — sufferings of survivors ! 
 
 These were the terrible headings in a single issue of 
 a newspaper. 
 
 A registry of the living who were residents of Johns- 
 town prior to the flood was begun to-day. Out of a 
 total population of 39,400 the names of only 10,600 
 have been recorded. This may give an approximate 
 idea of the number of those who lost their lives. 
 Gaunt Menace of Pestilence. 
 
 The most important near fact of to-day is the 
 increasing danger of pestilence. 
 
 As the work of disengaging the bodies of the dead 
 progresses the horrible peril becomes more and more 
 apparent There is need of the speediest possible 
 measures to offset the gravity of the sanitary situa- 
 tion. 
 
 From every part of the stricken valley the same cry 
 of alarm arises, for at every point where the dead are 
 being discovered, as the waters continue to abate, the 
 same peril exists. 
 
 The use of explosives, especially dynamite, has been 
 discussed. There is some opposition to it, but it may 
 yet be resorted to. The great mass of ruins at the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, which is still sm^oking 
 and smouldering, is a ghastly mine of human flesh 
 and bones in all sorts of hideous shapes, and unless 
 14 
 
fLlO 
 
 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 desperate means are employed, cannot be cleared 
 away in Avceks to come. 
 
 Still, vigorous work in that direction is being per- 
 
 READING THE HORRIBLE NEWS. 
 
 fonned, and explosives will be used m a limited degree 
 to further it. This great work may be divided into two 
 parts — the clearing away of the mass of debris lodged 
 against the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, and the ex- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 211 
 
 amination and removal of the many wrecked buildings 
 which mark the site of Johnstown. 
 
 Order Out of Chaos. 
 
 Slowly something like order is beginning to appear 
 in the chaos of destruction. Enough militia came to- 
 day to put the town under strict martial law. Foui 
 hundred men of the Fourteenth regiment, of Pitts- 
 burgh, are here. There will be no more tramping over 
 the ruins by ungoverned mobs. There will be no more 
 fears of rioting. 
 
 The supplies of food are constantly growing. The 
 much needed money is beginning to come in, though 
 not at all needless relief committees are beginning to 
 go out. Better quarters for the sufferers are being 
 provided. Better arrangements for systematic relief 
 are made. Something of the deep gloom has been 
 dispelled, though Johnstown is still the saddest spot 
 on earth. 
 
 The systematic attempt to clear up the ruins at the 
 gorge and get out the bodies imprisoned there began 
 to-day. The expectations of ghastly discoveries were 
 more than realized. Scores of burned and mangled 
 bodies were removed. 
 
 Freaks of tlie Torrent. 
 
 The great waste where the city stood looked a little 
 different to-day. Some attempt was made to clear up 
 the rubbish, and fires were burning in a dozen places 
 to get rid of it. Tents for the soldiers and some of 
 the sufferers were put up in the smooth stretch of 
 sand where a great, five story hardware store used to 
 
212 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Stand. The dead animals that were here and there in 
 the debris were removed, to the benefit of die towns- 
 people's health. 
 
 Curious things come to light where the rubbish was 
 cleared away. The solid cobblestone pavement had 
 been scooped up by the force of the water and in 
 some places swept so far away that there was not a 
 sign of it. Behind a house that was resting on one 
 corner was found a wickerwork baby carriage full of 
 mud, but not injured or scratched in the least nor yet 
 buried in the mud, but looking as if it had been rolled 
 there and left. Very close to it was a piece of railroad 
 iron that must have been carried half a mile, bent as ii 
 it were but common wire. Exactly on the site of a 
 large grocery store was a box of soap and a bundle of 
 clothespins, while of all the brick and stone, of which 
 the store was built, and all the heavy furniture it con- 
 tained there was not the slightest trace. 
 
 Many articles of wearing apparel were found here, 
 but no bodies could be discovered in the whole stretch 
 of the plain, from which it is inferred that most of the 
 deaths occurred at the gorge or else the flood swept 
 them far away. 
 
 Keminders of a Broken Home. 
 
 One of the few buildings that are left in this part of 
 town is the fine house of Mr. Geranheiser, of the Cam- 
 bria Iron Company. It presents a queer spectacle — - 
 that is common here but has not often been seen be- 
 fore. The flood reached almost to the second floor 
 and was strong enough to cut away about half the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 213 
 
 house, leaving the rest standing. The whole Interior 
 of the place can be seen just as the frightened inmates 
 left it. The carpets are torn up from the first floor, 
 but the pictures are still hanging on the walls and an 
 open piano stands against the wall full of mud ; a 
 Brussels carpet being half way out of the second story 
 on the side where the wreck was and showing exactly 
 how hiofh the water came. There was a centre table 
 in the room and an open book on it. Chairs stood 
 about the room and the pictures were on the walls, 
 and half of the room was gone miles away. 
 Seven Acres of Wreckage. 
 
 Just below the bare plain where the business block 
 of Johnstown stood, and above the stone arch bridge 
 on which the Pennsylvania Railroad crossed the river, 
 are seven acres of the wreckage of the flood. The 
 horrors that have been enacted in that spot, the 
 horrors that are seen there every hour, who can 
 attempt to describe ? Under and amid that mass of 
 conglomerate rubbish are the remains of at least one 
 thousand persons who died the most frightful of 
 deaths. 
 
 This is the place where the fire broke out within 
 twenty minutes after the flood. It has burned ever 
 since. The stone arch bridge acted as a dam to the 
 flood, and five towns were crushing each other against 
 it. A thousand houses came down on the great wave 
 of water, and were held there a solid mass in the jaws 
 of a Cyclopean vise. 
 
 A kitchen stove upset. The mass took fire. A 
 
214 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 thousp.id people were imprisoned In these houses. 
 A thousand more were on the roofs. For most ol 
 them there was no escape. The fire swept on from 
 house to house. The prisoners saw it coming and 
 shrieked and screamed with terror, and ran up and 
 down their narrow quarters in an agony of fear. 
 Sigrhts to Freeze Their Blood. 
 
 Thousands of people stood upon the river bank and 
 saw and heard it all and still were powerless to help. 
 They saw people kneeling in the flames and praying. 
 They saw families gathered together with their arms 
 around each other and waiting for death. They saw 
 people going mad and tearing their hair and laughing. 
 They saw men plunge into the narrow crevices be- 
 tween the houses and seek death la the water rather 
 than wait its coming in the flames. Some saw their 
 friends and some their wives and children perishing 
 before them, and some in the awful agony of the hour 
 went mad themselves and ran shrieking to the hillsides, 
 and stronger men laid down on the ground and wept. 
 
 All that night and all the next day, and far into 
 the morning of Monday, these dreadful shrieks re- 
 sounded from that place of doom. The fire burned on, 
 aided by the fire underneath, added to by fresh fuel 
 coming down the river. All that time the people stood 
 helpless on the bank and heard those heartrending 
 sounds. What could they do ? They could not fight 
 the fire. Every fire engine in the town lay in that mass 
 of rubbish smashed to bits. For hours they had to 
 wait until they could get telegraph word to surround- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN- HORROR. 215 
 
 ing towns^ And hours more until the fire engines ar- 
 rived at noon on Monday. 
 
 Wrecks of Five Iron Bridgres. 
 
 The shrieks ceased early in the morning. Men 
 had began to search the ruins and had taken out the 
 few that still lived. The fire engines began to play 
 on the still smouldering fire. Other workmen began 
 to remove the bodies. The fire had swept over the 
 whole mass from shore to shore and burned it to the 
 water. A great field of crushed and charred timbers 
 was all that was left. The flood had gorged this in so 
 tightly that it made a solid bridge above the water. 
 A tremendous, irresistible force had ground and 
 churned and macerated the debris until it was a con- 
 fused, solid, almost welded, conoflomerate, stretchino- 
 from shore to shore, jammed high up against the 
 stone bridge and extending up the river a quarter of 
 a mile, perhaps half as wide. In this tangled heap 
 and crush of matter were the twisted wrecks of five 
 iron bridges, smashed locomotives, splintered dwell- 
 ings and all their contents ; human beings and domes- 
 tic animals, hay and factory machinery ; the rich con- 
 tents of stores and brick walls ground to pov/der — all 
 the products of human industry, all the elements of 
 human interests, twisted, turned, broken in a mighty 
 mill and all thrown together. 
 
 A Sickening' Spectacle. 
 
 I walked over this extraordinary mass this morning 
 and saw the fragments of thousands of articles. In one 
 place the roofs of forty frame houses were packed in to- 
 
rilQ THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 gether just as you would place forty bended cards one 
 on top of another. The iron rods of a bridge were 
 twisted into a perfect spiral six times around one of 
 the girders. Just beneath it was a woman's trunk, 
 broken up and half filled with sand, with silk dresses 
 and a veil streaming out of it. From under the trunk 
 men were lifting the body of its owner, perhaps, so 
 burned, so horribly mutilated, so torn from limb to 
 Hmb, that even the workmen, who have seen so many 
 of these frightful sights that they have begun to get 
 used to them, turned away sick at heart. 
 
 I saw in one place a wrecked grocery store — bins of 
 coffee and tea, flour, spices and nuts, parts of the 
 counter and safe mingled together. Near it was the 
 pantry of the house, still pardy intact, the plates and 
 saucers regularly piled up, a w^aiter and a teapot, but 
 not a sign of the woodwork, not a recognizable outline 
 of a house. In another place a halter, with a part of 
 a horse's head tied to a bit of a manger, and a mass of 
 hay and straw about, but no other signs of the stable 
 in which the horse was burned. Two cindered towels, 
 a cake of soap in a dish, and a bit of carpet were 
 taken to indicate the location of a hotel. I saw a 
 child's skull in a bed of ashes, but no sign of a body. 
 Recognized by Fragments. 
 
 In another place was a human foot and crumbling 
 indications of a boot, but no signs of a body. A hay 
 rick, half ashes, stood near the centre of the gorge. 
 Workmen who dug about It to-day found a chicken 
 coop, and in it two chickens, not only alive but cluck- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 217 
 
 ing happily when they were released. A woman's 
 hat, half burned ; a reticule, with a part of a hand still 
 clinging to it ; two shoes and part of a dress told the 
 story of one unfortunate's death. Close at hand a 
 commercial traveller had perished. There was his 
 broken valise, still full of samples, fragments of his 
 shoes and some pieces of his clothing. 
 
 Scenes like these were occurring all over the 
 charred field where men were working with pick and 
 axe and lifting out the poor, shattered remains of 
 human beings, nearly always past recognition or iden- 
 tification, except by guesswork, or the locality where 
 they were found. Articles of domestic use scattered 
 through the rubbish helped to tell who some of the 
 bodies were. Part of a set of dinner plates told one 
 man where in the intangible mass his house was. In 
 one place was a photograph album with one picture 
 recognizable. From this the body of a child near by 
 was identified. A man who had spent a day and all 
 night looking for the body of his wife, was directed to 
 her remains by part of a trunk lid. 
 
 Dead Bodies Caressed. 
 
 Poor old John Jordan, of Conemaugh ! Many a 
 tear ran over swarthy cheeks for him to-day. All his 
 family, his wife and children, had been swept from his 
 sight in the flood. He wandered over the gorge 
 yesterday looking for them, and last night the police 
 could not bring him away. At daylight he found his 
 wife's sewing machine and called the workmen to help 
 Hm, First they found a little boy's jacket that he 
 
218 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 recognized and then they came upon the rest of them 
 all burled together, the mother's burned arms still 
 clinging to the little children. Then the white headed 
 old man sat down in the ashes and caressed the dead 
 bodies and talked to them just as if they were alive 
 until some one came and led him quietly away. With- 
 out a protest he went to the shore and sat down on a 
 rock and talked to himself, and then got up and dis- 
 appeared on the hills. 
 
 To Blow Up the Gorge. 
 Was this the only such scene the day saw ? There 
 were scores like it. People worked in ruins all day to 
 find their relatives and then went home with horrible 
 uncertainty. People found what they were looking 
 for and fainted at the sight. People looked and cried 
 aloud and came and stood on the banks all day, afraid 
 to look and still afraid to go away. The burned 
 bodies are not the only ones in the gorge. Under the 
 timbers and held down in the water there must be 
 hundreds that escaped the fire, but were drowned. 
 To get at these the gorge is to be blown up widi 
 dynamite. The sanitary reasons for such a step are 
 becoming hourly more apparerlt. It is the belief of 
 the physicians that a pestilence will be added to the 
 other horrors of the place if such a thing is not done. 
 All day the bodies have been brought to shore. 
 Those that were not recognized were carried on 
 stretchers to the Morgue. One hundred and twenty 
 of the Identified bodies were carried over the bridge 
 in one procession. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 21 G 
 
 Relief work for the suffering goes on at the head< 
 quarters of the Relief Committee on that little, muddy, 
 rubbish-filled street which escaped destruction at the 
 edge of the flood. 
 
 The building is a wretched shanty, once a Hungar- 
 ian boarding-house, and a long line of miserable 
 women stretches out in front of it all day waidng for 
 relief They are the unfortunate who have lost every^ 
 thing In the flood. 
 
 Quarters for five thousand of these people are pro- 
 vided in tents on the hillside. For provisions they are 
 dependent on the charity of the country. Bread and 
 meat are served out to them on the committee's order. 
 
 They are the most mournful and pitiable sight. 
 There was not one in the line who had not lost some 
 one dear to her. Most of them were the wives of 
 merchants or laborers who went down in the disaster. 
 They were the sole survivors of their families. Very 
 few had any more clothes than they wore when their 
 houses were washed aw^y. They stood there for 
 hours In the rain yesterday without any protection, 
 soaked with the drizzle, squalid and utterly forlorn — a 
 sight to move a heart of stone. 
 
 Silent Sufferers. 
 
 They did not talk to one another as women gener- 
 ally do even when they are not acquainted. They 
 got no words of sympathy from any one, and they 
 gave none. Not a word was spoken along the whole 
 line. They simply stood and waited. In truth, there 
 is nothing about the survivors of the disaster that 
 
220 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Strikes one so forcibly as their evident inability to 
 comprehend their misfortune and the absence of sym- 
 pathetic expressions among them. It is not because 
 they are naturally stolid, but the Avhole thing is so vast 
 and bears upon them so heavily they cannot grasp it 
 
 People in California know much more about the 
 disaster than any resident of Johnstown knows ; more 
 information about it can be gotten from towns-people 
 forty miles away than from those who saw it. The 
 people here are not at all lacking in sympathy or 
 kindliness of heart, but what words of sympathy 
 would have any meaning in such a tremendous catas- 
 trophe ? Every person of Johnstown has lost a rela- 
 tive or a friend, and so has every other resident he 
 meets. They seem to see instinctively that con- 
 dolence would be meaningless. 
 
 Famine Happily Averted, 
 
 On the west side of the lower town one or two little 
 streets are left from the flood. They are crowded all 
 the time with the survivors. As I have gone among 
 them rhave heard nothing but such conversations as 
 this, which is literally reproduced : — 
 
 "Hello, Will! Where's Jim?" 
 
 "He's lost." 
 
 "Is that so! Goodby." 
 
 Another was : — 
 
 "Good morning, Mr. Holden ; did you save Mrs.' 
 Holden?" 
 
 " No ; she went with the house. You lost your two 
 boys, didn't you?" 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 221 
 
 **Yes. Good morning." 
 
 Two women met on the narrow rope bridge which 
 spans the creek. As they passed one said: — 
 
 " How about Aunt Mary ? " 
 
 "Oh, she's lost; so is Cousin Hattie." 
 
 It gives an outside hstener a strange sensation to 
 hear people talk thus with about as little emotion as 
 they would talk about the weather. But the people of 
 Johnstown had so much to do with death that they 
 think about nothing else. I will undertake to say that 
 half the people have not the slightest idea what day of 
 the week or month this is. 
 
 A Rope Bridge of Sigrlis. 
 
 To get from one part of the town to another It Is 
 necessary to cross the river or creek which is now 
 flowing over the sites of business blocks. Of course 
 every vestige of a bridge was svv^ept far away, and to 
 take their places two ropes have been hung from high 
 timbers built upon the sandy island that was the city's 
 site. On these ropes narrow boards are tied. The 
 whole structure is not more than four feet wide, and 
 it hangs trembling over the water In a way that makes 
 nervous people shudder. Over this frail thing hun- 
 dreds of people crowd ever^^ hour, and why there has 
 not been another disaster is something no one can un- 
 derstand. 
 
 The river is rising steadily, and all the afternoon the 
 middle of the bridq^e saorgred down Into the water, but 
 the people kept on struggling across. Many of them 
 carried coffins containing bodies from the Morgue. 
 
332 THE JOHNS 1 OWN HORROR. 
 
 There are no express wagons, no hearses — scarcely 
 any vehicles of any kind in the town — and all the 
 coffins have to be carried on tlie shoulders of the men. 
 
 Coffins are a dreadfully common sight. It is im« 
 possible to move a dozen steps in any direction 
 without meeting one or very likely a procession of 
 of them. One hundred of them were piled up in front 
 of the Morgue this morning. Twice as many more 
 were on the platform of the Pennsylvania station. 
 Carloads of coffins were being unloaded from freight 
 cars below town and carried along the roads. Almost 
 every house has a coffin in it. Every boat that crosses 
 the river carries one, and rows of them stood by the 
 bank to receive the bodies. 
 
 Merrily a Mud Plain. 
 
 There is a narrow fringe of houses on each side of 
 the empty plain, which escaped because they were 
 built on higher ground. Fine brick blocks and paved 
 streets filled the business part of the town, which was 
 about a mile long and half a mile wide. Where these 
 blocks stood mud is in some places six feet deep. 
 Over and through it all is scattered an extraordinary 
 collection of rubbish — boilers, car wheels, fragments 
 of locomotives, household furniture, dead animals,. 
 clothing, sewing machines, goods f''om stores, safes, 
 passenger and street cars, some half buried in the 
 sand, some all exposed, helter-skelter. 
 
 It is simply impossible to realize the tremendous 
 force exercised by the flood, though the imagination is 
 assisted by the presence of heavy iron beams twisted 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 223 
 
 and bent, railroad locomotives swept miles away, rails 
 torn up, the rocks and banks slashed away, and brick 
 walls carried away, leaving no traces of their founda- 
 tions. The few stone houses that resisted the shock 
 were completely stripped of all their contents and 
 filled four feet deep with sand and powdered debrisc 
 A Glimpse from a Window. 
 As I write this, seated within a curious circular affair, 
 which was once a mould for sewer pipe, are two oper- 
 ators busy with clicking instruments. The floor is a 
 foot deep with clay. There are no doors. There are 
 no windows which boast of glass or covering of any 
 kind. The lookout embraces the bulk of the devas- 
 tated districts. Just below the windows are the steep 
 river banks, covered with a miscellaneous mass thrown 
 up by the flood. The big stone bridge is crowded with 
 freight cars loaded with material for repairing the 
 structure and with people who are eager to see some- 
 thing horrible. 
 
 That Funeral Pyre. 
 
 The further half of the bridge which was swept 
 away has been replaced by a trembling wooden affair, 
 wide enough only for two persons to walk abreast. 
 To the left of the bridge and across the river are the 
 great brick mills of the Cambria Iron and Steel Com- 
 pany, crushed and torn out of a semblance to work- 
 shops. Just in front of the office is v/hat has been 
 called the ** funeral pyre," and which threatens to be- 
 come a veritable breeding spot of pestilence. 
 
 Just before me a group of red-capped firemen are 
 
224 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 directing a stream of water upon such portions of th< 
 mass as can be reached from the shore. 
 Where Deatli Was Busiest. 
 
 Over to the right, at the edge of a muddy lagoon 
 which marks the Hmit of the levelling rush of the mad 
 torrent, there are dozens and dozens of buildings lean 
 ing against each other in the oddest sort of jumble. 
 The spectacle would be ludicrous if it were not so aw- 
 fully suggestive of the tragic fate of the inmates. Be- 
 hind this border land are the regions where death was 
 wofully busy. In some streets a mile from any rail- 
 road track locomotives and cars are scattered among 
 the smouldering ruins. In the river the rescuers are 
 busy, and so are the Hungarians and native born 
 thieves. 
 
 Men take queer souvenirs away sometimes. One 
 came up the bank a short time ago with a skull and 
 two leg bones, all blackened and burned by the fire. 
 
 There is, of course, no business done, and those 
 who have been spared have little to do save watch for 
 a new phase of the greatest tragedy of the kind in 
 modern history. On Prospect Hill Is a town of tents 
 where the homeless are housed and fed, and where 
 also a formidable city of the dead has been just pre- 
 pared. Such are some of the scenes visible from the 
 window. 
 
 The Skeleton of Its Former Self. 
 
 The water has receded in the night almost as 
 rapidly as it came, and behind it remains the sorriest 
 sight imaginable. The dove that has come has no 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 225 
 
 green leaf of promise, for its wings are draped with 
 the hue of mourning and desolation. There now lies 
 the great skeleton of dead Johnstown. The great 
 ribs of rocky sand stretch across the chest scarrea and 
 covered with abrasions. Acres of mud, acres of 
 wreckage, acres of unsteady, tottering buildings, acres 
 of unknown^ dead, of ghasdy objects which have been 
 eagerly sought for since Friday; acres of smoky, 
 streaming ruin, of sorrow for somebody, lie out there 
 in the sunshine. 
 
 Like Unto Arcadia After the Fire. 
 
 The awful desolation of the scene has been de- 
 scribed often enough already to render a repedtion of 
 the attempt here unnecessary. These descriptions 
 have been as truthful and graphic as it is possible for 
 man to make them ; but none have been adequate — 
 none could be. Where once stood solid unbroken 
 blocks for squares and squares, with basements and 
 subcellars, there is now a level plain as free from 
 obstruction or excavation as the fair fields of Arcadia 
 after they had been swept by the British flames. The 
 major and prettier pordon of the beautiful city has 
 literally been blotted from the face of the earth. 
 Disease Succeeds to Calamity.. 
 
 Up the ragged surface of Prospect Hill, whither 
 
 hundreds of terrified people fled for safety Friday 
 
 night, I scrambled this afternoon. I came upon a 
 
 pneumonia scourge which bids fair to do for a number 
 
 of the escaped victims what the flood could not. Death 
 
 has pursued them to their highest places, and terror 
 15 
 
226 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Will not die. Every little house on the hill — and there 
 are a hundred or two of them — had thrown its doors 
 open to receive the bruised, half-clad fugitives on the 
 dark day of the deluge, and every one was now a 
 crude hospital. Half the women who had scaled the 
 height were so overcome with fright that they have 
 been bedridden ever since. There had been pneui 
 monia on the hill, but only a few cases. To-day, 
 however, several fresh cases developed among the 
 the flood fugitives, and a local physician said the pros- 
 pects for a scourge are all too promising. The 
 enfeebled condition of the patients, the unhealthy 
 atmosphere pervading the valley and the necessarily 
 close quarters in which the people are crowded render 
 the spread of the disease almost certain. 
 Tlie Military Called Out. 
 
 At the request of the Sheriff, Adjutant General Hast- 
 ings called out the Fourteenth regiment of Pittsburgh, 
 who are to be stationed at Johnstown proper, to guard 
 the buildings and against emergencies. Other reasons 
 are known to exist for this precaution. Bodies were 
 recovered to-day that have been robbed by the ghouls. 
 It is known that one lady had several hundred dollars 
 in her possession just before the disaster, but when 
 the body v/as recovered there was not a cent in her 
 pocket. 
 
 The Hungarians attacked a supply wagon between. 
 Morrellville and Cambria City to-day. The drivers of 
 the wagon repulsed them, but they again returned. A 
 second fight ensued, but after lively scrambling the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 227 
 
 Hungarians were again driven away. After that 
 drivers and guards of supply wagons were permitted 
 to go armed. 
 
 General Hastings was seen later in the day, and 
 when asked what caused him to order the militia said: 
 " There is no need of troops to quell another disturb- 
 ance, but now there are at least two thousand men at 
 work In Johnstown clearing up the debris, and I think 
 that it will not hurt to have the Fourteenth regiment 
 here, as they can guard the banks and all valuables. 
 The Sheriff consulted me in the matter. He stated 
 that his men were about worn out, and he thought that 
 we had better have some soldiers. So I ordered them." 
 
 The people, aroused by repeated outrages, are bit- 
 terly hounding the Hungarians, and a military force is 
 essential to see that both sides preserve order. 
 Indignant Battery Ti. 
 
 A number of the members of Battery B and the 
 Washington Infantry, who were ordered back from 
 Johnstown, are very indignant at Adjutant General 
 Hastings, who gave the order. They claim that Gen- 
 eral Hastings not only acted without a particle of 
 judgment, but when they offered to act as picket, do 
 police duty or anything else that might be required of 
 them, they state that they were treated like dogs. 
 
 They also insist that their services are badly needed 
 for the reason that the hills surrounding Johnstown^ 
 are swarming with tramps, who are availing them- 
 selves of every opportunity to secure plunder from the 
 numerous wrecks or dead bodies. 
 
228 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 They told the General that they came more as pri* 
 vate citizens than as soldiers, and were willing to do 
 what they could. The General abrupdy ordered 
 them back to Pittsburgh. Lieutenant Gammel, who 
 had charge of the men, said : " We would like to 
 have stayed but we had to obey orders and we took 
 the first train for home. Even the short time we 
 were there the fifty-five men had pulled out thirty-five 
 bodies." 
 
 Members of the battery said : ''This is a fine 
 Governor we have, and as for Hastings, the least said 
 about his actions the better." 
 
 The Adjutant General's order calling out the Four- 
 teenth regiment and ordering them to this place is not 
 looked upon as being altogether a wise move by many 
 citizens. 
 
 !N"arrow Escape from liynching*. 
 
 About eleven o'clock this morning, Captain W. R. 
 Jones, of Braddock, and his men discovered a man 
 struggling in the hands of an angry crowd on Main 
 street. The crowd were belaboring the man with 
 sticks and fists, and Captain Jones entered the house 
 where the disturbance occurred, and the man shouted : 
 'T have a right here, and am getting what belongs to 
 my folks!" 
 
 The crowd then demanded that he show what he had 
 in his possession. He reluctantly produced a handful 
 of jewelry from his pocket, among which was a gold 
 watch, which was no sooner shown than a gentleman 
 who was standing nearby claimed It as his own, saying 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 229 
 
 that the house where they were standing was the resi- 
 dence of his family. He then proceeded to identify 
 clearly the property. The crowd, convinced of the 
 thief's guilt, wanted to lynch him, but after an exciting 
 scene Captain Jones pacified them. The man was 
 escorted out of town by officers, released and ordered 
 not to return. 
 
 Joimstown Succored. 
 
 There will be no more charity except for the nelp- 
 less. The lengthening of the death roll has fearfully 
 shortened the list to be provided for. There is now 
 an abundance of food and clothing to satisfy the 
 present necessities of all who are in need. Beginning 
 to-morrow morning, June 5th, aid will not be extended 
 to any who are able to work except in payment for 
 work. All the destitute who are able and willing will 
 be put to v/ork clearing up the wreck in the river and 
 the wastes where the streets stood. They will be 
 paid $2.50 and $3.00 per day for ordinary laboring 
 work, and thus obtain money with which to buy pro- 
 visions, which will be sold to them at reduced prices. 
 
 Those who will not work will be driven oil The 
 money collected will be paid out in wages, in defray- 
 ing funeral expenses and in relieving those whose 
 bread providers have been taken away. 
 Dainties Not Wanted. 
 
 The supplies of food and clothing are far in excess of 
 the demand to-day. The mistake of sending large 
 quantities of dainties has been made by some of the 
 relief committees. Bishop Phelan has been on the 
 
230 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 ground all day in company widi a number of Catholic 
 priests from Pittsburgh. 
 
 He has ordered provisions for all the sufferers who 
 have taken shelter in the buildings over which he has 
 placed the Litde Sisters of the Poor. There are sev- 
 eral hundred people now being cared for by the reliel 
 corps, and as the work of rescue goes on the number 
 
 increases. 
 
 Bent on Charity. 
 
 Mrs. Campbell, president of the Allegheny Woman's 
 Chrisdan Temperance Union, arrived this morning, 
 and with Miss Kate Foster, of Johnstown, organized a 
 temporary home for desdtute children on Bedford 
 street. On the same train came a delegation from the 
 Smithfield Methodist Episcopal Church. They began 
 relieving the wants of the suffering Methodists. 
 
 Committees from the Masonic and Odd Fellows 
 from Pittsburgh are looking after their brethren. 
 
 Mr. Moxham, the iron manufacturer, is Mayor pro. 
 tem. of Johnstown to-day. He is probably the busiest 
 man in the United States ; although for days without 
 sleep, he still sticks nobly to his task. Hundreds of 
 others are like him. Men fall to the earth from sheer 
 fatigue. There are many who have not closed an eye 
 in sleep since they awoke on Friday morning ; they are 
 hollow-eyed and pinful looking creatures. Many have 
 lost near relatives and all friends. 
 
 Sbylocks. 
 
 Men and horses are what are most needed to-day. 
 Some of the unfortunates who could not go to the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. z3i 
 
 relief trains endeavored to obtain flour from the 
 wrecked stores in Johnstown. One dealer was charg- 
 ing $5 a sack for flour, and was getting it in one or two 
 eases. Suddenly the crowd heard of the occurrence. 
 
 Several desperate men went to the store and doled 
 the flour gratuitously to the homeless and strickeno 
 Another dealer was selling flour at $1.50 a sack. He 
 refused to give any away, but would sell it to any one 
 who had the money. Otherwise he would not allow any 
 one to go near it, guarding his store with a shot gun. 
 Masons on the Field. 
 
 The special train of the Masonic Relief Association 
 which left Pittsburgh at one o'clock yesterday after- 
 noon on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad did not reach 
 here until just before midnight, at which time it was 
 impossible to do anything. Under the circumstances, 
 the party concluded to pass the night in the cars, 
 making themselves as comfortable as possible with 
 packing boxes for beds and candle boxes for pillows. 
 
 They spent the morning distributing the food and 
 clothing among the Masonic sufferers. In addition to 
 a large quantity of cooked food, sandwiches, etc., as 
 well as flour and provisions of every description, the 
 Relief Committee brought up 100 outfits of clothing 
 for women and a similar number for girls, and a mis- 
 cellaneous lot for men and boys. The women's outfits 
 are complete, and include underwear, stockings, shoes, 
 dresses, wraps and hats. They are most acceptable 
 in the present crisis, and much suffering has already 
 been relieved by them. 
 
232 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 The Knights of Pythias have received a large dona- 
 tion of money from Pittsburgh lodges. 
 
 Appeal to President Harrison. 
 
 Adjutant General Hastings yesterday afternoon 
 telegraphed to President Harrison requesting that 
 government pontoons be furnished to enable a safe 
 passageway to be made across the field of charred 
 ruins above Johnstown Bridge for the purpose of 
 prosecuting search for the dead. Late last night an 
 answer was received from the President stating that 
 the pontoons would be at once forwarded by the 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 A despatch of sympathy has been received by Adju- 
 tant General Hastings from the Mayor of Kansas 
 City, who states that the little giant of the West will 
 do her duty in this time of need. 
 
 Fraternities Uniting. 
 
 The various fraternities, whose work has been re- 
 ferred to in various despatches, have established head- 
 quarters and called meetings of surviving local mem- 
 bers. These meetings are held in Alma Hall, belong- 
 ing to the Odd Fellows, which, owing to its solid con- 
 struction, withstood the pressure of the flood. From 
 the headquarters at Alma Hall most of the commit- 
 tees representing the various secret societies are dis- 
 tributing relief. 
 
 The first hopeful view of the situation taken by the 
 Odd Fellows' Committee has been clouded by the dis- 
 mal result of further investigations. At last night's 
 meeting at the old schoolhouse on Prospect Hill 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 233 
 
 definite tidings were received from but thirty mem- 
 bers out of a total of 501. 
 
 Cambria Lodge, with a membership of eighty-five, 
 mostly Germans, seems to have been entirely wiped 
 out, not a single survivor having yet reported. 
 Call for Workers. 
 
 Last night Robert Bridgard, a letter carrier of Johns- 
 town, marched at the head of three hundred men to 
 the corner of Morrell avenue and Columbia street, 
 where he mounted a wagon and made a speech on 
 the needs of the hour. Chiefest of these, he consid- 
 ered, was good workmen to clear away the debris and 
 extract the bodies from the wreckage. 
 
 He closed with a bitter attack on the lazy Huns and 
 Poles, who refused to aid in the work of relief and yet 
 are begging and even stealing the provisions that are 
 sent here to feed the sufferers. The crowd numbered 
 nearly one thousand, and greeted Bridgard's words 
 with cheers. 
 
 Another resident of the city then mounted a barrel 
 and made a ringing speech condemning the slothful 
 foreigners, who have proven themselves a menace to 
 the valley and its inhabitants. The feelings of the 
 crowd were aroused to such an alarming extent that 
 it was feared it would culminate in an attack on the 
 worthless Poles and Hungarians. 
 
 The follov/ing resolution was adopted with a wild^ 
 shout of approval, and the meeting adjourned : — 
 
 " Resolved, That we, the citizens of Johnstown, in 
 public meeting assembled, do most earnestly beg the 
 
234 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Relief Corps of the Johnstown sufferers to furnish no 
 further provisions to the Hungarians and Poles of this 
 city and vicinity except in payment of services ren- 
 dered by them for the relief of their unfortunate 
 neighbors. 
 
 ''Resolved^ Further, that in case of their refusal to 
 render such service they be driven from the doors of 
 the relief trains and warned to vacate the premises." 
 Hospitals and Morgues. 
 
 Those who doubt that many thousands lost their 
 lives in this disaster have not visited the morgues. 
 There are three of these dreadful places crowded so 
 full of the unidentified dead that there is scarcely room 
 to move between the bodies. To the largest morgue, 
 which I visited this morning, one hundred and sixty 
 bodies have been brought for identification. When it 
 is remembered that most of the bodies were swept 
 below the limits of Johnstown, that many more found 
 here have been identified at once by their friends and 
 that it is certain that many bodies were consumed en- 
 tirely in the fire at the gorge, the fact gives some idea 
 of the extent of the calamity. 
 
 The largest morgue is at the Fourth ward school- 
 house, a two-story brick building which stands just at 
 the edge of the high mark of the flood. The bodies 
 were laid across the school children's desks until they 
 got to be so numerous that there was not room for 
 them, excepting on the floor. Soldiers with crossed 
 bayonets keep out the crowd of curious people who 
 liave morbid appetites to gratify. None of these 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 235 
 
 people are of Johnstown. People of Johnstown do 
 not have time to come to look for friends, and they 
 give the morgue a wide berth. Those who do come 
 have that dazed, miserable look that has fallen to all 
 the residents of the unhappy town. They walk 
 through slowly and look at the bodies and go away 
 looking no sadder nor any less perplexed than when 
 they camie in. One of the doctors in charge at the 
 morgue told me that many of these people had come 
 In and looked at the bodies of their own fathers and 
 brothers and gone away without recognizing them, 
 though not at all disfigured. 
 
 'That's Jim." 
 In some Instances it had been necessary for other 
 persons, who knew the people, to point out the dead 
 to the living and assure them positively of the Iden- 
 tification before they could be aroused. I saw a rail- 
 road laborer who had come In to look for a friend. 
 He walked up and down the aisles like a man In a 
 trance. He looked at the bodies, and took no appar- 
 ent interest in any of them. At last he stopped 
 before one of them which he had passed twice before, 
 muttered, ''That's Jim," and went out just as he had 
 come in. Two other Identifications I saw during the 
 hour I was there were just like this. There was no 
 shedding of tears nor other showing of emotion. 
 They gazed upon the features of their dead as If they 
 were totally unable to comprehend it all, and reported 
 their Identification to the attendants and watched the 
 body as It was put Into a coffin and went away. 
 
236 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Many came to look for their loved ones, but I did not 
 see one show more grief or realization of the dreadful 
 character of their errand than this. Arrangements 
 with the morgues are complete and efficient. The 
 bodies are properly prepared and embalmed and a 
 description of the clothing Is placed upon each. 
 Hospital Arrangements. 
 The same praise cannot be given the hospital ar- 
 rangements. The only hospital is a small wooden 
 church, in which apartments have been roughly Impro- 
 vised, with blankets for partitions. Only twenty pa- 
 tients can be cared for here, and the list of wounded is 
 more than two hundred. The rest have been taken 
 to the private houses that were not over-crowded 
 with the homeless survivors, to farmers in the coun- 
 try and to outlying towns. Two have died. It did 
 not occur to any one until lately to get any nurses 
 from other places to take care of the patients, and 
 even now most of the nurses are Johnstown people 
 who have lost relatives and have their own cares. 
 These persons sought out the hospital and volunteered 
 
 for the work. 
 
 A Procession of Coflans. 
 
 A sight most painful to behold was presented to 
 view about noon to-day, when a procession of fifty 
 unidentified coffined bodies started up the hill above 
 the railroad to be buried in the improvised cemetery 
 there. Not a relation, not a mourner was present. 
 In fact, it is doubtful if these dead have any surviving 
 relatives. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 237 
 
 The different graveyards are now so crowded that it 
 will take several days to bury all the bodies that have 
 been deposited in them. This was the day appointed 
 by the Citizens' Committee for burying all the uniden- 
 tified dead that have been laying in the different 
 morgues since Sunday morning, and about three hun- 
 dred bodies were taken to the cemeteries to-day. 
 
 It was not an unsual sight to see two or three coffins 
 going along, one after another. It is Impossible to 
 secure wagons or conveyances of any kind, conse- 
 quently all funeral processions are on foot. 
 
 Several yellow flags were noticed sticking up from 
 the black wreckage above the stone bridge. This was 
 a new plan adopted by the sanitary corps to indicate at 
 what points bodies had been located. As It grows 
 dark the flags are still up, and another day will dawn 
 upon the imprisoned remains. People who had lost 
 friends, and supposed they had drifted Into this fatal 
 place, peered down into the charred mass In a vain en- 
 deavor to recognize beloved features. 
 
 Unrecognizable Victims of Fire, 
 
 There are now nearly two thousand men employed in 
 different parts of the valley clearing up the ruins and 
 prosecuting diligent search for the undiscovered dead, 
 and bodies are discovered with undiminished fre- 
 ■quency. It becomes hourly more and more apparent 
 that not a single vestige will ever be recognized of 
 hundreds that were roasted In the flames above the 
 bridge. 
 
 A party of searchers have; just unearthed a charred 
 
238 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 and unsightly mass from the smouldering- debris. The 
 leader of the gang pronounced the remains to be a 
 blackened leg, and It required the authoritative verdict 
 of a physician to demonstrate that the ghastly dis 
 covery was the charred remains of a human being. 
 Onlv the trunk remained, and that was roasted beyond 
 all semblance to flesh. Five minutes' search revealed 
 fragments of a skull that at once disintegrated of its 
 own weight when exposed to air, no single piece being 
 larger than a half dollar, and the whole resembling 
 the remnants of shattered charcoal. 
 
 Within the last hour a half dozen discoveries In no 
 way less horrifying than this ghastly find have been 
 made by searchers as they rake Avith sticks and hooks 
 in the smouldering ruins. So difficult Is It at times to 
 determine whether the remains are those of human 
 beings that it is apparent that hundreds must be 
 burned to ashes. The number that have found a last 
 resting place beneath these ruins can at the best never 
 be more than approximated. 
 
 A Vast Charnel House. 
 
 Every moment now the body of some poor victim 
 is taken from the debris, and the town, or rather the 
 remnants of It, Is one vast charnel house. The scenes 
 at the extemporized morgue are beyond powers of 
 description in their ghastllness, while the moans and 
 groans of the suffering survivors, tossing In agony, 
 with bruised and mangled bodies, or screaming in a 
 delirium of fever as they Issue from the numerous 
 temporary hospitals, make even the stoutest hearted 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 239 
 
 quail with terror. Nearly two thousand bodies have 
 already been recovered, and as the work of examining 
 the wreckage progresses the conviction grows that the 
 magnitude of the calamity has not yet been approx- 
 imated. 
 
 The Pile of Debris Still Burning-. 
 
 The debris wedged against the big Pennsylvania! 
 Railroad stone bridge Is still burning, and the efforts 
 of the firemen to quench or stay the progress of the 
 flames are as futile as were those of Gulliver's Lilli- 
 putian firemen. The mass, which unquestionably 
 forms a funeral pyre for thousands of victims who lie 
 buried beneath it, is likely to burn for weeks to come. 
 The flames are not active, but burn away in a sullen, 
 determined fashion. 
 
 There are twenty-six firemen here now — all level- 
 headed fellows — ^who keep their unwieldy and almost 
 exhausted forces under masterful control. 
 
 Although they were scattered all over the waste 
 places to-day, the heavy work was done in the Point 
 district, where a couple hundred mansions lie in solid 
 heaps of brick, stone and timbers. 
 
 One Corpse Every Five Minutes. 
 
 Here the labors of the searchers were rewarded by 
 the discovery of a corpse about every five minutes. 
 As a general thing the bodies were mangled and unre- 
 cognizable unless by marks or letters on their persons. 
 In every case decomposition has set in and the work of 
 the searchers is becoming one that will test their 
 stomachs as well as their hearts. Wherever one turns 
 
240 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 PItttburghers of prominence are encountered. They 
 are busy, determined men, rendering valuable ser- 
 vice. 
 
 Chief Evans, of the PItsburgh Fire Department,, was 
 hustling around with a force of twenty-four more fire- 
 men, just brought up to relieve those who have been 
 working so heroically since Saturday. Morris M. 
 Mead, superintendent of the Bureau of Electricity, 
 headed a force of sixteen sanitary inspectors from 
 Pittsburgh, who are doing great work among the 
 dead. 
 
 How Bodies are Treated. 
 
 There are six improvised morgues novvr in Johns- 
 town. They are in churches and schoolhouses, the 
 largest one being in the Fourth Ward schoolhouse, 
 where planks have been laid over the tops of desks, 
 on which the remains are placed. A corpse is dug 
 from the bank. It is covered with mud. It is taken 
 to the anteroom of the school, where it is placed un- 
 der a hydrant and the miiek and slime washed off. 
 With the slash of a knife the clothes are ripped open 
 and an attendant searches the pockets for valuables or 
 
 f)apers that would lead to identification. Four men 
 ift the corpse on a rude table, and there it is thor- 
 'oughly washed and an embalming fluid injected in the 
 arm. With other grim bodies the corpse lies in^a 
 larger room until it is identified or becomes offensive. 
 In the latter case it is hurried to the large grave, a 
 grave that will hereafter have a monument over it 
 bearing the inscription ** Unknown Dead." 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. ^41 
 
 The number of the latter is growing hourly, be- 
 cause pestilence stalks in Johnstown, and the bloated, 
 disfigured masses of flesh cannot be held much longer. 
 Levelled by Deatli. 
 
 Bodies of stalwart workmen lie beside the remains 
 of refined ladies, many of whom are still decked with 
 costly earrings and have jewels glittering on the 
 fingers. Rich and poor throng these quarters and 
 gaze with awe-struck faces at the masses of mutila- 
 tions in the hope of recognizing a missing one, so as 
 to accord the body a decent burial. 
 
 From I>cath*s Gaping^ Jaws. 
 
 We give here the awful narrative of George Irwin*s 
 experience. Irwin is a resident of Hillside, Westmore- 
 land county, and was discovered in a dying condition 
 in a clump of bushes just above the tracks of the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad, about a mile below Johnstown. 
 When stretched upon two railroad ties near the track 
 his tongue protruded from his mouth and he gasped as 
 if death was at hand. With the assistance of brandy 
 and other stimulants he was in a degree revived. He 
 then told the following story : 
 
 "I was visiting friends in Johnstown on Friday 
 when the flood came up. We were submerged with- 
 out a moment's warning. I was taken from the win« 
 dow of the house in which I was then a prisoner by 
 Mr. Hay, the druggist at Johnstown, but lost my foot- 
 ing and was not rescued. I clung to a saw log until 
 I struck the works of the Cambria Iron Company, 
 when 1 caught on the roof of the building. I ra- 
 
 16 
 
M2 fHE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 mained there for nearly an hour, when I was knocked 
 
 again from my position by a piece of a raft. I floated 
 
 on top of this until I got down here and I stuck in an 
 
 apple tree. 
 
 Preferred Death to Such Sights. 
 
 " I saw and heard a number of other unfortunate 
 victims when swept by me appealing for some one to 
 save them. One woman and two children were float- 
 ing along in apparent safety ; then they struck the 
 corner of a building and aH went down together. 
 
 "I would rather have died than have been com- 
 pelled to witness that sight. 
 
 ** I have not had a bit to eat since Friday night, but 
 I don't feel hungry. I am afraid my stomach is gone 
 and I am about done for." 
 
 He was taken to a hospital by several soldiers and 
 railroad men who rescued him. 
 
 A Younff Lady's Experiences. 
 
 Miss Sue Caddick, of Indiana, who was stopping at 
 the Brunswick Hotel, on Washington street, and was 
 rescued late Friday evening, returned home to-day. 
 She said she had a premonition of danger all day and 
 had tried to get Mrs. Murphy to take her children 
 and leave the house, but the lady had laughed at her 
 fears and partially dissipated them. 
 
 Miss Caddick was standing at the head of the 
 second flight of stairs when the flood burst upon the 
 house. She screamed to the Murphys ~ father, 
 mother and seven children — to save themselves. She 
 ran up stairs and got into a higher room, in which the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. . 243 
 
 Uttle children, the oldest of whom was fourteen years, 
 also ran. The mother and father were caught and 
 whirled into the flood and drowned in an instant. 
 
 The waters came up and the children clung- to the 
 young lady, who saw that she must save herself, and 
 she was compelled to push the little ones aside and 
 cling to pieces of the building, which by this time had 
 collapsed and was disintegrating. All of the children 
 were drowned save the oldest boy, who caught a tree 
 and was taken out almost unhurt near Blairsville. 
 Miss Caddick clung to her fraction of the building, 
 which was pushed into the water out of the swirl, and 
 in an hour she was taken out safe. She said her 
 agony in having to cut away from the children was 
 greater than her fear after she got into the water. 
 An Old lAdy's Great Peril. 
 
 Mrs. Ramsey, mother of William Ramsey and aunt 
 of Lawyer Cassidy, of Pittsburgh, was alone in her 
 house when the flood came. She ran to the third story, 
 and although the house was twisted off Its foundation, 
 it remained intact, and the old lady was rescued after 
 being tossed about for twenty-four hours. ^ 
 
 James Hines, Jr., of Indiana, one of the survivors, 
 to day said that he and twelve of the other guests took 
 refuge on the top of the Merchants' Hotel. They 
 were swept off and were carried a mile down the 
 stream, then thrown on the shore. One of the party, 
 James Ziegler, he said, was drowned while trying to 
 get to the top of the building. 
 
 One hundred and seventy-five of the corpses 
 
244 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 brought to Nineveh by the flood were buried this 
 afternoon and to-night on the crest of a hill behind the 
 town. Three trenches were dug two hundred feet 
 long, seven feet wide and four feet deep. The coffins 
 were packed in very much as grocers' boxes are stored 
 in a warehouse. Of the two hundred bodies picked 
 up in the fields after the waters subsided 1 1 7 were un- 
 identified and were buried marked "Unknown." 
 Twenty-five were shipped to relatives at outside points. 
 In many cases friends of those who were recognized 
 were unable to do anything to prevent their consign- 
 ment to the trenches. Altogether twenty-seven were 
 identified to-day. The bodies as fast as they were 
 found were taken to the storehouse of Theodore F. 
 Nimawaker, the station agent here, and laid out on 
 boards. It was impossible on account of their condi- 
 tion to keep them any longer. The County Commis- 
 sioners bought an acre of ground for ^i 00, out of 
 which they made a cemetery. 
 
 By Liocomotive Headlights. 
 It was sad to see the coffins going up the steep hill 
 on farm wagons, two or three on each wagon. No 
 -tender mourners followed the mud-covered hearses. 
 Enough laborers sat on each load to handle it 
 when it reached its destination. The Commissioners 
 of Cumberland county have certainly behaved very 
 handsomely. The coffins ordered were of the best. 
 Some economical citizens suggested that they buy 
 an acre of marsh land by the river, which could 
 be had for a few dollars, but they declared that 
 
THfi^ JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 245 
 
 die remains should be placed in dry ground. The life- 
 less clay reposes now far out of the reach of the deadly 
 waters which go suddenly down the Conemaugh Val- 
 ley. It is a pretty spot, this cemetery, and one that a 
 poet would choose for a resting place. Mountains 
 well wooded are on every hand; no black factory 
 smoke defaces the sky line. 
 
 Two locomotive headlights shed their rays over the 
 cemetery to-night and gave enough light for the men 
 to work by. They rapidly shoveled in the dirt No 
 priests were there to consecrate the ground or say a 
 prayer over the cold limbs of the unknown. Upon 
 the coffins I noticed such inscriptions as these : "No. 
 6 1, unknown girl, aged eight years, supposed to be 
 Sarah Windser." "No. 72, unknown man, black hair, 
 aged about thirty-five years, smooth face." Some o£ 
 the bodies were more specifically described as ** fat,'* 
 •*lean/* and to one I saw the term "lusty'* applied. 
 
CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Pattietio Scenesi. 
 
 ' Some of the really pathetic scenes of the flood are 
 just coming to the public ear. John Henderson, his 
 wife, his three children, and the mother of Mrs. Hen- 
 derson remained in their house until they were carried 
 out by the flood, when they succeeded in getting upon 
 some drift. Mr. Henderson took the babe from his 
 wife, but the little thing soon succumbed to the cold 
 and the child died in its father's arms. He clung to it 
 until it grew cold and stiff* and then, kissing it, let it 
 drop into the water. His mother-in-law, an aged lady, 
 vi^as almost as fragile as the babe, and in a few minutes 
 Mr. Henderson, who had managed to get near to the 
 board upon which she was floating saw that she, too, 
 was dying. He did what little he could to help her, 
 but the cold and the shock combined were too much. 
 Assuring himself that the old lady was dead, Mr. Hen- 
 derson turned his attention to his own safety and 
 allowed the body to float down the stream. 
 
 In the meantime Mrs. Henderson, who had become 
 separated from her husband, had continued to keep 
 her other two children for some time, but finally a 
 great wave dashed them from her arms and out of her 
 sight. They were clinging to some driftwood, how- 
 ever, and providentially were driven into the very arrna 
 
 CMC) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 247 
 
 of their father, who was some distance down the 
 
 stream quite unconscious of the proximity of his loved 
 
 ones. Another whirl of the flood and all were driven 
 
 over into some eddying water in Stony Creek and 
 
 carried by backing water to Kernville, where all were 
 
 rescued. Mrs. Henderson had nearly the same ex- 
 
 (perience. 
 
 Dr. Holland'a Awful Plunge. 
 
 Dr. Holland, a physician who lived on Vine street, 
 saw both of his children drown before his eyes, but 
 tliey were not washed out of the building. He took 
 both of them in his arms and bore them to the roof, 
 caring nothing for the moment for the rising water. 
 Finally composing himself, he kissed them both and 
 watched them float away. His father arrived here 
 to-day to assist his son and take home with him the 
 bodies of the children, which have been recovered 
 Dr. Holland, after the death of his children, was 
 carried out into the flood and finally to a building, in 
 the window of which a man was standing. The doctor 
 held up his hands; the man seized them and dex- 
 trously slipping a valuable ring from the finger of one 
 hand, brutally threw him out into the current again. 
 The physician was saved, however, and has been look 
 ing for the thief and would-be murderer ever since. 
 Crushed in His Own House. 
 
 David Dixon, an engineer in the employ of the 
 Cambria Iron Works, was with his family in his house 
 on Cinder Street, when the flood struck the city. The 
 shock overturned his house against that of his neigh- 
 
248 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 bor, Evans, and he, with his infant daughter, Edith, 
 was pinned between the houses as a result of the up- 
 turning Both houses were carried down against the 
 viaduct of the Pennsylvania Railroad and there, in 
 sight of his wife and children, excepting a 1 5-year-old 
 lad, he was drowned, the water rising and smothering 
 hiri because of his inability to get from between the 
 buildings. His wife was badly crushed and it is 
 thought will be an invalid the remainder of her days. 
 The children, including the babe in its father's arms, 
 were all saved, and the other boy, Joe, one of the 
 brightest, bravest, handsomest little fellows in the 
 world, was in his news-stand near the Pennsylvania 
 passenger station, and was rescued with difficulty by 
 Edward Decker, another boy, just as the driftwood 
 struck the little store and lifted it high off its founda- 
 tion. 
 
 Babies who I>ied Togrethcr. 
 
 This morning tivo little children apparently not over 
 three and four years old, were taken from the water 
 clasped in each other's arms so tightly that they could 
 not be separated, and they were coffined and buried 
 together. 
 
 A bright girl, in a gingham sun-bonnet and a faded 
 calico dress came out of the ruins of a fine old brick 
 house next the Catholic church on Jackson street this 
 afternoon. She had a big platter under her arm and 
 announced to a bevy of other girls that die china was 
 all right in the cupboard, but there was so much water 
 in there that she didn't dare go in. She chatted away 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 249 
 
 quite volubly about the fire in the Catholic church, 
 which also destroyed the house of her own mother, 
 Mrs. Foster. *'I know the church took fire after the 
 flood/' she said, "for mother looked out of the window 
 and said : *My God ! Not only flood, but fire ! ' " It 
 was a burning house from Conemaugh fliat struck the 
 house the other side of the church and set it on fire. 
 Aunt Tabby's Trunk. 
 
 •• I didn*t think last Tuesday Td be begging to-day, 
 Emma," interrupted a young man from across the 
 stream of water which ran down the centre of Main 
 Street. "I'm sitting on your aunt Tabby's trunk." 
 The girl gave a cry, half of pained remembrance, half 
 of pleasure. "Oh, my dear Aunt Tabby !" she cried, 
 and, rushing across the rivulet, she threw herself across 
 the battered leather trunk — sole surviving relic of Aunt 
 Tabby; but Aunt Tabby and the finding thereof was 
 a light among other shadows of the day. 
 NothinsT but a Babj'. 
 
 Gruesome incidents came oftener than pathetic 
 ones or serio-comic. General Axline, the Adjutant 
 General of Ohio, was walking down the station plat- 
 form this afternoon, when a boy came sauntering up 
 from the viaduct with a bundle in a handkerchief. 
 The handkerchief dripped water. '*What have you 
 there, my boy ?" asked the General. The boy cow- 
 ered a minute, though the General's tone was kindly, 
 for the boy, like every one else In Johnstown, was 
 prepared for a gruff accostal every five minutes from 
 some official, from Adjutant General to constable. 
 
350 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 Finally he answered : " Nothing but a baby, sir/* and 
 began to open his bundle in proof of the truth of his 
 statement. But the big soldier did not put him to the 
 proof He turned away sick at heart. He did not 
 even ask the boy if he knew whose baby it was. 
 How the Coffins Were Carried. 
 
 A strangely utilitarian device was that of a Pitts- 
 burgh sergeant of Battery B. With one train from 
 the West came several hundred of the morbidly cur- 
 ious, bent upon all the horrors which ihey could 
 stomach. A crowd of them crossed the viaduct and 
 stopped to gaze round-eyed upon a pile of empty cof- 
 fins meant for the bodies of the identified dead found 
 up and across the river in the ruins of Johnstown 
 proper. As they gazed the Sergeant, seeking trans- 
 portation for the coffins, came along. A somewhat 
 malicious inspiration of military genius lighted his eye. 
 With the best imitation possible of a regular army 
 man, he shouted to the idlers, ** Each of you men take 
 a coffin.'' The idlers eyed him. 
 
 "What for .^" one asked. 
 
 ** You want to go into town, don't you ? " replied 
 the Sergeant '* Well, not one of you goes unless he 
 takes a coffin with him." 
 
 In ten minutes time way was made at the ticklish 
 rope bridge for a file of sixteen coffins, each borne by 
 two of the Sergeant's unwilling conscripts, while the 
 Sergeant closed up the rear. 
 
 Some of the scenes witnessed here were neartrend- 
 xng in the extreme. In one case a beautiful girl came 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 2W 
 
 down on the roof of a building which was swung In near 
 the tower. She screamed to the operator to save her 
 and one big, brave fellow walked as far into the river 
 as he could and shouted to her to try to guide herself 
 into the shore with a bit of plank. She was a plucky 
 girl, full of nerve and energy, and stood upon her 
 frail support in evident obedience to the command of 
 the operator. She made two or three bold strokes 
 and actually stopped the course of the raft for an 
 instant. 
 
 Then it swerved and went out from under her. 
 She tried to swim ashore, but in a few seconds she 
 was lost. Something hit her, for she Jay quiedy on 
 her back, with face pallid and expressionless. Men 
 and women in dozens, in pairs and singly ; children, 
 boys, big and little, and wee babies were there in 
 among the awful confusion of water, drowning, gasp- 
 ing, struggling and fighting desperately for life. 
 
 Two men on a tiny raft shot into the swiftest part 
 of the current. They crouched stolidly, looking at 
 the shores, while between them, dressed in white and 
 kneeling with her face turned heavenward was a girl 
 seven years old. She seemed stricken with paralysis 
 until she came opposite the tower and then she turned 
 her face to the operator. She was so close they 
 could see big tears on her cheeks and her pallor was 
 as death. The helpless men on shore shouted to her 
 to keep up courage, and she resumed her devout 
 attitude and disappeared under the trees of a projec- 
 tion a short distance below. "We could not see her 
 
052 THE JOHNSrOWN HORROR. 
 
 come out again," said the operator, " and that was all 
 of it." 
 
 ** Do you see that fringe of trees ?" said the oper- 
 ator, pointing to the place where the little girl had 
 gone out of sight 
 
 "Well, we saw scores of children swept in there. 
 I believe that when the time comes they will find 
 almost a hundred bodies of children in there among 
 those bushes." 
 
 Floated to their Death. 
 
 A bit of heroism is related by one of the telegraph 
 operators at Bolivar. He says: **Iwas standing on 
 the river b^nk about 7.30 last evening when a raft 
 swept into view. It must have been the floor of a dis- 
 mantled house. Upon it were grouped two women 
 and a man. They were evidently his mother and sis- 
 ter, for both clung to him as though stupefied with fear 
 as they were whirled under the bridge here. The 
 man could save himself if he had wished by simply 
 reaching up his hand and catching the timber of the 
 structure. He apparently saw this himself, and the 
 temptation must have been strong for him to do so, 
 but in one second more he was seen to resolutely 
 shake his head and clasp the women tighter around 
 the waist 
 
 On they sped. Ropes were thrown out from the 
 tree tops, but they were unable to catch them, though 
 they grasped for the lines eagerly enough. Then a 
 tree caught in their raft and dragged after them. In 
 this way they swept out of view," 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 263 
 
 Still finding bodies by scores in the burning debris ; 
 still burying the dead and caring for the wounded ; 
 still feeding the famishing and housing the homeless, 
 and this on the fourth day following the one on which 
 Johnstown was swept away. The situation of horroi 
 has not changed ; there are hundreds, and it is feared 
 thousands, still buried beneath the scattered ruins that 
 disfigure the V-shaped valley in which Johnstown 
 stood. A perfect stream of wagons bearing the dead 
 as fast as they are discovered is constantly filing to the 
 improvised morgues, where the bodies are taken for 
 identification. Hundreds of people are constantly 
 crowding to these temporary houses, one of which is 
 located in each of the suburban boroughs that surround 
 Johnstown. Men armed with muskets, uniformed sen- 
 tinels, constituting the force that guard the city while 
 it is practically under martial law, stand at the doors 
 and admit the crowd by tens. 
 
 lu the Central I>ead House. 
 
 In the Central dead house in Johnstown proper, as 
 early as 9 o'clock to-day there lay two rows of ghastly 
 dead. To the right were twenty bodies that had been 
 identified. They were mostly women and children 
 and they were entirely covered with white sheets, and 
 a piece of paper bearing the name was pinned at the 
 feet. To the left were eighteen bodies of the 
 unknown dead. As the people passed they were 
 hurried along by an attendant and gazed at the uncov- 
 ered faces seeking to identify them. All applicants 
 for admission if it is thought they are prompted by 
 
264 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 idle curiosity, are not allowed to enter. The central 
 morgue was formerly a school-house, and the desks 
 are used as biers for the dead bodies. Three of the 
 former pupils yesterday lay on the desks dead, with 
 white pieces of paper pinned on to the white sheets 
 that covered them, giving their names. 
 
 liOoking for Their LoTed Ones. 
 
 But what touching scenes are enacted every hour 
 about this mournful building. Outside the sharp 
 voices of the sentinels are constantly shouting : **Move 
 on.*' inside, weeping women and sad-faced, hollow- 
 eyed men are bending over loved and familiar faces. 
 Back on the steep grassy hill which rises abruptly on 
 the other side of the street are crowds of curious 
 people who come in from the country round about to 
 look at the wreckage strewn around where Johnstown 
 was. "Oh, Mr. Jones," a pale-faced woman asks, 
 walking up, sobbing, ** can't you tell me where we can 
 get a coffin to bury Johnnie's body ? " 
 
 ** Do you know," asks a tottering old man, as the 
 pale-faced woman turns away, " whether they have 
 found Jennie and the children ? " 
 
 " Jennie's body has just been found at the bridge,** 
 is the answer, "but the children can't be found/* 
 Jennie is the old man's married daughter, and she 
 was drowned, with her two children, while her hus* 
 band was at work over at the Cambria Mills. 
 They Ran for Their liives. 
 
 Miss Jennie Paulson, who was on the Chicago day 
 express, is dead. She was seen to go back wtth a com* 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 255 
 
 panion into the doomed section of the day express in 
 the Conemaugh Valley, and is swept away in the 
 flood. 
 
 Last evening, after the evening train had just left 
 Johnstown for Pittsburgh, it was learned that quite a 
 number of the survivors of the wrecked train, who 
 have been at Altoona since last Saturday, were on 
 board. After a short search they were located, and 
 quite an interesting talk was the result Probably the 
 most interesting interview, at least to Pittsburghers, 
 was that had with Mrs. Montgomery Wilcox, of Philadel- 
 phia, who was on one of the Pullman sleepers attached 
 to the lost express train. She tells a most exciting tale 
 and confirms beyond the shadow of a doubt the story 
 of Miss Jennie Paulson's tragic death. 
 A Fatal Pair of Rubbers. 
 
 She says: "We had been making but slow pro- 
 gress all the day. Our train laid at Johnstown nearly 
 the whole day of Friday. We then proceeded as far 
 as Conemaugh, and had stopped for some cause or 
 other, probably on account of the flood. Miss Paul- 
 son and a Miss Bryan were seated in front of me. 
 Miss Paulson had on a plaid dress with shirred waist 
 of red cloth goods. Her companion was dressed in 
 black. Both had lovely corsage bouquets of roses. I 
 had heard that they had been attending a wedding 
 before they left Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh lady was 
 reading a novel. Miss Bryan was looking out of the 
 window. When the alarm came we all sprang toward 
 the door, leaving everything behind us. I had just 
 
256 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 reached the door when poor Miss Paulson and her 
 frien^i who were behind me, decided to return for 
 their raubers, which they did. 
 
 Chased as by a Serpent. 
 t '* 1 sprang from the car into a ditch next the hill- 
 side in which the water was already a foot and a hall 
 deep and with die others climbed up the mountain 
 side for our very lives. We had to do so as the water 
 glided up after us like a huge serpent. Any one ten 
 feet behind us would have been lost beyond a doubt. 
 I glanced back at the train when I had reached a place 
 of safety, but the water already covered it and the 
 Pullman car in which the ladies were was already roll- 
 ing down the valley in the grasp of the angry waters. 
 Quite a number of us reached the house of a Mr. 
 Swenzel, or some such name, one of the railroad men, 
 whom we afterward learned had lost two daughters at 
 Johnstown. We made ourselves as comfortable as 
 possible until the next day, when we proceeded by 
 conveyances as far as Altoona, having no doubt but 
 what we could certainly proceed east from that point 
 We found the middle division of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad was, if anything, in a worse condition than 
 the western, so we determined to go as far as Ebens- 
 burg by train, whence we reached Johnstown to<iay 
 by wagon." 
 
 Mrs. G. W. Child's Escape. 
 
 Mrs. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, was also a 
 member of the party. She was on her way West, and 
 reached Altoona on Friday, after untold difficulties. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 2-57 
 
 She is almost prostrated by the severe ordeal through 
 which she and many others have passed, and therefore 
 had but litde to say, only averring that Mrs. Wilcox 
 and her friends, who were on the lost train, had passed 
 through perils beside which her own sank into insigni 
 
 ficance. 
 
 Assistant Superintendent Crump telegraphs frorr; 
 
 SWEPT AWAY ON THE TRAIN. 
 
 Blairsville Junction that the day express, eastbound 
 from Chicago to New York, and the mail train from 
 Pittsburgh bound east, were put on the back tracks ip 
 the yard at Conemaugh when the flooded condition of 
 the main tracks made it apparently unsafe to proceed 
 further. When the continued rise of the water made 
 their danger apparent, the frightened passengers fled 
 
268 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 from the two trains to the hills near by. Many in their 
 wild excitement threw themselves into the raging cur- 
 rent and were drowned. It is supposed that about 
 fifteen persons lost their lives in this way. 
 
 After the people had deserted the cars, the railroad 
 officials state, the two Pullman cars attached to the 
 day express were set on fire and entirely consumed. 
 A car of lime was standing near the train. When the 
 water reached the lime it set fire to the car and the 
 flames reaching the sleepers they were entirely con- 
 sumed. 
 
 !Elsliiiiniiig' the I>ead. 
 
 Three hundred bodies were exhumed to-day. In 
 one spot at Main and Market streets the workmen 
 came upon thirty, among whom were nine members 
 of the Fitzparis family — the father, mother, seven 
 children and the grandfather. Only one child, a little 
 girl of nine years, is left out of a family of ten. She 
 is now being cared for by the citizens* committee. 
 The body of a beautiful young girl was found at the 
 office of the Cambria Iron Company. When the 
 corpse was conveyed to the morgue a man entered in 
 search of some relatives. The first body he came to 
 he exclaimed: **That's my wife,'* and a few feet further 
 off he recognized in the young girl found at the Cambria 
 Iron Company's office his daughter, Theresa Downs. 
 Both bodies had been found within a hundred yards of 
 each other. 
 
 A dozen instances have occurred where people have 
 claimed bodies and were mistaken. This is due to the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 259 
 
 over-zeal of people to get their relatives and bury 
 them. Nine children walked into one of the relief sta- 
 tions this morning, led by a girl of sixteen years. They 
 said that their father, mother and two other children 
 had been swallowed up by the flood, the family having 
 originally comprised thirteen persons in all. Their 
 story was investigated by Officer Fowler, of Pittsburgh, 
 and it was found to be true. Near Main street the 
 body of a woman was taken out with three child- 
 ren lying on her. She was about to becom.e a mother. 
 Nursing Their Sorrows. 
 
 The afflicted people quietly bear their crosses. The 
 calamity has been so general that the sufferers feel 
 that everybody has been treated alike. Grouped to- 
 gether, the sorrows of each other assist in keeping up 
 the strength and courage of all. In the excitement 
 and hurry of the present, loss of friends Is forgotten, 
 but the time will come when it is all over and the 
 world gradually drifts back to business, forgetful that 
 such a town as Johnstown ever existed. 
 
 Then It Is that sufferers will realize what they have 
 lost. Hearts will then be full of grief and despair and 
 the time for sympathy will be at hand. Michael Mar- 
 tin was one of those on the hillside when the water 
 was rushing through the town. The spectacle was 
 appalling. Women on the hills were shrieking and 
 ringing their hands — In fact, people beyond reach of 
 the flood made more noise than those unfortunate 
 creatures struggling In the water. The latter In try- 
 ing to save themselves hadn't time to shriek. 
 
260 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Michael Martin said : " I was on the hillside and 
 watched the flood. You ask me what It looked like. 
 I can't tell. I never saw such a scene before and 
 never expect to again. On one of the first houses 
 that struck the bridge there was standing a woman 
 wearing a white shawl. When the house struck the 
 bridge she threw up her hands and fell back into the 
 water. A little boy and girl came floating down on a 
 raft from South Fork. The water turned the raft 
 toward the Kernville hill and as soon as it struck the 
 bank he jumped on the hill, dragging his little sister 
 with him. Both were saved, 
 
 " I saw three men and three women on the roof of 
 a house. When they were passing the Cambria Iron 
 Works the men jumped off and the women were lost. 
 Mr. Overbeck left his family In McM. row and swam 
 to the club house, then he tried to swim to Morrell's 
 residence and was drowned. His family was salved. 
 At the corner of the company's store a man called for 
 help for tv/o days, but no one could reach him. The 
 voice finally ceased and I suppose he died. 
 A Brave Girl, 
 
 **Rose Clark was fastened in the debris at the 
 bridge. Her coolness was remarkable and she was 
 more calm than the people trying to get her out. She 
 begged the men to cut her leg oft. One man worked 
 six hours before she was released. She had an arm 
 and leg broken. I saw three men strike the bridge 
 and go down. William Walter was saved. He was 
 anchored on Main street and he saw about two hun* 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 2«1 
 
 dred people in the water. He believes two-thirds of 
 them were drowned. A frightened woman clung to a 
 bush near him and her long hair stood straight out. 
 About twenty people were holding to those in the 
 neighborhood, but most of them were lost. 
 
 ''John Reese, a policeman, got out on the roof of his 
 house. In a second afterward the building fell in on 
 his wife and drowned her. She waved a kiss to her 
 husband and then died. Two servant girls were burned 
 in the Catholic priest's house. The church was ,also 
 consumed. 
 
 Along the Valley of Death. 
 
 Fifteen miles by raft and on foot along the banks of 
 the raging Conemaugh and in the refugee trains 
 between Johnstown and Pittsburgh. Such was the 
 trip, fraught with great danger, but prolific of results, 
 which the writer has just completed. All along the 
 line events of thrilling interest mingled with those of 
 heartrending sadness transpired, demonstrating more 
 than ever the magnitude of the horrible tragedy of last 
 Friday. 
 
 Just as the day was dawning I left the desolate city 
 of Johnstown, and, wending my way along the shore 
 of the winding Conemaugh to Sheridan, I succeeded 
 in persuading a number of brave and stout-hearted 
 men, who had 'constructed a raft and were about to 
 start on an extended search for the lost who are known 
 to be strewn all along this fated stream, to take me 
 with them. 
 
 The river is still very high, and while the current is 
 
262 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 not remarkably swift, the still flowing debris made the 
 expedition one of peril. Between the starting poinst 
 and Nineveh several bodies were recovered. They 
 were mostly imbedded in the sand close to the shore, 
 which had to be hugged for safety all the way. Indeed 
 the greater part of the trip was made on foot, the raft 
 being towed along from the water's edge by the tire- 
 less rescuers. 
 
 Just above Sang Hollow the party stopped to assist 
 a little knot of men who were engaged in searching 
 amid the ruins of a hut which lay wedged between a 
 mass of trees on the higher ground. A man's hat and 
 coat were fished out, but there was no trace of the 
 human being to whom they once belonged. Perhaps 
 he is alive ; perhaps his remains are among the hun- 
 dreds of unidentified dead, and perhaps he sleeps 
 beneath the waters between here and the gulf. Who 
 
 can tell? 
 
 Died in Harness. 
 
 A little farther down we came across two horses 
 and a wagon lying in the middle of the river. The 
 dumb animals had literally died in harness. Of their 
 driver nothing is known. At this point an old wooden 
 rocker was fished out of the water and taken on shore. 
 
 Here three women were working in the ruins of 
 what had once been their happy home. When one of 
 them spied the chair it brought back to her a wealth of 
 memory and for the first time, probably, since the flood 
 occurred she gave way to a flood of tears, tears as 
 welcome as sunshine from heaven, for they opened up 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 263 
 
 her whole soul and allowed pent-up grief within to ^x)w 
 freely out and away. 
 
 One Touch of Nature. 
 
 ** Where in the name of God," she sobbed, " did you 
 get that chair ? It was mine — no, I don't want it. Keep 
 it and find for me, if you can, my album ; in it are the 
 faces of my dead husband and little girl." When the 
 rough men who have worked days in the valley of 
 death turned away from this scene there was not a dry 
 eye in the crowd. One touch of nature, and the 
 thought of little ones at home, welded them in heart 
 and sympathy to this Niobe of the valley. 
 
 At Sang Hollow we came up with a train-load of 
 
 refugees en route for Pittsburgh. As I entered the 
 
 car I was struck by two things. The first was an old 
 
 man, whose silvered locks betokened his four-score 
 
 years, and the second was a little clump of children, 
 
 three in number, playing on a seat in the upper end 
 
 of the coach. 
 
 Judge Potts' £]scape. 
 
 The white-haired patriarch was Judge James Potts, 
 aged 80, one of the best known residents of Johns- 
 town, who escaped the flood's ravages in a most 
 remarkable manner. Beside him was his daughter, 
 while opposite sat his son. There was one missing to 
 complete the family party, Jennie, the youngest daugh- 
 ter, who went down with the tide and whose remains 
 have not yet been found. The thrilling yet pathetic 
 story of the escape of the old Judge is best told in his 
 own language. Said he: 
 
264 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 *' You ask me how I was saved. I answer, God alone 
 knows. With my httle family I lived on Walnut street, 
 next door to the residence of President McMillan, of 
 the Cambria Iron Company. When the waters sur- 
 rounded us we made our way to the third floor, and 
 huddled together in one room, determined, if die we 
 must, to perish together. 
 
 Encircled by Water. 
 
 ** Higher and higher rose the flood, while our house 
 was almost knocked from its foundations by the ever- 
 increasing mountain of debris floating along. At last 
 the bridge at Woodvale, which had given way a short 
 time before, struck the house and split it asunder, as a 
 knife might have split a piece of paper. 
 
 **The force of the shock carried us out upon the 
 debris, and we floated around upon it for hours, fin- 
 ally landing near the bridge. When we looked about 
 for Jennie (here the old man broke down and sobbed 
 bitterly) she was nowhere to be seen. She had 
 obeyed the Master's summons.*' 
 
 A MiraciiloTis Escape. 
 
 The three little girls, to whom I have referred, were 
 the children of Austin Lountz, a plasterer, living back 
 of Water street. They were as happy as happy could 
 be and cut up in childish fashion all the way down. 
 Their good spirits were easily accounted for when it 
 was learned that father, mother, children and all had 
 a miraculous escape, when it looked as if all would be 
 lost. The entire family floated about for hours on the 
 roof of a house, finally landing high upon the hillside. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 265 
 
 Elmer G. Speck, traveling salesman of Pittsburgh, 
 was at the Merchants' Hotel when the flood occurred, 
 having left the Hurlburt House but a few hours before. 
 He said : 
 
 ** With a number of others I got from the hotel to 
 the hill In a wagon. The sight from our eminence was 
 one that I shall never forget — that I can never fully 
 describe. The whole world appeared to be topsy-turvy 
 and at the mercy of an angry and destroying demon 
 of the elements. People were floating about on house- 
 tops and in wagons, and hundreds were clinging to 
 tree-trunks, logs and furniture of every imaginable 
 description. 
 
 *' My sister. Miss Nina, together with my step- 
 brother and his wife, whom she was visiting, drifted 
 with the tide on the roof of a house a distance of two 
 blocks, v/here they were rescued. With a number of 
 others I built a raft and in a short time had pulled 
 eleven persons from the very jaws of death." Con- 
 tinuing, Mr. Speck related how a number of folks from 
 Woodvale had all come down upon their house-tops. 
 Mr. Curtis Williams and his family picked their way 
 from house to house, finally being pulled in the Cath- 
 olic church window by ropes. 
 
 Three of a Family Drowned. 
 
 William Hinchman, with his wife and two children, 
 reached the stone bridge in safety. Here one of the 
 babies was swept away through the arches. The 
 others were also swept with the current, and when^ 
 they came out on the other side the remaining child 
 
266 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 was missing, while below Mrs. Hinchman disappeared, 
 leaving her husband the sole survivor of a family o( 
 four. 
 
 " Did your folks all escape alive ? " I asked of 
 George W. Hamilton, late assistant superintendent of 
 the Cambria Iron Company, whom I met on the road 
 /near New Florence. 
 
 "Oh, no," was his reply. " Out of a family of six- 
 teen seven are lost. My brother, his wife, two chil- 
 dren, my sister, her husband and one child, all are 
 gone ; that tells the tale. I escaped with my wife by 
 jumping from a second story window onto the moving 
 debris. We landed back of the Morrell Institute safe 
 and sound.'* 
 
 Hairbreaclth. Escapes. 
 
 The stories of hairbreadth escapes and the annihila- 
 tion of families continue to be told. Here is one of 
 them. J. Paul Kirchmann, a young man, boarded 
 with George Schroeder's family in the heart of the 
 town, and when the flood came the house toppled 
 over and went rushing away in the swirling current. 
 There were seven in all in the party and Kirchmann 
 found himself wedged in between two houses, with his 
 head under water. He dived down, and when he 
 again came to the surface succeeded in getting on the 
 roof of one of them. The others had preceded him 
 there, and the house floated to the cemetery, over a 
 mile and a half away, where all of them were rescued. 
 Kirchmann, however, had fainted, and for seven or 
 ei^ht hours was supposed to be dead. He recovered. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 267 
 
 and is now assisting to get at the bodies buried in the 
 ruins. 
 
 Saloon-keeper Fitzharris and his family of six had the 
 lives crushed out of them when their house collapsed, 
 and early this morning all of them, the father, mother 
 and five children were taken from the wreck, and are 
 now at the morgue. Emil Young, a jeweler, lived 
 with mother, wife, three sons and daughter over his 
 store on Clinton street, near Main. They were all in 
 the house when the wild rush of water surrounded 
 their home, lifted it from its foundation and carried it 
 away. Young and his daughter were drowned and it 
 was then that his mother and wife showed their hero- 
 ism and saved the life of the other members of the 
 family. 
 
 The mother is 80 years of age, but her orders were 
 so promptly given and so ably executed by the 
 younger Mrs. Young that when the house floated near 
 another in which was a family of nine all were taken 
 off and eventually saved. Even after this trying or- 
 deal the younger woman washed the bodies of her 
 husband and nineteen others and prepared them for 
 
 burial. 
 
 The Whole Family Escaped. 
 
 Another remarkable escape of a whole family was 
 that of William H. Rosensteel, a tanner, of Woodvale, 
 a suburb of Johnstown. His house was in the track 
 of-the storm, and, with his two daughters, Tillie and 
 Mamie, his granddgiughter and a dog, he was carried 
 down on the kitchen roof. They floated into the Bon 
 
268 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Ton Clothing House, a mile and a half away, on Main 
 street. Here they remained all night, but were taken 
 off by Mrs. Emil Young and went to Pittsburgh. 
 
 Jacob I. Horner and his family of eight had their 
 house in Hornerstown thrown down by the water and 
 took refuge in a tree. After awhile they returned to 
 their overturned house, but again got into the tree, 
 from which they \vere rescued after an enforced stay 
 of a number of hours. 
 
 Charles Barnes, a real estate dealer on Main street, 
 was worth J 10,000 last Friday and had around him a 
 family of four. To-day all his loved ones are dead and 
 he has only $6 in his pockets. 
 
 The family of John Higson, consisting of himself, 
 wife, and young son, lived at 123 Walnut street. 
 Miss Sarah Thomas, of Cumberland, was a visitor, 
 and a hired man, a Swede, also lived in the house. 
 The water had backed up to the rear second-story 
 windows before the great wave came, and about 5 
 o'clock they heard the screaching of a number of 
 whistles on the Conemaugh. Rushing to the windows 
 they saw Avhat they thought to be a big cloud ap- 
 proaching them. Before they could reach a place of 
 safety the building was lifted up and carried up Stony 
 creek for about one-quarter of a mile. As the water 
 rushed they turned into the river and were carried 
 about three-quarters of a mile further on. All the 
 people were in the attic and as the house was hurled 
 with terrific force against the wreckage piled up 
 against the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge Higson 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 2G9 
 
 called to them to jump. They failed to do so, but at 
 the second command Miss Thom_as leaped through 
 the window, the others followed, and after a danger- 
 ous walk over tifty yards of broken houses safely 
 reached the shore. 
 
 CHII-D FOUND THUMPING ON A WRECKED PIANO. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 Digging for thie Deaci. 
 
 A party started in early exploring the huge mass of 
 debris banked against the Pennsylvania Railroad 
 bridge. This collection, consisting of trees, sides of 
 houses, timber and innumerable articles, varies in 
 thickness from three or four feet to twenty feet. It is 
 about four hundred yards long, and as wide as the 
 river. There are thousands of tons in this vast pile. 
 How many bodies are buried there it is impossible to 
 say, but conservative estimates place it at one thousand 
 at least. 
 
 The corps of workmen who were searching the ruins 
 near the Methodist Church late this evening were hor- 
 rified by unearthing one hundred additional bodies. 
 The great number at this spot shows what may be 
 expected when all have been recovered. 
 
 When the mass which blazed several days was ex- 
 tinguished it was simple to recover the bodies on the 
 surface. It is now a question, however, of delving 
 into the almost impenetrable collection to get at those 
 lodged within. The grinding tree trunks doubtless 
 crushed those beneath into mere unrecognizable 
 masses of flesh. Those on the surface were nearly all 
 so much burned as to resemble nothing human. 
 
 Meanwhile the searchers after bodies, armed with 
 
 (270) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 271 
 
 spikes, hooks and crowbars, pry up the debris and un- 
 earth what they can. Bodies, or rather fractions of 
 them, are found in abundance near the surface. 
 Tracing Bodies by tlie Smell. 
 
 I was here when the gang came across one of the 
 upper stories of a house. It was merely a pile of 
 boards apparently, but small pieces of a bureau and a 
 bed spring from which the clothes had been burned 
 showed the nature of the find. A faint odor of burned 
 flesh prevailed exactly at this spot. **Dig here," said 
 the physician to the men. '' There is one body at least 
 quite close to the surface." The men started in with 
 a will. A large pile of underclothes and household 
 linen was brought up first. It was of fine quality and 
 evidently such as would be stored in the bedroom of a 
 house occupied by people quite well to do. Shovels 
 full of jumbled rubbish were thrown up, and the odor 
 of flesh became more pronounced. Presently one of 
 the men exposed a charred lump of flesh and lifted it 
 up on the end of a pitchfork. It was all that remained 
 of some poor creature who had met an awful death 
 between water and fire. 
 
 The trunk was put on a cloth, the ends were looped 
 up making a bag of it, and the thing was taken to the 
 river bank. It weighed probably thirty pounds. A 
 stake was driven in the ground to which a tag was at-l 
 tached giving a description of the remains. This i^ 
 done in many cases to the burned bodies, and they lay 
 covered with cloths upon the bank until men came with 
 coffins to remove them. Then the tag was taken from 
 
272 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the Stakes and tacked on the coffin lid, which was 
 Immediately closed up, as identification was of course 
 out of the question. There is a stack of coffins by the 
 railroad bridge. Sometimes a coffin is carried to the 
 spot on the charred debris where the find is made. 
 Prodding- Corpses with Canes. 
 
 The searchers by thrusting down a stick or fork are 
 pretty sure to find a corpse. I saw a man run a cane 
 in the debris down to the hilt and it came up with 
 human flesh sticking to it. Another ran a stick into 
 the thoroughly cooked skull of a little boy two feet 
 below the surface. There are bodies probably as far 
 down as seventy feet in some cases, and it does not 
 seem plain now how they are to be recovered. One 
 plan would be to take away the top layers of wood 
 with derricks, and of course the mass beneath will rise 
 closer to the surface. The weather is cold to-day, and 
 the offensive smell that was so troublesome on the 
 warm days is not noticeable at a distance. 
 Saved From Disfiguration. 
 
 The workers began on the wreck on Main street 
 just opposite the First National Bank, one of the 
 busiest parts of the city. A large number of people 
 were lost here, the houses being crushed on one side 
 cf the street and being almost untouched on the other, 
 a most remarkable thing considering the terrific force 
 of the flood. Twenty-one bodies were taken out in 
 the early morning and removed to the morgue. They 
 were not very much injured, considering the weight 
 oi lurr.ber above them. In many instances they were 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 273 
 
 wedged in crevices. They were all in a good state of 
 preservation, and v^hen they were embalmed they 
 looked almost lifelike. In this central part of the city 
 examination is sure to result in the unearthing of bod- 
 ies in every corner. Cottages which are still stand- 
 ing are banked up with lumber and driftwood, and it 
 is like mining to make any kind of a clear spa'ce. I 
 have seen relations of people who are missing, and 
 who are supposed to be in the ruins of their homes, 
 waiting patiendy by the hour for men to come and 
 take away the debris. 
 
 When bodies are found, the location of which was 
 known, there are frequently two or three friends on 
 the spot to see them dug up. Four and five of the 
 same family have been taken from a space of ten feet 
 square. In one part of the river gorge this afternoon 
 were found the bodies of a woman and a child. They 
 were close together and they were probably mother 
 and infant. Not far away was the corpse of a man 
 looking like a gnarled and mis-shapen section of a root 
 of a tree. The bodies from the fire often seem to 
 have been twisted up, as if the victims died in great 
 agony. 
 
 Eapidly Burying tlie Dead. 
 
 The order that was issued last night that all uniden- 
 tified dead be buried to-day is being rapidly carried 
 out. The Rev. Mr. Beall, who has charge of the 
 morgue at the Fourth ward school-house, which is the 
 chief place, says that a large force of men has been put 
 at work digging graves, and at the close of the after- 
 18 
 
274 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 noon the remains will be laid away as rapidly as it 
 can be done. 
 
 In the midst of this scene of death and desolation, a 
 relenting Providence seems to be exerting a subduing 
 influence. Six days have elapsed since the great dis- 
 aster, and the temperature still remains low and chilly 
 in the Conemaugh Valley. When It is remembered 
 that In the ordinary June weather of this locality from 
 two to three days are sufficient to bring an unattended 
 body to a state of decay and putrefaction that would 
 render it almost impossible to prevent the spread of 
 disease throughout the valley, the inestimable benefits 
 of this cool weather are almost beyond appreciation. 
 
 The emanations from the half mile of debris above 
 the bridge are but little more offensive than yesterday, 
 and should this cool weather continue a few days 
 longer it is possible hundreds of bodies may yet be 
 recovered from the wreck in such a state of preser- 
 vation as to render identification possible. Many 
 hundreds of victims, however, will be roasted and 
 charred into such shapeless masses as to preclude a 
 hope of recognition by their nearest relative. 
 • Getting I>own to Systematic Work. 
 
 The work of clearing up the wreck and recovering 
 the bodies is now being done most -systematically. 
 Over six thousand men are at work in the various 
 portions of the valley, and each little gang of twenty 
 men is directed by a foreman, who is under orders 
 from the general headquarters. As the rubbish is 
 gone over and the bodies and scattered articles of 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 275 
 
 value are recovered, the debris is piled up In one high 
 mass and the torch applied. In this way the valley is 
 assuming a less devastated condition. In twenty-four 
 hours more every mass of rubbish will probably have 
 been searched, and the investigations will be confined 
 to the smoking wreck above Johnstown bridge. 
 
 The Westmoreland Relief Committee complained 
 of the Indiana county authorities for not having a 
 committee to search the shores on that side for bodies. 
 They say that all that is being done Is by parties who 
 are hunting for anything valuable they can find. 
 
 Up to two o'clock this afternoon only eight bodies 
 had been taken out of the drift above the bridge. 
 None of them was recognized. The work of pulling 
 it out goes on very slowly. It has been suggested 
 that a stationary engine should be planted on the east 
 side of the pile and a rope and pulley worked on it. 
 
 The Keystone Hotel, a huge frame structure, was 
 rapidly being pulled to pieces this morning, and when 
 this had been done the work of taking out the bodies 
 will be begun at this point. 
 
 The Immense wreck will most undoubtedly yield up 
 many bodies. The bodies of a woman and three chil- 
 dren were taken from the debris in front of the First 
 National Bank at ten o'clock this morning. The 
 woman was the mother of the three children, ranging 
 in age from one to five years, and she had them all 
 clasped in her arms. 
 
 Booth & Flinn, the Pittsburgh contractors, have just 
 put to work another large force of men. They have 
 
276 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 divided the town into districts, and the work is being { 
 
 conducted in a systematic manner. Main street is • 
 
 being rapidly opened up, and scores of bodies have 
 
 been taken out this morning from under the Hurlburt ' 
 
 House. ,; 
 
 Only Found One of Her Family. 
 
 The first body taken from the ruins was that of a boy 
 named Davis, who was found in the debris near the 
 bridge. He was badly bruised and burned. The re- 
 mains were taken to the undertaking rooms at the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad station, where they were identi- 
 fied as those of William Davis. The boy's mother 
 has been making a tour of the different morgues for 
 the past few days, and was just going through the 
 undertaking rooms when she saw the remains of her 
 boy being brought in. She ran up to the remains and 
 demanded the child. She seemed to have lost her 
 mind, and caused quite a scene by her actions. She 
 stated that she had lost her husband and six children 
 in the flood, and that this was the first one of the 
 family that had been recovered. At the First Presby- 
 terian Church, which is being used as a morgue, sev- 
 enteen bodies taken from the debris and river have 
 been brought in. 
 
 The relief corps from Altoona found a body near 
 Stony Bridge this morning. On his person was found 
 a gold watch and chain, and $250 in money, which was 
 turned over to the proper authorities. This corps took 
 out some thirty-two bodies or more from the ruins 
 yesterday. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 277 
 
 A. J. Hayes, whose wife's body was taken out of 
 the river last night, had the body taken up into the 
 mountains where he dug her grave and said : — '* I 
 buried all that is dear to me. As for myself I don*t 
 care how soon death overtakes me." 
 
 At quarter past one this afternoon, fifty bodies had 
 been taken from the debris in front of the Catholic 
 Church in Johnstown borough. About forty of the 
 bodies were those of women. They were immediately 
 removed to the morgue for identification. 
 
 Dr. Beall, who has the supervision of the morgues 
 in Johnstown, said that so far 2,300 bodies had been 
 recovered in Johnstown proper, most of which had 
 been identified and buried. 
 
 Dynamite and Derricks Used. 
 
 At one o'clock this afternoon the use of dynamite 
 was resumed to burst the logs so that the debris in 
 the dam at the bridge can be loosened and floated 
 down the river. The dynamite is placed in holes 
 bored into the massive timbers. When the log has 
 been broken a chain is attached to its parts and It is 
 then hoisted by a machine on the bridge and dropped 
 into the current of the river. Contractor Kirk has 
 abandoned the idea of constructing a dam to overflow 
 the mass of ruins at the bridge. The water has fallen 
 and cannot be raised to a serviceable height. A pow- 
 erful windlass has been constructed at a point about 
 one hundred feet belov/ the bridge, and a rope 
 attached to it Is fastened to logs at t^e edge of the 
 debris. In this way the course between one of the six 
 
278 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Spans of the railroad bridge has been cleared out 
 Where dynamite has been used to burst the logs 
 another span has been freed of the debris, a space of 
 about twenty by forty feet being cleared. The men 
 are now well supplied with tools, but the force is not 
 large enough to make rapid headway. It Is believed 
 that many more bodies will be found when the debris 
 is loosened and started down the river. 
 Dynamite Tears tlie Bodies. 
 
 Thirteen bodies were taken from the burning debris 
 at the stone bridge at one time this afternoon. None 
 of the bodies were recognizable, and they were put in 
 coffins and burled immediately. They were so badly 
 decomposed that it was impossible to keep them until 
 they could be identified. During a blast at the bridge 
 this afternoon two bodies were almost blown to pieces. 
 The blasting has had the effect of opening the channel 
 under the central portion of the bridge. 
 In Unwholesome Company. 
 
 I came up here from Nineveh last night with the 
 most disreputable crowd I ever traveled with. They 
 were human buzzards flocking to the scene of horrors. 
 
 There was danger of a fight every moment, and if 
 one had been started there is little doubt that it would 
 have been short and bloody, for the conduct of the 
 rowdy portion of the travellers had enraged the decent 
 persons, to whom the thought of drunkenness and 
 ribaldry at such a time was abhorrent, and they were 
 quite ready to undertake the work of pitching the 
 demoralized beings off the cars. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 279 
 
 Wedged In here and there between intoxicated ruf- 
 fians, who were indulging in the foulest jests about the 
 corpses on which they were about to feast their eyes, 
 were pale faced women, sad and red eyed, who looked 
 las if they had had little sleep since the horrible collapse 
 'of the dam. Some of them were bound for Johnstown 
 to claim and bring back bodies already identified, while 
 others were on a trip for the ruins to commence a long 
 and perhaps fruitless search for whatever might be left 
 of their relatives. Some of those who misbehaved 
 were friends of the lost, who, worn out with loss of 
 sleep, had taken to drink and become madmen, but 
 the greater part were merely sightseers or robbers of 
 the dead. 
 
 Avaricious Tramps. 
 
 There were many tramps whose avarice had been 
 stimulated by hearing of diamond rings and watches 
 found on the dead. There was one little drunken 
 hunchback who told those in the car who listened to 
 him that years ago he had quarrelled with his parents 
 in Johnstown and had not seen them since. He was 
 on the way now to see if anything was left of them. 
 One moment he was in maudlin tears and the next he 
 was cracking some miserable joke about the disaster. 
 He went about the car shaking dice with other inebri- 
 ated passengers, and in the course of half anhour had 
 won $6. Over this he exhibited almost the glee of a 
 maniac, and the fate of his people was lost sight of. 
 Then he would presently forget his gains and go sob- 
 bing up the aisle looking for listeners to his pitiful stoiy. 
 
230 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 There were two sinister looking Hungarians in the 
 smoking car and their presence excited the anger of 
 a handful of drunken maniacs. They made loud 
 speeches, denouncing the conduct of Hungarians who 
 robbed the Johnstown dead, levelling their remarks at 
 the particular two. As they grew more excited they 
 demanded that the passengers make a move and lynch 
 the fellows. A great deal of trouble would have en- 
 sued, doubtless, if the train had not at that moment 
 stopped at Sang Hollow, four miles from Johnstown. 
 The conductor shouted out that the passengers must 
 leave the car and walk along the track the remainder 
 
 of the distance. 
 
 A Strangre Procession. 
 
 We started out in the fast gathering darkness and 
 the loiterers who held back made a long string. The 
 drunken ruffians staggered along the tracks, howling 
 with glee and talking about corpses, showing what 
 their object was in coming. The tired out and dis- 
 heartened women crowded under the shelter of the 
 more respectable men. There was one member of 
 the Pennsylvania National Guard in the troop with his 
 bayonet, and he seemed to be the rallying point for 
 the timid. 
 
 When the mob reached the outskirts of Johnstown 
 they came across a little camp of military with out- 
 posts. I had been told that soldiers were keeping 
 people who had no business there out of the lost city, 
 and to insure my passage through the lines I had pro- 
 cured an order from Mr. McCreery, chairman of the 
 
(2sn 
 
282 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Chamber of Commerce Committee at Pittsburgh, sta- 
 ting that I was entitled to go through. I knew that 
 the drunken lunatics behind me could have no such 
 documents, and I imagined the soldiers would stop 
 them. Nothing of the kind happened. Whole troops 
 surged through the line. No passes were asked from 
 them and they showed none. They only quieted 
 down for a moment when they saw the uniforms of 
 the National Guard. 
 
 Keinforcing" Disorder. 
 
 The mob merely helped to swell the host of thieves, 
 cutthroats and pickpockets with which the region is 
 infested. 
 
 The trains which had passed us going from Johns- 
 town to Pittsburgh looked as If they might be made 
 up of joyous excursionists. The cars were crowded 
 to the platforms, and for some reason or other dozens 
 of the Inebriated passengers thought it appropriate to 
 cheer and yell, though God knows the whole surround- 
 ings were calculated to make a human being shed tears 
 of anguish. The sight of the coffins in the baggage 
 cars, some of them containing the dead, had no damp- 
 ening effect upon the spirit of these roysterers. 
 
 The reaction from debauches and excitement Is ter- 
 rible, and there can be little doubt that many minds 
 will give way under the strain. One of the wonders 
 of the disaster Is the absence of suicide and the appa- 
 rently calm way in which the most wofully bereaved 
 support themselves under their terrible loss. It must 
 be an unnatural calm. Men have quietly told me that 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 283 
 
 they have lost their entire families and then have sud- 
 denly changed the subject and talked of some absurdly 
 trivial matter with an air of great interest, but it was 
 easy to see that there was some numbing influence 
 over the mechanism of the mind. It is unnatural and 
 awful. It is almost impossible to realize that the troops 
 of workmen leisurely digging in the ruins as if 
 engaged in everyday employment are really digging 
 for the dead, and it is only in the actual sight of death 
 and its emblems that one can persuade one's self that 
 it is all true. The want of sleep conduces to an un- 
 natural condition of the mind, under which these awful 
 facts are bearable to the bereaved. 
 
 Picketing- the Kuins. 
 
 It was like a military camp here last night. So 
 many citizens have been knocked down and robbed 
 that the soldiers had special instructions to see that no 
 queer characters got through to the centre of the 
 town. I had an excellent chance of seeing how im- 
 possible it was for an unauthorized person to move 
 about the town easily, although he could get into the 
 interior. I had been kindly invited to sleep on a wisp 
 of hay in a neighboring barn, but being detained late 
 in the valley reached the press headquarters after my 
 host had left. It was a question of hunting shelter or 
 sleeping on the ground. 
 
 A gentleman whom I met told me that he was living 
 in a Baltimore and Ohio day passenger coach about a 
 mile out, and that if we could find our way there I was 
 welcome to a soft place on the floor. We spoke to 
 
284 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the nearest picket. He told us that it would be mad- 
 ness to try to cross one part of the ground unless we 
 had revolvers, because a gang of Huns were in hiding 
 ready to knock down passengers and hold up any one 
 who seemed defenceless. However, after a little 
 cogitating, he said that he would escort us to General 
 Hastings'- headquarters, and we started, picking our 
 way over the remains of streets and passing over 
 great obstructions that had been left by the torrent. 
 Ruin and wreck were on every hand. You could not 
 tell where one street began and another left off, and 
 ift some places there was only soft mud, as devoid of 
 evidence of the former presence of buildings as a 
 meadow is, though they had been the sites of business 
 blocks. It was washed clean. 
 
 A Weird Journey. 
 Our guide told us the details of the capture of five 
 marauders who had been robbing the dead. They had 
 cut off the head of a woman found in the debris to get 
 her earrings. He said that a number of deputy sher- 
 iffs had declared that at dawn they would march to 
 the place where the prisoners were and take them out 
 and hang them. My military friend said that he and 
 his comrades would not be particularly anxious to in- 
 terfere. The scene as we picked our way was lighted 
 up by camp fires, around which sat groups of deputy 
 sheriffs in slouch hats. They were a grim looking set, 
 armed widi clubs and guns. A few 'bad rifles and 
 some wore revolvers in their belts in regular leather 
 cowboy pockets. The camp fires were about two 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 285 
 
 hundred yards apart and to pass them without being 
 challenged was impossible. At the adjutant general's 
 office we got a pass entitling us to pass the pickets, 
 and bidding our guardsman good-night we started off 
 escorted by a deputy sheriff. There were long lines 
 of camp fires and every few rods we had to produce 
 credentials. It was a pretty effect that was produced 
 by the blazing logs. They lighted up the valley for 
 some distance, throwing in relief the windowless ruins 
 of what were once fine residences, bank buildings or 
 factories. Embedded in the mud were packages of 
 merchandise, such as sugar in barrels, etc., and over 
 these we stumbled continually. 
 
 A Muddy Desert. 
 Streams were running through the principal streets 
 of the city. In some parts all that was left of the 
 thoroughfares were the cobble stones — by which it 
 was possible to trace streets for a short distance — and 
 the street railway tracks remaining in places for 
 spaces of a hundred feet or so. There were some 
 buildings outside of the track of the full force of the 
 torrent, the roofs of which seemed not to have been 
 reached. Others had been on fire and had lost parts 
 of their walls. It was a dismal sight, this desolation, 
 as shown up by the fitful camp fires. It was only 
 after climbing over perilous places, crossing streams 
 and narrowly escaping with our necks, that we came 
 within sight of the car at two o'clock this morning. 
 We passed by a school house used as a morgue. 
 Several people were inside gazing by lamp . light at 
 
286 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the silent bodies in a hunt for lost ones. Piles of 
 coffins, brown and white, were in the school play- 
 ground, which resounded not many days ago with the 
 shouts of children, some of whom lie there now. 
 There are heaps of coffins everywhere throughout the 
 city. Conversation with the deputy sheriffs showed a 
 deep-rooted hatred against the Huns, and a deter- 
 mination to shoot them down like dogs if they were 
 caught prowling about near the exposed property. 
 While we were toiling over debris we heard three 
 shots about a quarter of a mile off. We could learn 
 nothing of their report. The service done by the 
 deputy sheriffs was excellent. 
 
 Mistaken Identification* 
 
 At St. Columba's Catholic Church the scenes were 
 striking In their individual peculiarities. One woman 
 came In and Identified a body as that of Katie Frank. 
 The undertakers labeled It accordingly, but in a few mo- 
 ments another woman entered the church, raised the 
 lid of the coffin, scanned the face of the corpse, and 
 then tore the label from the casket. The undertakers 
 were then warned by the woman to be more careful In 
 labelling coffins In the future. She then began to 
 weep, and left the church in despair. She was Katie's 
 mother, and Katie is yet among the wreck In the river 
 below. 
 
 The lot of bodies held and coffined at Morrellville 
 presented a different feature. The mud was six inches 
 deep, and the drizzling rain added gloom to the scene. 
 Here and there could be seen, kneeling in the mud, 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 287 
 
 broken hearted wives and mothers who sobbed and 
 prayed. The Incidents here were heartrending. 
 
 At the Fourth ward schoolhouse morgue a woman 
 from Erie, whose name could not be learned, went to 
 the morgue in search of some one, but fainted on see- 
 ing the long line of coffins. At the Kernville morgue 
 one lltde boy named Elrod, on finding his father and 
 mother bofh dead, seized a hatchet, and for some time 
 would let no one enter the place, claiming that the 
 people were lying to him and wanted to rob him of his 
 father and mother. 
 
 One sad incident was the sight of two coffins lying 
 in the Gautier graveyard with nobody to bury them. 
 A solitary woman was gazing at them m a dazed 
 manner, while the rain beat on her unprotected head. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 Ha-irbreadthi Hscapes, 
 
 So vast is the field of destruction that to get an 
 adequate Idea from any point level with the town is 
 simply impossible. It must be viewed from a height. 
 From the top of Kernville Mountaii: just at the east 
 of the town the whole strange panorama can be seen. 
 
 Looking down from that height many strange things 
 about the flood that appear inexplicable from below 
 are perfectly plain. How so many houses happened 
 to be so queerly twisted, for instance, as if the water 
 had a whirling instead of a straight motion, was made 
 perfectly clear. 
 
 The town was built in an almost equilateral triangle, 
 with one angle pointed squarely up the Conemaugh 
 Valley to the east, from which the flood came. At the 
 northerly angle was the junction of the Conemaugh 
 and Stony creeks. The Southern angle pointed up 
 the Stony Creek Valley. Now about one-half of the 
 triangle, formerly densely covered with buildings, is 
 swept as clean as a platter, except for three or four 
 big brick buildings that stand near the angle which 
 points up the Conemaugh. 
 
 Course of the Flood, 
 
 The course of the flood from the exact point where 
 it issued from the Conemaugh Valley to were it disap' 
 
 (288) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 289 
 
 peared below In a turn In the river and above by 
 spreading Itself over the flat district of five or six 
 miles, is clearly defined. The whole body of water is- 
 sued straight from the valley In a solid wave and tore 
 across the village of Woodvale and so on to the busi- 
 ness part of Johnstown at the lower part of the tnan* 
 gle. Here a cluster of solid brick blocks, aided by the 
 conformation of the land, evidently divided the stream. 
 The greater part turned to the north, swept up the 
 brick block and then mixed with the ruins of the vil- 
 lages above down to the stone arch bridge. The 
 other stream shot across the triangle, was turned 
 southward by the bluffs and went up the valley of 
 Stony Creek. The stone arch bridge In the mean- 
 time acted as a dam and turned part of the current 
 back toward the south, where it finished the work ol 
 the triangle, turning again to the northward and back 
 to the stone arch bridge. The stream that w^ent up 
 Stony Creek was turned back by the rising ground 
 and then was reinforced by the back water from the 
 bridge again and started south, where It reached a 
 mile and a half and spent Its force on a little settle- 
 ment called Grubbtown. 
 
 Work of tlie Water. 
 The frequent turning of this stream, forced against 
 the buildings and then the bluffs, gave It a regular 
 whirling motion from right to left and made a tremen- 
 dous eddy, whose centrifugal force twisted everything 
 it touched. This accounts for the comparatively 
 narrow path of the flood through the southern part of 
 19 
 
290 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the town, where its course through the thickly clus- 
 tered frame dwelling houses is as plain as a highway. 
 The force of the stream diminished gradually as it 
 went south, for at the place where the currents sepa- 
 rated every building is ground to pieces and carried 
 away, and at the end the houses were only turned 
 a litde on their foundations. In the middle of the 
 course they are turned over on their sides or upside 
 down. Further down they are not single, but great 
 heaps of ground lumber that look like nothing so much 
 as enormous pith balls. 
 
 To the north the work of the waters is of a different 
 sort. It picked up everything except the big buildings 
 that divided the current and piled the fragments down 
 about the stone bridge or swept them over and soon 
 down the river for miles. This left the great yellow, 
 sandy and barren plain so often spoken of in the 
 despatches where stood the best buildings in Johns- 
 town — the opera house, the big hotel, many wholesale 
 warehouses, shops and the finest residences. In this 
 plain there are now only the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
 road train, a schoolhouse, the Morrell Company's 
 stores and an adjoining warehouse and the few biuld- 
 ings at the point of the triangle. One big residence, 
 badly shattered, Is also standing. 
 
 Houses Changed Base. 
 
 These structures do not relieve the shocking picture 
 of ruin spread out below the mountain, but by con- 
 trast making It more striking. That part of the town 
 to the south where the flood tore the narrow path 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 291 
 
 there used to be a separate village which was called 
 Kernville. It is now known as the South Side. 
 Some of the queerest sights of the wreck are there, 
 though few persons have gone to see them. Many of 
 the houses that are there, scattered helter skelter, 
 thrown on their sides and standing on their roofs, 
 were never In that neighborhood nor anywhere near 
 it before. They came down on the breast of the 
 wave from as far up as Franklin, were carried safely 
 by the factories and the bridges, by the big buildings 
 at the dividing line, up and down on the flood and 
 finally settled in their new resting places little injured. 
 A row of them, packed closely together and every one 
 tipped over at about the same angle, is only one of 
 the queer freaks the water played. 
 
 I got into one of these houses in my walk through 
 the town to-day. The lower story had been filled with 
 water, and everything in it had been torn out. The 
 carpet had been split into strips on the floor by the 
 sheer force of the rushing tide. Heaps of mud stood 
 in the corners, ^ere was not a vestige of furniture. 
 The walls dripped with moisture. The ceiling was 
 gone, the windows were out, and the cold rain blew In 
 and the only thing that was left Intact was one of those 
 worked worsted mottoes that you always expect to find 
 in the homes of working people. It still hung to the 
 v^all, and though much awry the glass and frame were 
 unbroken. The motto looked grimly and sadly sar- 
 castic. It was : — 
 
 ** There is no place like home,** 
 
292 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 A melancholy wreck of a home that motto looked 
 
 down upon. 
 
 A Tree in a House. 
 
 I saw a wagon in the middle of a side street stick- 
 ing' tongue, and all, straight up into the air, resting on 
 its tail board, with the hind wheels almost completely 
 buried in the mud. I saw a house standing exactly 
 in the middle of Napoleon street, the side stove in by 
 crashing against some other house and in the hole the 
 coffin of its owner was placed. Some scholar s library 
 had been strewn over the street in the last stage of 
 the flood, for there was a trail of good books left half 
 sticking in the mud and reaching for over a block. 
 One house had been lifted over two others in some 
 mysterious way and then had settled down between 
 them and there it stuck, high up in the air, so its 
 former occupants might have got into it again with 
 ladders. 
 
 Down at the lower end of the course of the stream, 
 where its force was greater, there was a house lying 
 on one corner and held there by being fastened in the 
 deep mud. Through its side the trunk of a tree had 
 been driven like a lance, and there It stayed sticking 
 out straight in the air. In the muck was the case and 
 key board of a square piano, and far down the river, 
 near the debris about the stone bridge, were its legs. 
 An upright piano, with all its inside apparatus cleanly 
 taken out, stood straight up a little way off. What 
 was once a set of costly furniture was strewn all about 
 it, and the house that contained it was nowhere. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 293 
 
 The remarkable stories that have been told about 
 people floating a mile up the river and then back two 
 or three times are easily credible after seeing the evi- 
 dences of the strange course the flood took in this 
 part of the town. People who stood near the ruins of 
 Poplar Bridge saw four women on a roof float up on 
 the stream, turn a short distance above and come back 
 and go past again and once more return. Then they 
 went far down on the current to the lower part of the 
 town and were rescued as they passed the second 
 story window of a school house. A man who was 
 imprisoned in the attic of his house put his wife and 
 two children on a roof that was eddying past and' 
 stayed behind to die alone. They floated up the 
 stream and then back and got upon the roof of the 
 very house they had left, and the whole family was saved. 
 At Grubbtown there is a house that came all the 
 way from Woodvale. On it was a man who lived 
 near Grubbtown, but was working at Woodvale when 
 the flood came. He was carried right past his own 
 house and coolly told the people at the bridge to bid 
 his wife good-bye for him. The house passed the 
 bridge three times, the man carrying on a conversa- 
 tion with the people on shore and giving directions 
 for his burial if his body should be found. The third 
 time the house went up it grounded at Grubbtow^n, 
 and in an hour or two the man was safe at home. 
 Three girls who w^ent by on a roof crawled Into the 
 branches of a tree and had to stay there all night 
 before they could make any one understand where 
 
294 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 they were. At one time scores of floating houses 
 were wedged In togedier near the ruins of Poplar 
 street bridge. Four brave men went out from the 
 shore, and, stepping from house roof to house roof, 
 brought in twelve women and children. 
 
 Starvation Overcomes Modesty. 
 
 Some women crawled from roofs into the attics of 
 houses. In their struggles with the flood most of 
 their clothes had been torn from them, and rather than 
 appear on the streets they stayed where they were 
 until hunger forced them to shout out of the windows 
 for help. At this stage of the flood more persons 
 were lost by being crushed to death than by drowning. 
 As they floated by on roofs or doors the toppling 
 houses fell over upon them and killed them. 
 Nineveh ivas Spared. 
 
 The valley of death, twenty-three miles long, prac- 
 tically ends at Nineveh. It begins at Woodvale, where 
 the dam broke, and for the entire distance to this point 
 the mountains make a canyon — a water trap, from 
 which escape was Impossible. The first intimation this 
 city had of the Impending destruction was at noon on 
 Friday, when Station Agent Nunamaker got this des- 
 patch : — 
 
 '*We just received word from South Fork that 
 water Is coming over dam at Conemaugh Lake, and is 
 liable to burst at any moment. Notify people to look 
 out." 
 
 "J. C. Waukemshaw, 
 " Despatcher at Conemaugh.*' 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 295 
 
 Nunamaker started on a dead run to the water 
 front, along which most of the houses are situated, 
 crying : — 
 
 " The dam is breaking. Run for your Hves !'* 
 
 Every spring, the station agent tells me, there have 
 been a score of such alarms, and when the people 
 heard Nunamaker they laughed and called him an old 
 fogy for his pains. They had run too often to the 
 mountains to escape some imaginary flood to be 
 scared by anything less than the actual din of the tor- 
 rent in their ears. Two hours and a half later a de- 
 spatch came saying that the dam had indeed broken. 
 
 Again the station agent went on a trot to the res- 
 idential part of the town. That same despatch had 
 gone thundering down the whole valley. Johnstown 
 heard the news and so did Conemaugh. No one be- 
 lieved it. It was what they called ''a chestnut." But 
 the cry had put the people a litde on the alert. One 
 hour after the despatch came the first warning note of 
 the disaster. Mr. Nunamaker tells me that it took 
 really more than that time for the head of the leaping 
 cataract to travel the twenty-three miles. If that is so 
 the people of Johnstown must have had half an hour's 
 warning at least, for Johnstown is half way between 
 here and the fatal dam. 
 
 Awful Scenes, 
 I Nineveh is very flat on the river side where the peo- 
 ple live, though, fortunately, the main force of the cur- 
 rent was not directed on this side of the stream. In a 
 second the river rose two feet at a jump. It then 
 
296 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 reared up like a thing of life, then it steadily rose 
 inches at a time, flooding the whole town. But the 
 people had had warning and saved themselves. Pitiful 
 cries were heard soon from the river. People were 
 floating down on barrels, roofs, beds, anything that 
 was handy. There were pitiful shrieks from despair- 
 ing women. The people of Nineveh could do nothing. 
 No boat could have stemmed the cataract. During 
 the night there were shrieks heard from the flooded 
 meadows. Next morning at nine o'clock the flood 
 had fallen three feet. Bodies could be seen on the 
 trees by the Nineveh people, who stayed up all night 
 in the hope of being able to do some act of hu- 
 manity. 
 
 The liiving and the Dead. 
 
 Only twenty-five were taken alive from the trees 
 and drift on this side. Across the stream a score 
 were secured and forty-seven corpses taken out. 
 This, with the 200 corpses here, makes a total of 300 
 people who are known to have come down to this 
 point. There are perhaps a hundred- and fifty bodies 
 within a mile. Only a few were actually taken from 
 the river bed. They sank in deep water. It is only 
 when they have swollen by the effect of the water that 
 they rise to the surface. Most of those recovered 
 were found almost on dry land or buried in drift 
 There are tons of wood, furniture, trees, trunks, and 
 everything that is ever likely to float in a river, that 
 must be " dug over." It will be work of the hardest 
 kind to get at the remaining corpses. I went over 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 297 
 
 the whole ground along the river bank between here 
 and Johnstown to-day. 
 
 The Force of the Flood. 
 
 The trees on the banks were levelled as if by bat- 
 tering rams, telegraph poles were snapped off as a 
 boy breaks a sugar stick, and parts of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad track were wrenched, torn and de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Jerry McNeilly, of this place, says he was at the 
 Johnstown station when the flood came down, preceded 
 by a sort of cloud or fog. He saw people smoking at 
 their windows up to the last moment, and even when 
 the w^ater flooded their floors they laughed and seemed 
 to think that the river had risen a few feet and that 
 was all. Jerry, however, ran to the hills and saved 
 him.self while the water rose and did its awful work. 
 Some houses were bowled over like ninepins. Some 
 floated to the surface and started with the flood ; others 
 stood their ground and w^ere submerged inch by inch, 
 the occupants climbing from story to story, from the 
 top story to the roof, only to be swept away from their 
 foothold sooner or later. 
 
 The Dam's History. 
 I asked a gathering of men here in what light they 
 had been accustomed to look upon the dam. They 
 aay that from the time it was built, somewhere about 
 1831, by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to cok 
 lect water for the canals, it has been the ''bogie" of 
 the district. Babies were frightened when naughty by 
 being told the dam would break. Time and time again 
 
298 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the people of Nineveh have risen from their beds in 
 the night and perched upon the mountains through 
 fear. A body of water seven miles or more long, from 
 eighty to one hundred and twenty feet deep, and 
 about a mile wide, was indeed something to be 
 dreaded. This lake had a circumference of about 
 ^eighteen miles, which gives some Idea of the volume 
 of water that menaced the population. The dam was 
 thick enough for two carriages to drive abreast on its 
 top, but the people always doubted the stability of that 
 pile of masonry and earth. 
 
 Morrellvllle was for a few days in a state of starva- 
 tion, but Sheridan, Sang Hollow and this town are in 
 no distress. 
 
 Nineveh has lost no life, although wild rumors said 
 it had. Though the damage to property is very great, 
 the Huns have been kept away, and robbers and 
 marauders find nothing to tempt them. 
 What <«Chal" Dick Saw. 
 
 "I'll kill the first man that dares to cross the 
 bridge." 
 
 ** Chal " Dick, lawyer, burgess and deputy sheriff 
 and sportsman, sat upon his horse with a Winchester 
 rifle across his saddle and a thousand or two of fiends 
 dancing a war dance in his eyes. Down in Johnstown 
 proper they think "Chal" Dick is either drunk or 
 I crazy. Two new^spaper men bunked with him last 
 night and found he was not afflicted in either sense. 
 He is the only recognized head in the borough of 
 Kernville, where every man, woman and child know 
 him as " Chal," and greet him as he passes by. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 2^ 
 
 "Yes," he said to me last night, **I saw it all. My 
 house was on Somerset street. On Thursday night it 
 rained very hard. My wife woke me and called my 
 attention to the way the water was coming down. I 
 said nothing, but I got up about five o'clock and took 
 a look around. In a little while Stony Creek had 
 risen three feet. I then knew that we were going to 
 have a flood, but I did not apprehend any danger. 
 The water soon flooded the streets, and boards and 
 logs began coming down. 
 
 Sport Before Sorrow. 
 
 "A lot of us turned in to have some sport. I gave 
 my watch and what money I had to a neighbor and 
 began riding logs down the stream. I had lots of 
 company. Old men acted like boys, and shouted and 
 shouted and splashed about in the water like mad. 
 Finally the water began to rise so rapidly that I be- 
 came alarmed. I went home and told my wife that it 
 was full time to get out. She was somewhat incredu- 
 lous, but I made her get ready, and we took the chil- 
 dren and we went to the house of Mr. Bergman, on 
 Napoleon street, just on the rise of Kernville. I got 
 wet from head to foot fooling in the water, and when I 
 got to Bergman's I took a chill. I undressed and 
 went to bed and fell asleep. The first thing I knew I 
 was pulled out of bed on to the floor, by Mr. Berg- 
 man, who yelled, * the dam has burst.' I got up, 
 pulled on my pantaloons and rushed down stairs. I 
 got my youngest child and told my wife to follow with 
 the two others. This time the water was three feet in 
 
500 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the house and rising rapidly. We waded up to our 
 waists out through it, up the hill, far beyond the reach 
 of danger. 
 
 A Stupendous Sight. 
 
 "From the time I left Bergman's till I stopped is a 
 blank. I remember nothing. I turned and looked, 
 and may my eyes never rest on another such sight. 
 The water was above the houses from the direction of 
 the railroad bridge. There came a wave that appeared 
 to be about twelve feet high. It was perpendicular in 
 Its face and moved in a mist. I have heard them speak 
 of the death mist, but I then first appreciated what the 
 phrase meant. It came on up Stony Creek carrying 
 on its surface house after house and moving along 
 faster than any horse could go. In the water there 
 bobbed up and down and twisted and twirled the 
 heads of people making ripples after the manner of 
 shot dropped into the water. The wave struck houses 
 not yet submerged and cut them down. The frames 
 rose to the surface, but the bricks, of course, were 
 lost to sight. When the force of the water spent itself 
 and began retracing its course, then the awfulness of 
 the scene increased in intensity. I have a little nerve, 
 but my heart broke at the sight. Houses, going and 
 coming, crashed up against each other and began^ 
 grinding each other to pieces. The buildings creakecf 
 and groaned as they let go their fastenings and fairly 
 melted. 
 
 "At the windows of the dwellings there appeared 
 the faces of people equally as ill-fated as the rest 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 301 
 
 God forbid that I should ever again look upon such 
 Intensity of anguish. Oh, how white and horror- 
 stricken those faces were, and such appeals for help 
 that could not come. The woman wrung their hands 
 in their despair and prayed aloud for deliverance. 
 Down stream went houses and people at the rate of 
 twenty-five miles an hour aad stopped, a conglomerate 
 mass, at the stone abutment of the railroad bridge. 
 The first buildings that struck the bridge took fire, 
 and those that came after were swept into a sea of 
 flame. I thought I had already witnessed the greatest 
 possible climax of anguish, but the scene that followed 
 exceeded in awfulness anything I had before looked 
 upon. The flames grew, hundreds of people were 
 wedged in the driftwood and imprisoned in the 
 houses. Rapidly the fire approached them, and then 
 they began to cry for aid, and hundreds of others stood 
 on the bank, powerless to extend a single comfort. 
 Judgement Day. 
 " As the fire licked up house after house and pile after 
 pile, I could see men and women bid each other good- 
 by, and fathers and mothers kiss their children. The 
 flames swallowed them up and hid them from my view, 
 but I could hear their shrieks as they roasted alive. 
 The shrieks mellowed into groans, and the groans into 
 silence, only to be followed by more shrieks, more 
 groans and more silence, as the fire caught up and 
 destroyed its victims. Heavens ! but I was glad when 
 the end came. My only anxiety was to have it come 
 quickly, and I prayed that it might come, oh! so 
 
302 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 quick ! It was a splendid realization of the judgment 
 
 day. It was a magnificent realization of the impotency 
 
 of man in a battle with such a combination of fire and 
 
 flood." 
 
 Some Have Cause for Joy. 
 
 In the midst of the confusion of the disaster and the' 
 strain of excitement which followed it w^as but natu-, 
 ral that every one who could not readily be found was 
 reported dead. Amid the throng of mourners now an 
 occasional soul is made happy by finding that some 
 loved one has escaped death. To-day a few of the 
 living had time to notify their friends throughout the 
 country of their safety. 
 
 General Lew Wallace, now at West Point, tele- 
 graphed President Harrison, in response to an inquiry 
 last night, that his wife was ** coming out of the great 
 calamity at Johnstown safe." Several reports have 
 been sent out from Johnstown, one as late as last 
 night, to the effect that Mrs. Wallace was believed to 
 be among the victims of the disaster. Private Secre- 
 tary Halford received a telegram this afternoon from 
 his wife at Altoona, announcing that Mrs. Lew 
 Wallace was with her and safe. 
 
 Did Not Lose Their Presence of Mind. 
 
 A dispatch from Carthage, 111., says : — " Mrs. M. J. 
 Smith, a traveling saleslady for a book concern in 
 New York city, was at Johnstown at the time of the* 
 flood and was swept away with others. Her brothers, 
 Lieutenant P. and James McKee, received the follow- 
 ing telegram at Carthage yesterday from Johnstown : 
 
THE JCriNSTOWN HORROR. 303 
 
 ' .*c-a>ped with my life on housetop ; am all right. 
 
 "M. J. Smith.' 
 
 "The lady is well known in this county." 
 Rich Made Poor. 
 
 John Kelly, the prominent Odd Fellow of Cone* 
 naugh, who was supposed to be lost, escaped with his 
 entire family, though his house and store were swept, 
 down the river. 
 
 John Rowley, who stands high among the Masons 
 and Odd Fellows, tells me that out of ^65,000 worth 
 of property which he could call his own on Friday last 
 he found just two bricks on the site of his residence 
 this morning. He counts himself wealthy, however, 
 in the possession of his wife and children who were all 
 saved. His wife, who was very ill, was dragged 
 through the water in her nightclothes. She is now in 
 a critical condition, but has the best of medical attend- 
 ance and may pull through. 
 
 In a frame house which stood at No. 121 Union 
 street, Johnstown, were Mrs. O. W. Byrose, her 
 daughters Elsie, Bessie and Emma, and sons Samuel 
 and Ray. When the flood struck the house they ran 
 to the attic. The house was washed from its founda- 
 tion and carried with the rushing waters. Mrs. Byrose 
 and her children then clung to each other, expecting 
 every mmute to meet death. As the house was borne 
 along the chimney fell and crashed through the floors, 
 and the bricks were strewn along the course of the 
 river. The house was caught in the jam and held 
 about two hundred feet above the bridge and one huQ* 
 
304 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 dred and fifty feet from the shore. The terrified in- 
 mates Gid not lose all presence of mind, and they made 
 their escape to the hole made by the fallen chimney, 
 rhey were seen by those on shore, and after much 
 difficult)- each was rescued. A few minutes later the 
 house caught fire from the burning buildings, and was 
 soon consumed. 
 
 Swept from His Side. 
 At ten o'clock this morning an old gray bearded 
 man stood amid the blackened logs and ashes through 
 which the polluted w^ater of the Conemaugh made its 
 way, wringing his hands and moaning in a way that 
 brought tears to the eyes of all about him. He was 
 W. J, Gilmore, whose residence had stood at the cor- 
 ner of Conemaugh and Main streets. Being on low 
 ground the house v/as flooded by the first rush ol 
 water and the family, consisting of Mr. Gilmore, his 
 brother Abraham, his wife, four children and mother- 
 in-law, ran to the second story, where they were 
 joined by Frances, the little daughter of Samuel 
 Fields, and Grandmother Maria Prosser. When the 
 torrent from South Fork rushed through the town the 
 side of the house was torn out and the water poured 
 into the second floor. Mr. Gilmore scrambled upon 
 some floating debris, and his brother attempted to 
 pass the women and children out to him. Before he 
 could do so, however, the building sank and Mr. Gil- 
 more's family was swept from his side. His brother 
 disappeared for a moment under the water, but came 
 to the surface and was hauled upon the root. The 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 305 
 
 brothers then strove frantically to tear a hole in the 
 roof of the house with their bare hands, but their 
 efforts were, of course, unavailing, and they were 
 soon struggling for their own lives in the wreck at the 
 viaduct. Both finally reached the shore. The body 
 of Mrs. Gilmore, when taken from the ruins this 
 morning, was but little mutilated, although her body 
 was bloated by the water. Two of the children had 
 been almost burned to cinders, their arms and legs 
 alone being something like their original shape. 
 Statue of the Virgin. 
 St. Mary's German Catholic Church, which is badly 
 wrecked, was temporarily used as a morgue, but a sin- 
 gular circumstance connected with the wrecking having 
 been noticed, the duty of becoming a receptacle for the 
 dead is transferred to the Church of St. Columba. 
 The windows of St. Mary's are all destroyed. The 
 floor for one-third of its extent on St. Mary's side is 
 torn up to the chancel rail in one piece by the water 
 and raised toward the wall. One-half the chancel rail 
 is gone, the mud is eighteen inches deep on the floor, 
 St. Joseph's altar is displaced and the statue gone. 
 The main altar, with its furniture for Easter, is covered 
 with mud, and some fine potted flowers are destroyed. 
 Nearly all the other ornaments are in place, even to 
 the candlesticks. Strange to relate, the statue of the 
 Virgin in her attire is unsoiled ; the white vestments 
 with silken embroidery are untarnished. This dis- 
 covery led to the change of morgue. The matter 
 being bruited abroad the desolated womea of Cambria 
 20 
 
306 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 and Johnstown, as well as those who had not been siit 
 ferers from the flood, visited the church, and with most 
 affect: ng devoutness adored the shrine. Some men 
 also were among the devout, and not one of those who 
 offered their prayers but did it in tears. For several 
 hours this continued to be the wonder of the parish-/ 
 loners of the Catholic churches. 
 
 The entire family of Mr. Howe, the wealthiest man 
 in Cambria, with some visitors from Pittsburgh 
 and Ohio, were hurried to death by the collapse of 
 their residence on that fatal Friday night. 
 
 In the rubbish heaped high on the shore near the 
 stone arch bridge is a flat freight car banged and 
 shattered and with a hole stove in its side. One of 
 the workmen who were examining the debris to-day 
 got into the car and found a framed and glazed picture 
 of the Saviour. It was resting against the side of the 
 car, right side up. Neither frame nor glass were 
 Injured. When this incident got noised about among 
 the workmen they dropped their pickaxes and ran to 
 look at the wonderful sight with their hats off. 
 Saved His Motlier and Sister. 
 
 A man who came up from Lockport to-day told 
 this : — *' On the roof of a house were a young man, 
 his mother and a young girl apparently his sister. As 
 diey passed the Lockport bridge, where the youth hung 
 .n an eddy for a moment, the men on the bridge 
 threw them a rope. The young man on the house 
 caught and tried to make it fast around his mother 
 *nd then around his sister. They were afraid to use 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 307 
 
 it or they were unwilling to leave him, for they v/ould 
 not take the rope. They tried to make him take it, 
 but he threw it away and stayed on the roof with them. 
 The house was swept onward and In another moment 
 was lodged against a tree. The youth seized his 
 mother and sister and placed them in safety among 
 the branches. The next instant the house started/ 
 again. The young man's foot slipped. He Wl into 
 the water and was not seen again. 
 
 Where Deatli Lay in Wait. 
 
 A great deal has been written and published about 
 the terrible disaster, but in all the accounts nothing 
 has been said about South Fork, where in proportion 
 to its size as much damage has been done as at any 
 other point. 
 
 For the purpose of ascertaining how the place 
 looked which in the annals of history v^^Ill always be 
 referred to as the starting point of this great calamity, 
 I came here from Johnstown. I left on Monday 
 morning at half-past six, and being unable to secure a 
 conveyance of any character was compelled to walk 
 the entire distance. Thinking the people of Johns- 
 town knew whereof they spoke, I started over the 
 Edensburg turnpike and tramped, as a result, six 
 more miles than was absolutely necessary. After I 
 left Johnstown it began raining and continued until I 
 reached South Fork. 
 
 Two miles out from Johnstown I passed the 
 Altoona Relief Committee in carriages, with their sup- 
 ply train following, and from that until I reached Fair 
 
308 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 View, where I turned off toward the Conemaugh 
 river, it was a continuous line of vehicles of all kinds, 
 some containing supplies, others passengers, many of 
 whom were ladies. I followed a cow-path along the 
 mountain until I reached Mineral Point. Here Is 
 where the flood did its first bad work after leaving 
 South Fork. There had been thirty-three dwelling 
 houses, a store and a large sawmill In the village, and 
 in less than one minute after the flood struck the head 
 of the place there were twenty-nine of these buildings 
 wiped out ; and so sudden had been the coming of the 
 water that but a few of the residents succeeded in get- 
 ting away. 
 
 As a Boy would Marbles. 
 
 Jacob Kohler, one of the residents of the place, said 
 he had received a telegram stating that the flood was 
 coming, but paid no attention to It as they did not un- 
 derstand Its significance. "I saw it coming," he said, 
 *'wlth the water reaching a height of at least twenty- 
 five feet, tearing trees up by the roots and dashing big 
 rocks about as a boy would marbles. I hardly had 
 time to grab a child and run for the hills when It was 
 upon us, and in less time than It takes for me to tell 
 it our village was entirely wiped out and the inhabi- 
 tants were struggling in the water and were soon out 
 of sight. I never want to see such a sight again." 
 
 From Mineral Point another cow-path was taken 
 over the mountains. I came just below the viaduct 
 within about one mile of South Fork, and here the 
 work of destruction had been as complete as it was 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 309 
 
 possible fo? it to be. The entire road-bed of the Penn- 
 sylvania F^ .Iroad had been washed away. 
 
 At this point a freight train had been caught ?nd 
 all the men on it perished, but the names could not be 
 learned. The engine was turned completely upside 
 down and the box cars were lifted off the track and 
 carried two hundred feet to the side of the hill. Fif- 
 teen of them are there with the trucks, about one 
 hundred feet from the old road-bed, and turned com- 
 pletely upside down. 
 
 Another freight train just ahead of it was also swept 
 away in the same manner, all excepting two cars and 
 the engine. One of the cars was loaded with two 
 heavy boilers from the works of James WItherow, 
 Newcastle. 
 
 Rails Twisted l>ouble. 
 
 Coming in to South Fork the work of destruction 
 on the railroad was found to be even greater, the rails 
 being almost bent double. The large iron bridge 
 over the river at this point is gone, as is also one of 
 the piers. The lower portion of this place is com- 
 pletely wiped out, and two men were lost. This is 
 all the loss of life here, excepting two Italians who 
 were working at the lake proper. The loss in Indi 
 vidual property to the people of this place will reach 
 $75,000, and at Mineral Point ^50,000. 
 
 For the purpose of seeing how the lake looked 
 after all the water was out of it, a trip was taken to it, 
 fully three miles distant. The driveway around it is 
 
310 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 fully thirty-five feet wide, and that was the width at 
 the point of the dam where the break occui red. 
 Like a Thunderbolt. 
 
 Imagine, If ycu can, a solid piece of ground, thirty- 
 five feet wide and over one hundred feet high, and 
 then, again, that a space of two hundred feet is cut 
 out of it, through which is rushing over seven hundred 
 acres of water, and you can have only a faint concep- 
 tion of the terrible force of the blow that came upon 
 the people of this vicinity like a clap of thunder out 
 of a clear sky. It w^as Irresistible In Its power and 
 carried everything before It. After seeing the lake 
 and the opening through the dam It can be readily 
 understood how that outbreak came to be so destruc- 
 tive in its character. 
 
 The lake had been leaking, and a couple of Italians 
 
 were at work just over the point where the break 
 
 occurred, and in an Instant, without warning, it gave 
 
 way, and they were down in the whirling mass of water 
 
 and were swept Into eternity. The people of this 
 
 place had bepn told by some of those who had been to 
 
 the lake that It was leaking, but paid no attention any 
 
 more than to send telegrams to Johnstown and Mineral 
 
 Point. 
 
 Ilere's Another Paul Revere. 
 
 The first Intimation the people had of the approach 
 
 of the water was from the seventeen-year-old son of 
 
 John Baker. He was on the road on horseback and 
 
 noticed the water coming out of a cavity about five 
 
 feet In diameter, and not waiting to see any more he 
 
RESCUES AT THE SIGNAL TOWER. 
 
 (311) 
 
312 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 put Spurs to his horse and dashed for the town at 
 breakneck speed. Some of the people of this place 
 saw him coming at great speed, waving his hat, and 
 knowing something was wrong at once gave the 
 alarm, and grabbing their children started for the high 
 parts. When he arrived almost at Railroad street, his 
 own home, the water was already in the roadway, and 
 in less than one minute its whole bulk was coming, 
 twisting trees and rolling rocks before it. 
 
 In just eight minutes from the time he first saw it 
 the water had carried away the bridge and was on its 
 career of death and destruction. A train of Pullman 
 cars for the East, due at South Fork at 2.55, was 
 standing on the track on the west side of the bridge 
 waiting to pull into the station. At first the engineer 
 paid no attention to the wild gesticulations of the sta- 
 tion agent, but finally started out, pulling slowly into 
 the station, and not one moment too soon, for had he 
 remained where he was a minute longer all would 
 nave been swept away. 
 
 Thrilling- Escapes. 
 
 A local freight train with a passenger coach 
 attached, standing on the east side of the track, was 
 compelled to run into the rear end of the passenger 
 train so as to get out of the way of the flood. A young 
 man w^ho was on the rear end of the train grabbed a 
 young lady who was floating by and thus saved her 
 life. The house of an old man, eighty-two years of 
 age, was caught In the whirlpool, and he and his aged 
 wife climbed on the roof for safety. They were float- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 313 
 
 ing down the railroad track to certain death, when 
 their son-in-law, from the roof of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad station-house, pulled them off and saved their 
 lives as the house was dashed to pieces. 
 
 Mr. Brown, a resident of this place, said: **I was 
 just about opposite the mouth of the lake when it 
 broke. When I first saw it the water was dashing over 
 the top of the road just where it broke about a foot 
 high, and not eight or ten feet, as has been stated, and 
 I told Mr. Fisher, who lived there, that he had better 
 get his family out at once, which he did, going to the 
 hillside, and it was lucky for him that he did, because in 
 a half minute after it broke his home was wiped away." 
 No Safety Outlet. 
 
 Mr. Burnett, lyho was born and raised a mile from 
 the lake, and is now a resident of Hazelwood, and who 
 was at South Fork, said: "When the State owned 
 this lake they had a tower over the portion that gave 
 way and a number of pipes by which they were 
 enabled to drive off the surplus water, and had the 
 present owners had an arrangement of that kind this 
 accident w^ould not have occurred. The only outlet 
 there was for the water was a small waterway around 
 to the right of the lake, which is totally inadequate. 
 The people of this valley have always been afraid of 
 this thing, and now that it is here it shows that they 
 had every reason for their fears." 
 
 In company with Mr. Burnett I walked all over the 
 place, and am free to confess that it looks strong, but 
 experience shows the contrary. 
 
314 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Mr. Moore, who has done nearly all the hauling (or 
 the people who lived at the lake in summer, said ;— 
 ''About eight years ago this dam broke, but there was 
 not as much water in it as now, and when it broke 
 they were woiking at it and hauled cart load after cart 
 load of dirt, stone and logs, and finally about ter\ tons 
 of hay, and by that means any further damage was 
 prevented. That was the time when they should have 
 put forth strenuous efforts to have that part strength- 
 ened where the break occurred. This lake is about 
 three miles long and about a mile wide and frily 
 ninety feet deep, and of course when an opening of 
 any kind was forced it was impossible to stop it. 
 Thirsting" for Vengeance. 
 
 "The indignation here against the people who ow led 
 that place is intense. I was afraid that if the people 
 here were to hear that you were from Pittsburgh they 
 would jump to the conclusion that you were connected 
 with the association, and I was afraid they wc^uld pull 
 you from the carriage and kill you. That is the feel- 
 ing that predominates here, and we all belie\e justly." 
 
 Mr. Ferguson, of the firm of J. P. Stevenson & Co., 
 said : 'Tt is a terrible affair, and shows the absolute 
 necessity of people not fooling with matters of that 
 kind. We sent telegrams to Mineral Point, Johns- 
 town and Conemaugh, notifying them that the lake 
 was leaking and the water rising and we were liable 
 to have trouble, and two minutes before the flood 
 reached here a telegram was sent to Mineral Point 
 diat the dam had broken. But you see for the past 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 315 
 
 five years so many alarms of that kind have been sent 
 that the people have not believed them." 
 Broke Forty-one Years Ago. 
 
 TvJrs. McDonald, who lives between Johnstown and 
 South Fork, said : ** I am an old woman and lived in 
 Johnstown forty-two year ago, when there but two or 
 three houses here. I have always contended, ever since 
 this club of dudes took charge of this place, that it 
 would end in a terrible loss of life. It broke about 
 forty-one years ago, and I was in my house washing 
 and it actually took my tub away and I only saved my- 
 self after a desperate struggle. At that time there 
 were no lives lost. On Friday night, when it was rain- 
 ing so hard, I told my son not to go near Johnstown, 
 as it was sure, from the telegrams I heard of, which 
 had come in the afternoon, that there would be a ter- 
 rible disaster. 
 
 I was told that when the viaduct went a loud report 
 was heard just as a couple of freight cars were dashing 
 against it, and the people say that they were loaded 
 with dynamite. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railroad officials are rushing in 
 all the men at this point possible to repair the road 
 and are working day and night, having electric lights 
 all along the road ; but with all of that it looks as 
 though it will be utterly impossible to have even a 
 single track ready for business before ten days or two 
 weeks, as there is not the slightest vestige of a railroad 
 track to be seen. The railroad people around here 
 are of the opinion that it will take as long as that. 
 
316 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 The railroad men say that It is the most complete 
 
 destruction of the kind that they have ever witnessed. 
 
 WeaUh Borne Away. 
 
 I had an interview to-night with Colonel James A. 
 McMillan, the consulting director and principal owner 
 of the Cambria Iron Works. He said : — 
 
 *' What will be the total loss sustained by the Cam- 
 bria Company is rather hard to state with perfect 
 accuracy just yet, but from the examinations already 
 made of our works I would place our loss at from 
 $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. That includes, of course, 
 the loss of our Gautier Steel Department, above 
 Johnstown, which is completely swept away. 
 
 ** Day before yesterday I took the liberty of deter- 
 mining the action which the company will pursue in 
 the matter of reconstruction and repairs. I accord- 
 ingly telegraphed for Mr. Lockhart, the secretary of 
 the company. He arrived here to-day and said to 
 me : * McMillan, I'm glad to see you intend to stand 
 by the company and push the work of repairs at once.* 
 
 *' I think his words voice the sentiment of all the 
 stockholders of the company. 
 
 Reconstruction Begun. 
 
 '* All day we have had at least eight hundred men 
 cleaning away the debris about our works, and we have 
 made so much progress that you can say we will have 
 our entire clerical force at work to-morrow evening. 
 Our large pieces of machinery are uninjured, and we 
 will have to send away for only the smaller pieces of 
 our machines and smaller pipes, which compose an 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 317 
 
 enormous system of pipe connections through the 
 works. In from ten to twelve days we v/Ill have our 
 works in operation, and I feel confident that we will 
 be making rails at our works inside of fifty days. As 
 we employ about five thousand men, I think our renewal 
 of operations will give the people more encourage- 
 ment than can be imagined. Besides, we have half 
 the amount of cash needed on deposit in our local 
 bank here, which was brought over by the Adams Ex- 
 press Company on Monday to pay our men. This 
 will be paid them as soon as we can get access to the 
 bank. 
 
 *'Our immediate work of reconstruction and repair 
 wnll, of course, be confined to the company's Cambria 
 iron works proper, and not extended to the Gautier 
 steel works above." 
 
 Twelve Millions More. 
 
 The Colonel was then asked his estimate of the 
 total loss sustained by the towns of Mineral Point, 
 Franklin borough, Woodvale, Conemaugh, Johnstown, 
 Cambria City, Coopersdale and Morrellville. He 
 said : 
 
 **I should place it at nothing lower than $12,000,- 
 000, besides the loss sustained by our company. That 
 is only an estimate, but when you take the different 
 towns as they were before the flood, and knowing 
 them as I do, you could not fail to see that this is a 
 very reasonable estimate of the loss." 
 
 As to the South Fork dam, he said: "For the 
 present I don't care to be Interviewed on that question 
 
318 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 as representing any one but myself. Personally, 1 
 have always considered it a dangerous trap, which 
 was likely at any time to wipe us cut. For the last 
 ten years I have not hesitated to express this opinion 
 in regard to the dam, and I guess it is pretty well 
 understood that all of our leading citizens held similar 
 views. There is not a man in Johnstown who will 
 deny that he has lived for years in constant dread of 
 its bursting down on us." 
 
 Fifteen Years to Recover. 
 
 "What do you think will be the time required for 
 the Conemaugh Valley to recover from the shock of 
 the flood?" 
 
 "At least fifteen years, and vigilant efforts will be 
 required at that. I speak now from a financial stand- 
 point. Of course we will never recover fully from the 
 terrible loss of life which is now being revealed in its 
 dreadful endrety. 
 
 Survivors in Camp. 
 
 There are two camps on the hillside to the north of 
 Johnstown, and they are almost side by side. One is 
 a camp for the living, for the most woebegone and 
 unfortunate of the refugees from the Conemaugh 
 Valley of the shadow of death, and the other is for the 
 dead. The camp of the living is Camp Hastings and 
 the ministering spirits are members of the Americus 
 Republican Club of Pittsburgh. The camp for the 
 dead is the new potters' field that was laid out on 
 Monday for the bodies of unknown victims. The 
 former is populous and stirring, but the latter has 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 310 
 
 more mounds already than the other has living souls. 
 The refugees are widely scattered ; some are in the 
 hospital, some are packed as closely as the logs and 
 dead bodies at the stone bridge in the houses yet 
 tenable, and the rest are at Camp Hastings. 
 
 In the despairing panic and confusion of Saturday 
 the first thought that presented itself to those who' 
 were hurried in to give relief was to prepare shelter 
 for the survivors. The camp has been in operation 
 ever since, and will be for days and may be weeks 
 
 to come. 
 
 Gloomy Pictures of Despair, 
 
 It looked desolate enough to-day after the soaking 
 downpour of last night, and groups of shivering moth- 
 res, with their little ones, stood around a smoky fire at 
 either end of the streets. The members of the 
 Americus Committee, for the time being cooks, wait- 
 ers, grocery dealers and dry goods men, were in stri- 
 king contrast to their usual appearance at home. 
 Major W. Coffey, one of the refugees, who was 
 washed seven miles down the Conemaugh, was acting 
 as officer of the guard, and limped up and down on 
 his wooden leg, which had been badly damaged by the 
 flood. 
 
 Palefaced women looked out through the flaps of 
 tents on the scene, and the only object that seemed to^' 
 be taking things easy was a lean, black dog, asieep in\ 
 front of one of the fires. 
 
 In one of the tents a baby was born last night. 
 The mother, whose husband was lost in the flood, was 
 
320 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 herself rescued by being drawn up on the roof of the 
 Union Schoolhouse. One of the doctors of the Al- 
 toona Relief Corps at the Cambria Hospital attended 
 her, and mother and babe are doing better than thous- 
 ands of the flood sufferers who are elsewhere. There 
 are other babies in Camp Hastings, but none of 
 them receive half of the attention from the people in 
 the camp that is bestowed upon this little tot, whose 
 life began just as so many lives were ended. The 
 baby will probably be named Johnstown Camp 
 O'Connor. 
 
 The refugees who are living along the road get 
 their supplies from the camp. They pour into the 
 wretched city of tents in a steady stream, bearing 
 baskets and buckets of food. 
 
 He Wanted Tobacco or Nothing". 
 
 An old Irishman walked up to the tent early in 
 the day. **Well, what can we do for you?" was* 
 asked. 
 
 ** Have yez any tobaccy?" 
 
 ** No, tobacco don't go here." 
 
 "I want tobaccy or nothin*. This is no relief to a 
 Ation at all, at all." 
 
 The aged refugee walked away in high dudgeon. 
 
 Just down the row from the clothing tent are loca- 
 ted two little girls, named Johnson, who lost both 
 father and mother. They had a terrible experience in 
 the flood, and were two of the forty-three people 
 pulled in on the roof of the house of the late General 
 Campbell and his two sons, James and Curt 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 321 
 
 "How do you fare?'* one of the little girls was 
 asked. 
 
 " Oh, very well, sir ; only we are afraid of catching 
 
 the measles," she answered; and with a grimace she 
 
 tossed her head toward a tent on the other side and 
 
 further up. A baby in the tent indicated has a slight 
 
 ^ttack of the measles, but is getting better, and is next 
 
 door to a tent in which is a young woman shaking with 
 
 the ague. 
 
 A Multitude to be Fed. 
 
 In the houses along the road above the camp are 
 several hundreds of refugees. In one of them are 
 thirty or forty people rendered homeless by the flood. 
 These are all supplied with food from the camp.- Some 
 idea of the number of people who have to be fed can be 
 gathered from the fact that 350 pounds of coffee have 
 been given out since yesterday. In the hills b^ck of 
 Cambria there are many hundreds of survivors. Dr. 
 Findley, of the Altoona Relief Corps, went there to- 
 day and found that they were without a physician. 
 One from Baltimore had been there, but had gone 
 away. He found many people needing medical care, 
 and they will be looked after from day to day. 
 
 "Wherever we go," said one of the doctors yester- 
 day, "we find that there is an alarming spread of 
 pneumonia." Of the refugees at the Cambria Hos* 
 pital but two have died. 
 
 Bayonets in Control. 
 
 The ruined cit}^ lies to-night within a girdle of steel 
 —the bayonets of the 14th Regiment. The militia 
 21 
 
822 
 
 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 has captured Johnstown and to-night over the desolate 
 plain where the city proper stood, through the tower- 
 ing wrecks and by the river passes, marches the patrol, 
 crying "Halt*' and challenging vagabonds, vandals 
 and ghouls, who cross their path. General Hastings, 
 being the highest officer in rank, is in command, and( 
 when the survivors of the flood awake to-morrow 
 morning, when the weary pickets are relieved at sun- 
 rise a brigade headquarters will be fully established on 
 
 ENCAMPMENT OF RELIEF PARTIES. 
 
 the slope of Prospect Hill overlooking the hundreds 
 of white tents of the regiments that will lie down be- 
 low by the German Catholic Church. 
 
 First this afternoon arrived Governor Beaver's, 
 staff, mostly by way of Harper's Ferry on the Balti4 
 more and Ohio. All the officers in brilliant uniform 
 and trappings reported to General Hastings. They 
 found their commander in a slouch hat, a rough-looking 
 cutaway and rubber ^^oots. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 323 
 
 The 14th Regiment, reinforced this morning until it 
 IS now 600 strong, is still camped in freight cars 
 beyond the depot, opposite the late city proper. Space 
 is being rapidly cleared for its tents, however, over by 
 the German Catholic Church, and near the ruins of 
 the Irish Catholic Church, which was on fire when the 
 deluge came. 
 
 Early this morning the 14th Regiment went into 
 service, but it was a volunteer service of two young 
 officers and three privates when at noon they dragged 
 gently from the rushing Conemaugh the body of a 
 beautiful young girl. She was tenderly borne through 
 the lines by regimental headquarters to the church 
 house morgue, while the sentinels stood aside with 
 their bayonets and the corporal ordered **Halt!" 
 Guards were placed at the Johnstown stations and all 
 the morgues. 
 
 Marclied. out of Camp. 
 
 During the day many people of questionable charac- 
 ter, indeed all who were challenged and could not 
 satisfactorily explain their business here, had a military 
 escort to the city limits, where they were ordered not 
 to return. Every now and then two of the National 
 Guard could be seen marching along with a rough 
 fellow between them to the post where such beingS; 
 are made exiles from the scene of desolation. To* 
 night the picket lines stretch from brigade headquar- 
 ters down Prospect Hill past General Hastings' quar- 
 ters even to the river. The patrol across the river is 
 keeping sharp vigilance in town. At the eastern end 
 
824 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 of the Pennsylvania Railroad's stone bridge you must 
 stop and give the countersign. If you don't no man 
 can answer for your safety. 
 
 A Lieutenant's Disgrace. 
 
 Down the Cambria Road, past which the dead of the 
 River Conemaugh swept into Nineveh in awful num- 
 bers, was another scene to-day — that of a young officer 
 of the National Guard in full uniform and a pc-or 
 deputy sheriff, who had lost home, wife, children and 
 all, clinched like madmen and struggling for the 
 former's revolver. If the officer of the Guard had 
 won, there might have been a tragedy, for he was 
 drunk. The homeless deputy sheriff with his wife and 
 babies swept to death past the place where they strug- 
 gled was sober and in the right. 
 
 The officer of the National Guard came with his 
 regiment into this valley of distress to protect survi- 
 vors from ruffianism and maintain the peace and dig- 
 nity of the State. The man with whom he fought for 
 the weapon was Peter Fitzpatrick, almost crazy in his 
 own woe, but singularly cool and self-possessed regard- 
 ing the safety of those left living. 
 
 A Man who liad Suffered. 
 
 It was one o'clock this afternoon when I noticed on 
 the Cambria road the young officer with his long mil* 
 itary coat cut open leaning heavily for support upon 
 two privates of Company G, Hawthorn and Stewart 
 (boys). He was crying in a maudlin way, *' You just 
 take me to a place and I'll drink soft stuff." They 
 entreated him to return at once to the regimental 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 325 
 
 quarters, even begged him, but he cast them aside and 
 went staggering down the road to the line, where he 
 met the grave-faced deputy face to face. The latter 
 looked in the white of his eyes and said : '^ You can't 
 pass here, sir." 
 
 "Can't pass here?" he cried, waving his arms. 
 '* You challenge an officer? Stand aside !" i 
 
 "You can't pass here," this time quietly, but 
 firmly; "not while you're drunk." 
 
 "Stand aside," yelled the Lieutenant. "Do you 
 you know who I am ? You talk to an officer of the 
 National Guard." 
 
 "Yes ; and listen," said the man in front of him so 
 impatiently that it hushed his antagonist's tirade; "I 
 talk to an * officer' of the National Guard — I, who 
 have lost my wife, my children and all in this flood no 
 man has yet described ; we, who have seen our dead 
 with their bodies mutilated and their fingers cut from 
 their hands by dirty foreigners for a little gold, are not 
 afraid to talk for what is right, even to an officer of 
 the National Guard." 
 
 A Big: Man's Honest Rag-e. 
 
 While he spoke another great, dark, stout man, who 
 looked as if he had suffered, came up, and upon taking 
 in the situation every vein in his forehead swelled pur- 
 ple with rage. 
 
 "You dirty cur," he cried to the officer ; "you dirty, 
 drunken cur, if it was not for the sake of peace I'd 
 lay you out where you stand." 
 
 " Come on," yelled the Lieutenant, with an oath. 
 
826 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 The big man sent out a terrible blow that would 
 have left the Lieutenant senseless had not one of the 
 privates dashed In between, receiving part of It and 
 warding it off. The Lieutenant got out of his military 
 .coat. The privates seized the big man and with 
 another, who ran to the scene, held him back. The 
 Lieutenant put his hand to his pistol pocket, the 
 deputy FItzpatrIck seized him and the struggle for the 
 weapon began. For a moment It was fierce and des- 
 perate, then another private came to the deputy's 
 assistance. The revolver was wrested from the 
 drunken officer and he himself was pushed back pant- 
 ing to the g^-jund. 
 
 The Victor was Magnaniinous. 
 
 Deputy FItzpatrIck seized the military coat he had 
 thrown on the ground, and with It and the weapon 
 started to the regimental headquarters. Then the pri- 
 vates got around him and begged him, one of them 
 with tears In his eyes, not to report their officer, say- 
 ing that he was a good man when he was sober. He 
 studied a long while, standing In the road, while the 
 officer slunk away over the hill. Then he threw the 
 disgraced uniform to them, and said: "Here, give 
 them to him ; and, mind you, if he does not go at once 
 to his quarters, I'll take him there, dead or alive." 
 Sanitarians at "Work. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Lee, secretary of the State Board, of 
 Health, has taken hold with a grip upon the handle. 
 When he surveyed the ground to-day he found that 
 there were no^lslnfectants in town, and no utensils in 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. §27 
 
 which to distribute them had there been any disinfect- 
 ants, so he sent a squad across the river to the sup- 
 ply train, below the viaduct, and had all the copperas 
 and chloride of lime to be had carried across the 
 bridges in buckets. He sent another squad hunting 
 the ruins for utensils, and in the wreck of a general 
 Store on Main street they discovered pails, sprinkling 
 pots and kettles. The copperas and chloride were 
 promptly set heating in the kettles over the streets 
 and in a short time a squad was out sprinkling the 
 debris which chokes Main street almost to the house- 
 tops for three squares. 
 
 The reason of this was that a brief inspection had 
 satisfied Dr. Lee that under the wreckage were piled 
 the bodies of scores of dead horses. Meantime other 
 men were at work collecting the bodies of other dead 
 horses, which were hauled to the fire and with the aid 
 of rosin burned to the number of sixty. A large 
 number of dead horses were buried yesterday, but 
 this course did not meet the State Board's approval 
 and Dr. Lee has ordered their exhumation for 
 burning. 
 
 Dr. R. Lowrie Sibbett, of Carlisle, was made med- 
 ical inspector and sent up through the boroughs up 
 the river. To-morrow a house-to-house inspection 
 will be made of the remaining and inhabited portion 
 of the cities and boroughs. The overcrowding makes 
 this necessary. 
 
 'Tt v/ill take weeks of unremitting labor and 
 thousands of men," said Dr. Lee, ''to remove the 
 
328 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 sources of danger to the public health which now 
 exist. The principal danger to people living here is, 
 of course, from the contamination of putrifying flesh. 
 They have an excellent water-supply from the hills, 
 but there is a very grave danger to the health of all 
 the people who use the Allegheny river as a water* 
 supply. It is in the debris above the viaduct, which is 
 full of decomposing animal matter. Every ripple of 
 water that passes through or under it carries the 
 germs of possible disease with it.'* 
 
 At tlie Sclioollioiis© Morgrue. 
 
 Away from the devastation in the valley and the 
 gloomy scenes along the river, on Prospect Hill, 
 stands the schoolhouse, the morgue of the unidentified 
 dead. People do not go there unless they are hunting 
 for a friend or relative. They treat it as a pest house. 
 They have seen enough white faces in the valley and 
 the living feel like fleeing from the dead. 
 
 This afternoon at sunset every desk in every class- 
 room supported a coffin. Each coffin was numbered 
 and each lid turned to show the face within. On the 
 blackboard in one of the rooms, between the pretty 
 drawing and neat writing of the school children, was 
 scrawled the bulletin ''Hold No. ^59* as long as 
 possible ; supposed to be Mrs. Paulson, of Pitts- 
 burgh.** "But *59* wasn't Mrs. Paulson,** said a 
 little white-faced woman. **It is Miss Frances 
 Wagner, of Market street, Johnstown.** Her brother 
 found her here. "Fifty-nine** has gone — one of the few 
 identified to-day, and others had come to take its place. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 329 
 
 Strongly appealing to the sympathies of even those 
 looking for friends and relatives was the difference in 
 the size of the coffins. There were some no larger 
 than a violin case hidden below large boxes, telling of 
 the unknown babies perished, and there were coffias 
 of children of all years. On the blackboards were 
 written such sentences as "Home sweet home;'' 
 " Peace on earth, good will toward men." For all 
 the people who looked at their young faces knew, they 
 might have stood by the coffin of the child who helped 
 to write them. 
 
 The bodies found each day are kept as long as pos- 
 sible and then are sent away for burial with their num- 
 bers, where their names should be, on rough boards, 
 their only tombs<"ones. 
 
 Just as a black storm-cloud was driving hard from 
 the West over the slope of the hills yesterday the 
 body of young Henry G. Rose, the district attorney 
 of Cambria County, was lowered into a temporary 
 grave beside unknown victims. Three people at- 
 tended his burial — his father-in-law, James A. Lane, 
 who saw him lost while he himself was struggling for 
 life in their floating house ; the Rev. Dr. H. L. Chap- 
 man, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Rev. 
 L. Maguire. Dr. Chapman read the funeral services, 
 and while he prayed the thunder rumbled and the 
 cloud darkened the scene. The coffins are taken* 
 there in wagonloads, lowered quickly and hidden from 
 sight. 
 
 Miss Nina Speck, daughter of Rev. David Speck, 
 
330 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. - 
 
 pastor of the First United Brethren Church of Cham- 
 bersburg, was in Johnstown visiting her brother last 
 week and narrowly escaped death in the flood. 
 
 She arrived to-day clad in nondescript clothing, 
 which had been furnished by an old colored washer- 
 woman and told the following story of the flood ; 
 / **Our house was in Kernvllle, a part of Johnstown, 
 through which Stony Creek ran. Although we were 
 a square from the creek, the backwater from the 
 stream had flooded the streets in the morning and was 
 up to our front porch. At 4 o^clock on Friday after- 
 noon we were sitting on the front porch watching the 
 flood, when we heard a roar as of a tornado or mighty 
 conflao^ratlon. 
 
 ** We rushed upstairs and got out upon the bay- 
 window. There an awful sight met our eyes. Down 
 the Conemaugh Valley was advancing a mighty wall 
 of flame and mist with a terrible roar. Before it were 
 rolling houses and buildings of all kinds, tossing over 
 and over. We thought It was a cyclone, the roar sound- 
 ing like a tempest among forest trees. At first we could 
 see no water at all, but back of the mist and flames 
 came a mighty wall of water. We started downstairs 
 and through the rear of the house to escape to the 
 hill-side nearby. But before we could get there the 
 water was up to our necks and we could make no 
 progress. We turned back and were literally dashed 
 by the current mto the house, which began to move 
 off as soon as we were In it again. From the second- 
 story window 1 saw a young man drifting toward us. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 331 
 
 I broke the glass from the frames with my hands and 
 helped him in, and in a few moments more I pulled in 
 an old man, a neighbor, who had been sick. 
 Miraculous Escape. 
 
 **Our house moved rapidly down the stream and 
 fortunately lodged against a strong building. The 
 water forced us out of the second story up into the 
 attic. Then we heard a lot of people on our roof 
 begging us for God's sake to let them in. I broke 
 through the roof with a bed slat and pulled them in. 
 Soon we had thirteen in all crouched in the attic. 
 
 "Our house was rocking, and every now and then 
 a building would crash against us. Every moment 
 we thought we would go down. The roofs of all the 
 houses drifting by us were covered with people, yearly 
 all praying and some singing hymns, and now and 
 then a house would break apart and all would go 
 down. On Saturday at noon we were rescued, 
 making our way from one building to the next by 
 crawling on narrow planks. I counted hundreds of 
 bodies lying in the debris, most of them covered over 
 with earth and showing only the outlines of the form. 
 A Sad Hospital Story. 
 
 On a cot in the hospital on Prospect Hill there lies 
 at present a man injured almost to death, but whose 
 mental sufferings are far keener than his bodily pains. 
 His name is Vering. He has lost in the flood his 
 whole family — wife and five children. In an interview 
 he said : 
 
 " I was at home with my wife and children when the 
 
332 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 alarm came. We hurried from the house, leaving 
 everything behind us. As we reached the door a 
 gentleman friend was running by. He grasped the 
 two smaller children, one under each arm, and hurried 
 on ahead of us. I had my arm around my wife, sup- 
 porting her. Behind us we could hear the flood rush- 
 ing upon us. In one hurried glance, as I passed a, 
 corner, I could see the fearful crunching and hear the 
 crackling of the houses in its fearful grasp. I then 
 could see that there was no possibility of our escape, 
 as we were too far away from the hill-side. In a few 
 moments it was upon us. In a flash I saw the three 
 dear children licked up by it and they disappeared 
 from sight as I and my wife were thrown into the air 
 by the vanguard of the rushing ruins. We found our- 
 selves in a lot of drift, driving along with the speed of 
 a race-horse. In a moment or two we were thrown 
 with a crash against a frame building whose walls 
 gave way before the flood as easily as if they were 
 made of pie-crust, and the timbers began to fall about 
 us in all directions. 
 
 Up to this time I had retained a firm hold upon my 
 wife, but as I found myself pinned between two heavy 
 timbers the agony caused my senses to leave me 
 momentarily. I recovered instantly in time to see my 
 wife's head just disappearing under the water. Like 
 lightning I grasped her by the hair and as best I could, | 
 pinioned as I was above the water by the timber, I 
 raised her above it. The weight proved too much and 
 she sank again- Again I pulled her to the surface and 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 333 
 
 again she sank. This I did again and again with no 
 avail. She drowned in my very grasp, and at last she 
 dropped from my nerveless hands to leave my sight 
 forever. As if I had not suffered enough, a few mo- 
 ments after I saw some objects whirling around in an 
 eddy which circled around, until, reaching the current 
 again, they floated past me. My God, man, would 
 you believe me ? it was three of my children, dead. 
 Their dear little faces are before me now, distorted in 
 a look of agony that, no matter what I do, haunts me. 
 O, if I could only have released myself at that time I 
 would have willingly died with them. I was rescued 
 some time after, and have been here ever since. I 
 have since learned that my friend who so bravely 
 endeavored to save two of the children was lost with 
 them." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 Terrible F*ictu.res of Woe. 
 
 The proportion of the living registered since the 
 flood as against the previous number of inhabitants is 
 even less than was reported yesterday. It was ascer- 
 tained to-day that many of the names on the list were 
 entered more than once and that the total number of 
 persons registered is not more than 13,000 out of a 
 former population of between 40,000 and 50,000. 
 
 A new and more exact method of determining the 
 number of the lost was inaugurated this morning. 
 Men are sent out by the Relief Committee, who will 
 go to every abode and obtain the names of the sur- 
 vivors, and if possible those of the dead. 
 
 The lack of identification of hundreds of bodies 
 strengthens the inference that the proportion of the 
 dead to the living is appalling. It is argued that the 
 friends who might identify these unclaimed bodies are 
 themselves all gone. 
 
 Another significant fact is that so large a number of 
 those whom one meets in the streets or where the 
 streets used to be are non-residents, strangers who 
 have come here out of humane or less creditable 
 motives. The question that is heard very often is, 
 "Where are the inhabitants?" The town does not 
 appear to have at present a population of more than 
 10,000. 
 
 (3S4) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 335 
 
 It is believed that many of the bodies of the dead 
 have been borne down into the Ohio, and perhaps into 
 the Mississippi as well, and hence may finally be 
 deposited by the waters hundreds of miles apart, per- 
 haps never to be recovered or seen by man again. . 
 The General Situation. ' 
 
 Under the blue haze of smoke that for a week has 
 hung over this valley of the shadow of death the work 
 which is to resurrect this stricken city has gone steadily 
 forward. Here and there over the waste where 
 Johnstown stood in its pride black smoke arises from 
 the bonfires on which shattered house-walls, rafters, 
 doors, broken furniture and all the flotsam and jetsam 
 of the great flood is cast. 
 
 Adjutant General Hastings, who believes in heroic 
 measures, has been quietly trying to persuade the 
 ** Dictator" — that is, the would-be ''Dictator" — to 
 allow him to burn up the wrecked houses wholesale 
 without the tedious bother of pulling them down and 
 handling the debris. The timorous committees would 
 not countenance such an idea. Nothing but piece* 
 meal tearing down of the wrecked houses tossed 
 together by the mighty force of the water and destruc- 
 tion by never-dying bonfires would satisfy them. Yet 
 all of them must come down. Most of the buildings 
 reached by the flood have been examined, found 
 unsafe and condemned. Can the job be done safely 
 and successfully wholesale or not ? That is the red} 
 question for the powers that be to answer, and no 
 sentiment should enter into it 
 
S36 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Four thousand workmen are busy to-day with ropes 
 and axe, pick and shovel. But the task is vast, it is 
 herculean, like unto the cleaning of the Augean 
 stables. 
 
 "To clean up this town properly," said General 
 Hastings to-day, " we shall need twenty thousand 
 workmen for three months." 
 
 The force of the swollen river upturned the town in 
 a half hour. These same timorous managers weak- 
 ened to-day, after having the facts before their eyes 
 brought home to their understanding by constant iter- 
 ation. They have found out that they have, vulgarly 
 speaking, bitten off more than they can chew. Poisons 
 of the foulest kind pollute the water which flows down 
 the turgid Conemaugh into the Allegheny River, 
 whence is Pittsburgh's water-supply, and thence into 
 the Ohio, the water-supply of many cities and towns. 
 Fears of a pestilence are not to be pooh-poohed into 
 the background. It is very serious, so long as the 
 river flows through the clogged and matted mass of 
 the bridge so long it will threaten the people along its 
 course with pestilence. The committee confess their 
 inability to do this needed work, and to-day voted to 
 ask the Governors of the several States to co-operate 
 in the establishment of a national relief committee to 
 grapple with the situation. Action cannot and must 
 not be delayed. 
 
 Hope Out of Despair. 
 
 The fears of an outbreak of fever or other zymotic 
 diseases appear to be based on the alleged presence 
 
GENERAL HASTINGS DIRECTING T|IE POLICE. 
 22 (337) 
 
338 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 of decomposed animal matter, human and of lov/er 
 type, concealed amid the debris. The alleged odor of 
 burnt flesh coming from the enormous mass of con- 
 glomerated timber and Iron lodged in the cul-de-sac 
 formed by the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge is ex- 
 tremely mythical. There is an unmistakable scent ol 
 burnt wood. It would not be strange if the carcasses 
 of domestic animals, which must be hidden in the 
 enormous mass, were finally to be realized by die 
 olfactory organs of the bystanders. 
 
 Blasting Continues. 
 
 All day long the blast of dynamite resounded among 
 the hills. Cartridges were let off in the debris, and a 
 cloud of dust and flying spray m.arked the result of the 
 mining operation. The interlaced timbers in the cul- 
 de-sac yielded very slowly even to the mighty force of 
 dynamite. There were no finds of especial import. 
 At the present rate of clearing, the cul-de-sac will not 
 be free from the wreckage in two months. 
 
 There was a sad spectacle presented this morning 
 when the laborers were engaged In pulling o^^er a vast 
 pile of timber and miscellaneous matter on Main 
 street. A young woman and a little puny baby girl 
 were found beneath the mass, which was as high aF 
 the second story windows of the houses near by. 
 Together in Death. 
 
 The girl must have been handsome when in the 
 flush of youth and health. She had seized the help- 
 less Infant and endeavored to find safety by flight 
 Her closely cut brown hair was filled with sand, and a 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 339 
 
 piece of brass wire was wound around the head and 
 neck. A loose cashmere house-gown was partially 
 torn, from her form, and one slipper, a little bead em- 
 broidered affair, covered a silk-stockinged foot. Each 
 arm was tightly clasped around the baby. The rigidity 
 of death should have passed away, but the arms were 
 fixed in their position as if composed of an unbendable 
 material instead of muscle and bone. The fingers 
 were imbedded in the sides of the little baby as if its 
 protector had made a final effort not to be separated 
 and to save if possible the fragile life. The faces of 
 both were scarred and disfigured from contact with 
 floating debris. The single garment of the baby — a 
 thin white slip — was rent and frayed. The body of 
 the young woman was identified, but the babe re- 
 mained unknown. Probably its father and mother 
 were lost in the flood, and it will never be claimed by 
 friendly hands. 
 
 A Strange Discovery, 
 This is only one among the many pathetic incidents 
 of the terrible disaster. There were only nine un- 
 identified bodies at the Adams street morgue this 
 afternoon, and three additions to the number were 
 made after ten o*clock. Two hundred and eight 
 bodies have been received by the embalmers in 
 charge. The yard of the school house, which was 
 converted into a temporaay abode of death, contains 
 large piles of coffins of the cheaper sort. They come 
 from different cities within two or three hundred miles 
 of Johnstown, and after being stacked up they are 
 
340 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 pulled out as needed. Coffins are to be seen every- 
 where about the valley, ready for use when a body is 
 found. A trio of bodies was found near the Hurlburt 
 House under peculiar circumstances. They were 
 hidden beneath a pile of wreckage at least twenty-five 
 feet in height. They were a father, a mother and son. 
 (Around the waist of each a quarter inch rope was tied 
 so that the three were bound together tightly. The 
 hands of the boy were clasped by those of the mother, 
 and the father's arms were extended as if to ward off 
 danger. The father probably knotted the rope during 
 the awful moments of suspense intervening between 
 the coming of the flood and the final destruction of the 
 house they occupied. The united strength of the 
 three could not resist the mighty force of the inunda- 
 tion, and like so many straws they were swept on the 
 boiling surge until life was crushed out. 
 Child and Doll in One Coffin. 
 
 I beheld a touching spectacle when the corpse of a 
 little girl was extricated and placed on a stretcher for 
 transportation to the morgue. Clasped to her breast 
 by her two waxen hands was a rag doll. It was a 
 cheap affair, evidently of domestic manufacture. To 
 the child of poverty the rag baby was a favorite toy. 
 The little mother held fast to her treasure and met her 
 end without separating from it. The two, child and 
 doll, were not parted when the white coffin received 
 them, and they will moulder together. 
 
 I saw an old-fashioned cupboard dug out of a pile of 
 rubbish. The top shelf contained a quantity of jelly 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 341 
 
 of domestic manufacture. Not a glass jar was broken. 
 Indeed there have been some remarkable instances of 
 the escape of fragile articles from destruction. In the 
 debris near the railroad bridge you may come upon all 
 manner of things. The water-tanks of three locomo- 
 tives which were borne from the roundhouse at Cone- 
 mauo-h, two miles away, are conspicuous. Amid the' 
 general wreck, beneath one of these heavy iron tanks, 
 a looking glass, two feet by one foot in dimensions, 
 was discovered intact, without even a scratch on the 
 quicksilver. 
 
 Johnstown people surviving the destruction appear 
 to bewail the death of the Fisher family. "Squire'" 
 Fisher was one of the old time public functionaries of 
 the borough. He and his six children were swept 
 away. One of the Fisher girls was at home under 
 peculiar circumstances. She had been away at school, 
 and returned home to be married to her betrothed. 
 Then she was to return to school and take part in the 
 graduating exercises. Her body has not yet been 
 
 recovered. 
 
 SometMngr to be ThanMul For. 
 
 - There is much destitution felt by people whose 
 pride prevents them from asking for supplies from 
 the relief committees. I saw a sad little procession 
 wending up the hill to the camp of the Americus Club. 
 There was a father, an honest, simple German, who 
 had been employed at the Cambria works during the 
 past twelve years. Behind him trooped eight chil- 
 dren, from a girl of fourteen to a babe in the arms of 
 
542 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the mother, who brought up the rear. The woman 
 and children were hatless, and possessed only the 
 calico garments worn at the moment of flight. For- 
 lorn and weary, they ranged in front of the relieving 
 stand and implored succor. 
 
 **We lost one only, thank God!" exclaimed the 
 mother. *' Our second daughter is gone. We had a 
 comfortable house which we owned. It was paid for 
 by our savings. Now all is gone. * Then the un- 
 happy woman sat down on the wet ground and sobbed 
 hysterically. The children crowded around their 
 mother and joined in her grief. You will behold 
 many of these scenes of domestic distress about the 
 ruins of Johnstown in these dolorous days. 
 Saw a Flood of Helpless Humanity. 
 
 Mr. L. D. Woodru«ff, the editor and proprietor of 
 the Johnstown Democrat, tells his experiences daring 
 the night of horrors. He was at the office of the 
 paper, which is in the upper portion of the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Railway station. This brick edifice stands 
 almost in the centre of the couse of the flood, and its 
 preservation from ruin is one of the remarkable feat- 
 ures of the occasion. A pile of freight cars lodged at 
 the corner of the building and the breakwater thus 
 formed checked the onslaught of floating battering 
 rams. Mr. Woodruff, with his two sons, remained 
 in the building until the following day. The water 
 came up to the floor of the second story. All 
 night long he witnessed people floating past on 
 the roofs of houses or on various kinds of wreck- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 343 
 
 age. A number of persons were rescued through 
 the windows. 
 
 A man and his wife with three children were pulled 
 in. After a while the mother for the first time re- 
 membered that her baby of fifteen months was left 
 behind. Her grief was violent, and her cries were 
 mingled with the groans of her husband, who lay on 
 the floor with a broken leg. The next day the baby 
 was found, when the waters subsided, on a pile of 
 debris outside and it was alive and uninjured. 
 
 During the first few hours Mr. Woodruff momenta- 
 rily expected that the building would go. As the 
 night wore away it became evident the water was 
 going down. Not a vestige of Mr. Woodruft^'s dwel- 
 ling has been found. 
 
 The newspapers of Johnstown came out of the flood 
 fairly well. The Democrat lost only a job press, which 
 was swept out of one corner of the building. 
 The Flood's Awful Spoil. 
 
 In the broad field of debris at the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road viaduct, where the huge playthings of the flood 
 were tossed only to be burned and beaten to a solid, 
 intricate mass, are seen the peculiar metal works of 
 two trains of cars. The wreck of the day express 
 east, running in two sections that fatal Friday, lie 
 there about thirty yards above the bridge. One mass 
 pi wreckage is unmistakably that of the Pullman car 
 section, made up of two baggage cars and six Pull- 
 man coaches, and the other shows the irons of five day 
 coaches and one Pullman car. These trains were 
 
844 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 running in the same block at Johnstown and were 
 struck by the flood two miles above, torn from their 
 tracks and carried tumbling down the mighty torrents 
 to their resting place in the big eddy. 
 
 Railroad Men Suppressing" Information. 
 
 The train crew, who saw the waters coming, warned 
 the passengers, escaped, and went home on foot 
 Conductor Bell duly made his report, yet for some un- 
 known reasons one of Superintendent Pitcalrn's sub- 
 ordinates has been doing his best to give out and 
 prove by witnesses, to whom he takes newspaper men, 
 that only one car of that express was lost and with it 
 ** two or three ladies who went back for overshoes and 
 a very few others not lively enough to escape after the 
 warnings.'* That story went well until the smoke 
 rolled away from the wreckage and the bones of the 
 two sections of the day express east were disclosed. 
 Another very singular feature was the apparent ina- 
 bility of the conductor of the express to tell how many 
 passengers they had on board and just how many 
 were saved. It had been learned that the first section 
 of the train carried i8o passengers and the second 
 157. It may be stated as undoubtedly true that of the 
 number fifty, at least, swell the horrible tale of the 
 dead. 
 
 From the wreck where the trains burned there have' 
 been taken out fifty-eight charred bodies, the features 
 being unrecognizable. Of these seven found together 
 were the Gilmore family, whose house had floated 
 there. The others, all adults, which, with two or three 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 345 
 
 exceptions, swell the list of the unidentified dead, are 
 undoubted corpses of the ill-fated passengers of the 
 east express. 
 
 The Cliurcli Loses a Missionary. 
 
 To-day another corpse was found in the ruins of a 
 Pullman car badly burned. It was fully identified as 
 that of Miss Anna Clara Chrisman, of Beauregard, 
 Miss., a well-developed lady of about twenty-five years, 
 who was on her way to New York to fill a mission sta- 
 tion in Brazil. Between the leaves of her Greek tes- 
 tament was a telegram she had written, expecting to 
 send it at the first stop, addressed to the Methodist 
 Mission headquarters, No. 20 East Tvv^elfth street, 
 New York, saying that she would arrive on ''train 8 " 
 of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the day express east 
 In her satchel were found photographs of friends and 
 her Bible, and from her neck hung a ^20 gold piece, 
 carefully sewn in a bag. 
 
 Is it possible that the Pennsylvania Railroad Is keep- 
 ing back the knowledge In order simply to avoid a Hst 
 of "passengers killed" in Its annual report, solely to 
 keep its record as lltde stained as possible ? It can 
 hardly be that they fear suits for damages, for the 
 responsibility of the wreck does not rest on them. 
 
 Two hundred bodies were recovered from the ruins 
 yesterday. Some were Identified, but the great ma- 
 jority were not. This number Includes all the morgues 
 — the one at the Pennsylvania Railroad station, the 
 Fourth ward school, Cambria city, Morrellville, Kern- 
 ville and the Presbyterian Church. 
 
846 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 At the latter place a remarkable state of affairs 
 exists. The first floor has been washed out completely 
 and the second, while submerged, was badly damaged, 
 but not ruined. The walls, floors and pews were 
 drenched, and the mud has collected on the matting 
 and carpets an Inch deep. Walking Is attended with 
 much dlf^culty, and the undertakers and attendants, 
 with arms bared, slide about the slippery surface at a 
 tremendous rate. The chancel Is filled with coffins, 
 strips of muslin, boards, and all undertaking accesso- 
 ries. Lying across the tops of the pews are a dozen 
 pine boxes, each containing a victim of the flood. 
 Printed cards are tacked on each. Upon them the 
 sex and full description of the enclosed body is written 
 with the nam.e. If known. 
 
 The Nameless Dead, 
 
 The great number of bodies not Identified seems In- 
 credulous and Impossible. Some of these bodies have 
 lain In the different morgues for four days. Thou- 
 sands of people from different sections of the Si^-ate 
 have seen them, yet they remain unidentified. 
 
 At Nineveh they are burying all the unidentified 
 dead, but In the morgues In this vicinity no bodies 
 have been buried unless they were Identified. 
 
 The First Presbyteri^tH Church contains nine " un- 
 known.*' Burials will have to be made to-morrow. 
 This morning workmen found three members of Ben- 
 jamin Hoffman's family, which occupied a large res- 
 idence In the rear of Lincoln street. Benjamin Hoff 
 man, the head of the family, was found seated o« th^ 
 
CARRYING CHILDREN TO BURIAL. 
 
 (347) 
 
548 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 edge of the bedstead. He was evidently preparing to 
 retire when the flood struck the building. He had his 
 socks in his pocket. His twenty-year-old daughter 
 was found close by attired in a night-diress. The 
 youngest member of the family, a three-year-old in- 
 fant, was also found beside the bed. 
 
 Wliere the Dead are Laid. 
 
 I made a tour of the cemeteries to-day to see how 
 the dead were disposed in their last resting place. 
 There are six burying grounds — two to the south of 
 this place, one to the north, and three on Morrells« 
 ville to the west. The principal one is Grand View, 
 on the summit of Kernvllle Hill. 
 
 But the most remarkable, through the damage done 
 by the flood, is Sandy Vale Cemetery, at Horners- 
 ville, on Stony Creek, and about half a m.ile from the 
 city of Johnstown. It is a private institution in which 
 most of the people of the city burled their dead until 
 two years ago, when the public corporation of Grand 
 View was established. Its grounds are level, laid out 
 in lots, and were quite picturesque, its dense foliage 
 and numerous monuments attracting the eyes of every 
 passenger entering the city by the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Railroad, which passes along one side the creek form- 
 ing its other boundary. The banks of the creek are/ 
 twenty feet high, and there was a nice sandy beach 
 through its entire length. 
 
 A Sorry Scene, 
 
 When the floods came the first of the wreckage and 
 the backwater sent hundreds of houses, immense 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. S49 
 
 quantities of logs and cut lumber over it and into the 
 borougu of Honiersvllle. As the angry waters sub- 
 sided the pretty cemetery was wrecked as badly as was 
 the cit}% a portion of the debris of which has destroyed 
 Its symmetry. To make way for the burial of the 
 numerous bodies sent there by the town committees it 
 became necessary to burn some of the debris. This 
 was commenced at the nearest or southern end, and at 
 the time of my visit 1 had, like the corpses, to pass 
 through an avenue of lire and over live ashes to make 
 my inspection. There were no unknown dead sent 
 here, consequently they were interred in lots, and here 
 and there, as the cleared spots would allow, a body 
 was deposited and the grave made to look as decently 
 as four or five inches of mud on the surface and the 
 clay soil would allow. 
 
 Masses of Debris. 
 Scarcely a monument was left standing. Tall col- 
 umns were broken like pipe-stems, and fences and 
 evergreen bowers were almost a thing of the past. 
 Whole houses on their sides, with their roofs on the 
 ground, covered the lots, the beach, or blocked up the 
 pathways, while other houses in fragments strewed 
 the surface of the ground from one end to the other 
 of the cem.eter}% once the pride of Johnstown. I 
 found that some of the trees which were standing had 
 feather beds or articles of furniture up in their boughs. 
 Here and there a dead cow or a horse, two or three 
 wagons, a railroad baggage caf . Add to this several 
 thousand logs, heaps of lumber, piled just as they 
 
350 " THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 left the yards, and still other single planks by the hun- 
 dred thousand of feet, and some Idea of the surround- 
 ings of the victims of the flood placed at rest here can 
 
 be obtained. 
 
 On Kernville Hill. 
 
 Grand View Cemetery, a beautiful spot, was started 
 as a citizens' cemetery and incorporated two years ago, 
 and is now the finest burying place in this section of 
 Pennsylvania. It is situated on the summit of Kern- 
 ville hill, between six hundred and seven hundred feet 
 above the town. It Is approached by a zigzag road- 
 way about one mile and a half in length, and a mag- 
 nificent view of the valley Is obtained from the grounds, 
 making It well worth a visit under any circumstances. 
 Here those whose relatives did not hold lots are to be 
 burled in trenches four feet deep, sixty bodies to a 
 trench. At present the trenches are not complete, and 
 their encoffined bodies are stored In the beautiful stone 
 chapel at the entrance. Of the other bodies they are 
 eiitom.bed In the lots, where more than one were 
 burled together. A wide grave was dug to hold them 
 side by side. A single grave was made for Squire 
 Fisher's family, one grave and one mound holding 
 eight of them. 
 
 Snatched, from the Flood. 
 
 One of the most thrilling Incl-dents of narrow 
 escapes is that told by Miss Minnie Chambers. She 
 had been to see a friend In the morning and was re- 
 turning to her home on Main street, when the sud^ 
 denly rising waters caused her to quicken her steps. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 351 
 
 Before she could reach her home or seek shelter at 
 any point, the water had risen so high and the current 
 became so strong that she was swept from her feet 
 and carried along in the flood. Fortunately her skirts 
 served to support her on the surface for a time, but at 
 last as they became soaked she gave up all hope of 
 being saved. 
 
 Just as she was going under a box car that had been 
 torn from its trucks floated past her and she managed 
 by a desperate effort to get hold of it and crawled 
 inside the open doorway. Here she remained, expect- 
 ing every moment her shelter would be dashed to 
 pieces by the buildings and other obstructions that it 
 struck. Throi^gh the door she could see the mass of 
 angry, swirling waters, filled with all manner of things 
 that could be well imagined. 
 
 An Ark of Refugre. 
 
 Men, women and children, many of them dead and 
 dying, were being whirled along. Several of them 
 tried to get refuge in the car with her, but were torn 
 away by the rushing waters before they could secure 
 an entrance. Finally a man did make his way into the 
 car. On went the strange boat, while all about it 
 seemed to be a perfect pandemonium. Shrieks and 
 cries from the thousands outside who were being 
 driven to their death filled the air. 
 
 Miss Chambers says it was a scene that will haunt 
 her as long as she lives. Many who floated by her 
 could be seen kneeling on the wreckage that bore 
 them, with clasped hands and upturned faces as 
 
352 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 though in prayer. Others wore a look of awful 
 despair on their faces. Suddenly, as the car was 
 turned around, the stone bridge could be seen just 
 ahead of them. The man that v/as in the car called to 
 her to jump out in the flood or she would be dashed 
 to pieces. She refused to go. 
 
 He seized a plank and sprang into the water. In 
 an instant the eddying current had torn the plank 
 from him, and as it twisted around struck him on the 
 head, causing him to throw out his arms and sink 
 beneath the water never to reappear again. Miss 
 Chambers covered her face to avoid seeing any more 
 of the horrible sight, when with an awful crash the car 
 struck one of the stone piers. The entire side of it 
 was knocked out. As the car lodged against the pier 
 the water rushed through it and carried Miss 
 Chambers away. Again she gave herself up as lost, 
 when she felt herself knocked against an obstruction, 
 and instinctively threw out her hand and clutched it. 
 
 Here she remained until the water subsided, when 
 she found that she was on the roof of one of the Cam- 
 bria mills, and had been saved by holding on to a pipe 
 that came through the roof. 
 
 A Nij^lit of Ag-ony. 
 
 All through that awful night she remained there, al- 
 most freezing to death, and enveloped in a dense mass 
 of smoke from the burning drift on the other side of 
 the bridge. The cries of those being roasted to death 
 were heard plainly by her. On Saturday some men 
 succeeded in getting her from the perilous position 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 353 
 
 she occupied and took her to the house of friends on 
 Prospect Hill. Strange to say that with the excep- 
 tion of a few bruises she escaped without any other 
 injuries. 
 
 Another survivor who told a pathetic story was 
 John C. Peterson. He 5s a small man but he was 
 wearing clothes large enough for a giant. He lost 
 his own and secured those he had on from friends. 
 
 "I'm the only one left," he said in a voice trembling 
 with emotion. " My poor old mother, my sister, Mrs. 
 Ann Walker, and her son David, aged fourteen, of 
 Bedford county, who were visiting us, were swept 
 away before my eyes and I was powerless to aid 
 them." 
 
 " The water had been rising all day, and along in the 
 afternoon flooded the first story of our house, at the 
 corner of Twenty-eighth and Walnut streets. I was 
 employed by Charles Mun as a cigarmaker, and early 
 on Friday afternoon went home to move furniture and 
 carpets to the second story of the house. 
 
 '* As near as I can tell it was about four o'clock when 
 the whistle at the Gautier steel mill blew. About the 
 same time the Catholic church bell rang. I knew 
 what that meant and I turned to mother and sister and 
 5aid, * My God, we are lost !' 
 
 Here's A Hero. 
 
 "I looked out of the window and saw the flood, a 
 
 wall of water thirty feet high, strike the steel works, 
 
 and it melted quicker than I tell it. The man who 
 
 stopped to blow the warning whistle must have been 
 
 23 
 
SM THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 crushed to death by the falling roof and chimneys. 
 He might have saved himself, but stopped to give the 
 warning. He died a hero. Four minutes after the 
 whistle blew the water was in our second story. 
 
 "We started to carry mother to the attic, but the 
 water rose faster than we could climb the stairs. 
 There was no window in our attic, and we were bid- 
 ding each other good-by when a tall chimney on the 
 house adjoining fell on our roof and broke a hole 
 through it. We then climbed out on the roof, and in 
 another moment our house floated away. It started 
 down with the other stuff, crashing, twisting and quiv- 
 ering. I thought every minute it would go to pieces. 
 
 ** Finally it was shoved over into water less swift 
 and near another house. 
 
 *' I found that less drift was forced against it than 
 against ours, and decided to get on it. I climbed up 
 on the roof, and in looking up saw a big house coming 
 down directly toward ours, I called to sister to be 
 quick. She was lifting mother up to me. I could 
 barely reach the tips of her fingers when her arms 
 were raised up while I lay on my stomach reaching 
 down. At that moment the house struck ours and 
 my loved ones were carried away and crushed by the 
 big house. It was useless for me to follow, for they 
 sank out of sight. I floated down to the bridge, then 
 back with the current and landed at Vine street. 
 
 "I saw hundreds of people crushed and drowned. 
 It is my opinion that fully fifteen thousand people per- 
 ished. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 355 
 
 When the whistles of the Gautier Steel Mill of the 
 Cambria Iron Company blew for the shutting down of 
 the works at 10 o'clock last Friday morning nearly 
 1400 men walked out of the establishment and went 
 to their homes, which were a few hours later wiped of? 
 the face of the earth. When the men to-day answered 
 the notice that all should present themselves ready for 
 work only 487 reported. That shows more clearly 
 than anything else that has yet been known the terri- 
 ble nature of the fatality of the Conemaugh. The 
 mortality wrought among these men in a few hours is 
 thus shown to have been greater than that in either of 
 the armies that contended for three days at Gettys- 
 burg. 
 
 " Report at 9 o'clock to-morrow morning ready for 
 work/' the notice posted read. It did not say where, 
 but everybody knew it was not at the great Gautier 
 Mill that covered half a dozen acres, for the reason 
 that no mill is there. By a natural impulse the survi- 
 vors of the working force of the steel plant began to 
 move from all directions, before the hour name4 toward 
 the general office of the company. 
 
 What tlie Superintendent Saw. 
 
 This office is located in Johnstown proper and is the 
 only building in that section of the town left standing 
 uninjured. It is a large brick building, three stories 
 high, with massive brick walls. L. L. Smith, the com- 
 mercial agent of the company, arrived at eight o'clock 
 to await the gathering of the men, pausing a minute 
 in the doorway to look at two things. One was an 
 
356 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 enormous pile of debris, bricks, Iron girders and 
 timbers almost In front of the office door which 
 swarmed with 200 men engaged In clearing it away. 
 This Is the ruins of the Johnstown Free Library, pre- 
 sented to the town by the Cambria Iron Company, the 
 late I. V. Williamson and others, and beneath it Mr. 
 Smith knew many of his most intimate friends were 
 buried. The other thing he looked at was his hand- 
 some residence partly in ruins, a few hundred yards 
 away. When he entered the office he found that the 
 men who had been shoveling the mud out of the office 
 had finished their work and the floor was dark and 
 sticky. A fire blazed in the open grate. A table was 
 quickly rigged up and with three clerks to assist him, 
 Mr. Smith prepared to make up the roster of the 
 Gautier forces. 
 
 The SurviTor's Advance Corps. 
 
 Soon they began to come like the first reformed 
 platoon of an army after fleeing from disaster. The 
 leader of the platoon was a small boy. His hat was 
 pulled down over his eyes and he looked as if he were 
 sorely afraid. After him came half a dozen men with 
 shambling gait. One was an Irishman, two were En- 
 glish, one was a German and one a colored man. 
 Two of them carried pickaxes In their hands, which 
 they had been using to clear away the wreckage across 
 t^e street. 
 
 " Say, mister," stammered the abashed small boy, 
 ** is this the place ? " 
 
 "Are you a Gautier man?'' asked Mr. Smith 
 kindly. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 357 
 
 "Yes, Sir, me and me father, but he's gone. 
 "Give u* your name, my boy, and report at the 
 lower works at 4 o'clock. Now, my men, we want to 
 get to work and pull each other out of the hole, this 
 dreadful calamity has put us in. It's no use having 
 vain regrets. It's all over and we must put a good 
 face to the front. At first it was intended that we 
 should go up to the former site of the Gautier Mill 
 and clean up and get out all the steel we could. Mr. 
 Stackhouse now wants us to get to work and clear 
 the way from the lower mills right up the valley. We 
 will rebuild the bridge back of the office here and push 
 the railroad clear up to where it was before. 
 Kot Anxious to Turn In, 
 
 The men listened attentively, and then one of them 
 asked : " But, Mr. Smith, if we don't feel just like 
 turning in to-day we don't have to, do we ? " 
 
 " Nobody will have to work at all," was the answer, 
 " but we do want all the men to lend a hand to help us 
 out as soon as they can." 
 
 While Mr. Smith was speaking several other work- 
 men came in. They, too, were Gautier employees, 
 and they had pickaxes on their shoulders. They heard 
 the agent's last remark, and one of them, stepping for. 
 ward, said : "A good many of us are working cleaning 
 up the town. Do you want us to leave that? " 
 
 " It isn't necessary for you to work cleaning up the 
 town," was the reply. "There are plenty of people 
 from the outside to do that who came here for that 
 purpose. Now, boys, just give your names so we can 
 
558 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 find out how many of our men are left, and all of you 
 that can, go down and report at the lower office/' 
 
 All the time the members of the decimated Gautier 
 army were filing into the muddy-floored office. They 
 came in twos and threes and dozens, and some bore 
 out the idea of an army reforming after disaster, be- 
 cause they bore grievous wounds. One man had a 
 deep cut in the back of his head, another limped along 
 on a heavy stick, one had lost a finger and had an 
 ugly bruise on his cheek. J. N. Short, who was the 
 foreman of the cold-rolled steel shafting department, 
 sat in the office, and many of the men who filed past 
 had been under him in the works. 
 
 Mutual Congratulations. 
 
 There were handshakes all the more hearty and con- 
 gratulations all the more sincere because of what all had 
 passed through. When the wall of water seventy-five 
 feet high struck the mill and whipped it away like shot 
 Mr. Short was safe on higher ground, but many of 
 the men had feared he was lost. 
 
 , "I tell you, Mr. Short," said J. T. Miller, "I'm glad 
 to see you're safe.*' 
 
 *^ And how did you make out, old man? '* 
 
 " All right, thank God.'' 
 
 Then came another man bolder than all and appar- 
 ently a general favorite. He rushed forward and 
 shook Mr. Smith's hand. " Mr. Smith," he exclaimed, 
 " good morning, good morning." 
 
 "So you got out of it, did you, after all?" asked 
 Mr. Smidi. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 359 
 
 "Indeed I did, but Lord bless my soul, I thought the 
 wife and babies were gone." The man gave his name 
 and hurried away, brushing a tear from his eye. 
 
 Mr. Shellenberger, one of the foremen, brought up 
 the rear of the next platoon to enter. He caught 
 sieht of Mr. Smith and shouted: "Oh, Mr. Smith: 
 good for you. Vm glad to see you safe." 
 
 " Here to you, my hearty," was the answer. *' Did 
 you all get off?" 
 
 "Every blessed one of us," with a bright smile. 
 "We were too high on the hill." 
 
 He was Tired of Johnstown. 
 
 A Iktle bit later another man came in. He looked 
 as if he had been weeping. He hesitated in front of 
 the desk. " I am a Gautier employee," he said, speak- 
 ing slowly, "and I have reported according to orders." 
 
 " Well, give us your name and go to work down at 
 the lower works," suggested Mr. Smith. 
 
 " No, sir, I think not," he muttered, after a pause. 
 " I am not staying in this town any longer than I can 
 help, I guess. I've lost two children and they will be 
 buried to-day." 
 
 " All right, my man, but if you want work we have 
 plenty of it for you." 
 
 The reporting of names and these quiet mutual 
 congratulations of the men went on rapidly, but ex- 
 pected faces did not appear. This led Mr. Smith to 
 ask, "How about George Thompson? Is he alive ? *' 
 
 " I do not know," answered the man addressed. "I 
 do not think so." 
 
860 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 " Who do you know are alive ? " asked Mr. Smith, 
 turning to another man. Mr. Smith never once asked 
 who was dead. 
 
 "Well," answered the man speaking reflectively, 
 **rm pretty sure Frank Smith is alive. John Dagdale 
 is alive. Tom Sweet is alive, and I don't know any 
 more, for I've been away — at Nineveh.'* The speak- 
 er had been at Nineveh looking for the body of his 
 son. Not another word was said to him. 
 
 *' Say, boys," exclaimed Mr. Smith suddenly, a few 
 minutes after he had looked over the list, '* Pullman 
 hasn't reported yet." 
 
 ** But Pullman's all right," said a man quickly, "I 
 
 was up at his sister's house last night and he was 
 
 there. That's more than I can say of the other men 
 
 in Pullman's shift though," added the speaker in a low 
 
 tone. Mr. Short took this man aside, " That is a 
 
 fact," said he, "yesterday I knew of a family in which 
 
 five out of six were lost. To-day I find out there 
 
 were twenty people in the house mostly our men and 
 
 only three escaped." 
 
 Cach Thought the Other Dead. 
 
 Just then two men met at the door and fairly fell on 
 
 each other's necks. One wore a Grand Army badge 
 
 and the other was a young fellow of twenty-three or 
 
 thereabouts. They had been fast friends in the same' 
 
 department, and each thought the other dead. They 
 
 knew no better till they met at the office door. "Well, 
 
 I heard your body had been found at Nineveh," said 
 
 the old man. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 361 
 
 "And I was told you had been burned to death at 
 the bridge," answered the other. Then the two men 
 solemnly shook hands and walked away together. 
 
 A pale-faced woman with a shawl over her shoulders 
 entered and stood at the table. *' My husband cannot 
 report," she said simply, in almost a whisper. '* He 
 worked for the Gautier Mill.'*" she was asked. She 
 nodded, bent forward and murmured something. The 
 man at the desk said : *' Make a note of that ; so-and- 
 so's wife reports him as gone, and his wages due are 
 to be paid to her," 
 
 The work of recording the men went on until nearly 
 one o'clock. Then, after waiting for a long time, Mr. 
 Smith said, *' Out of 1400 men we now have 487. It 
 may be there are 200 who either did not see the notice 
 or who are too busy to come. Anyway, I hope so — 
 my God, I hope so." All afternoon the greater part of 
 the 487 men were swinging pickaxes and shovels, 
 clearing the way for the railroad leading up to the 
 Gautier Steel Works of the future. 
 
 The Morbidly Curious. 
 
 To-day the order " Halt ! " rang out in earnest at 
 the footbridge over the rushing river into Johnstown. 
 It was the result of a cry as early as the reveille, that 
 came from among the ruins and from the hoarse 
 throats of the contractors — **For God's sake, keep 
 the morbid people out of here ; they're in the way 1 " 
 
 General Hastings ordered the picket out on the 
 high embankment east of the freight depot, where 
 every man, woman and child must pass to reach the 
 
S62 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 bridge. Colonel Perchment detailed Captain Hanfiil- 
 ton, of G Company, there with an ample guard, and 
 all who came without General Hastings' pass in the 
 morning were turned aside. This afternoon a new 
 difficulty was encountered. When you flashed your 
 military pass on the sentinel who cried '* Halt ! " he 
 would throw his gun slantwise across your body, so 
 that the butt grazed your right hip and the bayonet 
 your left ear and say : ** No good unless signed by the 
 sheriff." The civil authorities had taken the bridge 
 out of the hands of the militia, and the sheriff sat on 
 a camp stool overlooking the desolate city all the fore- 
 noon making out passes and approving the General's. 
 No Conflict of Authority. 
 
 The military men say there was no conflict of 
 authority, and it was deemed proper that the civil 
 authorities should still control the pass there. The 
 sheriff came near getting shot in Cambria City this 
 morning during a clash with one of his deputies over 
 a buggy. Yet he looked calm and serene. Some 
 beg him for passes to hunt for their dead. One man 
 cried : " I've just gotten here, and my wife and chil- 
 dren are in that town ; another said, " I belong in 
 Conemaugh and was carried off" by the flood," while an 
 aged, trembling man behind him whispered, *' Sheriff, 
 I just wanted to look where the old home stood." 
 When four peaceful faced sisters in convent garb, on 
 their mission of mercy, came that way the sentinels 
 stood back a pace and no voice ordered '* Halt!" 
 
 At noon the crane belonging to the Pennsylvania 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 363 
 
 Railroad was taken away from the debris at the bridge, 
 
 and Mr. Kirk had to depend on dynamite alone. 
 
 Later it was ordered back, and after that the work 
 
 went on rapidly. An opening 400 feet long, which 
 
 runs back in some places fifty feet, was made during 
 
 the afternoon. A relief party yesterday found' a 
 
 ladies' hand satchel containing $gi in cash, deeds foi 
 
 $26,000 in property and about $10,000 in insurjincj 
 
 policies. Mrs. Lizzie Dignom was the owner, and 
 
 both she and her husband perished in the flood. 
 
 Remembering- the Orphans. 
 
 Miss H. W. Hinckley and Miss E. Hanover, agent < 
 
 of the Children's Aid Society and Bureau of Informs - 
 
 tion of Philadelphia, arrived here this morning, and in 
 
 twenty minutes had established a transfer agency. 
 
 Miss Hinckley said : 
 
 "There are hundreds of children here who are 
 apparently without parents. We want all of them 
 given to us, and we will send them to the various 
 homes and orphanages of the State, where they shall 
 be maintained for several months to await the pos- 
 sibility of the reappearance of their parents when they 
 v/ill be returned to them. If after the lapse of a 
 month they do not reclaim their litde ones, we shall 
 do more than we ordinarily do in the way of providing 
 good homes for children in their cases. Think of it, 
 !n the house adjoining us are seven orphans, all of 
 one family. We have been here only a half hour, but 
 we have already found scores. We shall stay right 
 here till every child has been provided for." 
 
364 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 There Is no denying that a great deal of ill-feel- 
 ing is breeding here between the survivors of the 
 flood over the distribution of the relief supplies. The 
 supplies are spread along the railroad track down as 
 far as Morrellville in great stacks ; provisions, cloth- 
 ing, shoes, and everything else. The people come for 
 them in swarms with baskets and other means of con- 
 veyance. Lines are drawn, which are kept in trim by 
 the pickets, and in this w^ay they pass along in turn to 
 the point where the stock is distributed. 
 
 It was not unusual yesterday to hear women's 
 tongues lashing each other and complaining that the 
 real sufferers were being robbed and turned away, 
 while those who had not fared badly by flood or 
 fire were getting lots of everything from the com- 
 mittee. One woman made this complaint to a cor- 
 poral. 
 
 ** Prove it ; prove it," he said, and walked away. 
 She cried after him, "The pretty women are getting 
 more than they can carry." 
 
 Twice the line of basket-carriers was broken by the 
 guard to put out wranglers, and all through the 
 streets of Cambria City could be heard murmurs of 
 dissension. There is no doubt but that a strong 
 guard win be kept in the town day and night, for in 
 their deplorable condition the husbands may take up 
 the quarrel of their wives. 
 
 Danger of Insanity. 
 
 The Medical News, of Philadelphia, with rare enter- 
 prise, despatched a member of its staff to Johnstown, 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 365 
 
 and he telegraphed as follows for the next issue of 
 that paper : 
 
 " The mental condition of almost every former res- 
 ident of Johnstown is one of the gravest character, 
 and the reaction which will set in when the reality of 
 the whole affair is fully comprehended can scarcely fail 
 to produce many cases of permanent or temporary 
 insanity. Most of the faces that one meets, both male 
 and female, are those of the most profound melancho- 
 lia, associated with an almost absolute disregard of the 
 future. The nervous system shows the strain it has 
 borne by a tremulousness of the hand and of the lip, 
 in man as well as in woman. This nervous state is 
 further evidenced by a peculiar intonation of words, 
 the persons speaking mechanically, while the voices of 
 many rough-looking men are changed into such trem- 
 ulous notes of so high a pitch, as to make one imagine 
 that a child, on the verge of tears, is speaking. Cry- 
 ing is so rare that your correspondent saw not a tear 
 on any face in Johnstown, but the women that are left 
 are haggard, with pinched features and heavy, dark 
 lines under their eyes. 
 
 The State Board of Health should warn the people 
 of the portions of the country supplied by the Cone- 
 maugh of the danger of drinking its waters for weeks 
 to come." 
 
 The Women and Children. 
 
 New Johnstown will be largely a city of childless 
 widowers. One of the peculiar things a stranger 
 notices is the comparatively small number of women 
 
366 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 seen in the streets. Of the throngs who walked about 
 the place searching for dear friends there is not one 
 woman to ten men. Occasionally a little group of two 
 or three women with sad faces will pick their way 
 about looking for the morgues. There are a few 
 Sisters of Charity — their black robes the only instance 
 in which the conventional badge of mourning is seen 
 upon the streets — and in the parts of the town not 
 totally destroyed the usual number of women are seen 
 in the houses and yards. 
 
 But, as a rule, women are a rarety in Johnstown 
 now. This is not a natural peculiarity of Johnstown 
 nor a mere coincidence, but a fact with a terrible 
 reason behind it. There are so many more men than 
 women among the living in Johnstown now because 
 there are so many more women than men among the 
 dead. Of the bodies recovered there are at least two 
 women to every one man. Besides the fact that their 
 natural weakness made them an easier prey to the 
 flood, the hour at which the disaster came was one 
 when the women would most likely be in their homes 
 and the men at work in the open air or in factory 
 yards, from which escape was easy. 
 
 An Almost Childless City. 
 
 Children also are rarely seen about the town and 
 for a similar reason. They are all dead. There is 
 never a group of the dead discovered that does not 
 contain from one to three or four children for every 
 grown person. Generally the children are in the arms 
 of the grown persons, and often little toys and trinkets 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 367 
 
 clasped in their hands indicate that the children were 
 caught up while at play and carried as far as possible 
 toward safety. 
 
 Johnstown, when rebuilt, will be a city of many wid- 
 owers and few children. In turning a schoolhouse into 
 a morgue, the authorities probably did a wiser thing 
 than they thought. It will be a long time before the 
 schoolhouse will be needed for its original purpose. 
 The Flood on the Flat. 
 
 The flood, with a front of twenty feet high, bristling 
 with all manner of debris, struck straight across the 
 flat, as though the river's course had always been that 
 way. It cut off the outer two-thirds of the city with a 
 line as true and straight as could have been drawn by 
 a survey. On the part over which it swept there 
 remains standing but one building, the brewery. With 
 this exception, not only the houses and stores, but the 
 pavements, sidewalks and curbstones, and the earth 
 beneath for several feet are washed away. The pave- 
 ments were of cinders from the Iron Works ; a bed 
 six inches thick and as hard as stone and with a sur- 
 ,face like macadam. Over west of the washed-out por- 
 tion of the city not even die broken fragments of these 
 pavements are left. 
 
 Aside from the few logs and timbers left by the 
 afterwash of the flood, there is nothing remaining upon 
 the outer edge of the flat, including two of the four 
 long streets of the city, except the brewery mentioned 
 before and a grand piano. The water-marks on the 
 brewery walls show the flood reached twenty feet up 
 
Z6S THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 its Sides and it stood on a little higher ground than 
 buildings around it at that. 
 
 Thieves Had Rifled His Safe. 
 Mr. Steires, who on last Friday was the wealthiest 
 man in town, on Sunday was compelled to borrow the 
 dress which clothed his wife. When the flood began 
 to threaten he removed some of the most valuable 
 papers from his safe and moved them to the upper 
 story of the building to keep them from getting wet. 
 When the dam burst and Conemaugh Lake came down 
 these, of course, went with the building. He got his 
 safe Monday, but found that thieves had been before 
 him, they having chiseled it open and taken everything 
 but ^65 in a drawer which they overlooked. Mr. 
 Steires said to day: **I am terribly crippled financially, 
 .but my family were all saved and I am ready to begin 
 over again." 
 
 Rebuilding' Going On Apace. 
 
 Oklahoma is not rising more quickly than the tem- 
 porary buildings of the workmen's city, which includes 
 5,000 men at least, and who are mingling the sounds 
 of hammers on the buildings they are putting up for 
 their temporary accommodation, with the crash of the 
 buildings they are tearing down. It seemed almost a 
 waste of energy two days ago, but the different gangs 
 are already eating their way towards the heart of the 
 great masses of wreckage that block the streets ia 
 every direction. 
 
 A dummy engine has already been placed in 
 position on what was the main street, and all the large 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 369 
 
 logs and rafters that the men can not move are fast- 
 ened with ropes and chains, and drawn out by the 
 engine into a clear space, where they are surrounded 
 by smaller pieces of wood and burned. Carloads of 
 pickaxes, shovels and barrows are arriving from Bal- 
 timore for the workmen. 
 
 First Store Opened. 
 
 The first store was opened to-day by a grocer 
 named W. A. Kramer, whose stock, though covered 
 with mud and still wet from the flood, has been pre- 
 .served intact. So far the greater part of his things 
 have been bought for relics. The other storekeepers 
 are dragging out the debris in their shops and shovel- 
 ing the mud from the upper stories upon Inclined 
 boards that shoot it into the street, but with all this 
 energy it will be weeks before the streets are brought 
 to sight again. 
 
 As a proof of this, there was found this morning a 
 passenger car fully half a mile from Its depot, com- 
 pletely buried beneath the floor and roofs of other 
 houses. All that could be seen of it by peering 
 through intercepting rafters was one of the end 
 wlndovv^s over which was painted the Impotent warn- 
 ing of ''Any person injuring this car will be dealt with 
 according to law." 
 
 Curious Finds of Workman. 
 
 The workmen find many curious things among the 
 ruins, and are. It should be said to their credit, par- 
 ticularly punctilious about leaving them alone One 
 man picked up a base-ball catcher's mask under a 
 24 
 
370 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 great pile of machinery, and the decorated front of 
 the balcony circle of the Opera House was found 
 with the chairs still immediately about its semi-circle, a 
 quarter of a mile from the theatre's site. 
 
 The mahogany bar of a saloon, with its nickel-plated 
 rail, lies under another heap in the city park, and thou- 
 sands of cigars from a manufactory are piled high in 
 Vine street, and are used as the only dry part of the 
 roadway. Those of the people who can locate their 
 homes have gathered what furniture and ornaments 
 they can find together, and sit beside them looking like 
 evicted tenants. 
 
 The Grand Army of the Republic, represented by 
 Department Commander Thomas J. Stewart, have 
 placed a couple of tents at the head of Main street for 
 the distribution of food and clothing. A census of the 
 people will be taken and the city divided into districts, 
 each worthy applicant will be furnished with a ticket 
 giving his or her number and the number of the dis- 
 trict. 
 
 The Post-ofjfice XJiiifornis. 
 
 Across the street from the Grand Army tents is the 
 temporary post-office, which is now in fairly good 
 working order. One of the distributing clerks hunted 
 up a newspaper correspondent to tell him that thej 
 post-oftice uniforms sent from Philadelphia by the 
 employees of that city's office have arrived safely 
 and that the men want to return thanks through this 
 paper. 
 
 The Red Cross Army people from Philadelphia 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 371 
 
 have decided to remain, notwithstanding General 
 Hastings' cool reception, and they have taken up their 
 quarters in Kernville, where they say the destitu- 
 tion is as great as in vv^hat was the city proper. 
 The Tale tbe Clocks Tell. 
 
 The clocks of the city in both public and private 
 houses tell different tales of the torrent that stopped 
 them. Some of them ceased to tick the moment the 
 water reached them. In Dibert's banking-house the 
 marble time-piece on the mantel stopped at seven 
 minutes after 4 o'clock. In the house of the Hon. 
 John M. Rose, on the bank of Stony Creek, was a 
 clock In every room of the mansion from the cellar to 
 the attic. Mr. Rose is a fine machinist, and the 
 mechanism of clocks has a fascination for him that is 
 simply irresistible. He has bronze, marble, cuckoo, 
 corner or *' grandfather '^ clocks — all In his house. 
 One of them was stopped exactly at 4 o'clock ; still 
 another at 4.10; another at 4.15, and one was not 
 stopped till 9 P. M. The ''grandfather" clock did 
 not stop at all, and Is still going. 
 
 The town clocks, that Is the clocks In church towers, 
 are all going and were not injured by the water. The 
 mantel piece clocks In nearly every house show a 
 **no tick " at times ranging from 3.40 to 4.15. 
 Dead in the Jail. 
 
 This morning a man. In wandering through the 
 skirts of the city, came upon the city jail, and finding 
 the outer door open, went Into the gloomy structure. 
 Hanging against the wall he found a bunch of keys 
 
372 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 and fitting them in the doors opened them one after 
 another. In one cell he found a man lying on the 
 floor in the mud in a condition of partial decom- 
 position. He looked more closely at the dead body 
 and recognized it as that of John McKee, son of 
 Squire McKee, of this city, who had been committed 
 for a short term on Decoration Day for drunkenness. 
 The condition of the cell showed that the man had 
 been overpowered and smothered by the water, but 
 not till he had made every effort that the limits of his 
 cell would allow to save himself. There were no 
 other prisoners in the jail. 
 
 Heroes of tlie Nigrlit. 
 
 Thomas Magee, the cashier of the Cambria Iron 
 Company's general stores, tells a thrilling story of the 
 manner in which he and his fellow clerks escaped from 
 the waters themselves, saved the money drawers and 
 rescued the lives of nineteen other people during the 
 progress of the flood. He says : 
 
 It was 4.15 o'clock when the flood struck our build- 
 ing with a crash. It seemed to pour in from every 
 door and window on all sides, as well as from the 
 floors above us. I was standing by the safe, which 
 was open at the time, and snatched the tin box which 
 contained over ^12,000 in cash, and with other clerks 
 at my heels flew up the stairs to the second floor. In 
 about three minutes we were up to our waists in 
 water, and started to climb to the third floor of the 
 building. Here we rema.ined with the money until 
 Saturday morning, when we were taken out in boats. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 873 
 
 Besides myself there were in the building Michael 
 Maley, Frank Balsinger, Chris Mintzmeyer, Josepn 
 Berlin and Frank Burger, all of whom escaped. All 
 Friday night and Saturday morning we divided our 
 time between guarding the money, providing for our 
 own safety and rescuing the poor people floating by. 
 We threw out ropes and gathered logs and timbers 
 together until we had enough to make a raft, which 
 we bound together with ropes and used in rescuing 
 people. During the night we rescued Henry Weaver, 
 his wife and two children ; Captain Cars well, wife and 
 three children, and three servant girls ; Patrick Ravel, 
 wife and one child ; A. M. Dobbins and two others 
 whose names I have forgotten. Besides this we cut 
 large pieces of canvas and oilcloth and wrapped it 
 around bread and meat and other eatables and threw 
 it or floated it out to those who went by on housetops, 
 rafts, etc., whom we could not rescue without getting 
 our raft in the drift and capsizing. We must have fed 
 lOO people in this way alone. 
 
 When we were rescued ourselves we took the 
 money over to Prospect Hill, and sent to the justice 
 of the peace, who swore us all in to keep guard over 
 our own money and that taken by Paymaster Barry 
 from the Cambria Iron Company's general officeSj 
 amounting to 5J4000, under precisely the same circum- 
 stances that marked our escape. We remained oa 
 guard until Monday night, when the soldiers came 
 over and escorted us back to the office of the Cambria 
 Iron Company, where we placed the money in the 
 company's vault. 
 
374 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 So far as known at this hour only eighteen bodies 
 have been this morning recovered in the Conemaugh 
 Valley. One of these was a poor remnant of humanity 
 that was suddenly discovered by a teamster In the cen- 
 tre of the road over which his wagons had been pass- 
 ing for the past forty-eight hours. The heavy vehicles 
 had sunk deeply in the sand and broken nearly every 
 bone in the putrefying body. It was quite impossible 
 to identify the corpse, and it was taken to the morgue 
 and orders issued for its burial after a few hours' expo- 
 sure to the gaze of those who still eagerly search for 
 missing friends. 
 
 Only the hardiest can bear to enter the Morgue this 
 morning, so overwhelming is the dreadful stench. The 
 undertakers even, after hurriedly performing their task 
 of washing a dead body and preparing it for burial, re- 
 treat to the yard to await the arrival of the next ghastly 
 find. A strict order is now in force that all bodies should 
 be interred only when it becomes impossible to longer 
 preserve them from absolute putrefaction. There is 
 no iron-clad rule. In some instances it is necessary to 
 inter some putrid body within a few hours, while others 
 can safely be preserved for several days. Every pos- 
 sible opportunity is afforded for identification. 
 
 Four bodies were taken from the ruins at the Cam- 
 bria Club House and the company's store this morning. 
 The first body was that of a girl about seventeen years 
 of age. She was found in the pantry and it is sup- 
 posed that she was one of the servants in the house. 
 She was terribly bruised and her face was crushed into 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 375 
 
 a jelly. A boy about seven years of age was taken 
 from the same place. Two men and a woman were 
 taken from in front of a store on Main street. The 
 remains were all bruised and in a terrible condi- 
 tion. They had to be embalmed and buried immedi- 
 ately, and it was impossible to have any one identify 
 them. 
 
 Only Fifty Saved at Woodville. 
 
 The number of people missing from Woodville is 
 almost incredible, and from present indications it 
 looks as if only about fifty people in the borough were 
 saved. Mrs. H. L. Peterson, who has been a resident 
 at Woodville for a number of years, is one of the 
 survivors. While looking for Miss Paulsen, of Pitts- 
 burg, of the drowned, she came to a coffin which 
 was marked " Mrs. H. L. Peterson, Woodville Bor- 
 ough, Pa., age about forty, size five feet one inch, 
 complexion dark, weight about two hundred pounds." 
 This was quite an accurate description of Mrs. Peter- 
 son. She tore the card from the coffin and one of the 
 officers was about to arrest her. Her explanations 
 were satisfactory^ and she was released. 
 
 In speaking of the calamity afterward she said : 
 " The people of Woodville had plenty of time to get 
 out of the town if they were so minded. We received 
 word shortly before two o* clock that the flood was 
 coming, and a Pennsylvania Railroad conductor went 
 through the town notifying the people. I stayed 
 until half-past three o'clock, when the water com- 
 menced to rise very rapidly, and I thought it was besi 
 
376 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 to get out of town. I told a number of women that 
 they had better go to the hills, but they refused, and 
 the cause of this refusal was that their husbands 
 Would not go with them and they refused to leave 
 alone." 
 
 Terrific Experience of a Pullman Conductor. 
 
 Mr. John Barr, the conductor of the Pullman car on' 
 the day express train that left Pittsburgh at eight 
 o* clock, May 31, gave an account of his experience in 
 the Conemaugh Valley flood: "I was the last one 
 saved on the train," he said. "When the train 
 arrived at Johnstown last Friday, the water was up to 
 the second story of the houses and people were going 
 about In boats. We went on to Conemaugh and had 
 to halt there, as the water had submerged the tracks 
 and a part of the bridge had been washed away. Two 
 sections of the day express were run up to the most 
 elevated point. 
 
 ''About four o'clock I was standing at the buffet 
 
 when the whistle began blowing a continuous blast — 
 
 the relief signal. I went out and saw what appeared 
 
 to be a huge moving mountain rushing rapidly toward 
 
 us. It seemed to be surmounted by a tall cloud of 
 
 foam. 
 
 Sounding" tlie Alarm, 
 
 *'I ran into the car and shouted to the passengers, 
 * For God's sake follow me ! Stop for nothing ! ' 
 
 ''They all dashed out except two. Miss Paulsen 
 and Miss Bryan left the car, but returned for their 
 overshoes. They put them on, and as they again 
 
/'-iiJi'i;'- iSi^ 
 
 (877) 
 
378 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Stepped from the cai they were caught by the mighty 
 wave and swept away. Had they remained in the car 
 they would have been saved, as two passengers who 
 stayed there escaped. 
 
 *'One was Miss Virginia Maloney, a courageous, 
 self-possessed young woman. She tied securely about 
 her neck a plush bag, so that her identity could be 
 established if she perished. Imprisoned in the car 
 v/ith her was a maid employed by Mrs. McCullough. 
 They attempted to leave the car, but the water drove 
 them back. They remained there until John Waugh, 
 the porter, and I waded through the water and rescued 
 them. 
 
 **The only passengers I lost were the two unfortu- 
 nate young ladies I have named. I looked at the 
 corpses of the luckless victims brought in during the 
 two days I remained in Johnstown, but the bodies of 
 the two passengers were not among them. 
 
 "At Conemaugh the people were extremely kind 
 and hospitable. They threw open their doors and pro- 
 vided us with a share of what little food they had and 
 gave us shelter. 
 
 Stripped of Her Clotliingr. 
 
 ** While at Conemaugh, Miss Wayne, of Altoona, 
 who had a miraculous escape, was brought in. She 
 was nude, every article of her clothing having been 
 torn from her by the furious flood. There was no 
 female apparel at hand, and she had to don trousers, 
 coat, vest and hat. 
 
 "We had a severe task In reaching Ebensburg, 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 37D 
 
 eighteen miles from Conemaugh. We started on 
 Sunday and were nine hours in reaching our destina- 
 tion. At Ebensburg we boarded the train which con- 
 veyed us to Altoona, where we were cared for at the 
 expense of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 
 
 ** I had a rough siege. I was in the water twelve 
 hours. The force of the flood can be imagined by the 
 fact that seven or eight locomotives were carried 
 away and ficated on the top of the angry strean! as if 
 they we c tiny chipa" 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Stories of tine Klood. 
 
 War, death, cataclysm like this, America, 
 Take deep to thy proud, prosperous heart. 
 
 E'en as I chant, lo ! out of death, and out of ooze and slinie^ 
 
 The blossoms rftpidly blooming, sympathy, help, love, 
 
 From west and east, from south and north and over sea. 
 
 Its hot spurr'd hearts and hands humanity to human aid moves on ; 
 
 And from within a thought and lesson yet. 
 
 Thou ever-darting globe ! thou Earth and Air I 
 
 Thou waters that encompass us ! 
 
 Thou that in all the life and death of us, in action or in sleep. 
 
 Thou laws invisible that permeate them and all 1 
 
 Thou that in all and over all, and through and under all, incessant ! 
 
 Thou ! thou ! the vital, universal, giant force resistless, sleepless, calm, 
 
 Holding Humanity as in the open hand, as some ephemeral toy. 
 
 How ill to e'er forget thee ! 
 
 IFaU Whiintan. 
 
 "Are the horrors of the flood to give way to the 
 terrors of the plague?'* is the question that is now 
 agitating the valley of the Conemaugh. To-day 
 opened warm and almost sultry, and the stench that 
 assails one's senses as he wanders through Johnstown 
 is almost overpowering. Sickness, in spite of the pre- 
 cautions and herculean labors of the sanitary author- 
 ities, is on the increase and the fears of an epidemic 
 grow with every hour, 
 
 ** It is our impression," said Dr. T. L. White, assist 
 ant to the State Board of Health, this morning, '' that 
 there is going to be great sickness here within the 
 
 (380) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 381 
 
 next week. Five cases of malignant diphtheria were 
 located this morning on Bedford street, and as they 
 were in different houses they mean five starting points 
 for disease. All this talk about the dangers of 
 epidemic is not exaggerated, as many suppose, but is 
 founded upon all experience. There will be plenty of 
 typhoid fever and kindred diseases here within a week 
 or ten days in my opinion. The only thing that has 
 saved us thus far has been the cool weather. That 
 has now given place to summer weather, and no one 
 knows what the next few days may bring forth. 
 Fresh Meat and Tegretables TVanted, 
 
 Even among the workmen there is already dis- 
 cernible a tendency to diarrhoea and dysentery. The 
 men are living principally upon salt meat, and there is 
 a lack of vegetables. I have been here since Sunday 
 and have tasted fresh meat but once since that time. 
 I am only one of the many. Of course the worst has 
 passed for the physicians, as our arrangements are now 
 perfected and each corps will be relieved from time to 
 time. Twenty more physicians arrived from Pittsburgh 
 this m.orning and many of us will be relieved to-day. 
 But the opinion is general among the medical men 
 that there will be more need for doctors in a week 
 hence than there is now. 
 
 Sanitary Work. 
 
 Dr. R. L. SIbbel, of the State Board of Health, is 
 in charge of Sanitary Headquarters. "We are using 
 every precaution known to science," said he this morn- 
 ing, '' to prevent the possibility of epidemic. Our 
 
382 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 labors here have not been confined to any particulai 
 channel, but have been extended in various directions. 
 Disinfectants, of course, are first in Importance, and 
 they have been used with no sparing hand. The 
 prompt cremation of dead animals as fast as discovered 
 is another thing v^^e have insisted upon. The immedi- 
 ate erection of water-closets throughout the ruins for 
 the workmen was another work of the greatest sani- 
 tary importance that has been attended to. They, too, 
 are being disinfected at frequent intervals. We have 
 a committee, too, that superintends the burial of the 
 victims at the cemeteries. It is of the utmost import-- 
 ance in this wholesale interment that the corpses should 
 be interred a safe distance beneath the surface in order 
 that their poisonous emanations may not find exit 
 through the crevices of the earth. 
 
 ''Another committee is making a house-to-house 
 inspection throughout the stricken city to ascertain 
 the number of inhabitants in each standing house, the 
 number of the sick, and to order the latter to the hos 
 pital whenever necessary. One great danger is the 
 overcrowding of houses and hovels, and that is being 
 prevented as much as possible by the free use of 
 tents upon the mountain side. So far there is but 
 little contagious disease, and we hope by diligent and 
 systematic efforts to prevent any dangerous out- 
 break." 
 
 r^odging" Kesponsibility. 
 
 It is now rumored that the South Fork Hunting and 
 Fishing Club is a thing of the past. No one admits 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 383 
 
 his membership and it is doubtful if outside the cot- 
 tage owners one could find more than half a dozen 
 members in the city. Even some of the cottage 
 owners will repudiate their ownership until it is known 
 whether or not legal action will be taken against 
 them. If it were not for the pubhcity which might 
 follow one could secure a transfer of a large number 
 of shares of the club's stock to himself, accompanied 
 by a good sized roll of money. It is certain that the 
 cottage owners cannot repudiate their ownership. 
 None of them, however, will occupy the houses this 
 summer. 
 
 The Club Found Guilty. 
 
 Coroner Hammer, of Westmoreland county, who 
 has been sitting on the dead found down the river at 
 Nineveh, concluded his inquests to-day. His trip to 
 South Fork Dam on Wednesday has convinced him 
 that the burden of this great disaster rests on the 
 shoulders of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing 
 Club of Pittsburgh. The verdict was written to-night, 
 but not all the jury were ready to sign It. It finds the 
 South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club responsible for 
 the loss of life because of gross, If not crimiinal negli- 
 gence, and of carelessness In making repairs from 
 time to time. This would let the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road Company out from all blame for allowing the 
 dam to fall so badly out of repair when they got con- 
 trol of the Pennsylvania Canal and abandoned it 
 The verdict is what might have been expected after 
 Wednesday's testimony. 
 
384 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Mr. A. M. Wellington, with P. Burt, associate editor 
 of the Engineering News, of New York, has just com- 
 pleted an examination of the dam which caused the 
 great disaster here. Mr. Wellington states that the 
 dam was in every respect of very Inferior construction, 
 and of a kind wholly unwarranted by good engineering 
 practices of thirty years ago. Both the original and 
 reconstructed dams were of earth only, with no heart 
 wall, but only riprapped on the slopes. 
 
 The original dam, however, was made in dammed and 
 watered layers, which still show distinctly In the wrecked 
 dam. The new end greatly added to its stability, but 
 it was to all appearances simply dumped in like an or- 
 dinary railroad fill, or if rammed, the wreck shows no 
 evidence of the good effect of such work. Much of 
 the old part is standing intact, while the adjacent parts 
 of the new work are wholly carried off. There was no 
 central wall of puddle or masonry either in the new or 
 old dam. It has been the invariable practice of en- 
 gineers for thirty or forty years to use one or the other 
 in building high dams of earth. It is doubtful if there 
 is a single dam or reservoir in any other part of the 
 United States of over fifty feet in height which lackf 
 this central wall. 
 
 Ignorance or Carelessness, 
 
 The reconstructed dam also bears the mark of great 
 ignorance or carelessness in having been made nearly 
 two feet lower in the middle than at the ends. It 
 should rather have crowned in the middle, which 
 would have concentrated the overflow, if it should 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 385 
 
 occur, at the ends instead of in the centre. Had the 
 break begun at the ends the cut of the water would 
 have been so gradual that Httle or no harm might 
 have resuhed. Had the dam been cut at the ends 
 when the water began running over the centre the 
 sudden breaking would have been at least greatly 
 diminished, possibly prolonged, so that little harm 
 would have resulted. The crest of the old dam had 
 not been raised in the reconstruction of 1881. The 
 old overflow channel through the rock still remains, 
 but owing to the sag of the crest in the middle of the 
 dam only five and a half feet of water in it, instead of 
 seven feet, was necessary to run the water over the 
 crest. 
 
 And the rock spillway, narrow at best, had been 
 further contracted by a close grating to prevent the 
 escape of fish, capped by a good-sized timber, and in 
 some slight degree also as a trestle footbridge. The 
 orio-inal discharge pipe indicates that it was made about 
 half earth and half rock, but if so there was litde evi- 
 dence of it in the broken dam. The riprapping was 
 merely a skin on each face with more or less loose 
 spauls mixed witli the earth. The dam was seventy- 
 two feet above water, two to one inside slope, one and 
 a half to one outside slope and twenty feet wide on 
 top. The rock throughout was about one foot below 
 the surface. The earth was pretty good material for 
 such a dam, if it was to be built at all, being of a clayey 
 nature, making good puddle. To this the fact of it 
 standing intact since 1881 must be ascribed, as nc 
 
386 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 engineer of star«iing would have ever tried to so con' 
 struct it. The fact that the dan^ was a reconstructed 
 one after twenty years' abandonment made it espec> 
 ally hard on the older part of the dam to withstand 
 the pressure of the water. 
 
 Elder Thought It was Safe. 
 
 Cyrus Elder, general counsel for the Cambria Iron' 
 Company and a wealthy and prominent citizen of 
 Johnstown, lost a wife and daughter in the recent 
 disaster and narrowly escaped with his own life. 
 
 ** When the rebuilding of the dam was begun some 
 years ago," he said, "the president of the Cambria 
 Iron Company was very seriously concerned about it, 
 and wished,^ if possible, to prevent its construction, 
 referring the matter to the solicitor of the company. 
 A gentleman of high scientific reputation, who was 
 then one of the general engineers, inspected the 
 dam. He condemned several matters in the way of 
 construction and reported that this had been changed 
 and that the dam was perfectly safe. My son, George 
 R. Elder, was at that time a student in the Troy Poly- 
 technic University. 
 
 His professor submitted a problem to the class 
 which he immediately recognized as being the ques- 
 tion of the safety of the South Fork dam. He sent it 
 to me at the time in a letter, which, of course, is lost, 
 with ever3/thing else I possessed, in which he stated 
 that the verdict of the class was that the dam was safe. 
 The president of the Cambria Iron Company being 
 still anxious, thought it might be good policy to have 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 387 
 
 some one inside of the fishing and hunting corporation 
 owning the dam. The funds of the company were 
 therefore used to purchase two shares of its stock, 
 which were placed in the name of D. J. Morrell. 
 After his death these shares were transferred to and 
 are still held by me, although they are the property of 
 the Cambria Iron Company. They have not been 
 sold because there was no market for them." 
 Untold Volumes of "Water. 
 
 So far as the Signal Service is concerned, the 
 amount of rainfall in the region drained by the Con- 
 emaugh river cannot be ascertained. The Signal Ser- 
 vice authorities here, to whom the official there re- 
 ported, received only partial reports last Friday. 
 There had been a succession of rains nearly all of last 
 week. The last rain commenced Thursday evening 
 and was unusually severe. 
 
 Mrs. H. M. Ogle, who had been the Signal Service 
 representative in Johnstown for several years and also 
 manager of the Western Union office there, tel- 
 egraphed at eight o'clock Friday morning that the 
 river marked 14 feet, rising ; a rise of 13 feet in ' vven- 
 ty-four hours. At eleven o'clock she wired : *' River 
 20 feet and rising, higher than ever before ; water in 
 first floor. Have moved to second. River gauges 
 carried away. Rainfall, 2 3-10 inches." At tv/enty- 
 seven minutes to one P. M., Mrs. Ogle wired: "At 
 this hour north wind ; very cloudy ; water still rising." 
 
 Nothing more was heard from her by the bureau, 
 but at the Western Union office here later in the after- 
 
388 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 noon she commenced to tell an operator that the dam 
 had broken, that a flood was coming, and before she 
 had finished the conversation a singular click of the 
 instrument announced the breaking of the current. A 
 moment afterward the current of her life was broken 
 forever. 
 
 Sergeant Stewart, in charge of the bureau, says that 
 the fall of water on the Conemaugh shed at Johnstown 
 up to the time of the flood was probably 25-10 inches. 
 He believes it was much heavier in the mountains. 
 The country drained by the little Conemaugh and 
 Stony Creek covers an area of about one hundred 
 square miles. The bureau, figuring on this basis and 
 2 5-10 inches of rainfall, finds that 464,640,000 cubic 
 feet of water was precipitated toward Johnstown In its 
 last hours. This is independent of the great volume 
 of water In the lake, which was not less than 250,000,- 
 000 cubic feet. 
 
 Water Enoug-li to Cover the Valley. 
 
 It is therefore easily seen that there was ample 
 water to cover the Conem.augh V.alley to the depth of 
 from ten to twenty-five feet. Such a volume of water 
 was never known to fall in that country in tne rame 
 time. 
 
 Colonel T. P. Roberts, a leading engineer, estimates 
 that the lake drained twenty-five square miles, and 
 gives some interesting data on the probable amount 
 of water it contained. He says: — ''The dam, as I 
 understand, was from hill to hill about one thousand 
 feet long and about eighty-five feet high at the highest 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 389 
 
 point. The pond covered above seven hundred acres, 
 at least for the present I will assume that to be the 
 case. We are told also that there was a waste weir 
 at one end seventy-five feet wide and ten feet below 
 the comb or top of the dam. Now we are told that 
 with this wier open and discharging freely to the ut- 
 most of its capacity, nevertheless the pond or lake 
 rose ten inches per hour until finally it overflowed the 
 top, and, as I understand, the dam broke by being 
 eaten away at the top. 
 
 Calculating tlie Amount of Water. 
 ** Thus we have the elements for very simple calcu- 
 lation as to the amount of water precipitated by the 
 flood, provided these premises are accurate. To raise 
 700 acres of water to a height of ten feet would re- 
 quire about 300,000,000 cubic feet of water, and 
 while this was rising the waste dam would discharge 
 an enormous volume — it would be difficult to say just 
 how much without a full knowledge of the shape of 
 its side walls, approaches and oudets — but if the rise 
 required ten hours the waste river might have dis- 
 charged perhaps 90,000,000 cubic feet. We would 
 then have a total of flood-water of 390,000,000 cubic 
 feet. This would indicate a rainfall of about eight 
 inches over the twenty-five square miles. As that 
 much does not appear to have fallen at the hotel and 
 dam it is more than likely that even more than eight 
 inches were precipitated in the places further up. 
 These figures I hold tentatively, but I am much in* 
 clined to believe that there was a cloud burst." 
 
390 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Six thousand men were at work on the ruins to-day. 
 They are paid two dollars a day, and have to earn it. 
 The work seems to tell very little, however, for the mass 
 of debris Is simply enormous. The gangs have cleaned 
 up the streets pretty thoroughly In the main part of 
 the city, from which the brick blocks were swept like 
 card houses before a breeze. The houses are pulled 
 apart and burned in bonfires. Nowhere Is anything 
 found worth saving. 
 
 It Is not probable that the mass of debris at the 
 bridge, by which the water Is tainted, can be removed 
 in less than thirty days with the greatest force possible 
 to work on it. That particular job is under the con- 
 trol of the State Board of Health. Every day adds 
 to its seriousness. The mass is being cleared by dyna- 
 mite at the bridge where the current is strongest, and 
 the open place slowly grows larger. Not infrequently 
 a body is found after an explosion has loosened the 
 wreckage. 
 
 So-called relief corps are still moving to and fro in 
 the city, but the most serious labor of many of the 
 members Is to carry a bright yellow badge to aid 
 them in passing the guards while sight-seeing. The 
 militia men are little better than ornamental. The 
 guards do a good deal of changing, to the annoyance 
 of workers who want to get into the lines, but they 
 rarely stop any one. The soldiers do a vast deal of 
 loafing. A photographer who had his camera ready 
 to take a view among the ruins was arrested to-day 
 and made xo work for an hour by General Hastin^3' 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 891 
 
 order. When his stent was done he did not linger, 
 but went at once. 
 
 Sigrns of Improvement. 
 
 **What is the condition of the valley now?" I asked 
 Colonel Scott. 
 
 " It is improving with every hour. The perfect or- 
 ganization which has been effected within the past day 
 or two has gradually resolved all the chaos and con- 
 fusion Into a semblance of order and regulation." 
 
 ''Are many bodies being discovered now?" 
 
 " Very few ; that is to say, comparatively few. Of 
 course, as the waters recede more and more between 
 the banks, we have come upon bodies here and there, 
 as they were exposed to sight. The probabilities are 
 that the*^e will be a great many bodies yet discovered 
 under the rubbish that covers the streets, and our 
 hope and expectation is that the majority of all the 
 dead may be recovered and disposed of in a Christian 
 manner." 
 
 *^ How about the movement to burn the rubbish, 
 bodies and all?" 
 
 " I do not think that will be doae — at least only as 
 
 a last extremity. While there is great anxiety in 
 
 regard to the sanitaty condition, all possible precautions 
 
 are being taken, and we hope to prevent any disease 
 
 until we shall have time to thoroughly overhaul the 
 
 wreck. 
 
 Consideration for tlie Dead. 
 
 " The greatest consideration is being given to this 
 matter of the recovery of the dead and treatment of 
 
892 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 the bodies after discovery. I think an impression has 
 gone abroad that the dead are being handled here very 
 much as one would handle cord wood, but this is a 
 great mistake. As soon as possible after discovery 
 they are borne from public gaze and taken to the 
 Morgue, where only persons who have lost relatives or 
 friends are admitted. Of course the general exclu- 
 sion is not applied to attendants, physicians and repre- 
 sentatives of the press, but it Is righteously applied to 
 careless sight-seers. We have no room for sight-seers 
 in Johnstown now. It is earnest workers and laborers 
 we want, and of these we can hardly have too many." 
 Speculating" in Disaster. 
 
 Some long headed men are trying to make a neat 
 little stake quietly out of the disaster. A syndicate 
 has been formed to buy up as much real estate as 
 possible in Johnstown, trusting to get a big block as 
 they got one to-day, for one-third of the valuation 
 placed on it a week ago. The members of the syndi- 
 cate are keeping very much in the background and 
 conducting their business through a local agent. 
 
 I asked Adjutant General Hastings to-day what he 
 thought of the situation. 
 
 '* It is very good so far as reported," was the feply„ 
 ** Bodies are being gradually recovered all the time, 
 but of course not in the large number of the first few 
 days. Last night we arrested several ghouls that were 
 wandering amid the wreck on evil intent, and they 
 v/ere promptly taken to the guard house. This morn- 
 ing they were given the choice of imprisonment or 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 393 
 
 going to work at two dollars a day, and they promptly 
 chose the latter. We are getting along very well in 
 our work, and very little tendency to lawlessness, I 
 am happy to say, is observed.'* 
 
 Succor for the liiving-. 
 
 The Red Cross flag now flies over the society's own 
 camp beside the Baltimore and Ohio tracks, near the 
 bridge to Kernville. The tents were pitched this 
 morning and the camp includes a large supply tent, 
 mess tent and offices. Miss Clara Barton, of Wash- 
 ington, is, of course, in charge, and the work is being 
 rapidly gotten into shape. I found Miss Barton at 
 the camp this morning. 
 
 **The Red Cross Society will remain here," she 
 said, *' so long as there is any work to do. There is 
 hardly any limit to what we will do. Much of the 
 present assistance that has been extended is, of 
 course, impulsive and ephemeral. When that is over 
 there will still be work to do, and the Red Cross So- 
 ciety will be here to do it. We are always the last to 
 leave the field. 
 
 *' We need and can use to the greatest advantage 
 all kinds of supplies, and shall be glad to receive 
 them. Money is practically useless here as there is 
 no place to buy what we need." 
 
 Dr. J. Wilkes O'Neill, of Philadelphia, surgeon of 
 the First Regiment, is here in charge of the Philadel- 
 phia division of the Red Cross Society. He is assisted 
 by a corps of physicians, nurses and attendants* 
 Within two hours after establishing the camp this 
 
394 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 morning about forty cases, both surgical and medical, 
 were treated. Diphtheria broke out in Kernville 
 to-day. Eleven cases were reported, eight of which 
 were reported to be malignant. The epidemic is sure 
 to extend. There are also cases of ulcerated tonsil- 
 itis. The patients are mostly those left homeless by 
 the flood and are fairly well situated in frame houses. 
 The doctors do not fear an epidemic of pneumonia. 
 The Red Cross Society has established a hospital 
 camp in Grubbtown for the treatment of contagious 
 diseases. An epidemic of typhoid fever is feared, two 
 cases having appeared. The camp is well located in 
 a pleasant spot near fine water. It Is supplied with 
 cots, ambulances and some stores. They have an 
 ample supply of surgical stores, but need medical 
 stores badly. 
 
 Serving Out the Rations. 
 
 At the commissary station at the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road depot there was considerable activity. A crowd 
 of about one thousand people had gathered about the 
 place after the day's rations. The crowd became so 
 great that the soldiers had to be called up to guard the 
 place until the Relief Committee was ready to give out 
 the provisions. Several carloads of clothing arrived 
 this morning and was to be disposed of as soon as 
 possible. The people were badly in need of clothing, 
 as the weather had been very chilly since Saturday. 
 
 B. F. Minnimun, a wealthy contractor of Springfield, 
 Ohio, arrived this forenoon with a despatch from Gov- 
 ernon Foraker offering 2,000 trained laborers for 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. S96 
 
 Johnstown, to be sent at once if needed. The despatch 
 further stated that if anything else was needed Ohio 
 stood ready to respond promptly to the call. 
 Wliat Clara Barton Said. 
 
 "It is like a blow on the head ; there are no tears, 
 they are stunned ; but, ah, sir, I tell you they will 
 awake after awhile and then the tears will flow down 
 the hills of this valley from thousands of bleeding 
 hearts, and there will be weeping and wailing such as 
 never before." 
 
 That is what Clara Barton, president of the National 
 Red Cross, said this afternoon as she stood in a plain 
 black gown on the bank of Stony Creek directing the 
 construction of the Red Cross tents, and she looked 
 motherly and matronly, while her voice was trembling 
 with sympathy. 
 
 " You see nothing but that dazed, sickly smile that 
 calamity leaves," she went on, *^like the crazy man 
 wears when you ask him, 'How came you here?* 
 Something happened, he says, that he alone knows ; 
 all the rest is blank to him. Here they give you that 
 smile, that look and say ' I lost my father, my mother, 
 my sisters,* but they do not realize it yet. The Red 
 Cross intends to be here in the Conemaugh Valley 
 when the pestilence comes to them, and we are 
 making ready with all our heart, with all our soul, 
 with all our strength. The militia, the railroad, the 
 Relief Committees and everybody is working for us. 
 The railroad has completely barricaded us so that 
 none of our cars can be taken away by mistake," 
 
39(5 
 
 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 When the great wave of death swept through Johns- 
 town the people who had any chance of escape ran 
 hither and thither in every direction. They did not 
 have any definite idea where they were going, only that 
 a crest of foaming waters as high as the housetops 
 was roaring down upon them through the Conemaugh 
 and th^i tbey must get out of the way of that. Some 
 
 A WOMAN'S BODY LODGED IN A TREE. 
 
 in their terror dived into the cellars of their houses 
 and clambered over the adjoining roofs to places of 
 safety. But the majority made for the hills, which girt 
 the town like giants. Of the people who went to the 
 hills, the water caught some In its whirl. ; 
 
 The others clung to trees and roots and pieces of 
 debris which had temporarily lodged near the banks, 
 and managed to save themselves. These people either 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. S97 
 
 Stayed out on the hills wet, and in many instances 
 walked all night, or they managed to find farmhouses 
 which sheltered them. There was a fear of going back 
 to the vicinity of the town. Even the people whose 
 houses the water did not reach abandoned their homes 
 and began to think of all of Johnstown as a city buried 
 beneath the water. But in the houses which v.^ere thus 
 able to afford shelter there was not food enough for 
 all. Many survivors of the flood went hungry until 
 the first relief supplies arrived from Pittsburgh. 
 Strugg^ling to tiive Ag^ain. 
 
 From all this fright, destitution and exposure is 
 coming a nervous shock, culminating in insanity, 
 pneumonia, fever and all the other forms of disease. 
 When these people came back to Johnstown on the 
 day after the wreck of the town they had to live in 
 sheds, barns and in houses which had been but par- 
 tially ruined. They had to sleep Vvdthout any covering, 
 in their wet clothes, and it took the liveliest kind of 
 skirmishing to get anything to eat. Pretty soon a 
 citizen's committee was established, and nearly all the 
 male survivors of the flood were immediately sworn In 
 as deputy sherifls. They adorned themselves with tin 
 stars, which they cut out of pieces of the sheets of 
 metal in the ruins, and pieces of tin with stars cut out 
 of them are now turning up continually, to the 
 surprise of the Pittsburgh workmen w^ho are endeavor- 
 ing to get the town in shape. 
 
 The wom.en and children were housed, so far as 
 possible, in the few houses still standing, and some 
 
398 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 idea of the extent of the wreck of the town may be 
 gathered from the fact that of 300 prominent buildings 
 only 16 are uninjured. For the first day or so people 
 were dazed by what had happened, and for that matter 
 they are dazed still. They went about helpless, 
 making vague inquiries for their friends, and hardly 
 feeling the desire to eat anything. Finally the need 
 of creature comforts overpowered them and they woke 
 up to the fact that they were faint and sick. 
 Refugees in Their Own City. 
 
 Now this is to some extent changed by the arrival 
 of tents and by the systematic military care for the 
 suffering. But the daily life of a Johnstown man who 
 is a refugee in his own city is still aimless and wander- 
 ing. His property, his home, in nine cases out of ten, 
 his wife and children, are gone. The chances are that 
 he has hard work to find the spot where he and his 
 family once lived and were happy. He meditates sui- 
 cide, and even looks on the strangers who have flocked 
 in to help him and to put him and his town on their 
 feet again with a kind of sullen anger. He has 
 frequent conflicts with the soldiers and with the 
 sight-seers, and he is crazy enough to do almost any- 
 thing. 
 
 The first thing that Johnstown people do in the 
 morning is to go to the relief stations and get some- 
 thing to eat. They go carrying big baskets, and their^ 
 endeavor is to get all they can. There has been a 
 new system every day about the manner of dispensing 
 the food and clothing to the sufferers. At first the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 399 
 
 supplies were placed where people could help them- 
 selves. Then they were placed in yards and handed 
 to people over the fences. Then people had to get 
 orders for what they wanted from the citizens' commit- 
 tee and their orders were filled at the different relief 
 stations. Now the matter has been arranofed this 
 way, and probably finally. The whole matter of re- 
 ceiving and dispensing the relief supphes has been 
 placed in the hands of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
 lic men. 
 
 Women Too Proud to Beg-. 
 
 The Grand Army men have made the Adams Street 
 Relief Station a central relief station and all the others 
 at Kernville, the Pennsylvania depot, Cambria City and 
 Jackson and Somerset Streets, sub-stations. The idea 
 is to distribute supplies to the sub-stations from the 
 central station and thus avoid the jam of crying and 
 excited people at the committee's headquarters. The 
 Grand Army men have appointed a committee of 
 women to assist in their work. The women go from 
 house to house ascertaining the number of people 
 lost from there in the flood and the exact needs of the 
 people. It was found necessary to have some such 
 committee as this, for there were women actually 
 starving who were too proud to take their places in 
 lines with the other women with bags and baskets. 
 Some of these people were rich before the flood. 
 
 Now they are not worth a dollar. One man who 
 was reported to be worth $100,000 before the flood 
 now is penniless and has to take his place in the 
 
^GO THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 line along with others seeking the necessaries of 
 Hfe. 
 
 Though the Adams street station is now the central 
 relief station, the most imposing display of supplies is 
 made at the Pennsylvania Railroad freight and passen- 
 ger depots. Here on the platform and in the yards 
 are piled up barrels of flour in long rows three and 
 lour barrels high. Biscuits in cans and boxes by the 
 carload, crackers under the railroad sheds in bins, 
 hams by the hundred strung on poles, boxes of soap 
 and candles, barrels of kerosene oil, stacks of canned 
 goods and things to eat of all sorts and kinds are 
 here to be seen. 
 
 No Fear of a Food Famine. 
 
 The same sight is visible at the Baltimore and Ohio 
 road and there is now no fear of a food famine in 
 Johnstown, though of course everybody will have to 
 rough it for weeks. What is needed most in this line 
 are cooking utensils. Johnstown people want stoves, 
 kettles, pans, knives and forks. All the things that 
 have been sent so far have been sent with the evident 
 idea of supplying an instant need, and that is right 
 and proper. But it would be well now if instead of 
 some of the provisions that are sent, cooking utensils 
 should arrive. Fifty stoves arrived from Pittsburgh 
 this morning, and it is said more are coming. At 
 both the depots where the supplies are received and 
 stored a big rope line encloses them in an impromptu 
 yard so as to give room to those having the supplies 
 in charge to walk around and see what they have got. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 40) 
 
 On the inside of this line, too, stalk back and forth the 
 soldiers with their rifles on their shoulders, and by the 
 side of the lines pressing against the ropes there 
 stands every day from daylight until dawn a crowd of 
 women with big baskets who make piteous appeals to 
 the soldiers to gfe^e them food for their children at 
 once before the order of the relief committee, 
 Wliere I>eatli Kules. 
 
 The following letters from a young woman to her 
 mother, written immediately after the disaster at Johns- 
 town from her home in New Florence, a few miles 
 west of that place, though not intended for publica- 
 tion, picture in graphic manner the agony of suspense 
 sustained by tliose who escaped the flood, and give 
 side pictures of tlie scenes following the disaster. 
 They were received in Philadelphia : 
 Hours of Suspense. 
 
 New Florence, Pa. — My Darling Mother: I am 
 n'^arly crazed, and thought I would try and be quiet 
 and write to you, as it always comforts me to feel you 
 are near your child, though many miles are now 
 between us. I have said my prayers over and over 
 again all day long, and to-night I am going to spend 
 in the watch-tower, and am trying to be quiet and 
 brave, although my heart is just wrung with anguish. 
 Andrew sent me word from Johnstown this afternoon 
 about half-past three he was safe and would be home 
 shortly. Well, he has never come, and I have had 
 many reports of the work train, but no one seems to 
 know anything definite about him. I have telegraphed 
 
 26 
 
402 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 and telegraphed, but no news yet, and all I can find 
 out is he was seen on the bridge just before It went 
 down. I am trying to be brave. 
 
 Good [News at I>ast. 
 
 Sunday Morning 
 You see, dearest mother, I could not write, and new 
 I am happy, though tired, for Andrew is home and 
 safe, and I thank God for the great mercy he has 
 shown his child. I won't dwell on my anxiety, it can 
 better be imagined than described. From the letter I 
 had from him at Johnstown, written at 9 A. M. Friday, 
 until 6.30 last evening, I never knew whether he was 
 living or dead. Thomas, our man, brought the news, 
 God bless him, and it nearly cost him his life to do it, 
 poor man. Andrew got separated from the party, 
 and was close to the bridge when it was carried away, 
 but escaped by going up the mountain. He tried to 
 signal to his men he was safe, but could not make 
 them see liim, nor could those men that were with 
 him ; all cornxmunication was impossible. Thomas left 
 him at nine o'clock Friday night on the mountain and 
 tried to get home. He got a man to ferry him across 
 the river above Johnstown, and the boat was upset, 
 but all managed to get ashore, and Thomas walked 
 all night and all yesterday, and came straiglit to. me 
 and told me my husband was safe, and an hour later 
 I had a telegram from Andrew. He had walked from 
 the Conemaugh side to Bolivar. The bridge at Nin- 
 eveh was the only bridge left standing. He took the 
 first train home from Bolivar and got home about 9.30. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 403 
 
 I telegraphed you In the morning, or rather Uncle 
 Clem, that I was safe and Andrew reported safe, 
 though now they tell me every one here thought he 
 was lost and Thomas with him. Thomas's wife was 
 met at the station and Informed of his death by some 
 of the men, and six hours afterwards Thomas came 
 home, yet more dead than alive, poor man. It is very 
 hard to write, as all the country people and men have 
 been here to tell me how glad they are 'T got my 
 husband safely back, and that I am a powerful sight 
 lucky young womxan." Well, mother darling, make 
 your mxind easy about your children now. Andrew is 
 safe and well, though pretty well exhausted, and his 
 feet are so sore and swollen he can hardly stand, and 
 can't wear anything but rubbers, as his mountain shoes 
 he cut to pieces. He left early this morning, but will 
 be back to-night. I cannot begin to tell you of the 
 horrors, as the papers do not half picture the distress. 
 New Florence was not flooded, though some of the 
 people left the place on Friday night and went up 
 on Squirrel Hill. 
 
 Scenes at tlie RiTcr. 
 
 I went down to the river once, and that was enough, 
 as I knew Andrew would not like me to see the 
 sorro\^, for which there was no help. I went just 
 after the bridge fell, saw Centreville flooded and the 
 people make a dash for the m.ountain. Yesterday 
 two hundred and three bodies were taken from the 
 river near here, and yet every train takes away more. 
 The freight cars have taken notliing but human freight; 
 
4(K THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 and wagon load after wagon load of dead bodies have 
 been right In front of the house. There was a child 
 about Nellie's age, with light hair, dead in the wagon, 
 with her hands clasped, saying her prayers, and her 
 blue eyes staring wide open. By her side lay a man 
 with a pipe in his mouth, naked children, and a woman 
 with a baby at her breast. Oh, the terror on their 
 faces. Two women and three men were rescued 
 here, and a German family of mother, four children 
 and father. I had them all on my hands to look after ; 
 no one could make them understand, and how I ever 
 managed it I don't know, but I did. They lost two 
 children and their home, but had a little money and 
 were going to his brother's, at Hazleton. They got 
 here in the night and left at noon, and it would have 
 done your heart good to see them eat One was a 
 baby five weeks old. 
 
 Help Needed. 
 Now, mother, I want you to go around among the 
 family and get me everything in the way of clothes 
 you possibly can, and get Uncle Clem to express them 
 to me. I should also like money, and as much as you 
 can get can be used. I am pretty well cleaned out of 
 everything, as all the cattle and stock have been lost 
 and nothing can be bought here, and all I have in the 
 way of provisions is some preserves, chocolate, coffee, 
 olives and crackers. We can't starve, as we have 
 the chickens. I got the last meat from the butcher's 
 yesterday, and he said he didn't expect to have any 
 more for a week, so I told Uncle Clem I would not 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 406 
 
 mind having two hams from Pittsburgh, and was very 
 grateful for his telegram. I telegraphed him in the 
 morning ; also, Uncle White at Germantown, so that 
 they might know I was all right, but from Auntie's 
 telegram I judge Uncle Clem's telegrams were the 
 only ones that got through. If I find I need provis- 
 ions I will let you know, but do not think I will need 
 anything for myself, and the poor are being fed by the 
 relief supplies, and what is needed now is money and 
 clothes. 
 
 Helpers. 
 There's not a house in the place that is not in 
 trouble from the loss of some dear one, nor one that 
 does not hold or shelter some one or more of the suf- 
 ferers. Tell everybody anything you can get can be 
 used, and by the time you get this letter I will know of 
 more cases to provide for, so take everything you can 
 get, and don't worry about me, for I am all right now 
 that Andrew is safe. This letter has been written by 
 instalments, as I have been interrupted so many times, 
 so pardon the abruptness of it, and please send it to 
 Germantown, as I have too much to do now. My 
 hands and heart are both full. Milk is as scarce as 
 wine, as the pasturage was all on the other side, and 
 cows were lost, and bread is as scarce as can be, and, 
 instead of a dozen eggs, we only get one a day. I am 
 proud of New Florence, as all it has done to help the 
 sufferers no one knows, and as for Mr. Bennett, he is 
 one in a thousand. Mr. Hay's son has worked like a 
 Trojan. Tell Cousin Hannah that the new tracks will 
 
406 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 be sure to be straight, as Andrew will superintend the 
 whole business. With heart full of love to one and 
 all and a kiss to the children. Lovingly, 
 
 Bett. 
 The Awful Alter Scenes. 
 
 New Florence, Sunday Night. 
 
 My Darling Mother : This Is my second letter to 
 you to-day. It Is after 1 1 o'clock, and one of the men 
 has just brought me word that Andrew will be home, 
 he thought, by i o'clock ; so I am waiting up for him, 
 so as to give him his dinner, and I have been through 
 so much I cannot go to bed until I know he is safe 
 home again. I put him up a good lunch, and know 
 he cannot starve. 
 
 Oh the horrors of to-day ! I have only had one 
 pleasant Sunday here, and that was the one after we 
 were married. I have had a very busy day, as I have 
 been through our clothes, and routing out everything 
 possible for the sufferers and the dead, and the cry to- 
 day for linen sheets, etc., was something awful. I 
 have given away all my underclothes, excepting my 
 very best things — and all my old ones I made into 
 face-cloths for the dead. To-day diey took five little 
 children out of the water ; they were playing " Ring 
 around a rosy," and their hands were clasped In a 
 clasp which even death did not loosen, and their faces 
 were still smiling. 
 
 One man Identified his wife among those who came 
 ashore here, and Rose said that he was nearly crazy, 
 and that her face was the most beautiful thing she ever 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 407 
 
 saw, and that she had very handsome pearls in her 
 ears and was so young looking. The dead are all 
 taken from here to Johnstown and Nineveh and other 
 places, where they will be most likely to be identified ; 
 about thirty have been identified here and taken away. 
 I feel hardened to a great deal, and feel God has been 
 so merciful to me I must do all I can for the unfortu- 
 nate ones. I hope soon to have som.e help from you 
 all, for I have given willingly of my little and my means 
 are exhausted. I expect we will have to live on ham 
 and eggs next week, but we are thankful to have that, 
 as I would rather live low and give all I can, than not 
 to give. All I care about is that Andrew gets enough 
 to eat, as he needs a great deal to keep his strength 
 up, working as .hard as he does. Now I will close as 
 it is nearly time for him to be home. Lovingly, 
 
 Bett. 
 Feeding tiie Hungry. 
 
 There are over 30,000 people at Johnstown who 
 
 must be fed from the outside world. Of these 18,000 
 
 are natives of the town that a week ago had 29,500 
 
 inhabitants ; all the others are dead or have gone 
 
 away. Over 12,000 people are here clearing the 
 
 streets, burying the dead, attending the sick, and 
 
 feeding and sheltering the homeless ; all these people 
 
 have to be fed at least three times a day, for days are 
 
 very long in Johnstown just now. They begin at five 
 
 o'clock in the morning, two hours before the whistles 
 
 in the half-mired Cambria Iron Company's building 
 
 blow, and end just about the time the sun is going 
 
40« THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 down. If the people who are on the outside and who 
 are engaged in the labor of love of sending the food 
 that is keeping strength in Johnstown's tired arms and 
 the clothing that is covering her nakedness could 
 understand the situation as it is they would redouble 
 their efforts. Johnstown cannot draw on the country 
 immediately around about her, for that was drained 
 days ago. To be safe, there should be a week's 
 supply of food ahead. At no time has there been 
 a day's supply or anything like it. 
 
 A Crisis in tlie Commissary. 
 
 Twice within the last forty-eight hours the commis- 
 sary department at the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, 
 where nearly 10,000 people are furnished with food, 
 have been in a state of mind bordering on panic. 
 They had run out of food ; people who had trudged 
 down the hill with expectant faces and empty baskets 
 had to trudge back again with hearts heavy and bas- 
 kets still empty. That was the case on Wednesday 
 night. Then the Citizens' Committee had to send to 
 the refugee camp, the smallest food station in the city, 
 and take away 1500 loaves of bread. The bread 
 supply in the central portion of the town had suddenly 
 given out and there was a clamoring crowd demanding 
 to be fed. 
 
 The same thing happened again last night. It was 
 not so bad as on the night before, but there were anx- 
 ious faces enough among the men under the direction 
 of Major Spangler, who realized the awful responsi- 
 bility of providing the mouths of the thousands with 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 409 
 
 food. The supply had given out, but fortunately not 
 until almost everybody had been supplied. Telegrams 
 announced that eight carloads of provisions had been 
 shipped from the West and were somewhere in the 
 line between Pittsburgh and Johnstown. At midnight 
 nothing could be heard of them. The delay was mad- 
 dening. If the food did not arrive it meant fully lo,- 
 ooo breakfastless and possibly dinnerless people in 
 Johnstown to-day, with consequent suffering and pos- 
 sible disorder among the rough and rowdy element 
 The Danger Tided Over. 
 
 Before daylight the expected cars came in from 
 Ohio and Pittsburgh and the danger was over for the 
 time being. This serves, however, to show the peril- 
 ous condition the town is in, living as it is in a hand- 
 to-mouth fashion. It should be remembered that the 
 only direct access to Johnstown from the West is by 
 way of the Pennsylvania, which is handicapped as 
 she has never been before, and from the East and 
 South, of the Baltimore and Ohio. If the Pennsylva- 
 nia were opened through to the East a steady stream 
 of 200 cars already loaded for the sufferers would 
 pour over the Alleghenies, but the Pennsylvania does 
 not see light ahead much more clearly than yesterday. 
 The terrible breaks and washouts will require days yet 
 to repair, and supplies that come from the interior of 
 the State must come by means of wagons. 
 Crowding in the Supplies. 
 
 The Baltimore and Ohio is piling the supplies in to- 
 day faster than the men can unload them. In th® 
 
410 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 neighborhood of lOO carloads were received. The 
 Pennsylvania during to-day has handled something 
 like twenty-eight carloads all told. In the way of food 
 the articles most needed are fresh, salt meats, sugar, 
 rice, coffee, tea, and dried and canned fruits. The 
 supply of sugar gave out entirely to-day. Twenty 
 thousand pounds of Cincinnati hams arrived to-day 
 and they melted like 20,000 pounds of ice beneath the 
 scorching heat of this afternoon's sun. Much of the 
 clothing that is received here is new and serviceable, but 
 thousands of pieces are so badly worn that, to use the 
 words of General Axllne, of Ohio, who is dcing noble 
 service here with the thousands of other self-sacrificing 
 men, ** it is unfit to be worn by tramps." Many old 
 shoes with the soles half torn off have been received. 
 Shoes are badly needed at once or all Johnstown will 
 be barefooted. 
 
 Eig-liteen Carloads of Relief. 
 Even in the rush of distribution the officials who 
 have it in charge can find time to say a hearty word of 
 praise for those towns which have contributed to the 
 sufferers. Philadelphia's first installment was the first 
 to arrive from the East, and more goods have been 
 coming in steadily ever since. W. H. Tumblestone, 
 the president of the Retail Grocers' Association of 
 Pennsylvania, ^vho was appointed first lieutenant of the 
 Philadelphia relief by the Mayor, arrived here first. 
 He set at work handling coffins, but as soon as the 
 first freight car of goods arrived he was put in charge 
 of their distribution and has been working like three 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 411 
 
 men ever since. The eight freight cars from Philadel- 
 
 DISTRIBUTING CLOTHING AND OTHER SUPPLIES. 
 
 phia which arrived with the relief party on Monday, at 
 4 o'clock, were distributed from a great storehouse at 
 
412 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 the terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The 
 goods are carried in bulk from the cars to the ware- 
 house by a gang of twenty-eight men, who are identi* 
 fied by red flannel hat-bands. When they fail to 
 enthuse over their work Mr. Tumblestone gets off his 
 coat and shoves boxes himself. 
 
 Distributing Supplies. 
 
 Inside the warehouse a score of volunteers and 
 Pittsburgh policemen break open the boxes and pile 
 the goods in separate heaps ; the women* s clothing, 
 the men's, the children's and the different sizes being 
 placed in regular order. Then the barriers are opened 
 and the crowd surges in like depositors making a run 
 on a savings bank. The police keep good order and 
 the ubiquitous Tumblestone and his assistants dole out 
 the goods to all who have orders. Special orders call 
 for stoves, mattrasses and blankets. 
 
 If the Philadelphians could see the faces of the peo- 
 ple they are helping before and after they have passed 
 the distribution windows they would feel well repaid 
 for their visible sympathy. Chairman Scott says the 
 class of goods from Philadelphia have been of the 
 highest quality. "We have been delighted with the 
 thought and excellence of the selections and amiable 
 nature of the contributions. The two miles of track 
 lying between here and Morrellville are still blocked 
 with cars stretched from one end to the other, and 
 fresh arrivals are coming in daily over the Baltimore 
 and Ohio." Although it is impossible to say how 
 much has been received from Philadelphia, Mr. Turn- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 413 
 
 blestone says that so far as many as eighteen freight 
 cars, each filled from the sides to the roof, have arrived 
 from the Quaker City, and their contents have been 
 distributed. 
 
 How Riral Hotels were Crushed Together, 
 
 The principal hotels of the town were bunched in a 
 group about the corner of Main and Clinton streets. 
 They were the Merchants' a large old-fashioned, 
 three-story tavern, with a stable yard behind, a relic 
 of staging days ; the Hurlburt House, the leading 
 hotel of the place, a fine four-story brick structure 
 with a mansard roof and all the latest wrinkles in fur- 
 nishing inside and out; the Fritz House, a narrow, 
 four-story structure, with an ornate front, and the 
 Keystone, a smaller hotel than any of the others. 
 
 These few inns stood in the path of the flood. The 
 Hurlburt, the largestandhandsomest, was absolutely ob- 
 literated. The Keystone's ruin was next in completion. 
 It stood across Clinton Street from Fritz's, and Landlord 
 Charles West has not yet recovered from the surprise 
 of seeing the rival establishment thrown bodily across 
 the street against his second story front, tearing it 
 completely out. 
 
 After the water subsided it fell back upon the pave- 
 inent in front of its still towering rival, and in the 
 meantime Landlord West had saved mine host of the 
 Keystone and his family from the roof which was 
 thrust in his windows. 
 
 Back of Fritz's there was a litde alley, which made 
 a course for a part of the torrent. Fully half a dozea 
 
414 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 houses were sent swimming in here. They crushed 
 their way through the small hotel's outhouses straight 
 to the rear of the Merchants', and sliced the walls off 
 the old inn as a hungry survivor to-day cut a Philadel- 
 phia cheese. You can see the interior of the rooms. 
 The beds were swept out into the flood, but a lone- 
 some wardrobe fell face downward on the floor and 
 somehow escaped. There are bodies under the rear 
 wall. How many is not known, but Landlord West, 
 of Fritz's, says he is certain there were people on the 
 rear porch of the Merchants'. The story of Land- 
 lord West's rival being thrown into his front windows 
 has its parallels. 
 
 Colonel Higgins, the manager of the Cambria Club 
 House, was in the third story of the building with his 
 family. Suddenly a man was hurled by the torrent 
 rapidly through the window. He was rescued, then 
 fainted, and upon inspection was found to have a 
 broken leg. The leg was bandaged and the man re- 
 suscitated, and when this last c.ct of kindness was 
 accomplished he said faintly : "This ain't so bad. I've 
 
 been in a blow-up." 
 
 A Cool Request. 
 
 This remark showed the greatest sang froid known 
 to be exhibited during the flood, but the most irrever- 
 ent was that of an old man who was saved by E, B. 
 Entworth, of the Johnson works. On Saturday morn- 
 ing Mr. Entworth rowed to a house near the flowing 
 debris at the bridge, and found a woman, with a 
 broken arm, and a baby. After she had got into the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 415 
 
 boat she cried : " Come along-, grandpap." Where- 
 upon an old man, chilled but chipper, jumped up from 
 the other side of the roof, slid down into the boat, and 
 ejaculated : ** Gentlemen, can any of you give me a 
 chew of tobacco ? " , 
 
 Scenes Amid the Ruins. 
 
 One of the curious finds in the debris yesterday wa« 
 two proofs from cabinet-size negatives of two persons 
 — a man and a woman. The prints were found 
 within two feet of each other in the ruins near the 
 Merchants' Hotel. They were immediately recog- 
 nized as portraits of Mamie Patton, formerly a Johns- 
 town girl, and Charles DeKnight, once a Pullman 
 palace car conductor. The tAvo were found dying 
 together in a room in a Pittsburgh hotel several 
 months ago, the woman having shot the man and then 
 herself. She claimed that he was her husband. The 
 dress in w^hich the picture showed her was the same 
 that she w^ore when she killed DeKnight 
 
 Tracks tliat were Ijaid in a Hurry. 
 
 If Pennsylvania Railroad trains ever ran over 
 tougher-looking tracks than those used now through 
 Johnstown it must have been before people began to 
 ride on it. The section from the north end of the 
 bridge to the railroad station has a grade that wabbles 
 between 50 and 500 feet to the mile and jerks back 
 and forth sideways as though laid by a gang of intoxi- 
 cated men on a dark night. When the first engine 
 went over it everybody held his breath and watched 
 to see It tumble. These eccentricities are being 
 
416 THE Jun.^STOWN HORROR. 
 
 Straightened out, however, as fast as men and broken 
 stones can do it. 
 
 The railroad bridge at Johnstown deserves attention 
 beyond that which it is receiving on account of the way 
 it held back the flood. It is one of the most massive 
 pieces of masonry ever set up in this country. In s 
 general way it is solid masonry of cut sandstone blocks 
 of unusual size, the whole nearly 400 feet long, forty 
 wide, and averaging about forty deep. Seven arches 
 of about fifty feet span are pierced through it, rising 
 to within a few feet of the top and leaving massive 
 piers down to the rock beneath. As the bridge crosses 
 the stream diagonally, the arches pierce the mass in a 
 slanting direction, and this greatly adds to the heavy 
 appearance of the bridge. There has been some dis- 
 position to find fault with the bridge for being so 
 strong, the idea being that if it had gone out there 
 would have been no heaping up of buildings behind 
 it, no fire, and fewer deaths. This is probably unfair, 
 as there were hundreds of persons saved when their 
 houses were stopped against the bridge by climbing 
 out or being helped out upon the structure. If the 
 bridge had gone, too, the flood would have taken the 
 whole instead of only half of Cambria City. 
 Photographers Forced to Work, 
 
 The camera fiend has about ceased his wanderings. 
 An order was issued yesterday from headquarters to 
 arrest and put to work the swarms of amateur photog- 
 raphers who are to be found everywhere about the 
 ruins. Those who will not work are to be taken 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 417 
 
 Uptown under guard. This order is issued to keep 
 down the number of useless people and thus save the 
 fast diminishing provisions for the workers. 
 
 A man who stood on thebluff and saw the first wave 
 of the flood come down the valley tried to describe it. 
 "I looked up," he said, *'and saw something that 
 looked like a wall of houses and trees up the valley. 
 The next moment Johnstown seemed coming toward 
 me. It was lifted right up and in a minute was smash- 
 ing against the bridge and the houses were flying in 
 splinters across the top and into the water beyond." 
 
 A 13-year-old girl, pretty and with golden hair, 
 wanders about from morgue to morgue looking for 
 ten of a family of eleven, she being the sole survi- 
 vor. 
 
 There were half a dozen bulldogs in one house 
 that was heaped up in the wreck some distance above 
 the bridge. They were loose among the debris, and 
 it is said by those who claim to have seen it that after 
 fighting among themselves they turned upon the peo- 
 ple near them and were tearing and biting them until 
 the flames swept over the place. 
 
 Slow Time to Pittsburgh. 
 
 Irregular is a weak word for the manner in which 
 passenger trains run between this place and Pitts- 
 burgh. The distance is seventy miles and the ordi- 
 nary time is two hours. The train that left here at 
 4.30 yesterday afternoon reached there at midnight 
 This is ordinarily good time nowadays. A passage in 
 five hours is an exceptional one, 
 
 27 
 
418 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Engine 1309, the one that faced the flood below 
 Conemaugh and stood practically unharmed, backed 
 down to the station as soon as the tracks were laid up 
 to where It stood and worked all right. Only the oil 
 cups and other small fittings, with the headlight, were 
 broken. 
 
 The superintendent of the Woodvale Woolen Mills, 
 one of the Cambria Iron Company's concerns, was one 
 of the very few fortunate ones in that little place. He 
 and all his family got into the flouring mill just below 
 the woolen mill and upon the roof. The woolen mill 
 was totally wrecked, though not carried away, and 
 the flouring mill was badly damaged, but the roof 
 held and all were saved. These two parts of the 
 mill were the only buildings left standing in Wood- 
 vale. 
 
 A man in KerHvIlle, on Friday last, had jet black 
 hair, moustache and beard. That night he had a 
 battle with the waters. On Saturday morning his 
 hair and beard began to turn gray, and they are now 
 well streaked with white. He attributes the change to 
 his awful Friday night's experience. 
 Wounds of the Dead. 
 
 It IS the impression of the medical corps and mili- 
 tary surgeons who arrived here early in the week, 
 that hundreds, maybe thousands of men, women and 
 children were insensible to all horror on that awful 
 afternoon, just a week ago, before the waters of the 
 valley closed in over them. Their opinion is based 
 on the fact that hundreds and hundreds of the bodies 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 41» 
 
 already brought to light are terribly wounded some- 
 where, generally on the head. In many instances the 
 wounds are sufficient in themselves to have caused 
 death. 
 
 The crashing of houses together In the first mad 
 rush of the flood with a force greater than the collision 
 of railroad trains making fast time, and the hurling of 
 timbers, poles, towers and boulders through the air is 
 believed to have caused a legion of deaths in an in- 
 stant, before the lost knew what was coming. Even 
 the survivors bear testimony to this. 
 
 Surgeon Foster, of the 14th Regiment, who was 
 first to have charge of the hospital, tells how he treated 
 long lines of men, v/omen and children for wounds too 
 terrible to mention and they themselves know not how 
 it happened only that they fell in a moment. In con- 
 nection with his experience he speaks of the tender, 
 yet heroic, work of four Sisters of Mercy, two from 
 Pittsburgh and two here, who went ahead of him down 
 the ranks of the wounded with sponges, chloroforming 
 the suffering, before his scalpel aid reached them. 
 Sometimes there were a dozen victims ahead of his 
 knives. 
 
 Once these sisters stopped, for the first time show- 
 ing horror, by a great pile of dead children and infants 
 on the river bank laid one on top of the other. By 
 one man each little body was seized and the clothing 
 quickly cut from it. Then he passed it to another, 
 who washed it in the river. Then a third mian took it 
 in the line of the dead. But the Sisters of Mercy saw 
 
420 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 they were too late there, and passed on among the 
 living. 
 
 Most of the Pennsylvania Railroad passengers who 
 left Pittsburgh for the East last Friday and were 
 caught in the flood in the Conemaugh Valley reached 
 Philadelphia in a long special train at 5 o'clock Friday 
 morning, June 7th, after a week of adventure, peril 
 and narrow escapes which none of them will ever 
 forget. A few of their number who lost presence of 
 mind when the flood struck the train were drowned. 
 The survivors are unanimous in their appreciation of 
 the kindness shown them by Pennsylvania officials, 
 and in their praise of the hospitality and generosity ot 
 the country folk, among whom they found homes for 
 three days. The escapes In some instances seem 
 miraculous. 
 
 An hour before the flood the first section of the day 
 express stopped at Conemaugh City, about ten miles 
 below the dam at South Fork, on account of a wash- 
 out farther up the valley. The second section of the 
 express and another passenger train soon overtook 
 the first and half an hour before the dam broke all 
 these trains stood abreast on the four-track road. 
 The positions now occupied seems providential. If 
 die railroad men had foreseen the disaster they could 
 not have shown greater prudence, for the engine of 
 the first section of the express, on the track nearest 
 the mountain side, stood about a car s length ahead of 
 the second. The engine of the third train came to a 
 stop a car's length behind the second and on the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 421 
 
 outer track, which was within a few feet of the swol- 
 len Conemaugh River, stood a heavily laden freight 
 train. 
 
 When the flood came it struck the slanting front ol 
 the four locomotives. Most of the passengers had, in 
 the meantime, escaped up the mountain side. Three of 
 the locomotives were carried down by the irresistible 
 torrent, but the fourth turned on its side and was soon 
 buried under sand, tree trunks and other debris. This 
 served as a breakwater for the flood and accounts for 
 tlie fact that the trains of cars were not reduced to 
 kindling wood while the railroad roundhouse and its 
 twelve locomotives, a little farther down the valley, 
 was taken up bodily, broken into fragments and its 
 mighty inmates carried like chips for miles down the 
 
 valley. 
 
 Weary Passengers. 
 
 From end to end of the train, upon its arrival at 
 Philadelphia, there was an aspect of absolute exhaus- 
 tion, varied in its expression according to the individ- 
 ual. Phlegmatic men lay upon their backs^ across the 
 seats, with their legs dangling in the aisles. One might 
 send them spinning round or toss their feet out of the 
 passage, and their worn faces showed no more sign 
 than if they were lifeless. Wormen lay swathed in 
 veils and wraps, sometimes alone, sometimes huddled 
 together, and sometimes guarded by the arms of their 
 husbands — husbands who themselves had given way 
 and slept as heavily as if dosed with narcotics. 
 
 But here and there is the typical American girl, full 
 
422 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 of nerve. She is worn out, too, but sleeps only fit 
 fully, starting up at every sound and dropping uneas- 
 ily off again. Now and then one encountered the 
 man and woman of restless temperament, whose sleep- 
 less eyes looked out thinking, thinking — thinking on 
 the trees and grass and bushes, faintly showing form 
 now In the gray light of the very earliest dawn. 
 Childhood's Peaceful Sleep. 
 
 In the midst of It all a girl of six or seven, with a 
 light shawl thrown over her figure, slept as peacefully 
 as if she lay In the comfortable embrace of her own 
 crib at home. She was little Bertha Reed, who had 
 been sent out from Chicago In the care of the conduc- 
 tor on a trip to Brooklyn, where she was to meet her 
 aunt. At Pittsburgh she was taken In charge by a 
 Miss Harvey, a relative. She was a passenger on 
 the Chicago limited, the last train to get safely across 
 the bridge at South Fork. She w^as a model of 
 patience and cheerfulness through all the discomforts 
 and drawbacks of the voyage, and her innocent prattle 
 made every man and woman love her. 
 
 It might have been supposed that if one were to 
 waken any of these sleeping passengers to obtain their 
 names and ask them of the disaster they might surlily 
 have resented It. But they didn't Now and then one 
 of them would half-sleepily hand out his ticket under the 
 mistaken notion that the reporter was the conductor. 
 Another shake brought them round and they 
 answered everything as kindly as If the unavoidable 
 breaking In upon their comfort were a matter of no 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 423 
 
 concern whatever. Sometimes it would seem that 
 great sorrow must have a chastening effect upon 
 everyone. 
 
 From AU Parts of the World. 
 
 It was a strange gathering altogether, and made 
 one think again of the remark so often repeated in 
 ,'"No Thoroughfare," ** How small the world is." All 
 the ends of the earth had sent their people to meet at 
 the disaster, and the tide of human life flows on as 
 recklessly as the current of any sea or river. Here 
 weary, sleepy and sad, was Jacob Schmidt, of Aspen, 
 Col. He had been a passenger on the Pittsburgh 
 day express. He was standing on the platform when 
 the flood came and by a lurching of the car he was 
 thrown into the boiling torrent. He managed to seize 
 a floating plank and was saved, but all his money and 
 other valuables were lost. That was a particularly 
 hard loss to him, because he was on his way to South 
 Africa to seek his fortune. Behind him was R. B. 
 Jones, who had come from the other side of the 
 globe ; in particular from Sydney, Australia, and met 
 the others at Altoona. He was on the v/ay for a visit 
 to his parents In York County. He was on the 
 Chicago Limited and just escaped the danger. 
 
 In a front car was Peter Sherman, of Pawtucket, 
 R. I. He was tall and broad shouldered and his sun- 
 browned face was shaded by a big soft hat. He was 
 on his way from Texarkana, way down in Texas, and 
 he too was at Conemaugh. He was a passenger on 
 the first section of the day express. He had not slept 
 
424 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 a wink on the way down from Altoona, and he told 
 his story spiritedly. He said : *' I heard a voice In the 
 car crying the reservoir is burst ; run for your Hves ! 
 I got up and made a rush for the door. A poor Httle 
 cripple with two crutches sat in front of me and 
 screamed to me to save him or he would be drowaed. 
 I grabbed him up under one arm and took his crutches 
 with my free hand. As we stepped from the car the 
 water was coming. I made my way up the hill toward 
 a church. The water swooped down on us and was 
 soon up to my knees. I told the cripple I could not 
 carry him further ; that we should both be lost. He 
 screamed to me again to save him, but the water was 
 gaining rapidly on us. He had a grip of my arm, but 
 finally let go, and I laid him, hopefully, on the wooden 
 steps of a house. I managed to reach the high land 
 just in time. I never saw the cripple afterwards, but 
 I learned that he was drowned." 
 A Great Loss. 
 A tall, heavily built man, with tattered garments, 
 walked along the platform with the help of a cane. 
 His face was covered with a beard, and his head was 
 bowed so that his chin almost touched his breast. One 
 foot was partially covered by a cut shoe, while on the 
 other foot he wore a boot from which the heel was 
 missing. This was Stephen Johns, a foreman at the 
 Johnson Steel Rail Works at Woodvale. He was a 
 big, strong man, but his whole frame trembled as he 
 said : ** Yes, I am from Johnstown. I lost my wife and 
 three children there, so I thought I would leave." 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 425 
 
 It was only by the greatest effort that Mr. Johns 
 kept the tears back. He then told his experience in 
 this way : ** I was all through the war. I was at Fair 
 Oaks, at Chancellorsville, in the Wilderness, and many 
 other battles, but never in my life was I in such a hot 
 place as I was on Friday night. I don't know how I 
 escaped, but here am I alone, wife and children gone. 
 I was at the office of the company on Friday. We 
 had been receiving telephonic messages all morning 
 that the dam was unsafe. No one heeded them. I 
 did not know anything about the dam. The book- 
 keeper said there was not enough water up there to 
 flood the first floor of the office. I thought he knew, 
 so I didn't send my family to the hills. 
 
 "I don't know what time it was in the afternoon 
 that I saw the flood coming down the valley. I was 
 standing at the gate. Looking up the valley I 
 saw a great white crowd moving down upon us. I 
 made a dash for home to try to get my wife and child- 
 ren to the hills. I saw them at the windows as I ran 
 up to the house. That is the last time I ever saw their 
 faces. No sooner had I got into the house than the 
 flood struck the building. I was forced into the attic. 
 It was a brick house with a slate roof. I had intended 
 to keep very cool, but I suppose I forgot all about 
 
 that. 
 
 STrept I>own the Stream. 
 
 ** It seemed a long time, but I suppose it was not 
 more than a second before the house gave way and 
 went tumbling down the stream. It turned over and 
 
426 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 over as it was washed along. 1 was under the water 
 as often as I was above it. I could hear my wife and 
 children praying, although I could not see them. I did 
 not pray. They were taken and I was left for some 
 purpose, I suppose. My house finally landed up 
 ,against the stone railway bridge. I was then pinned 
 down to the floor by a heavy rafter or something. 
 Somehow or other I was lifted from the floor and 
 thrown almost out upon the bridge. Then some peo- 
 ple got hold of me and pulled me out and took me 
 over to a brickyard. My eyes and nose were full of 
 cinders. After I reached the brickyard I vomited fully 
 a pint of cinders which I had swallowed while coming 
 through that awful stream of water. I can't tell you 
 what it was like. No one can understand it unless he 
 or she passed through it." 
 
 ** Did you find your wife and children ? " 
 " No. I searched for them all of Saturday, Sunday 
 and Monday, but could find no trace of them. I think 
 they must have been among those who perished in the 
 fire at the bridge. I would have staid there and 
 worked had it not been the place was so near my old 
 home that I could not stand it. I thought I would be 
 better off* away from there where I could not see any- 
 thing to recall that horrible sight." 
 
 How the Survivors Live. 
 With a view of showing the character of living in 
 and about Johnstown, how the people pass each day 
 and what the conveniences and deprivations of domes- 
 tic life experienced under the new order of things 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 427 
 
 SO suddenly Introduced by the flood are, an Investigation 
 of a house-to-house nature was made to-day. As a 
 result, It was noted that the degrees of comfort varied 
 with the people as the types of human nature. As 
 remarked by a visitor: 
 
 ''The calamity has served to bring to the surface 
 every phase of character In man, and to bring into 
 development traits that had before been but dormant. 
 Generally speaking all are on the same footing so far 
 as need can be concerned. Whether houses remain 
 to them or not, all the people have to be fed, for even 
 should they have money, cash Is of no account, pro- 
 visions cannot be bought ; people who still have homes 
 nearly all of them furnish quarters for some of the 
 visitors. Militia officers, committeemen, workmen, 
 &c., must depend upon the supply stations for food/' 
 At Prospect. 
 
 The best preserved borough adjoining Johnstown is 
 Prospect, with its uniformly built gray houses, rising 
 tier upon tier against the side of the mountain, at the 
 north of Johnstown. There are In the neighborhood 
 of 150 homes here, and all look as if but one architect 
 designed them. They are large, broad gabled, two- 
 story affairs, with comfortable porches, extending all 
 the way across the front, each being divided by an 
 interior partition, so as to accommodate two families. 
 The situation overlooked the entire shoe-shaped dis- 
 trict, heretofore described. 
 
 Nearly every householder in Prospect Is feeding not 
 only his own family, but from two to ten others, whom 
 
428 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 he has welcomed to share what he has. Said one of 
 these ** We are all obliged to go to the general depart- 
 ment for supplies, for we could not live otherwise. 
 Our houses have not been touched, but we have given 
 away nearly everything in the way of clothing, except 
 what we have on. There were two little stores up 
 here, but we purchased all they had long ago. It does 
 not matter whether the people are rich or poor, they 
 are all compelled to take their chances. In Prospect 
 are the quarters of the Americus Club, of Pittsburgh, 
 an organization which is widely spoken of as having 
 distinguished itself by furnishing meals to any and 
 every hungry person who applied." 
 An Incident. 
 As two newspaper men were about to descend the 
 hill, after visiting a number of points, a little woman 
 approached and made an inquiry about the running of 
 trains. She was one of the survivors and wished to 
 reach Clearfield, where her grown-up sons were. ''I'd 
 walk it if I could," she said, " but it's too far, and Fm 
 too old now." She was living with her friends, who 
 have taken care of her since her home was swept 
 
 away. 
 
 A Distributingr Point. 
 
 At the base of the long flight of wooden steps that 
 lead to Prospect is the path extending across to the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad station. Here is one of the 
 principal distributing points. Three times each day 
 a remarkable sight is here to be witnessed. Along 
 the track at the eastern end, from the station platform 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 429 
 
 back as far as the freight house, standing upon railroad 
 ties, resting upon piles of lumber, and trying to hold 
 their places in the line of succession In any position 
 possible, crowds of people wait to be served. Aged, 
 decrepid men and women and little girls and boys hold 
 baskets, boxes, tin cans, wooden buckets, or any recep- 
 tacle handy In which they may carry off provlsons for 
 
 the day. 
 
 Sad Sigrbts. 
 
 The women have, many of them, tattered or Ill-fitting 
 clothing, taken at random when the first supply of 
 this character arrived, their heads covered with thin 
 shawls or calico sun shades. They stand there In the 
 chilly morning wind that blows through the valley 
 along the mountains, patiently waiting their turn at 
 the provision table, making no complaint of cold feet 
 and chilled bodies. In the line are people who, ten 
 days ago, had sufficient of this world's goods to enable 
 them to live comfortably the remainder of their lives. 
 They are massed In solidly. 
 
 Guards of soldiers stand at short intervals to keep 
 them back and preserve the lines, and sentries march 
 up and down the entire length of the station challeng- 
 ing the approach of any one who desires to pass along 
 the platform. For a distance of about one hundred 
 feet to the railroad signal tower are piled barrels of 
 flour, boxes of provisions, and supplies of all descrip- 
 tions. Under the shed of the station an incongruous 
 collection of clothing Is being arranged to allow of 
 con vCi? lent distribution. While they waited for the 
 
430 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 signal to commence operations, a guard entered into 
 conversation with a woman in the line. She was evi- 
 dently telling a story of distress, for the guard looked 
 about hastily to a spot where canned meats and bread 
 were located and made a movement as if to obtain a 
 supply for the woman, but the eyes of brother soldiers 
 and a superior officer were upon him and he again 
 assumed his position. It is said to be not unusual for 
 the soldiers, under cover of dusk, to overstep their 
 duty in order to serve some applicant who, through 
 age or lack of physical strength, is poorly equipped to 
 bear the strain. All sorts of provisions are asked for. 
 One woman asks boldly for ham, canned chicken, 
 vegetables and flour. Another approaches timidly 
 and would be glad to have a few loaves of bread and 
 
 a little coffee. 
 
 No Discrimination. 
 
 Before complete system was introduced complaint 
 was made of discrimination by those dealing out sup- 
 plies, but under the present order of things the 
 endeavor is made to treat everybody impartially. 
 Provisions are given out in order, so that imposition 
 is avoided. It would seem that there could be no im- 
 position in any case, however. The people who are 
 here, and who are able to get within the lines at all, 
 have a reason for their presence, and this is not 
 curiosity. They are here for anything but entertain- 
 ment, and there is no possibility of purchasing sup- 
 plies. All must needs apply at the commissary de» 
 partment 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 431 
 
 A big distributing point for clothing is at the Bal- 
 timore and Ohio Railroad station, in the Fourth Ward, 
 known as Harpville, on the east bank of the Stony 
 creek. A rudely constructed platform extends over a 
 washed-out ditch, partially filled with debris. In the 
 vicinity is a large barn and several smaller outhouses, 
 thrown in a tumble-down condition. Piled against 
 them are beams* and rafters from houses smashed into 
 kindling wood. All about the station are boxes, 
 empty and full, scattered in confusion, and around and 
 about these crowds are clustered as best they can. A 
 big policeman stands upon a raised platform made of 
 small boxes, and as he is supplied with goods from 
 the station he throws about in the crowds socks, 
 shoes, dresses, shirts, pantaloons, etc., guessing as 
 rapidly as possible at proportion and speedily getting 
 rid of his bundle. Around the corner, on a street 
 running at right angles with the tracks, is the pro- 
 vision department. These two are sample stations. 
 They are scattered about at convenient points, and 
 number about ten in all 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 One Week: After thie Great Disaster 
 
 By slow degrees and painful labor the barren place 
 where Johnstown stood begins again to look a little 
 like the habitations of a civilized community. Daily a 
 little is added to the cleared space once filled with the 
 concrete rubbish of this town, daily the number of 
 willing workers who are helping the town to rise 
 again increases. To-day the great yellow plain which 
 was filled with the best business blocks and resi- 
 dences before the flood is covered with tents for sol- 
 diers and laborers and gangs of men at work. The 
 wrecks are being removed or burned up. Those 
 houses which were left only partially destroyed are 
 beginning to be repaired. Still, it will be months, 
 very likely years, before the pathway of the flood 
 ceases to be perfectly plain through the town. Its 
 boundaries are as plainly marked now as if drawn on 
 a map ; where the flood went it left its ineffaceable 
 track. Nearly one-half of the triangle in which 
 Johnstown stood is plainly marked, one angle of the 
 triangle pointing to the east and directly up the Cone- 
 mau^h Valley, from which the flood descended. Its 
 eastern side was formed by the line of the river. 
 The second angle pointed toward the big stone arch 
 bridge, which played such an important part in the 
 
 (432) 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 433 
 
 tragedy. The western ran along the base of the 
 mountain on the bank of Stony Creek, and the third 
 angle was toward Stony Creek Valley. 
 
 JVIiles of Building's in the Wreck. 
 
 Imagine that before the flood this triangle was thickly 
 covered with houses. The lower or northern part was 
 filled with solid business blocks, the upper or southern 
 half with residences, for the most part built of wood. 
 Picture this triangle as a mile and a half in its greatest 
 length and three-quarters of a mile in its greatest 
 breadth. This was the way Johnstown was ten days 
 ago. Now imagine that in the lower half of this 
 triangle, where the business blocks were, every object 
 has been utterly swept away with the exception of 
 perhaps seven scattered buildings. In their places is 
 nothing but sand and heaps of debris. Imagine that 
 in the upper portion of this triangle the pathway of 
 destruction has been clearly cut. Along the pathway 
 houses have been torn to pieces, turned upside down, 
 laid upon their sides or twisted on their foundations. 
 Put into the open space on the lower end of the tri- 
 angle the tents and the fires of burning rubbish and 
 you will have the picture of Johnstown to-day. 
 Unh-eeded Warnings. 
 
 The people had been warned enough about the 
 dangers of their location. They had been told again 
 and again that the dam was unsafe, and whenever the 
 freshets were out there were stories and rumors of its 
 probable breaking. The freshets had been high for 
 many days before that fatal Friday All the creeks 
 
434 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 were over their banks and their waters were running 
 on the streets. Cellars and pavements were flooded. 
 Reports from the dam showed that It was holding 
 back more water than at any other time in Its hlstory-o 
 A telegraph despatch early in the afternoon gave 
 startling Information about the cracks in the dam, but 
 it was the old story of the wolf. They had heard it so 
 often that they heard it this time and did not care. 
 
 The first warning that the people had of their coming 
 doom was the roar of the advancing wave. It rushed 
 out of the valley at four o'clock 'In the afternoon with 
 incredible swiftness. Those who saw It and are still 
 alive say that It seemed to be as high as an ordinary 
 house. It carried In Its front an immense amount of 
 battered wreckage, and over it hung a cloud of what 
 seemed to be fog, but was the dust from the buildings 
 it had destroyed. Straight across the river it rushed 
 upon the apex of the triangle. It struck the first 
 houses and swept them away in fragments. The cries 
 and shrieks of the frightened people began to be 
 heard above the roar of the floods, and a few steps 
 further the great wave struck some unusually solid 
 structure. Its force right in the centre was already 
 diminished. On these houses it split and the greater 
 part of it went on diagonally across the triangle, 
 deflecting somewhat toward the north and so on down 
 to the stone arch bridge. 
 
 NotMngr Could Witlistand the Flood, 
 
 Wherever it went the houses tumbled down as if 
 they were built of cards. It was not alone the great 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 435 
 
 volume of water, but the Immense revolving mass of 
 lumber It carried, that gave It an additional and terrific 
 force, and houses, five bridges, railroad trains, boilers 
 and factories were whirling furiously about. What 
 could stand against such an Instrument of destruction 
 as this ? It swept the triangle as clean as a board. It 
 tore up pavements. It dug out railroad tracks, and 
 twisted them Into strange and fantastic shapes. It car- 
 ried with It thousands of human beings, crushing them 
 against the fragments, an'd drove their bodies Into the 
 thick mass of mud and sand which It carried at the 
 bottom. It went on and on straight as an arrow, and 
 piled masses of all It had gathered against and over 
 the solid arches of the stone bridge. The bridge sus- 
 tained the shock. How It did it engineers who have 
 seen the effects and the marvellous strength of the 
 flood in other places wonder. An immense raft of 
 houses and lumber and tree^ and rubbish of every 
 kind, acres in extent, collected here. 
 Roasted in tiie Debris. 
 
 In these houses were Imprisoned people still alive, 
 in numbers estimated at two or three thousand, tossed 
 about In the whirling flood which was turned Into 
 strange eddies by the obstruction It had met. In 
 some way not explained a fire broke out. 
 
 The frame structures packed In closely together 
 were like so much tinder wood. Those v/ho had es- 
 caped drowning died in their prisons a more horrible 
 death. 
 
 While this was going on that part of the divided 
 
436 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Stream which turned to the south continued on its 
 way. At first its violence was undiminished, but as it 
 went on the incHnatlon of the land and the obstacles it 
 met somewhat broke its force. It swept across the 
 triangle, inclining toward the south, and was turned 
 still further in that direction by the bed of Stony 
 Creek, at the foot of the mountain which forms the 
 western barrier of the basin in which Johnstown lies. 
 Its course is plainly visible now, as it was two hours 
 afterward. Where it started everything is cleared 
 away. 
 
 A little further along the houses are still standing, 
 but they are only masses of lumber and laths. Still 
 further to the north they are overturned or lying upon 
 their sides or corners, some curiously battered and as 
 full of great holes as if they had been shot at with can- 
 non. They are surrounded by driftwood and timbers, 
 ground into splinters, railroad cars, ties and beams, 
 all in a wild, untraceable jumble. 
 
 The wave reached to the north at least a distance of 
 a mile from the point where it was divided. Then it 
 swept backward. It carried with it many houses that 
 had come from every part of the river. 
 
 At the Mercy of the Waves. 
 
 Upon them and upon flooded roofs and doors and 
 timbers were men, women and children crying, be- 
 seeching and praying for help. Those on the shore 
 who were watching this never to be forgotten spectacle 
 saw the sufferers in the river go sweeping by, saw 
 diem come down again and still were unable to 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 437 
 
 give them the slightest assistance. The flood pro- 
 ceeded half a mile or more, and then was met and re 
 inforced by a wave started backward from the eddy- 
 formed at the stone arch bridge. With redoubled 
 force it turned once more to the south and then it went 
 half a mile further, toppling over the houses, wrecking 
 some and adding some to those which it had brought 
 down from other places. For the second time it spent 
 its force and turned back, swept to the south and to 
 destruction those who had four times been within sight 
 of safety. This time the whole mass of flooded wreck- 
 age was carried down to the stone arch bridge and 
 added to the collection there and at last to the fire that 
 was raging. 
 
 Hundreds Will Never Be Found. 
 The blackened timber left from this fire, wedged in 
 tightly above the bridge, is the only gorge at which 
 workmen have labored all this week with dynamite 
 and monstrous cranes. In It and below it are unnum- 
 bered hundreds of bodies. How many perished in 
 that frightful fire will never be known. Only a small 
 proportion of the bodies can ever be found. Some 
 were burned so that nothing but a handful of ashes 
 remained, and that was swept away long ago with the 
 torrent. Some were buried deep in the sand, and 
 some have been carried down and hidden in sand 
 banks and slews. Many will be destroyed by dyna- 
 mite, and some will have disappeared long before the 
 great flood of rubbish can bs removed. Of all the 
 horrible features of this dreadful story none is more 
 
438 THE JOHNSTOWN HORI^OK, 
 
 heartrending than the story of that fire. It began 
 about five o'clock that afternoon and weri<- on all night 
 and all the next day, and smouldered until Monday 
 noon. Its progress was retarded somev/hat by the 
 rain and by the soaking of the material in the water, 
 but this was only an added horror, for it prolonged 
 the anguish for those imprisoned in the great raft who 
 plainly saw their approaching death. 
 
 Those who saw this sight from the shore cannot 
 speak of it now and will hardly be able to speak of it 
 as long as they live without tears. Imagination could 
 not picture a situation more harrowing to human feel- 
 ing than to stand there and watch that horrible scene 
 without being able to rescue the prisoners or even 
 alleviate their sufferings. 
 
 Kuins L.eft to Tell tlie Tale. 
 
 Just below the stone bridge are the great works of 
 the Cambria Iron Company. They occupy the east- 
 ern bank of the stream for a distance of half a mile. 
 The flood, tearing over the bridge,, descended upon 
 these works and tore the southernmost end of them to 
 pieces. The rest of the buildings escaped, but none 
 of the works were swept away in the torrent. An 
 iron bridge used jointly by the public and by the iron 
 company to transport its coal from the mines across 
 the river was caught by the very front of the flood and 
 tossed away as if built of toothpicks. 
 
 Looking from the stone arch bridge, the iron com- 
 pany's buildings, the lower town school house, three 
 of the buildings which divided the flood, a church. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 439 
 
 part of a brick residence and a little cluster of brick 
 business houses, is all that can be seen above the 
 yellow waste. Why these buildings are left It is im- 
 possible to say. The school house, except for most of 
 the windows being battered In and the scars and dents 
 driven into it from the passing wreckage, Is almost un- 
 injured, although it stands directly in the centre of the 
 flood. 
 
 LiOcomotives Swinmiiiig' iii the Torrent, 
 
 It Is plain from the appearance of the buildings that 
 the direction of the flood in many places was rotary, 
 and the houses which still stand may have escaped 
 between the eddies. No other explanation seems 
 possible, for the force of the torrent was tremendous. 
 It carried five lomotlves, with their tenders, several 
 miles, and piled them up against the stone bridge as 
 easily as it carried a box of clothespins. At the head 
 of the iron company's works was a great pile of iron 
 in pieces eight feet long and a foot and a half thick 
 either way. The flood toppled these over. In the 
 half charred raft above the bridge are found great 
 boilers, masses of Iron, twisted beams and girders 
 from bridges, heavy safes, pieces of railroad track, a 
 hundred car wheels, mixed with every conceivable 
 object of household use — pianos, sofas, dressing cases, 
 crockery, trunks and their contents. 
 
 Yet in all that mass it is impossible to find any 
 trace of that pile of bricks built into the business 
 houses of the town ; nor yet upon the banks, nor in 
 the heaps of sand which, when the flood went down, 
 
440 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 were left here and there, Is there any trace of the 
 material of the building except the lumber. In the 
 opinion of experts, all this stuff must have been 
 ground Into powder and swept down the river. Johns- 
 town will never resume its former importance. A 
 curse will hang over this beautiful valley as long as 
 this generation lasts. The sanitary experts who have 
 examined the place say that in all probability it will be 
 plague ridden for years and years. 
 
 Decomposing^ Bodies in tlie Wreck* 
 
 The massive stone bridge of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road, opposite the Cambria Iron Works, marks the 
 point of demarcation between the borough of Johns- 
 town and that of Cambria City. The changes In the 
 situation which have occurred since the eventful Fri- 
 day have not been numerous. The wreckage Impacted 
 beneath the arches has been removed from three of 
 them, leaving four, which are closed by masses of tim- 
 ber and drift material. I climbed over the debris In 
 the famous cul-de-sac and reached the second from the 
 Johnstown side after half an hour's labor. The ap- 
 pearance was singular. Beneath the conglomeration 
 of timber which filled the cavity of the arch to a dis- 
 tance of twenty-five feet from the top the waters of the 
 Conemaugh flowed swiftly. 
 
 There was a network of telegraph wires, iron rods 
 and metal work of Pullman cars stretched across from 
 stone work to stone work on either side. The gridiron, 
 as It were, penetrated far down Into the water, and It had 
 proved sufficiently strong to resist the onward rush of 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 441 
 
 the lighter flotsam which swept before the onrolling 
 wave. Lodged in this strange pile was the body of a 
 horse. Deep among the meshes a terrible spectacle 
 presented itself. There were the bodies of three peo- 
 ple — a woman, a child and a laborer with hobnailed 
 shoes. They were beyond ' the reach of the workers 
 who are clearing the wreck near to the bridge and the 
 latter will be unable to reach the corpses until a con- 
 siderable amount of blasting with dynamite has been 
 done. There was a faint odor of decomposition and 
 another day will cause the vicinity of the viaduct to 
 suggest a charnel house to the olfactory senses. There 
 are many other bodies, no doubt, beneath the debris 
 and prevented from floating down the stream by the 
 ruins. 
 
 Cambria City Paralyzed. 
 
 Conemaugh City was connected with the Cambria 
 Iron Works, on the opposite side of the Conemaugh, 
 by a temporary suspension bridge of steel wire. 
 The bridge was originally for two railways — a narrow 
 and a broad gauge — and a footway. It was swept 
 away before the reservoir burst, according to all ac- 
 counts. Cambria City, or rather a fringe of houses 
 along the higher ground of the bank, the remaining 
 portion of a once prosperous town, is absolutely par- 
 alyzed by the stunning blow which has befallen it. 
 There are but few people at work among the debris. 
 The clean sweep of the flood left little wreckage 
 behind. A few sad-faced women wandered about and 
 poked in the sand and among the broken stone which 
 
442 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 now covers the location of their former homes. The 
 men who were saved have returned to their work at 
 the Cambria mills, and the survivors among their 
 families are stowed in the houses which remain intact. 
 There must have been at least one thousand lives lost 
 from Cambria City. 
 
 I'here has been no attempt to replace the bridge at 
 "Ten Acre," as the point below Cambria City is 
 called. The banks of the Conemaugh remain covered 
 with debris. In many places the masses are piled 
 twenty-five feet high. The people are clearing their 
 land by burning the unwonted accumulations. Only 
 an occasional body is found. Most of the 200 corpses 
 which have been buried at Nineveh were found in the 
 bushes which fringe the river. All the way to Free- 
 port the accumulation of debris may be seen. 
 Kindly Care for the Helpless. 
 
 There is to-day no lack of supplies, save at Cambria 
 City, which has been overlooked and neglected, but 
 where the destitution is great. The people there are 
 in great want of food. Bread has given out, and ham 
 is about the only food to be obtained. In only one of 
 the wrecked houses left untouched by the flood I 
 found from twenty to twenty-five refugees. The com- 
 missary at the Pennsylvania Railroad depot is heaped 
 so high with stores that distribution goes on with 
 difficulty. The Grubbtown commissary is in the same 
 condition. The Red Cross people got fairly to work 
 in their supply tent to-day, and during the morning 
 alone distributed five hundred packages of clothing. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 443 
 
 Their hospital on the hill, back of Kernville, is in ex- 
 cellent order, and the patients quartered in the village 
 houses are comfortably situated. There have been 
 no deaths at the Cambria hospital. The doctors there 
 have cared for 500 cases indoors and out. Even 
 Grandma Teeter is doing well. She was taken out of 
 the wreck at the bridge on Saturday with her right 
 arm crushed. It had to be amputated, and the old 
 woman — she is eighty-three years of age — stood the 
 operation finely. 
 
 Miss Hinckley, of Philadelphia, is busy In Kernville 
 making known the plans of the Children's Aid Society. 
 She does an immense amount of running about and 
 visiting houses. Many children made orphans by the 
 flood are now being cared for. There are a hundred 
 or more of them ; just how many no one knows. 
 
 '4 have great difficulty," said Miss Hinckley to me 
 to-day, "to persuade the people who have taken 
 children to care for that our society can be trusted to 
 take charge of what will surely be a burden to them. 
 All my work now is to Inspire confidence. We have 
 received hundreds of letters from people anxious to 
 adopt children. They are ready now In the first flush 
 of sympathy, but I am afraid that they will not be will- 
 ing to take the children when we are ready to place 
 them.." 
 
 Many Dead Still in the Ruins. 
 
 The ruins still shelter a ghastly load of dead. 
 Every hour at least one new body is uncovered and 
 borne on a rough stretcher to some one of the many 
 
444 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 morgues. The sight loses none of its sadness and 
 pathos by its commonness ; only the horror is gone, 
 giving place to apathy and stupor. Stalwart men, in 
 mud-stained, working clothes, bring up the body, the 
 face covered with a cloth. The crowds part and gaze 
 Bt the burned corpse as it passes. At the morgue it 
 is examined for identification, washed and prepared 
 for burial. Not more than half of these recovered 
 now are identified. 
 
 The vast majority fill nameless but numbered 
 graves, and the descriptions are much too indefinite 
 to hope for identification after burial. What can you 
 expect from a description like this, picked out at 
 random : " Woman, five feet four inches tall, long 
 hair?" The body of Eugene Hannon, twenty-two, 
 found yesterday near the First Presbyterian Church, 
 was identified to-day by his father. He was a member 
 of the League of American Wheelmen, and his bicy- 
 cle was found within a few yards of his body. The 
 father will lay the wrecked bicycle on the cofiin of his 
 son. 
 
 Just now a woman, still young and poorly dressed, 
 went by the shed where I am writing, sobbing most 
 pitifully. She lost her husband and children in the 
 flood and is on the verge of insanity. 
 
 Finding- Solace in Work. 
 
 The day opened with heavy rain and an early morn- 
 ing thunder storm. The hill-side streams were filled 
 to the banks and everything was dripping. The air 
 was chilly and damp, and daylight was slow in coming 
 
THE JOHNSTOUN HORROR. 445 
 
 to this valley of desolation and death. At an early 
 hour the valley, where so many have gone to rest, pre- 
 sented a most dismal scene. It looked, indeed, like 
 the valley of the dead. Nothing was m^oving, and all 
 remained within the meagre shelter offered them till 
 the day had fairly begun. As the day advanced, the 
 tented hills began to show signs of life, smoke arose 
 from many a camp fire, and on every eminence sur- 
 rounding this valley of desolation could be seen the 
 guards moving among the tented villages. 
 
 The weather was most unpleasant for any one to be 
 outdoors, but It apparently had no effect on the people 
 here, for as soon as the early breakfast was over the 
 thousands of workmen could be seen going to their 
 work, and soon the whole valley that in the early 
 morning hours was asleep was a teeming throng of 
 life and activity. While the rain was far from pleasant 
 to the workers and many helpers, It was certainly 
 providential that the cool weather is continuing in 
 order to prevent the much-dreaded decomposition of 
 the hundreds of human bodies yet unrecovered and the 
 thousands of animals that perished in the flood. The 
 air this morning, while tainted to some extent with the 
 fumes arising from the decaying bodies, was not near 
 so bad as it would have been had the morning been 
 hot and sultry. 
 
 Workings on the Stone Bridge Debris. 
 
 By seven o'clock the whole valley was full of peo- 
 ple and the scene was a most animated one. The 
 various sections of the flooded territory were full of 
 
446 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 men busy in searching for the dead, removing and 
 burning the debris, At eight o'clock this morning 
 five bodies had been taken from the mass at the 
 stone bridge. . A large force of men have been vi^ork- 
 ing all day on this part of the vi^reck, but so great is 
 the quantity of wreckage to be gone over and re* 
 moved that while much work is done very slow pro- 
 gress is being made. The continted falling of the 
 river renders the removal of the debris every day 
 more arduous, and where a few days ago the timbers 
 when loosened would float away, now they have 
 to be moved by hand, making the work very slow. 
 
 A most welcome arrival this morning was Dr. B. 
 Bullen of disinfectant fame. He broueht with him 
 fifty barrels more of his disinfectant. The doctor will 
 take charge of the disinfecting of the dangerous sec- 
 tions of the flooded district and notably at the stone 
 bridge. Twenty-five barrels have already been used 
 with most favorable results. Dr. Bullen was a former 
 resident of Johnstown and lost thirty relatives in the 
 flood, among them three brothers-in-law, three uncles 
 and two aunts. 
 
 Cleariiigf tlie Cambria IroR Works. 
 
 The Cambria Iron Company's Works presented a 
 busy scene to-day. At least nine hundred men are at 
 work, and most rapid progress Is being made In clear- 
 ing away the wreck. It is said that the works will 
 start up in about three weeks. 
 
 There is littie change In the situation. Every one 
 is working with the one end In view, to clear away the 
 
THE JOHNSTO\VN HORROR. 447 
 
 wreckage and give the people of Johnstown a chance 
 to rebuild. The laborers working at the Cambria Iron 
 Works and on the Pennsylvania Railroad seem to be 
 making rapid progress. This is no doubt for the rea=- 
 son that these men are more used to this kind of work. 
 About ten o'clock the rain was over and the sun came 
 out with its fierce June heat. ' 
 
 A number of charges of dynamite were fired during 
 the day, and each time with good effect. The chan- 
 nels through to the bridge are almost clear of debris, 
 and each charge of dynamite has loosened large quan- 
 tities of the wreckage. 
 
 This is the eighth day since the demon of destruc- 
 tion swept down the valley of the Conemaugh, but the 
 desolation that marks its angry flight is still visible in 
 all its intensity and horror. The days that have been 
 spent by weary tollers whose efforts were steeled by 
 grief have done little to repair the devastation wrought 
 in one short hour by the potent fury of the elements. 
 To the watchers on the mountain side all seems yet 
 chaos and confusion. The thousand fires that spot the 
 valley show that the torch is being used to complete 
 the work of annihilation where repair is impossible 
 and the smoke curls upward. It reminds one of the 
 peace offerings of ancient Babylon. 
 
 Uncle Sam's Men on Hand. 
 
 The corps of government engineers that arrived 
 last night has already demonstrated the valuable 
 assistance which it is capable of rendering in these 
 times of emergency. With but a few hours rest, those 
 
448 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 men were up ere sunrise this morning, and by eight 
 o'clock a pontoon bridge had been stretched across 
 the river at Kernvllle. Acting in conjunction with the 
 Pennsylvania military authorities they are pursuing 
 their labors at various other points, and by sundown it 
 is confidently expected that pontoon bridges will be 
 erected at all places where the necessities of traffic de 
 mand. It is the fact, probably not generally known, 
 that the great government of the United States owns 
 only 500 feet of pontoon bridges, and that these are 
 the same that were used by the federal forces in the 
 civil war, twenty-five years ago. The bridges that are 
 to be used at Johnstown were brought from West 
 Point and Willet's Point, where they have been for 
 years used in the ordinary course of Instruction in the 
 military and engineer corps. 
 
 Secret Society Relief. 
 
 The following official announcements have been 
 made : 
 
 A Masonic relief committee has been organized and 
 solicits aid for distressed Freemasons and their 
 families. 
 
 William A. Donaldson, Chairman. 
 
 Office of Supreme Commander, Knights of the 
 Mystic Chain, Wilmington, Del., June 8, 1889. — In 
 view of the great calamity that has befallen our 
 brothers at Johnstbwn,'Pa., and vicinity, I, H. G. Rettes, 
 Supreme Commander, request that wherever the 
 Order of the Knights of the Mystic Chain exists there 
 be liberal donations made for our afflicted brothers. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 449 
 
 Affairs at the tremendous stone bridge wreckage pile 
 seem to have resolved themselves into a state of almost 
 hopelessness. It is amazing the routine into which 
 everything has fallen in this particular place. Every 
 morning at seven o'clock a score of Lilllputs come 
 mechanically from huts and tents or the bare hill-side, 
 and wearily and weakly go to work clearing away this 
 mass, and at the rate they are now proceeding it will 
 actually be months before the debris is cleared away 
 and the last body found. Fortunately the wind is 
 blowing away from us or we would have olfactory evi- 
 dence that what is not found is far worse than what 
 has been exposed. 
 
 Then it may be good business and good policy to 
 have these few workers fool around the edge of the 
 wreckage for five or ten minutes adjusting a dynamite 
 blast, then hastily scramble away and consume as 
 much more time before a tremendous roar announces 
 the ugly work is done, but the onlookers doubt it. 
 Sometimes, when an extra large shot is used, the 
 water, bits of wood and iron, and other shapes more 
 fearfully suggestive, fly directly upward in a solid 
 column at least three hundred feet high, only to fall 
 back again in almost the same spot, to be tugged and 
 pulled at or coaxed to float down an unwilling current 
 that is falling so rapidly now that even this poor 
 mode of egress will soon be shut entirely off. 
 
 The fact of the matter is simply this : They are not 
 attempting to recover bodies at the bridge, but as one 
 blast tears yards of stuff into flinders it is shoved 
 29 
 
4fyO THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 indifferently into the water, be it human or brute, 
 stone, wood or iron, to float down toward Pittsburgh 
 or to sink to the bottom, may be a few yards from 
 where it was pushed off from the main pile. 
 
 Up in the centre of the town the debris is piled even 
 higher than at the stone bridge, but the work is going 
 on fairly well. The men seem to be working more 
 together and enter into the spirit of the thing. Besides 
 this, horses and wagons can get at the wrecks, and it 
 really looks as if this part of the ruins has been exag^ 
 gerated, and some of the foremen there say that at the 
 present rate of work going on through the town all the 
 bodies that ever will be recovered will be found within 
 the next ten days. As to the condition these bodies 
 are in, that has become almost a matter of indiffer- 
 ence, except as to the effect upon the health of the 
 
 Eving. 
 
 Compared witli other Calamities. 
 
 An eye-witness writes as follows : 
 
 The scene is one that cannot be described in out- 
 line — it must be told in detail to become intelligible. 
 Never before in this country, at least, was there a dis- 
 aster so stupendous, so overwhelming, so terrible in 
 its fierce and unheralded onset and so sorrowful in its 
 death-dealing work. I traversed the Mill River Val- 
 ley the day after the bursting of the Mill River dam. 
 I went over Wallingford, in Connecticut, a few hours 
 after that terrible cyclone had swept through the 
 beautiful New England village. I stood on the broken 
 walls of the Brooklyn Theatre and looked down upon 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 461 
 
 heca^tombs of dead sacrificed in that holocaust to Mo- 
 mus. Each of these was in itself a terrible calamity, 
 but here is not only what was most terrible in all 
 these, but every horrifying feature of the Mill River 
 flood, the Wallingford cyclone and the Brooklyn 
 Theatre fire is here magnified tenfold, nay, a hundred 
 fold. And what is even more terrible than the scenes 
 of devastation, the piles of dead that have been 
 unearthed from the ruins and the mangled human 
 bodies that still remain buried in the debris, is the 
 simple but starding fact that this disaster ought not to 
 have happened. 
 
 The flood was not due to the rains. This calamity 
 is not the work of the unprovoked fury of the angry 
 elements. This fair town and the populous valley 
 above it, all the varied industries of this thriving city, 
 all these precious lives are a sacrifice to the selfishness 
 of a few men whose purses were bigger than their 
 hearts. There would have been no flood if these rich 
 men had not built an artificial pond in which to catch 
 fish. 
 
 The now famous dam was only a mud bank. For 
 years it was a constant menace to Johnstown and the 
 Conemaugh Valley. It has long been only a question 
 of time when the calamity that has befallen these peo- 
 ple should befall them. It came at last because the 
 arrogance of the purse and the pleasure-seeking selfish- 
 ness of wealth were blind to the safety of a populous 
 community. 
 
 The cause of the Johnstown disaster was wholly due 
 
452 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 to the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. This 
 club was specially chartered by the Legislature, and 
 notwithstanding there was some opposition at the time, 
 it was accorded the privilege of making an artificial 
 lake and fish pond by means of an embankment. The 
 site chosen was the old dam on South Fork Creek, 
 about two miles above the village of South Fork, on 
 the Conemaugh river. This dam was built by the 
 Pennsylvania Canal in 1830 as a feeder to the canal 
 below Johnstown. When the canal was finally aban- 
 doned, after passing into the hands of the Pennsylva- 
 nia Railroad Company, the dam was sold to a private 
 buyer for the very reasonable sum of $700. By him 
 it was afterwards conveyed to the Fishing and Hunt- 
 ing Club for $1,400. This v/as about twenty years 
 ago. The club spent $22,000 in rebuilding the dam 
 and erected a beautiful club house on the west bank 
 of the artificial lake. Beside the club house there are 
 from twelve to fifteen cottages, the summer residences 
 of members of the club, all built since the acquisition 
 of the property twenty years ago. Ten of these cot- 
 tages are visible from the embankment where the 
 break occurred. It was a beautiful spot before the 
 disaster, but this artificial lake in its placid beauty was 
 a menace to the lives and property of the people in 
 the Conemaugh Valley from its completion to its 
 destruction. 
 
 The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was a 
 very aristocratic and exclusive organization. Not 
 even Tuxedo puts on more airs. It was composed of 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 453 
 
 about seventy members, a baker'^ dozen of them 
 Pittsburgh milh'onaires. 
 
 These wealthy gentlemen and their associates never 
 so much as recognized the existence of the common 
 clay of South Fork, except to warn all intruders to 
 keep off the land and water of the South Fork Fish- 
 ing and Hunting Club. Their placards still stare 
 sight-*eers in the face. One of these reads : 
 
 Private Property. 
 
 All Trespassers Found Hunting or Fishing on 
 
 These Grounds will be Prosecuted to thb 
 
 Full Extent of the Law. 
 
 Another is as follows : 
 
 Private Property. 
 No Fishing or Hunting on these Premises, Un- 
 der Penalty of the Law, ^100. 
 South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club. 
 Only an Earthwork. 
 Strenuously as the club insisted upon exacting the 
 fnll penalties and extent of the law for encroachments 
 upon its privileges, it was quite heedless of the rights 
 of others. There probably never was in the world a 
 case of such blind fatuity as that of the South Fork 
 Fishing and Hunting Club in building and maintaining 
 its dam. From the first it must have been known to 
 every member of the club, as it certainly was to every 
 resident of the South Fork and Conemaugh Valleys, 
 that if the water ever began to run over the breast of 
 the dam the dam itself would give way. The dam 
 
464 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 was only a clay embankment. There was no masonry 
 whatever — at least there is none visible in the break. 
 The bottom was of brushwood and earth^ — some 
 people in the South Fork valley say hay and sand. 
 In consequence, the people below the dam who knew 
 how it was built have always regarded it as a menace 
 to their safety. Indeed, one man employed in its con- 
 struction was discharged by the club or its contractor 
 for protesting against the dam as insecure. His crime 
 consisted in declaring that an embankment made in 
 that way could not resist the force of an overflow. 
 He was telling the simple truth, which was cle?r to 
 every one except men disposed to take chances. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 A Walk TbLroiigln the Valley of Deathi. 
 
 In the following graphic narrative one of the eye- 
 witnesses of the fearful ruin and slaughter represents 
 himself as a guide, and if the reader will consider him- 
 self as the party whom the guide is conducting, a vivid 
 impression of the scene of the great destruction may 
 be obtained. 
 
 " Hello, where on earth did you come from ? And 
 what are you doing here, anyhow ? Oh ! you just 
 dropped in to see the sights, eh? Well, there are 
 plenty of them and you won't see the like of them 
 again if you live a century. What's that ? You have 
 been wandering around and got tangled up in the 
 ruins and don't know where you are ? Well, that's 
 not strange. I have been lost myself a dozen times. 
 It's a wonder you haven't got roasted by some of those 
 huge bonfires. But here, you come with me. Let me 
 be your guide for the afternoon and I'll put you in 
 the way of seeing what is left of Johnstown. 
 
 " First, let's climb up this bluff just before us and we 
 shall have a first-rate view of things. Skip across this 
 little temporary bridge over this babbling brook and 
 now— climb ! Whew ! that takes your breath, doesn't 
 it ? But it is worth the trouble. Now you see we are 
 standing on an embankment perhaps thirty feet high. 
 
 (455) 
 
456 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 We are in the midst, too, of a lot of tents. It is here 
 that the soldier boys are encamped. Off to one side 
 you see the freight depot of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road and the tracks, you notice, run along on the top 
 of this embankment. It is in that freight depot that 
 Adjutant General Hastings has his headquarters. 
 We will walk over there presently, but first let's take 
 a look at our surroundings. 
 
 Prospect Hill. 
 
 "You notice, I suppose, that this flat spreading out 
 before us at the bottom of the embankment is inclosed 
 on all sides by mountains. They are shaped some- 
 thing like a triangle and we are standing at the base. 
 Here, let me make a rough sketch of it on the back of 
 this envelope. It will help us out a little. There ! That 
 figure I is the freight depot, near which we are stand- 
 ing. Towering up above us are houses and up there a 
 canvas city for refugees. There is a temporary hos- 
 pital there, too, and a graveyard, where many a poor 
 victim of the flood lies. The background is a high hill. 
 The people here call it Prospect Hill. The flood ! 
 Gracious ! what a view the people up the hill must 
 have had of it as it whirled, and eddied, and roared 
 and rushed through the town, for this great flat before 
 us Y/as where the main portion of Johnstown stood. 
 
 **You notice that there are gaps in the mountain 
 chains which form the sides of the triangle. Through 
 the gap at our left comes the Conemaugh River, flow- 
 ing from the mountain on its way westward. River, 
 did I say? I don't wonder you smile. It doesn't look 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 457 
 
 much like a river— that little bubbling stream. Can 
 you imagine it swelling into a mighty sea, that puny 
 thing, that is smiling in its glee over the awful havoc 
 it has created ? Now you are beginning to under- 
 
 stand how it is that Johnstown proper lies within the 
 forks of two streams. The Conemaugh runs by us at 
 our feet to the right. See, there is a wrecked and over- 
 turned car down there. If thrown across the stream 
 it would almost bridge it That is Stony Creek on the 
 
458 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Other side of the flat, running down through that gap 
 which forms the apex of the triangle. It skirts the 
 mountains on the right and the two streams meet 
 You can't see the meeting point from here, for our 
 embankment curves, but they do meet around that 
 curve, and then the united rivers flow under the now 
 famous stone bridge, which was built to carry this rail- 
 road across the stream. Oh ! yes, we will go down 
 there, for that bridge formed the gorge which proved 
 so destructive. 
 
 Savage Fury. 
 
 " I would like to take you away up to the dam if 
 we had time and point out the destruction all along 
 down the valley until the flood rushed through that 
 gap to the left and then spread over Johnstown. But 
 it is too late in the day for that, and the walk is a most 
 tiresome one, so you will have to take my word for it. 
 Of course, you have read that the dam was con- 
 structed in a most outrageous manner. Well, that is 
 true. It is a wonder the valley wasn't swept long ago. 
 No, the loss of life wasn't great in the upper part of 
 the valley because the people took the warning ivhich 
 the Johnstonians refused and mostly escaped. The 
 little town of South Fork was badly shattered and 
 Mineral Point was swept away. 
 
 "But the real fury of the flood is seen in its marks 
 on the soil. Gracious ! how it leveled forests, swept 
 away bowlders, cut out new channels and destroyed 
 everything in Its path. I cannot begin to give you 
 even an idea of the wonderful power of that flood- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 4$9 
 
 At East Conemaugh not a vestige of the place was 
 left. Where once stood a row of houses the river 
 now runs, and the former river-bed is now filled with 
 dirt and stones. It was in this vicinity, you know, 
 where so many engines and cars were wrecked — 
 smashed, twisted, broken and scattered along the 
 valley for half a mile. It was here, too, where the 
 passengers in the two trains met such a thrilling ex- 
 perience, and where so many of them were killed. 
 The body of one of the passengers. Miss Bryan, of 
 Germantown, was found away down here in Johns- 
 town. 
 
 ** It took but a few minutes for the flood to rush down 
 upon Woodvale and sweep it out of existence, and 
 then it made a mad break through that gap over there 
 on the extreme left. The houses which you see on the 
 hillside over there — figure 6 — belong to Conemaugh 
 borough, a different place from East Conemaugh, you 
 understand. The borough also extended down over 
 the flat. By the way, there is something very funny 
 about all these separate boroughs. Most all of them 
 are naturally parts of Johnstown — ^^such as Cone- 
 maugh, Kernville, Cambria City, Prospect and the 
 like, but there have been so many petty jealousies 
 that they have refused to unite. But that is neither 
 here nor there now, for in the common calamity they 
 
 are one. 
 
 Liaugrlimg: at Danger. 
 
 ''Now you would have thought that the people on the 
 Johnstown flat would have got out of the way when 
 
460 -rHE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 warned of danger, wouldn't you? But they simply 
 laughed. You must remember that a good portion of 
 the place was flooded long before the dam broke. The 
 rise of the two rivers did that. The water ran from 
 two to five or six feet high in some of the houses. But 
 bless you, that was nothing. The place had been 
 flooded so many times and escaped that everybody ac 
 tually howled down all suggestions of danger. Tele- 
 grams had been coming into town all the afternoon 
 and they were received by Miss Ogle, the brave lady 
 operator, who stuck to her post to the last, but they 
 might as well never have been sent for all the good 
 they did. 
 
 '* Well, now with Johnstown spread out before you 
 you can readily understand what happened when the 
 flood burst through the gap. There was no time to 
 run then. No time to pray, even. You notice the 
 river makes a sharp curve, and naturally enough the 
 impetus of the water spread it over a wide ^territory. 
 The Conemaugh houses on the flat went down like so 
 many pasteboard houses. A portion of the flood fol- 
 lowed the stream and the other portion went tearing 
 along the line of the hills which form the left side of 
 
 the triangle. 
 
 Wiped Out of Existence. 
 
 "Now look away over to the left and then away over 
 to the hills on the right, and what do you see ? That 
 distance is how great ? Two miles, do you say ? 
 Yes, fully that and probably more. Well, now for 
 two or three squares inland from this stream at our 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR.. 461 
 
 feet there is nothing but a barren waste of sand-— 
 looks like a desert, doesn't it ? Can you imagine that 
 all that immense strip was covered with stores, 
 business houses and dwellings ? Where are they 
 now? Why, just look at that circular hole just be- 
 neath us on the other side of the stream. That was 
 the gas works once. The great iron receiver, or 
 whatever you call it, went rolling, dashing, crashing 
 away before the flood, and not a vestige of it has been 
 found yet. Can you ask, then, what became of the 
 houses ? Simply wiped out of existence. 
 
 ** There ! I put down the figure 2 on the map.-- It is 
 a brick building, as you see, but there is a big hole 
 knocked In it. That is the B. and O. depot. Figure 
 3 — Two more brick buildings with one end completely 
 gone. These are the Cambria Iron Company's offices 
 and the company's stores. What else can you see? 
 Just around the curve where I mark down figure 4 Is 
 another brick building — the Millvale school-house. It 
 is out of range from this point, but you shall see it by 
 and by. These buildings are actually the only ones 
 left standing In all that desert of sand, a covering four 
 or five feet deep left by the flood and hiding whatever 
 is underneath as effectually as the ashes of Mt. Vesu- 
 vius blotted out Pompeii. There may be a thousand 
 bodies under that sand for all that anybody knows. 
 Just ahead of us in the great area roughly shown by 
 this figure 5 lie the tents of the workmen engaged in 
 putting Johnstown in order. Now, if you draw a line 
 from the Conemaugh hills right down back of the B. 
 
462 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 and O. depot through the camp of the workmen, and 
 thence to Stony Creek, the only buildings you will 
 find standing between us and that imaginary line are 
 these I have already marked with figures as 2, 3 and 4 
 on the map. Did you ever see anything so destruc* 
 tive in your life ? 
 
 A Famous Morg^ue. 
 
 "You say you see a good many buildings in what 
 appears to be the centre of the town. So you do, but 
 just wait until you stroll among them. There are 
 many there, it is true, but after all, how many are 
 good for anything ? Oh ! the water has been doing a 
 tremendous amount of damage. Why, over there, up 
 to the very foot of the hills— I will mark the spot No. 
 7^ — behind the buildings which you see, it has simply 
 torn things up by the roots. That is the Fourth ward, 
 and the ruins are full of the dead, and the Fourth 
 Ward Morgue has had more bodies in it than any of 
 the others. 
 
 **You remember that I told you that one current 
 swept over that way. It caught up houses and they 
 began to drift all over the place, crashing into each 
 other and grinding people between the timbers. All 
 this time the houses down here by the Conemaugh 
 had been floating toward the bridge. Logs, boards, 
 lumber and houses from the banks of Stony Creek 
 had been coming down, too, and thus formed that 
 tremendous jam above the stone bridge, which ac- 
 tually turned the current of the creek back upon 
 itself. Some of the houses from the centre of the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 408 
 
 eity and from the Fourth ward got into Stony Creek 
 and actually went up the stream. Others floated all 
 over town in circles and finally, having reached the 
 Conemaugh, got caught in the jam at last and were 
 destroyed by the fire which broke out there. After a 
 
 SELLING DAMAGED GOODS. 
 
 time, too, the pressure at the bridge became so tre- 
 mendous that the river burst a new channel for itself 
 and then many houses came down again. 
 
 "But I am anticipating. Let us walk down to the 
 bridge — ^it is not far — for the bridge is the key to the 
 
464 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 situation. We must pass the freight depot, for we 
 follow the track. You see It Is a busy place. You 
 know we have had a change of administration here, 
 and Adjutant General Hastings is In command. We 
 are all heartily glad of It, too, for the worst kind of 
 red tapeism prevailed under the Pittsburgh regime. 
 
 ** And then the deputies — a lot of brutes appointed 
 by the Sheriff. What an Ignorant set they were. 
 Most of them couldn't even read. They were the 
 only toughs In town. They had captured all the 
 tomato cans left over from the great flood which the 
 Bible tells about and had cut out tin stars to decorate 
 themselves with. Anybody who could find a piece 
 of tin could be a deputy. And how they did bull- 
 doze. 
 
 " But all this is changed now. The deputies — we 
 called them the tin policemen — have been bounced and 
 the place Is now guarded by the soldiers. Business 
 has taken the place of red tape, and General Hastings 
 has turned the freight depot into offices for his various 
 departments, for a system has been established which 
 will reach all the victims, bury all the dead, discover 
 all the living and clean up the town. There Is now a 
 central bureau, Into which reports are turned, and the 
 old haphazard way of doing things has been swept as 
 dean as the sand before us. There Is General Has- 
 tings' horse standing at the steps, for the general Is 
 in the saddle most of the time, here, there, everywhere, 
 directing and ordering. 
 
 "Dinner ! hello, dinner is ready. Now you will see 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 4G5 
 
 how the officers at headquarters live. You see, the 
 table has been spread on the platform facing the rail- 
 road tracks. Ah ! there Is Hastings himself — white 
 slouch hat, white shirt, blue flannel trousers, and boots. 
 He looks every Inch a soldier, doesn't he ? There 1 
 he is beckoning to us. What do you suppose he 
 wants. Oh ! he wants us to dine with him. Shall v/e ? 
 It will be plain fare, but as good as can be found. A 
 dudish society reporter from Philadelphia dropped Into 
 town the other morning. He met a brother reporter 
 from the same paper. 
 
 " * Oh !' he groaned. * Where can I find a restau- 
 rant ? * 
 
 "'Restaurant!' shrieked the other. * Where do 
 you think we are ? Restaurant ! You come with me 
 and ril try to steal 3^ou a ham sandwich, and you'll be 
 mighty lucky to get that.' 
 
 *' * Oh ! but I am so hungry. Can you direct me to 
 the nearest hack stand ? ' 
 
 **The brother reporter turned and fled In dismay, and 
 the society man hasn't been seen around here since. 
 But it Illustrates the time the boys have been having 
 getting anything to eat. So w^e had better accept the 
 general's Invitation. What have we here ? Oh ! this 
 is fine. You don't mind tin plates and spoons anc 
 coftee cups, of course, especially as we have ham and 
 potatoes, bread and coffee for dinner. That's alright 
 good meal ; but I tell you I have eaten enough ham to 
 last me for a year, and when I get out of Johnstown 
 and get back to Philadelphia I am going to make a 
 
iQC) THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 break for the Bellevue and eat. And there wont 
 be any ham in that dinner, you can bet. 
 A Renowned Building", 
 
 " Now, have you had enough ? Then we will con* 
 tinue our walk along the tracks to the bridge. First 
 we pass the Pennsylvania Railroad passenger station. 
 What a busy place it is ! The tracks are filled with 
 freight cars packed with supplies, and the platform is 
 filled with men and women ready to take them. In 
 this station a temporary morgue was established. It 
 has been moved now to the school-house, No. 4, you 
 know, on the map. Now, as we round the curve you 
 see it. That is the famous building that saved so 
 many lives — the only one left in the great barren 
 waste of sand. You know the water formed an eddy 
 about it, and thus, as house after house floated and 
 circled about it men and women would clutch the roof 
 and climb upon it. The water reached half way to 
 the ceiling on the second floor on a dead level. 
 
 *' Now you can see where the two rivers come to- 
 gether. What a jam that was. It extended from the 
 fork down to the bridge — No. 10. When the flames 
 began to demolish it the pile towered far above the 
 bridge. Now it is level with the water, but so thickly 
 is it packed that the river runs beneath it. Let uf 
 stand here on the railroad embankment at the ap 
 proach, to the bridge, and watch the workmen. Y01 
 notice how high the approaches are on either side^ 
 and you can readily understand how these high banki* 
 caught the drift The stone arches of the bridge sxt 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 467 
 
 k>w, you perceive. When the flood was at its height 
 houses were actually swept over the bridge. From 
 the debris left in the river and on the sides you can 
 imagine what an immense dam it was that was formedj 
 and just how it happened that the rivers turned back 
 on themselves. I met a woman up Stony Creek early 
 this morning. She was laughing over the adventure 
 she and her children had. They floated down the 
 creek to the bridge and then floated back again, and 
 were finally rescued in boats. I asked her how she 
 could joke about it. 
 
 ** ' Oh V she said, *I am never bothered about any- 
 thing. I was as cool then as I am now, and rather 
 enjoyed it.' 
 
 '* But she wasn't very cool. She was bordering on 
 the hysterical. She and her children are now living 
 with friends, for their house was completely wrecked. 
 A Telegraph Office, 
 
 "A good many people had experiences similar to hers 
 before the river broke through the railroad embank- 
 ment just above the bridge here and swept tracks and 
 everything else down upon the Cambria Iron Works. 
 There they are, just behind us. I will mark them on 
 the map — No. ii. Then the flow rushed through 
 Cambria City, just below. That place is in a horrible 
 condition — houses wrecked and streets full of debris. 
 But there is no necessity of going there. You can 
 see all the horrors you want right here. 
 
 " Look across the bridge, up the hill a little way. Do 
 you see that old, tumble-down coal shed? It is where 
 
468 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 tlie Western Union established its office, and in tliat 
 neighborhood most of the reporters have been living 
 — sleeping in brick-kilns, hay lofts, tents, anywhere in 
 fact. What a nice time they have had of it. They 
 have suffered as much as the flood victims. 
 
 **Phew ! What a stench. It comes from the debris 
 in the river. It is full of the dead bodies of horses, 
 dogs ; yes, and of human beings. We hear stories 
 occasionally of women being taken from that mass 
 alive. They are false, of course, but there was one 
 instance that is authentic. A woman was found one 
 week after the flood still breathing. She had been 
 caught in some miraculous way. She was taken to 
 Pittsburgh, where she died. I was kicking about over 
 the debris a day or two ago, and heard a cat mewing 
 under the debris somewhere. I know half a dozen 
 people who have rescued kittens and are caring for 
 them tenderly. A flood cat will command a premium 
 before long, I have no doubt. 
 
 '' Ha ! What's that ? Yes, It Is a body. The sight 
 is so common now that people pay no attention to it. 
 We have been living in the midst of so much death, of 
 so many scenes of a similar character, that I suppose 
 the sensibilities have become hardened to them. 
 There, they are placing the body on a window shutter 
 and are carrying it up to the school house. It will be 
 laid on a board placed over the tops of the children's 
 desks. You will notice coffins piled up all about the 
 school house Of course, the body is awfully dis> 
 figured and cannot be identified. The clothing will be 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 469 
 
 described and the body hurried away to its nameless 
 grave. 
 
 Frag-ment of a Bible. 
 
 " Have you enough ? Then let us walk back toward 
 headquarters and go down upon the flat into the 
 centre of the town. What is that you have there ? A 
 piece of a Bible ? Yes, you will find lots of leaves 
 lying around. There is a story — I don't know how 
 true it is — that many people have thrown their Bibles 
 away^since the flood, declaring that their belief, after 
 the horrors they have witnessed, is at an end. I can 
 hardly credit this. But there is one curious thing that 
 is certain, and everybody has noticed it. Books and 
 Bibles have been found in the rubbish all over the 
 town, and in a great many instances they are open at 
 some passage calling attention to flood and disaster. 
 I have found these myself a dozen times. It is a re- 
 markable coincidence, to say the least. 
 
 ** Some people may find a warning in all this. I don't 
 pretend to say, but as we walk along here let me tell 
 you of a conversation I had with a man who was worth 
 nearly ^20,000 before the flood. He has lost every 
 cent, and is glad enough to get his daily meals from 
 the supplies sent here. 
 
 " ' I don't know what to think of Johnstown,' he said. 
 *We have been called a wicked place. Perhaps all 
 this is a judgment. Just when we have been most pros- 
 perous some calamity has come upon us. We were 
 never more prosperous than when this flood over* 
 whelmed us/ 
 
470 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 **WeII here we are back at General Hastings* head- 
 quarters. Now we will go down the embankment, 
 cross the river and plunge ahead into town. 
 
 ''Over this loose sand we will trudge and strike in by 
 the Baltimore and Ohio depot. Now we are in the 
 camp of the workingmen. Here are the stalls for the 
 horses, too. The men, you see, live in tents. There 
 are not as many of them as there will be ; probably 
 not over fifteen hundred to-day, but there will be twice 
 that to-morrow, and five thousand men will be em- 
 ployed here steadily for a long time to come. Now 
 let us jump right into Main street. It is the worst one 
 in town. Just see ! There is the post-office, looking 
 as if it never would be able to pull icself out of the 
 wreck. Across the street is the bank, with the sol- 
 diers guarding it. There, just ahead, you see a tall 
 brick building lifting its head out of the midst of a pile 
 of ruins. There is where many people were saved. 
 The current carried scores of men, women and chil- 
 dren past it, and those who had strength deserted 
 their rafts and wrecks of houses and crawled into its 
 windows. 
 
 " Now our progress is blocked. That immense pile 
 of wreckage is by no means as high as it was ; but 
 you don't want to crawl over it yet. Phew ! Let's get 
 out of this. How those piles of rubbish do smell. 
 You know the Board of Health says there is nothing 
 the matter with Johnstown, but if the Board of Health 
 would only take the trouble to nose about a bit it 
 might learn a thing or two. You notice there hav6 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 471 
 
 been grocery stores and markets around here, and 
 you notice, too, the pile of decaying vegetable matter 
 from them. These are worse than the dead bodies. 
 Horrible Scenes. 
 
 "Are there bodies under these ruins ? Lots of them. 
 There ! what do you see this minute ? Those work» 
 'men have discovered one in the ruins of the Mer- 
 chants' Hotel. Poor fellow. He was pinned by fall- 
 ing walls, probably. A man was found there the 
 other day with his pockets full of money. He had 
 tried to save his fortune and lost his life. Near by a 
 man was found alive after an experience of a week in 
 the debris. He called for water, but never drank it. 
 His tongue was too stiff, and he had not strength to 
 move a muscle. He died almost as soon as he was 
 found. 
 
 " Well, did you ever see such a mass of wreckage ? 
 It doesn't look as if there were twenty houses fit to 
 live in all over this flat. But a good many will be 
 patched up after a fashion, no doubt. And this is only 
 one street out of several in the same condition. 
 
 •* Hello 1 Those workmen are digging out of a cellar 
 some barrels of whisky. That liquor will be guarded, 
 for the old policemen and the 'tin' deputies have 
 been having high old times with the liquor they have 
 unearthed. There were formerly forty-five saloons in 
 this town. Do you know how many there are left ? 
 Three. That's all. One saloon-keeper found ^1,700 
 in the ruins of his place. 
 
 ** Gracious ! There is a freight car. It was cauglit 
 
472 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 up half a mile or more away and dumped down in 
 this street. And there is a piano sticking out. Hello ! 
 What have you found there ? Oh, a looking glass. 
 Yes, you find plenty of them in the rubbish almost as 
 good as new. A friend of mine pulled out a glass 
 pitcher and two goblets from that terrible mass at the 
 bridge, and there wasn't a crack upon them. Queer, 
 isn't it ? But so it goes. Fragile things are not 
 injured and stoves and iron are twisted and broken. 
 The vagaries of this flood are many. 
 
 " I Tlionght You Were I>ead." 
 ** Turn this corner. Now, will you look at that ? 
 There is a house with the back all knocked out. The 
 furniture has disappeared, but on the wall you see a 
 picture hanging, and as I am alive it is a picture of a 
 flood. What did I tell you a little while ago ? Here 
 is a house with its walls nearly intact. Next it is 
 nothing but a heap of rubbish. Here is nothing but a 
 cellar full of debris. Next it is a wooden dwelling. 
 A man sits on the piazza with his clothing hung about 
 him for an airing. And so it goes right here in the 
 neigborhood of the main street, but if we pull out a 
 bit from this place we shall see that the damage is a 
 great deal greater. Through this break you can see 
 the Presbyterian church. It is about ruined, but it 
 still stands. If you go up stairs, what do you think 
 you will see in that cold, dark, damp room ? Stretched 
 upon the tops of the pews are long boards, and 
 stretched upon the boards are corpses. They have 
 been embalmed, and are awaiting identification. But 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 473 
 
 we won*t go In there. All the morgues are alike, 
 and we shall find another before long. 
 
 " Hark ! There are two women greeting each 
 other. Let's hear what they say. 
 
 " * Why, Eliza, I thought you were dead. How*s aU 
 the folks ? Are they all saved ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes ; they are all saved — all but sister and her 
 litde girl.' 
 
 "Well, that was cool, wasn't it ? But you hear that 
 on every corner. As I told you, in the presence of so 
 much death the sensibilities are blunted. People do 
 not yet realize their great grief. 
 
 '* There, we are safely by the main street with its 
 dangers of pestilence, for you noticed that it was reek- 
 ing with filth and bad smells, and safely by the falling 
 walls, for the workmen are tearing down everything 
 shaky. Look out, there, or you will get scorched by 
 that huge bonfire. They are burning all over town. 
 Everything that the men can lift Is dragged to these 
 fires and burned. This Is the plan for clearing the 
 town. You noticed it at the bridge and you notice it 
 here. Men with axes and saws are cutting timbers 
 too big to be moved, and men with ropes and horses 
 and even stationary engines are pressed into service 
 to tug at the ruins. Slowly the debris is yielding to 
 the flames. 
 
 An Awful Sepulchre. 
 
 ** Ha 1 now we are getting over by the hills into what 
 is known as the Fourth ward. Here It is on our map 
 —No. 7. What a sight! Most of the bodies are 
 
474 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 taken from the ruins here. As far as you can see 
 there Is nothing but wreckage — yes, wreckage, from 
 which the foulest odors are continually rising and in 
 the midst of which countless big fires are burning. 
 Are you not almost discouraged at the idea of clearing 
 so many acres up ? Well, It does look like an end- 
 less task. 
 
 "There, you see that brick building? It is called the 
 Fourth Ward School House. Do you want to go In ? 
 Piled up at one side are coffins — little coffins, medium 
 sized coffins, large coffins — coffins for children, women 
 and men. Oh ! what a gloomy, horrible place. 
 Stretched on these boards in this dismal room — ^what 
 do you see? Corpses dragged from the river and 
 from the debris. See how distorted and swollen are 
 the faces. They are beyond recognition. Some have 
 great bruises. Some are covered with blood. Some 
 are black. Turn your head away. Such a sight you 
 never saw before and pray God that you may never 
 see it again. Nearly 250 bodies have been handled 
 in this school house. Outside once more for a breath 
 of air ! Oh ! the delightful change. But you are not 
 yet away from the horrors. There is a tent In the 
 school yard. What do you see ? More coffins. Yes, 
 and each one has a victim. Each is ready for ship- 
 ment or burial. 
 
 20,000 to he Fed. 
 
 "Let's hurry along. Here on this corner is the 
 temporary post-office. Over there is a supply station. 
 There are eleven such departments now under the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 47,5 
 
 new management, and people are given not only pro- 
 visions but clothing. You ought to see the women 
 coming down from the hills in the morning for the 
 supplies. Think of it ! There are at least twenty 
 thousand people in the flooded district to be fed for 
 many weeks to come. You know there has been 
 some comment because in the past all the money has 
 not been used for food. I think it is a mistake. 
 Where is charity to cease ? In my opinion, the thing 
 to do is to clean this town up, and give the business 
 men and mills a chance to start up again. When this 
 is done people can earn their own living, and charity 
 ceases. I am backed up in this statement by Irwin 
 Hurrell, who is a burgess of Johnstown, and knows 
 everybody. Let me read you something from my 
 note book that he said to me : 
 
 " 'The people up in the hills have never had a better 
 time. They won*t work. They go around and get 
 all the clothing they can and fill their houses with pro- 
 visions.' 
 
 Thieves and Idlers. 
 
 "The burgess speaks the exact truth. Some of 
 these houses are packed with flour and potatoes. 
 The Hungarians and colored men and the *' tin " 
 deputies, now out of a job, have been the real thieves. 
 They pulled trunks from the river, cut the locks and 
 rifled them. There have been no professional thieves 
 liere. The thieves live here. Most of the respectable 
 people were swept away by the flood, but nearly all 
 the " toughs " were left. Now if I had my way I 
 
476 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 would make the survivors work. Some one said the 
 other day : ' Why talk of sufferers ? there are no 
 sufferers. They are all dead.' This is true In a great 
 measure. It Is not chanty to keep In Idleness people 
 who have lost nothing and won't work. I'd hunt them 
 out and put them at It. 
 
 "Well, we will pass this supply depot, strike the 
 Baltimore and Ohio track, and go up Stony Creek 
 a bit. Notice the long lines of freight cars loaded 
 with supplies. On our right runs the little river. On 
 our left is Ward 7. I will note It as No. 8 on the map. 
 You see there is a little stretch of plateau and then 
 the ground rises rapidly. See what ravages the flood, 
 made on the plateau. The houses are wrecked and 
 filled with mud. The local name of this place Is Hor- 
 nertown. One man here had $60,000 In his house. It 
 was wrecked. He dug away at the ruins and found 
 $20,000. If we followed the stream up a mile or so 
 we would come to the Stonyvale Cemetery. It is 
 covered with logs and wrecks of houses. It was in 
 one of these houses that the body of a woman was 
 found last Saturday. She was sitting at a table. The 
 house had floated here on the back water from down 
 the river. 
 
 Red Cross Tents. 
 
 "There, I guess we have walked far enough. Here 
 are the tents of the Red Cross Society, and by the 
 side of them are those of the United States engineers. 
 The engineers have thrown a pontoon bridge over the 
 river, you see, to a place called Kernville. Here you 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. ;77 
 
 are, No. 9 on our little map. Let us cross. By 
 George ! there is an old man on the bridge I have seen 
 before. He lost his wife and two children in the flood, 
 but he isn't crying for them. What bothers him mos*3 
 is the loss of a clock, but in the clock was ^1,600. 
 
 " You see there is nothing new in Kernville. It Is 
 the same old story. Many lives have been lost here 
 and the wreckage is something awful. The houses 
 that remain are filled with mud and the ceilings still 
 drip with water. People seem to have lost their 
 senses. They are apparently paralyzed by their 
 troubles. They sit around waiting for some one to 
 come and clear the wreckage away. 
 
 ** Well, it is a terrible sight and we will hurry 
 through the place and cross to Johnstown flat, over 
 another pontoon bridge further down. It brings us 
 out, as you see, near the main street again. Hello 1 
 there Is a man ; there is his name on the sign — Kra- 
 mer, Isn't It ? who is getting his grocery store open, 
 the first in town. He was flooded, but carried some 
 of his goods to an upper floor and saved them. 
 Lucky Kramer ! Here is a man selling photographs 
 on the porch of a doctor's office. Dr. Brinkey. Oh, 
 yes, he was drowned. His body was found last Mon- 
 day. 
 
 " Well, we'll hurry by and get up to headquarters 
 once more. It is 6 o'clock. See, the workmen are 
 knocking off and are going to the river to wash up. 
 Now, out comes the baseball, for recreation always 
 follows work here. 
 
478 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 "Once more on the platform of the freight station. 
 Dusk settles down over the valley. An engine near 
 by begins to throb and electric lights spring np here 
 and there. All over the town the flames of the great 
 bonfires leap out of the gloom. From the camps of 
 the workmen come ribald songs and jests. The pres- 
 ence of death has no effect on the living. 
 
 "The songs gradually die aw^ay and the singers 
 drop off into a deep sleep. The town becomes as 
 silent as the graveyards which have been filled with its 
 victims. Not a sound is heard save the crackling of 
 the flames and the challenges of the sentries to some 
 belated newspaper man or straggler. 
 
 "And thus another day draws to a close in ill-fated 
 Johnstown." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A Day of Work: and Worstiip 
 
 Governor Beaver has assumed the command. He 
 arrived in Johnstown yesterday, the 8th, and will take 
 personal charge of the work of clearing the town and 
 river. For that purpose $1,000,000 from the State 
 Treasury will be made available immediately. This 
 action means that the State will clear and clean the 
 town. 
 
 It was a day of prayer but not a day of rest in 
 Johnstown. Faith and works went hand in hand. 
 The flood-smitten people of the Conemaugh, though 
 they met in the very path of the torrent that swept 
 their homes and families into ruin, offered up their 
 prayers to Almighty God and besought His divine 
 mercy. But all through the ruin-choked city the 
 sound of the pick and the shovel mingled with the 
 voice of prayer, and the challenge of the sentinel rang 
 out above the voice of supplication. There was no 
 cessation in the great task the flood has left them with 
 its leo-acy of woe. Four charges of dynamite last 
 night completed the wreck of the Catholic Church of 
 St. John, which had been left by the flood in a worth- 
 less but dangerous condition. 
 
 The thousands of laborers continued their work just 
 as on any week day, except that there was no dyna- 
 
 (479) ^ 
 
480 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 mite used on the gorge and that the Cambria Iron 
 Works were closed. There was the usual reward of 
 the gleaners in the harvest-field of death, fifty eight 
 bodies havlnor been recovered. The most of those 
 have been in Stony Creek, up which they were carried 
 by the back rush of the current after the bridge broke 
 the first wave. 
 
 Roman Catholic services were held In the open air. 
 Father Smith's Exhortation. 
 
 When the mass was over and Father Troutwine, who 
 conducted It, had retired, Father Smith stood before 
 them. *'We have had enough of death lately," he 
 said in a voice full of sympathy, " the calamity that has 
 visited us is the greatest in rhe history of the United 
 States. You must not be discouraged. Other places 
 have been visited by disaster at times, yet we know 
 that they have risen again. You must not look on the 
 fearful past. The lives of the lost cannot be re- 
 stored." 
 
 Here he paused because they were weeping around 
 him, and his own voice was broken, but continuing 
 with an effort, he told them to reflect for consolation 
 upon the manner In which their friends had gone to 
 death. They had looked to God, he said, and wafted 
 in prayers and acts of contrition, their souls had left 
 their bodies and appeared at the throne in heaven. 
 *' Surely never such prayers fell save from the lips of 
 saints, and the lost of the valley are saints to-day while 
 you mourn for them. God, who measures the acts of 
 men by their opportunities, had pardoned their sins. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 481 
 
 You who are left living must go to work with a will. 
 Be men, be women. The eyes of the world are upon 
 you, the eyes of all civilized nature. They listen, they 
 wait to see what you are going to do." 
 
 Father Smith closed by telling them that the coming 
 fast days of this week need not be observed in the. 
 midst of such destitution as this, and they might eat 
 without sinning any food that would give them life and 
 strength. When the father had finished the congrega- 
 tion filed slowly out past the high pile of coffins, for 
 St. Columba's was a morgue in the days just passed. 
 The Protestant Services. 
 
 Chaplain Maguire held service in the camp of the 
 14th to-day. His pulpit was a drygoods box with 
 the JId missing. It had been emptied of its freight 
 into the wide lap of suffering. Before him stood the 
 blue-coated guardsmen in a deep half circle. There 
 was a shed at his back and a group of flood survivors, 
 some in old clothing of their own, some in the new 
 garments of charity. They were for the most part 
 members of the Methodist congregation of Johnstow^o 
 to w^hich he had preached for three years. 
 
 •T hunted a long time yesterday for the foundations 
 of my little home," he said, **but they were swept 
 away, like the dear faces of the friends who used to 
 gather around my table. But God doesn't own this 
 side alone ; He owns the other side too, and all is well 
 whether we are on this side or the other. Are your 
 dear ones saved or lost ? The only answer to that 
 question is found in whether they trusted in God or 
 SI 
 
482 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 not. Trust in the Lord and verily ye shall dwell in the 
 land and be fed." 
 
 It was not a sermon. Nobody had words or voice 
 for preaching. Others spoke briefly and prayed. They 
 sang, ** Jesus, Lover of My Soul." 
 
 A Song: in the Waters. 
 
 The shrill treble of the weeping women in the shei 
 was almost lost in the strong bass of the soldiers. 
 ** Cora Moses, who used to-sing in our church choir, 
 sang that beautiful hymn as she drifted away to her 
 death amid the wreck," said the chaplain. **She died 
 singing it. There was only the crash of buildings 
 between the interruption of the song of earth and its 
 continuation in heaven." 
 
 Dr. Beale's Address. 
 
 Dr. Beale, whose own Presbyterian Church was one 
 of the first morgues opened and who has lived among 
 dead bodies ever since is the cheeriest man in Johns- 
 ICAvn. He made a prayer and an address. It was all 
 straight- from-the-shoulder kind of talk, garbed in 
 isomely phrase. 
 
 In the address he said : "I have been asked to say 
 something about this disaster and its magnitude, but I 
 haven't the heart. Besides I haven't the words. If I 
 U2LS the biggest truth teller in the world I could TK)t 
 rell the tale." 
 
 Then the preacher went hammer and tongs at the 
 practical teachings of the flood. "That night in Alma 
 Hal! when we thought we ,would all die I heard men 
 call on God in prayer and pledge themselves to lead 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 483 
 
 better lives if life was given them. Since then I heard 
 those same men cursing and swearing ni these streets. 
 Brethren, there was no real prayer In any of those 
 petitions put up by those of godless lives that night 
 They were merely cr^^Ing out to a higher power for 
 protection. They were like the death-bed fears of the 
 infidel, for I have seen seventeen infidels die and 
 Gveryone showed the white feather. Nay, those 
 prayers were unsanctified by the spirit, but let us who 
 are here now living, dedicate ourselves to the service 
 of Almighty God. There were those who were to be 
 dedicated that night. I know one who, when it came, 
 sent his family up the staircase, and taking up his 
 Bible from his parlor table, opened at the 46th 
 Psalm, first verse, and, following them, read, and the 
 waters followed him closely. And through the flood 
 he read the word of God and there was peace in that 
 bouse while terror was all around it. 
 
 Mothering tlie Orphans. 
 
 Dr. Beale announced that Miss Walk wanted twen- 
 ty-five children for the Northern Home and then be- 
 gan shaking hands with his congregation and pressing 
 on them the lessons of his sermon. "Ah, old friend,'* 
 he said, to a sandy moustached man in the grand army 
 uniform, ''You came safe out of the flood, now give 
 that big heart of yours to Jesi>s." 
 
 The Baptist congregation also held an open-air ser- 
 vice. The unfortunate Episcopal congregation Is quite 
 disorganized by the loss of their church and rector. 
 They held no service, yet in a hundred temporary 
 
484 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 houses of the homeless the beautiful old litany of the 
 faith was read by the devout churchmen. 
 The SoUliers' Sundaj . 
 
 Sunday brought to the soldiers of the 14th no rest 
 from the guards and police work which makes the 
 Johnstown tour of duty everything but holiday soldier 
 ing. Even those who were in camp fared no better 
 than those who were mounted guards over banks, 
 stores and supply trains, or driving unwilling Italians 
 to work down at Cambria City. There was no shade 
 nor a blade of grass in sight. The wreck of the city 
 was all their scenery, and the sun beat down upon 
 their tents till they were like ovens. They policed the 
 camp thoroughly, sweeping the bare ground until it 
 was as clean as a Dutch kitchen. The boys had heard 
 that Chaplain Maguire was to preach and they didn't 
 leave a straw or a chip in his way. 
 
 A Young" Guardsman's Suicide. 
 
 A sun-browned young soldier of C Company, 14th 
 Regiment, sat on the river bank in front of the camp 
 this afternoon and watched across the valley the fire- 
 scarred tower of the Catholic Church, blown to com- 
 plete ruin under the force of dynamite. After the 
 front had sunk into a brick heap, he arose, look- 
 ed down once at the sunny river and the groups of 
 many soldiers doing there week's washing at the foot 
 of the bank, and then strode slowly to his tent. A 
 moment later there seemed to be a lingering echo of 
 the fall of the tower in C Company's street. Captain 
 Nesbitt, dozing in his quarters, heard the sound and 
 
f4«5 
 
488 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 running in the direction of It found that Private 
 William B. Young, aged 28, of Oakdale, had placed 
 the muzzle of his rifle against his left temple and gone 
 to swell by one the interminable list of the Conemaugh 
 Valley's dead. 
 
 Despondency, caused by a slight Illness and doubt- 
 less intensified by a night's guard duty among the 
 gloomy ruins, Is the only known cause of the soldier's* 
 act. He had been somewhat blue for a day, but there 
 seemed to be no special weight upon his mind. His 
 brother-in-law, private Stimmler, of the same com- 
 pany, said that he was always despondent when ill, 
 but had never threatened or attempted his life. He 
 was a farmhand, and leaves a wife and two children. 
 The Dinner <* Shad " Jones Cooked. 
 
 The Sunday dinner was a great success. The bill 
 of fare was vegetable soup, cold ham, beans, canned 
 corn, pickled tripe and black coffee. It is worthy of 
 note that the table in the officers' quarters did not 
 have a delicacy upon it which was not shared by the 
 men. The commissary ran short and had to borrow 
 from the workmen's supplies. The dinner to-day was 
 cooked by '* Shad " Jones, a colored man known to 
 every traveling man who has ever stopped at Johns- 
 town for hls^ablllty to hold four eggs in his mouth and 
 swallow a drink of water without cracking a shell 
 He lost his wife in the flood and the 14th has adopted 
 him. . 
 
 On this, the ninth day, the waters began to give up 
 their dead. Stony Creek first showed their white 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 487 
 
 faces and lifeless bodies floating on the surface, and 
 men in skiffs went after them with their grappling 
 rods. Several of them were taken ashore during the 
 afternoon and carried to the Presbyterian Church 
 morgue, which was the nearest. Then, too, the dead 
 among the wreckage on shore came to light just the 
 same as on other days. Their exhumation excites no 
 notice here now. Dr. Beale, keeper of the records of 
 morgues, counted the numbers on his finger tips and 
 said there were more than fifty found to-day in Johns- 
 town alone. 
 
 In one dead man's pocket was ^3,133.62. He was 
 Christopher Kimble, an undertaker and finisher, who, 
 when he saw the water coming, rushed down stairs to 
 the safe to save his gold and there he was lost. 
 Several bodies were taken from the human raft 
 burned beyond all recognition. 
 
 The body of Miss Bessie Bryan, the young Phila- 
 delphian, w^as identified to-day as it lay in a coffin by a 
 grave from which it had been exhumed in Grand View 
 Cemetery. *' Returning home from a wedding in 
 Pittsburgh with her friend. Miss Paulsen, caught by 
 the flood on the day express, found dead and buried 
 twice," will be the brief record of her wild sad fate. 
 "Wiiiskey and Rioting-, 
 
 Lieutenant Wright, Company I, with a detail of 
 ninety-eight men, v/as called to the banks of Stony 
 Creek over the raft to-night, to protect the employees 
 of the Philadelphia Gas Company. There they found 
 a gang of rioters. The rioters this afternoon found a 
 
488 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 barrel of whiskey in the field of debris, and before the 
 militia could destroy it they had managed to take a 
 large quantity of it up on the mountain. To-night 
 they came down to the camp intoxicated, attacked the 
 cook, cleared the supper table and were managing 
 things ^ith a high hand when a messenger was des-, 
 patched for the guard. Before Lieutenant Wright's 
 men reached there they had escaped. The Beaver 
 Falls gang was surprised this afternoon by the militia, 
 and gallons of whiskey, which they had hidden, were 
 destroyed, A dozen saloons were swept into the 
 creek at the bridge, and it is supposed that a hundred 
 or more barrels are buried beneath the raft. 
 
 Among the most interesting relics of the flood is a 
 small gold locket found in the ruins of the Hurlbut 
 house yesterday. The locket contains a small coil of 
 dark brown hair, and has engraved on the inside the 
 following remarkable lines : *' Lock of George Wash- 
 ington's hair, cut in Philadelphia while on his way to 
 Yorktown, 1781." Mr. Benford, one of the proprie- 
 tors of the house, states that the locket was the 
 property of his sister, who was lost in the flood, and 
 was presented to her by an old lady in Philadelphia, 
 whose mother and herself cut the hair from the 
 bead of the " Father of His Country," 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 Kfilliona of Nloney for Johnstown. 
 
 Never before in our country has there been such a 
 magnificent exhibition of public sympathy and prac- 
 tical charity. As the occasion was the most urgent 
 ever known, so the response has been the greatest. 
 All classes have come to the rescue with a generosity, 
 a thoughtfulness and heartfelt pity sufficient to con- 
 vince the most stubborn misanthrope that religion is 
 not dead and charity has not, like the fabled gods of 
 Greece, forsaken the earth. 
 
 The following lln.es, cut from one of our popular 
 journal'j, apdy represents the public feeling, and th^ 
 warm sympathy that moved every heart : 
 
 I. 
 
 I stood with a mournful throng 
 
 On the brink of a gloomy grave, 
 In a valley where grief had found relief 
 
 On the breast of an angry wave I 
 I heard a tearful song 
 
 That told of an orphan's love — 
 Twas a song of woe from the valley belavi^ 
 
 To the Father of Heaven above ! 
 
 II. 
 
 *Twas the wail of two lonely waifs- 
 Two children who prayed for bread ! 
 
 *Twas a pitiful cry — a mournful sigh— 
 From the home of the silent dead ! 
 
 Twas a sad and soulful strain • 
 It made the teardrops start ; 
 
 *Twas an echo of pain — a weird refrain— 
 And a song that touched my heart. 
 (489) 
 
490 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 III. 
 Poor, fatherless, motherless waifs, 
 
 Come, dry your tearful eyes I 
 Not in vain, not in vain, have ye sung your reihdn; 
 
 It's ediQ has pierced the skies ! 
 The angels are watching you there, 
 
 For your " home ** is now above, 
 And your Father is He who forever shall be 
 
 A Father of infinite love 1 
 
 IV. 
 
 Blest be the noble throng, 
 
 With generous impulse stirred. 
 Who are bringing relief to the Valley of Grie( 
 
 Where the orphan's song was heard ! 
 Peace to them while they live. 
 
 Peace when their souls depart. 
 For a friend in need is a friend indeed 
 
 And a friend that reaches my heart ! 
 
 Among the first to start a fund for the sufferers was 
 the New York Herald, The following" is a specimen ol 
 the announcement made by that journal from day to day ; 
 
 Great interest is being taken in the Herald fund for 
 the Johnstown sufferers. In the city, employees of all 
 sorts of business houses, and of railroad, steamboat 
 and other companies, are striving to see who can 
 collect the most money. 
 
 In the country, ministers, little girls, school childrea 
 and busy workers are all collecting for the fund. It 
 is being boomed by rich and poor, far and near. 
 
 With the checks for hundreds of dollars yesterday 
 came this note, enclosing a dime : 
 
 '' New York, June a, 1889, 
 • Mr. Editor r 
 
 " 1 am a litde orphan girl I saved ten cents, it is 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 491 
 
 all I have, but I should like to send it to the sufferers 
 
 of the flood. 
 
 "Annie Abel." 
 
 Another letter written in a lady s hand read this 
 
 way: 
 
 "Brookyk. 
 
 *' Dear Herald : — 
 
 ** Enclosed please find $1.17 left by little Hame 
 Buckler In his purse when he died last September. 
 Also twenty-five cents from Albert Buckler and twen- 
 ty-five cents from Paul D. Buckler. Hoping their 
 mites will help to feed or clothe some little ones, I am, 
 with sympathy for the sufferers, 
 
 "S. A. B.'' 
 
 Felix Simonson, a twelve-year-old schoolboy, took 
 it into his head on Friday to go among his friends and 
 get help for the sufferers. Here is what he wrote on 
 the top of his subscription paper : 
 
 *'I am very sorry for the poor people who have lost 
 everything by the flood, and I am trying to collect 
 some money to send to them. Would you like to give 
 something to help them ? ** 
 
 How Felix succeded is shown by a collection of 
 ^30.15 the first day. 
 
 A large amount of clothing for men, women and 
 children is being sent to the Herald office, as well as 
 liberal contributions of money. 
 
 The same story was, in effect, repeated from day to 
 day. It only indicated what was going on throughout 
 the country ; in fact, throughout the world, London, 
 
492 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR, 
 
 Paris, and other European towns, were only a few 
 hours behind our American cities in starting funds for 
 relief. The enthusiasm with which these responses 
 were made is indicated by the following from one ol 
 the New York dailies : 
 
 Charity Ilunning' Kampant. 
 
 Everybody's business seems to be raising funds for 
 Pennsylvania. The Mayors office has been trans- 
 formed Into a counting room. More than a dozen 
 clerks are emj^loyed in acknowledging the receipt of 
 money for the Pennsylvania sufferers. A large num- 
 ber, many of them of the poorer class, bring their own 
 contributions. Up to noon ^145,257.18 had been 
 subscribed. This does not Include sums subscribed 
 but not paid in. All the city departments are ex- 
 pected to respond nobly. 
 
 The Executive Committee of the Conemaugh 
 Valley Relief Association met in the Governor's room 
 at the City Hall yesterday, with General W. T. Sher- 
 man in the chair. Treasurer J. Edward Simmons 
 announced that the fund In the Fourth National Bank 
 amounted to $145,000 and that Governor Beaver's 
 draft for $50,000 had been honored. John T. Crlm- 
 mlns reported that more than $70,000 had been re- 
 ceived at the Mayor's office during the morning. He 
 also reported that the Leake and Watts Orphan 
 Asylum had offered, through the Rev. Dr. Morgan 
 Dix, to take twenty-five of Johnstown's orphans, be- 
 tween the ages of five and twelve, and care for them 
 until they were sixteen and then provide them with 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 493 
 
 homes. H. C. Miner reported that many^packages of 
 clothing had been sent to Johnstown and that the 
 theatrical guild was arranging for benefit performances. 
 
 Under date of Paris, June 5th, the following despatch 
 conveyed intelligence of the gratifying response of 
 Americans in that city: 
 
 Duty Kobly Done. 
 
 A meeting of Americans was held to-day at the 
 United States Legation on a call in the morning 
 papers by Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the United States Min- 
 ister, to express the sympathy of the Americans in 
 Paris with the sufferers by the Johnstown calamity. 
 In spite of the short notice the rooms of the Legation 
 were densely packed, and many went away unable to 
 gain admittance. Mr. Reid was called to the chair 
 and Mr. Ernest Lambert was appointed secretary. 
 The following resolutions w^ere offered by Mr. Andrew 
 Carnegie and seconded by Mr. James N. Otis : 
 A Sympatlietic Message. 
 
 "Resolved, That v/e send across the Atlantic to our 
 brethren overwhelmed by the appalling disaster at 
 Johnstowm our most profound and heartfelt sympathy. 
 Over their lost ones we mourn with them, and in every 
 pang of all their misery we have our part. 
 
 " Resolved, That as American citizens we congratu- 
 late them upon and thank them for the numerous acts 
 of noble heroism displayed under circumstances cal- 
 culated to unnerve the bravest. Especially do we 
 honor and admire them for the capacity shown for 
 local self-government upon which the stc bility of 
 
494 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 republican institutions depends, the militar>^ organiza- 
 tions sent from distant points to preserve order during 
 the chaos that supervened having heen returned to 
 their homes as no longer required within forty-eight 
 hours of the calamity. In these few hours the civil 
 power recreated and asserted itself and resumed sway 
 without the aid of counsel from distant authorities, 
 but solely by and from the Inherent power which re- 
 mains in the people of Johnstown themselves.'* 
 
 Brief and touching speeches were made by General 
 Layton, late United States l^.Iinister to Austria ; Mr. 
 Abram S. Hewitt, General Meredith Read and others. 
 A Flow of I>ollars. 
 
 The resolutions were then unanimously adopted and 
 a committee was appointed to receive subscriptions. 
 About 40,ooof. were subscribed on the spot. The 
 American bankers all agreed to open subscriptions the 
 next day at their banking houses. "Buffalo Bill" 
 subscribed the entire receipts of one entertainment to 
 be given under the auspices of the commxittee. 
 
 As a sequel to the foregoing the following will be of 
 interest to the reader : 
 
 New York, June 17. — John Monroe <k Co. have 
 received cable instructions from United States Minis- 
 ter Reid, at Paris, to pay Messrs. Drexcl 81 Co., of 
 Philadelphia, an additional sum of $2,266. received 
 from the Treasurer of the Paris Johnstown Relief 
 Committee, Of this sum $1066 are the proceeds of a 
 special performance by the Wild West show, and with 
 the pn vious contribution from Paris makes a total of 
 $14,^6 >. 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR/ 495 
 
 The pathetic story of sympathy and generous aid 
 from every town and hamlet in the land can never be 
 told ; there is too much of it. 
 
 Philadelphia alone contrlbutea over a million dot 
 lars, and New York showed equal generosity. In 
 Philadelphia, it was not uncommon to see glass jars in 
 front of stores and at other places to receive con- 
 
 CONTRIBUIING TO THE RELIEF FUND IN PHILADELPHIA- 
 
 tributions from passers-by. In one of these an 
 unknown man deposited ^500 one day ; this is indica- 
 tive of the feeling pervading the whole community that 
 stricken Johnstown must not suffer for houses, cloth- 
 ing, nor bread. 
 
 So rapidly did gifts pour in that within eight days 
 after the disaster the following statement was mad« 
 from Harrisburg? 
 
496 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 The Governor's fund for the reh'ef of the survivors 
 of the flood In the Conemaugh Valley and other por- 
 tions of the State is assuming large proportions and 
 the disposition to contribute appears to be on the in- 
 crease. To-day letters and telegrams were received 
 requesting the Governor to draw for |i68, ooo addi- 
 tional, swelling the aggregate sum at his disposal to 
 about $3,000,000. Many of the remittances are ac- 
 companied w^Ith statements that more may be expected. 
 Governor Beaver telegraphed as follows from Johns- 
 town : 
 
 "The situation is simply indescribable. The people 
 have turned in with courage and heroism unparalleled. 
 A decided impression has been made on the debris. 
 The next week will do more, as they have many points 
 opened for work. Everything is very quiet. People 
 are returning to w^ork again and gaining courage and 
 hope as they return. There need be no fear of too 
 much being contributed for the reHef of the people. 
 There is a long, steady pull ahead requiring ever}'- 
 effort and determination on the part of the people here, 
 which is already assured, and the continued systematic 
 support and benefactions of this generous people." 
 Feeding^ tlie Hungary. 
 
 Three car loads of tents, enough to accommodate 
 four thousand people, were sent to Johnstown to-day 
 from the State arsenal at the request of General 
 Hastings. 
 
 The following special dispatch bears date of June 
 5th: 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 497 
 
 Car loads of provisions and clothing are arriving 
 hourly and being distributed. The cynic who said 
 that charity and gratitude were articles seldom to be 
 met with in Republics and among corporations would 
 have had ample reason afforded him to-day to alter his 
 warped philosophy several degrees had he been in this 
 erstwhile town and seen train after train hourly roll 
 ing in, on both the Baltimore and Ohio and the 
 Pennsylvania railroads, laden with clothing and pro- 
 visions from every point of the compass. Each tfain 
 bore messengers sent especially to distribute funds and 
 provisions and clothing, volunteer physicians in large 
 numbers, trained nurses and a corps of surgeons 
 equipped with all needed instruments and medicines. 
 Fortunately the latter are not needed. 
 
 Philadelphia's quota consists of clothes, boots, shoes, 
 cotton sheeting, hard breads, salt fish, canned goods, 
 etc., all of which will be gratefully received and supply 
 the most pressing needs of the stricken peoole. 
 Relief Systematized* 
 
 The relief work has been so systematized that there 
 is no danger of any confusion. At the several' dis- 
 tributing depots hundreds assemble morning, noon 
 and night, and, forming In line, are supplied with pro- 
 visions. Men and women with families are given 
 bread, butter, cheese, ham and canned meats, tea or 
 coffee and sugar, and unmarried applicants sliced 
 bread and butter or sandwiches. 
 
 The 900 army tents brought on by Adjutant- 
 General Axllne, of Ohio, have been divided, and two 
 S2 
 
498 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 fdiite-walled villages now afford shelter to nearly six 
 thousand homeless people. 
 
 At the Main Commissary. 
 
 At the Johnstown station, on the east side of the 
 fiver, everything is quiet, and considerable work is 
 being done. This is the chief commissary station, 
 and this morning by two o'lock 15,000 people were 
 fed and about six hundred families were furnished 
 with provisions. Five carloads of clothing were dis- 
 tributed, and now almost every one is provided with 
 clothing. 
 
 The good work done by the reliet committees in 
 caring for the destitute can never be fully told. It 
 was ready, generous and very successful. 
 
 The scenes at the distributing points through the 
 week have been most interesting. Monday and Tues- 
 day saw lines of men, women and children in the 
 scantiest of clothing, blue v/ith cold, unwashed and dis- 
 hevelled, so pitifully destitute a company as one would 
 wikh to see. Since the clothing cars have come the 
 people have assumed a more presentable appearance 
 and food has brought life back to them and warmth, 
 but their condition is still pitiful. The destitute ones 
 are almost altogether from the well-to-do people of 
 Johnstown, who have lost all and are as poor as the 
 
 poorest. 
 
 Altoona to tlie Rescue, 
 
 Altoona has been so hemmed in by floods and the 
 like, and her representatives have been so busy, that 
 they had but little to say of the prompt action and ex- 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 499 
 
 cellent work done by open-handed citizens of that 
 beautiful interior Pennsylvania city. Altoona first 
 became alarmed by the non-arrival and reported loss 
 of the day express east on the Pennsylvania Railroa<l 
 Friday afternoon. Soon the station was thronged 
 with an anxious crowd, and the excitement became 
 intense as the scant news came slowly in. Saturday 
 the anxiety was relieved by a telegram from Ebens- 
 burg, which a blundering telegraph operator made 
 "three hundred lost," instead of "three thousand." 
 That was soon corrected by later news, and the citi- 
 zens immediately were called upon to meet for 
 action. The Mayor presided, and at once $2,600 
 was subscribed and provisions offered. By three 
 o'clock that afternoon a car had been loaded and 
 started for Ebensburg, thirty-two miles away in 
 charge of a committee. At Ebensburg that evening 
 ten teams were secured after much trouble and the 
 supplies sent overland seventeen miles to the deso- 
 lated valley. The night was an awful one for the 
 committee in charge. The roads w^ere badly washed 
 and all but impassible. The hours dragged on. At 
 last, Sunday morning, the wagons drove into desolate 
 Conemaugh. There were no cheers to greet them 
 no cries of pleasure. The wretched sufferers were too 
 wretched, too dazed for that. They simply crowded 
 around the wagons, pitifully begging for bread or any- 
 thing to eat. 
 
 The committee report: "Impostors have not both- 
 ered us much, and, singular enough, the ones that 
 
500 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 hav^ were chiefly women, though to-day we sent away 
 a man who we thought came too frequently. Oh 
 questioning he owned up to having fifteen sacks of 
 flour and five hams in his house. On Tuesday we 
 began to keep a record of those who received sup- 
 plies, and we have given out supplies to fully 550 
 families, representing 2,500 homeless people. Our 
 district is only for one side of the river. On the other 
 is a commissary on Adams street, near the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Railway station, another at Kernville, a third 
 at Cambria City, a fourth ac Morrellville and a fifth at 
 Cambria. The people are very patient, though, of 
 course, in their present condition they are apt to be 
 
 querelous. 
 
 Wanted A Better Dress. 
 
 ** One woman who came for a dress indignantly re- 
 fused the one I offered her." 'I don't want that,' she 
 isaid. *I lost one that cost me $20, ^^15 for the clodi 
 and $5 for making, and I want a «5^20 dress. You said 
 you would make our losses good ;' and she did not 
 take the dress. 
 
 " A clergyman came to me and begged for anything 
 ill the shape of foot covering. I had nothing to give 
 him. Men stand about ready to work, but barefooted. 
 The clothing since the first day or two, when we got 
 only worn stuff*, fit only for bandages, has been good, 
 '.nd is now of excellent quality. Most of the chil- 
 dren's garments are outgrown clothes, good for much 
 service. Pittsburgh has sent from thirty to forty car 
 loads of supplies, all of good quality and available, and 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 501 
 
 in charge of local commissary men who had sense 
 enough to go home when they turned over their sup- 
 plies and did not stay and eat up the provisions they 
 brought. 
 
 Ohio's Timely Work. 
 
 " But above all, I want to praise the supplies sent by 
 r'le Ohio people in Cleveland and Columbus. These 
 cicies forwarded eight cars each. These were stocked 
 with beautiful stuff, wisely chosen, and were in charge 
 of Adjutant General Axline, sent by Governor Fora- 
 ker, who worked like a wise man." 
 
 Grave Mental Conditions. 
 
 The mental condition of almost every former res- 
 ident of Johnstown is one of the gravest character, 
 and the reaction which will set in when the reality of 
 the whole affair is fully comprehended can scarcely 
 fail to produce many cases of permanent or temporary 
 insanity. Most of the faces that one meets, both male 
 and female, are those of the most profound melan- 
 cholia, associated with an almost absolute disregard of 
 the future. The nervous system shows the strain it 
 has borne by a tremulousness of the hand and of the 
 lip in man as well as in woman. This nervous state is 
 further evidenced by a peculiar intonation of words, 
 the persons speaking mechanically, while the voices of 
 many rough looking men are changed into such trem- 
 ulous notes of so high a pitch as to make one imagine 
 that a child on the verge of tears is speaking. Crying 
 is so rare that I saw not a tear on any face in Johns* 
 town, but the women that are left are haggard, with 
 
502 i'HE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 pinched features and heavy, dark lines under theit 
 ^yes. Indeed the evidence of systemic disturbance is 
 so marked in almost every individual who was present 
 at the time of the catastrophe that it is possible with 
 the eye alone to separate the residents from those 
 outside. 
 
 Everything required in the way of surgical appli-? 
 ances seem to be on hand, but medicines are scarce, 
 and will probably be needed more in the next few 
 days than heretofore. 
 
 A fact in favor of the controlling of any malady is 
 to be found in the very general exodus of the town's 
 people, who crowd the platforms of departing trains. 
 There can be no doubt that this movement should be 
 encouraged to the greatest possible extent, and it 
 would be well if places away from Johnstown, at no 
 too great distance, could be opened for the reception 
 of those who, while not entirely disabled, are useless 
 at home. The scarcity of pure spring water which is 
 not tainted by dead animal matter is a pressing evil 
 for consideration, but we doubt if this is as important 
 a fact at Johnstown as it is further down the river, 
 owing to the large amount of decomposing flesh in the 
 water at this latter point. No disinfectant can reach 
 such a cause of disease save the action of the large 
 .volume of water which dilutes all poisonous materials./ 
 The Torch for Safety. 
 
 There is a strong movement on foot in favor of ap- 
 plying the torch to the wrecked buildings in Johns- 
 town, and although the suggestion meets with strong 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 503 
 
 Opposition at this time, there is little doubt the ultimate 
 solution of existing difficulties will be by this method. 
 An army of men have been for two days employed in 
 clearing up the wreck in the city proper, and although 
 hundreds of bodies have been discovered, not one- 
 fifth of the ground has yet been gone over. In many 
 places the rubbish is piled twent)' or thirty feet high, 
 and not infrequently these great drifts cover an area 
 of nearly an acre. Narrow passages have been cut 
 through in every direction, but the herculean labor of 
 removing the rubbish has yet hardly begun. 
 
 At a meeting of the Central Relief Committee this 
 afternoon General Hastings suggested the advisability 
 of drawing a cordon around the few houses that are 
 not in ruins and applying the torch to the remaining 
 great sea of waste. He explained briefly the great 
 work yet to be accomplished if it were hoped to 
 thoroughly overhaul every portion of the debris, and 
 insisted that it would take 5,000 men to complete 
 the task. Of the hundreds of bodies buried beneath 
 the rubbish, sand and stones, the skeleton or putrid 
 remains of many was all that could be hoped to be 
 recovered. 
 
 A motion was made that after forty-eight hours' 
 further search the debris of the city be consumed by 
 fire, the engines to be on hand to play upon any valu- 
 able building that despite previous precautions, might 
 become ignited by the general conflagration. This 
 motion was debated pro and con for nearly half an 
 hour. Those whose relatives or friends still rest be- 
 
504 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 neath the wreck remonstrated strongly against any 
 such summary action. They Insisted that all the talk 
 of threatened epidemic was only the sensation gossip 
 of fertile brains and that the search for the bodies 
 should only be abandoned as a last extremity. The 
 physicians in attendance warned the committee th; t 
 the further exposure of putrid bodies in the valley 
 could have but one result — the typhus or some other 
 epidemic equally fatal to its victims. It was a question 
 whether the living should be sacrificed to the dead, 
 or whether the sway of sentiment or the mandate of 
 science should be the ruling impulse. Although the 
 proposition to burn the wreck was defeated, it was 
 evident that the movement was gaining many adher- 
 ents, and the result will doubtless be that in a few 
 days the torch will be applied, not only to the field of 
 waste in Johnstown, but also to the avalanche of debris 
 that choU^ the stream above the Pennsylvania bridge. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 Order Out of ClnLaos, 
 
 The final acts In the great calamity, the horror 
 which wrung the heart of the world, can be briefly 
 told. 
 
 For many weeks the gigantic work of clearing away 
 the ruins went on. No person who has not been an 
 actual eye-witness of the awful havoc made by the 
 rush of waters, can conceive of the labor and effort 
 required to undo the devastation which presented its 
 ghastly memorials everywhere throughout the fated 
 valley. The flood was no respecter of places or build- 
 ings> Wherever there was a chance for a mad rush, 
 the rush came, and consequences were left to them- 
 selves. How little was the time required to blast and 
 destroy the fruits which patient industry had been 
 accumulating for years ! 
 
 Then came the very serious question, what could be 
 done to repair the almost infinite damage, restore the 
 homes of thousands who had suffered, and render 
 Johnstown and other places as fit for habitation as 
 they were before the dreadful disaster occurred? 
 Could those mountainous piles of rubbish ever be 
 cleared away? Could that immense mass of broken 
 houses and debris lodged at the bridge, within which 
 human beings were buried — no one could guess how 
 
 33 (505) 
 
506 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 many — ever be broken up ? Of course it was not ex- 
 pected that Johnstown would ever appear just as it did 
 before the flood. To reproduce a town that had been 
 swept away with such awful fury would be impossible ; 
 the only thing to be attempted was to prepare places 
 for new streets and buildings, and get ready to plant 
 a new town on the ruins of the one that once was. 
 
 The reader, however, will understand that a consid- 
 erable part of Johnstown remained, was not affected 
 by the flood to any serious extent, and looks now very 
 much as it did before the visitation came. 
 A Host of "\'l' orkmen. 
 
 As soon as the first terrible shock was over and the 
 extent of the calamity was known the whole country, 
 the State of Pennsylvania especially, sprang to the 
 rescue. There was money to pay the laborers, and 
 there were men ready to v/ork. Thousands were still 
 looking for their dead, and day after day wandered 
 aimlessly about, carrying a painful anxiety upon, their 
 faces, and an appearance of having been dazed and 
 stunned by some overwhelming disaster, but other 
 thousands who were not among the sufferers, coming 
 from places near and remote, were prepared for action, 
 and under the supervision of Gen. Hastings and va- 
 rious Relief Committees were set to work. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railroad Company re-opened its 
 regular office on June loth. Meanwhile the Company 
 put forth almost superhuman exertions to get its road 
 in repair. One of the most important arteries of travel 
 and freight transportation had been cut. One of the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 507 
 
 great belts binding the East and West together had 
 been broken. The flood occurred at a time which was 
 most unfortunate for the Company. The summer 
 travel was commencing, and it was important that the 
 road, so splendidly equipped, should be in good work- 
 ing order to meet the heavy demands. 
 
 Then, too, there were large manufacturing establish- 
 ments under written contract to furnish goods to their 
 customers on certain dates. The amount of business 
 that would be disarranged and trouble that would be 
 caused unless travel and traffic were immediately re- 
 sumed could not be computed nor even imagined. 
 Labor Kiglit and Day. 
 
 The Company Vv^as equal to the emergency, and in 
 an incredibly brief space of time the great highway 
 began to roar again with traffic. Temporary bridges 
 were constructed for the passage of trains until per- 
 manent ones could be built. An army of workmen 
 labored by day, and others, under electric lights, 
 worked at night. There was an interruption in the 
 operations of the road of only about a week's du- 
 ration. 
 
 The Cambria Iron Works, of which the reader has 
 heard so much, resumed operations on June loth. 
 Previous to this the company ordered two million feet 
 of lumber to build houses for its employees. Happily 
 the furnaces had suffered but little injury, and the 
 hundreds of laborers who had survived the flood and 
 reported for duty made short work of the ruins, and 
 speedily put the works in condition to begin opera- 
 
508 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR 
 
 tions. At once matters began to assume a more 
 hopeful aspect. This great concern had been a 
 heavy loser, but resolved to face the calamity bravely, 
 and such a resolve carried good cheer and hope 
 throughout the stricken district. 
 
 Doingrs of tlie Relief Committee. 
 
 Under date of June 17th, a newspaper correspon- 
 dent wrote as follows : 
 
 "The Relief Committee have decided to erect a 
 hundred portable houses to shelter the survivors as 
 soon as the buildings can be received from Chicago. 
 The houses will be twelve by twenty-six feet, and will 
 be large enough to accommodate six persons each. 
 Each house will be furnished with a stove and utensils, 
 six chairs, two beds and bedclothes, two spring mat- 
 tresses, one pair pillows, two pairs of sheets for each 
 bed, woolen blankets, a bureau, a table, and table-ware 
 to set it. In fact, a family will be given everything 
 necessary to go to housekeeping, and told to go 
 ahead and paddle their own canoe. The object is to 
 start the town on toward a rise from the ruins, but as 
 the town is yet in chaos, it is impossible to make per- 
 manent arrangments. The grade of the town may be 
 raised. If a man cannot find his own ground now, he 
 can set his house up anywhere, and move it on to his 
 land when it is found under the debris. If the houses 
 give satisfaction, the Committee will not stop at buying 
 a thousand of them, and building up the town. In 
 conjunction with this move at building up the ruined 
 city, General Hastings has purchased an immense 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 609 
 
 quanticy of lumber, and will next Tuesday begin 
 building shanty stores for those who will set up in 
 business again. Over a hundred have already made 
 application. 
 
 * 'Arrangements are now being made for the erection 
 of a lock-up, which Burgess Hovell says will be filled 
 as soon as completed with persons who have been 
 filling their houses with valuables from the wreckage. 
 Many citizens, who have hitherto been considered 
 honest, are known to have entered wrecked houses 
 and carried off valuables by the armful. As soon as the 
 Burgess can get his affairs straightened out, he says 
 he will issue search-warrants, and every house that is 
 suspected of containing booty will be turned wrong- 
 side up." 
 
 Tlie Governor at the Front. 
 
 Two days later the situation was thus described : 
 '' Governor Beaver and the Flood Commission arrived 
 here just before noon, and, accompanied by General 
 Hastings, made a tour of the devastated district on 
 horseback, dining afterward at headquarters. The 
 visit of Governor Beaver and the Flood Commission 
 has borne practical fruit. The visitors met the Finance 
 Committee of the Citizens' Relief Committee at Alma 
 Hall, and discussed the situation in all its details. The 
 Commission expressed itself as amazed at the extent 
 and completeness of the devastation, and pledged 
 itself to render the citizens of the place all the aid in 
 its power. The local Committee presented a list of 
 their wants, and, after canvassing the demands, the 
 
510 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 Commission authorized the immediate purchase of 
 five hundred of the Chicago ready-made houses on its 
 account, and also the erection of all the store buildings 
 that may be asked for by loc^l merchants. The 
 Governor and Commission went Immediately to their 
 special train after the adjournment of the conference, 
 and departed for Cresson, whence they will go on a 
 trip through the other devasted districts of the State. 
 Trouble Brewing". 
 **A big strike Is imminent among the laborers em- 
 ployed upon the public works here. Trouble has been 
 brewing for several days, in consequence not only of 
 the scarcity of the food supply, but of the poor quality 
 of the rations furnished, as well as dissatisfaction with 
 the pay. This trouble culminated to-night at a meet- 
 ing of the Booth and Fllnn men, who are especially 
 dissatisfied. They appointed a committee of five to 
 wait upon General Hastings and request his good offi- 
 ces on their behalf. The committee made a long state- 
 ment of their grievances. They claim that they had 
 had nothing to eat since morning, and that the food 
 they do get is of an inferior quality. They also say 
 that although they engaged to do work at the rate of 
 one dollar and fifty cents per day, they are required to 
 w^ork on the drift at night without extra pay. They 
 said that they should have one dollar and seventy-five 
 cents per day, and requested General Hastings to in- 
 tercede with their employers In their behalf, threatening 
 to strike If their demiands are not complied with. Gen- 
 eral Hastings promised to bring the matter to the 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 611 
 
 attention of the contractors, but said that was all he 
 could do. It is generally believed that the action taken 
 presages a general strike unless the demand for one 
 dollar and seventy-five cents per day is conceded." 
 The strike, it should be added, did not occur. 
 A Xiater Keport. 
 
 More than six weeks after the catastrophe, another 
 careful recorder made these observations: ** Though 
 the work already accomplished is great, as much or 
 more remains undone. Only the lumber has been 
 removed from the debris, while sand, dirt, bricks and 
 stones form a mass several feet thick over the whole 
 town. Railroad cars and wrecked houses that were 
 washed away from their foundations are still seen in 
 various parts of town. 
 
 ''The rivers are half filled with debris, which has 
 withstood all efforts to move it, and the wreck at the 
 stone bridge is as bad in the bed of the stream now as 
 it was against the bridge immediately after the flood. 
 A few business houses have been erected in addition 
 to the Park stands, but these are mostly plank struc- 
 tures composed of flood lumber, and fit only for stables. 
 The people themselves have shelter for the present in 
 one-story ten-by-twenty houses without plastering or 
 any other provision against the elements. 
 Promoting the General Good. 
 
 "All these facts combine to make the most prominent 
 citizens anxious as to the outcome, But notwithstand- 
 ing this, there seems to be more than a desire on the 
 part of the citizens to do their utmost to restore their 
 
512 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 homes and business. To this end some of tha 1-eading 
 spirits are woiicing to secure the consolidation of the 
 fourteen boroughs. A report from the committee on 
 this subject was to have been made last Monday, but 
 was withheld or not made for good reasons. These 
 reasons appear to be that Conemaugh borough opposes 
 the scheme, and that some of the politicians in the 
 others fear to let go their hold lest they never recover 
 it. Nobody denies that it would inure to the benefit 
 of all the boroughs to consolidate. It seems to be the 
 only method by which the town will ever become what 
 it was. Within the past few days the greatest barrier 
 to consolidation has been overcome and, it is said, the 
 committee will soon present a report that will meet 
 with general approval. 
 
 "Moxham, where are situated the Johnson Company 
 steel rail works, has had a boom since the flood. The 
 place, situated about two miles south of the town, was 
 but slightly injured by the water, and is connected with 
 Johnstown by a rapid transit railroad. Most of the 
 professional men have ordered houses to be erected 
 here immediately. A select school will be opened, and 
 all preparations are being made to accommodate the 
 increased population. 
 
 ''Superintendent Duncan, of the street railway, is 
 authority for the statement that the horse railway will 
 "be replaced by one operated by electricity. This was 
 probably brought about by negotiations with T. L. 
 Johnson, of the Johnson Steel Rail Company, who has 
 been known to favor such a plan for some time, and 
 
THE JOHNSTOWh HORROR. 513 
 
 who will likely become a heavy stockholder in the new 
 
 arrangement." 
 
 Fire Added to Flood. 
 
 Troubled, it is said, never come singly ; for some 
 singular reason they come in groups and clusters ; 
 one appears to draw on another, and that a third, 
 until one would think all the vials of wrath were 
 suddenly emptied. Poor Johnstown had already 
 suffered the direst woes ; the bitter cup of agony had 
 been pressed to her lips, but, as if one element in 
 nature had been exhausted, another canne to complete 
 the work of destruction. 
 
 Fire broke out on the 24th of June, and for a time 
 threatened to reduce to ashes that part of the town 
 which had been spared by the angry waters. Some 
 children were playing that they were workmen, and 
 were clearing up the wreck. In their play they 
 attempted to burn up some loose rubbish, and, as is 
 often the case, did more than they intended. The 
 fire caught and spread. 
 
 The facilities at this time for stopping a conflagra- 
 tion were very meagre. Where a few days before 
 there had been resistless torrents of water, there was 
 now scarcely any to be had. The fire crackled, leaped 
 up with threatening glare, reached out its red tongue 
 for fresh fuel, jumped from one building to another, 
 and rolled great clouds of smoke skyward, completing 
 the pall of gloom which for more than three weeks 
 had hung over the fated city. A small force of fire- 
 men from Philadelphia was on the ground, but then* 
 
514 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 efforts were sadly crippled. It Is often hard work to 
 fight devouring flames even with abundant facilities ; 
 when these are wanting the task becomes quite hope- 
 less. The progress of the flames was finally stayed 
 by blowing up buildings ; yet before this could be 
 done twenty-five houses were destroyed, a part of 
 which were so badly wrecked that they would have 
 been removed without any attempt to reconstruct 
 them, while others, several of them comfortable resi- 
 dences, would have been moved to the old sites from 
 which the flood swept them, and would have served 
 for further use. 
 
 The loss, some $30,000, was trifling compared with 
 that suffered by the flood ; still it assumed serious 
 proportions on account of the great destruction of 
 property which had already taken place. Stricken 
 Johnstown needed every dwelling, every barn, every 
 roof for the thousands of homeless wanderers that 
 thronged the streets, and this new calamity was in- 
 deed deplorable. The country heard the intelligence 
 with a fresh thrill of horror and sympathy, and 
 wondered whether utter annihilation would not over- 
 take the city, so large a part of which had been plowed 
 by the river of death. 
 
 A New City. 
 
 Through the summer months the work of removing 
 the vast masses of debris caused by the flood was 
 carried forward vigorously. Where the accumulation 
 was greatest dynamite was finally brought into use. 
 Some persons objected to this, just as before they 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 515 
 
 objected to applying the torch. Love clings even to 
 its dead, and shrinks from any disfigurement of the 
 form that was cherished tenderly in life. 
 
 It was not uncommon after a heavy blast of dyna- 
 mite had been exploded, to see whole bodies, or 
 fragments of bodies, suddenly brought into view, 
 released from the wreckage in which they had been 
 buried. The spectacle was appalling, and would have 
 been even more so but for the fact that death in the 
 most haggard forms had become a familiar sight to 
 the survivors. 
 
 How many bodies have been torn, crushed, scat- 
 tered in fragments, ground into dirt and sand and 
 mixed with their mother earth, can never be known. 
 Neither can it be known with any accuracy how many 
 thousands perished in the terrible calamity. 
 
 As fast as the streets and building sites could be 
 cleared of the immense deposits with which they were 
 overlaid, new dwellings were erected. 
 Homes for tlie People. 
 
 These houses are perhaps as good as could be 
 expected under the circumstances. The first necessity 
 was to furnish a shelter for the homeless. How 
 different these plain dwellings from the comfortable, 
 and in some instances elegant homes which remain 
 now only in the memory of their occupants ! It was 
 wisely thought that the best use which could be made 
 of a large part of the money given so lavishly for 
 Johnstown would be to provide good, comfortable 
 houses for families, or the remnants of families, who 
 
516 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 had been rendered homeless. This work was carried 
 on as fast as circumstances would permit, and soon the 
 place began to put on a new appearance. 
 
 Meantime the large force of men employed in 
 removing the debris worked with good effect. Reports 
 from time to time appeared in the newspaper press as 
 to the progress made. At first it seemed a herculean 
 task, and probably after the work shall have ceased 
 there will remain much that might have been done but 
 never will be. Very likely many years from now, when 
 the pick and shovel are put into the ground, and the 
 earth is thrown up, the bones of the dead will be there 
 to remind the living of the awful visitation which en- 
 gulfed thousands of human beings. 
 
 Thanks where they were Due. 
 
 While credit is due many persons and organizations, 
 particularly the Red Cross brigade, mention should be 
 made of the efficient services of Gen. Hastings. Few 
 me^n were ever placed in a more trying position — a, 
 position which required great tact, consideration, sym- 
 pathy, firmness, and energy. He acquitted himself in 
 such a way as to secure the good opinion of those im- 
 mediately surrounding him, and of the public at large. 
 
 Gen. Hastings left Johnstown on July 8th. That 
 evening the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Regiment, which 
 had been assigned to him for duty, was drawn up 
 before his headquarters. The various heads of depart- 
 ments were there, also several hundred of the towns- 
 people, and there was a stir which indicated that some- 
 thing unusual was going on. Colonel Perchment, of 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 51 7 
 
 the Fourteenth Regiment, had come with his command 
 to thank Gen. Hastings for his efficient leadership, and 
 the uniform kindness and courtesy they had received 
 from his hands. A high compliment was also paid to 
 Gen. Wiley, director of the department of public safet}^ 
 In his reply Gen. Hastings paid a fitting tribute to 
 the services rendered by the Fourteenth Regiment, 
 and said they had done honor to the National Guard 
 of the State. 
 
 Colonel Stewart then stepped forward, and on behalf 
 of the Grand Army of the Republic, presented Gen. 
 Hastings with a beautiful gold and diamond badge. 
 It bore on one side the words ''From the Department 
 of Pennsylvania of the G. A. R." On the reverse side 
 was the Inscription: "To Adjutant-General D. H. 
 Hastings for many favors and earnest help to the 
 Grand Army of the Republic.'* 
 
 In his response General Hastings said: 
 "Colonel Stewart, I cannot find words to express the 
 gratitude I feel to the old soldiers who are here and 
 whom you represent, for this most unmerited compli- 
 ment. I want to assure you that I am entlded to no 
 such compliment as you have bestowed upon me. I 
 want to say to you that I would not have one of my 
 hearers go away from here with any other thought in 
 his mind than that I only wanted to do my duty to my 
 fellow-men in this stricken region. 
 
 "The Grand Army of the Republic, as an organiza- 
 tion, and many of them as individuals, have been very 
 kind to me, and if I have, by official action or other- 
 
518 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 wise, been enabled to instill in the minds of the youth 
 of this commonwealth a soldierly spirit, a patriotic love 
 of country, which I hope I have, I have only been able 
 to point to the example that has been set to the people 
 of this State and nation by the boys who wore the blue. 
 When I had an opportunity to cross this river for the 
 first time, and go down into the heart of Ithe town, 
 there I found your able commander with his coat off 
 busy at work distributing clothing, comfort, consolation, 
 and kind words to the bereaved ones whose parents 
 had followed with him the flag of the country. By his 
 side were gathered some of the men who are gathered 
 with him here to-night.'* 
 
 Mr. Cyrus Elder and Colonel John P. Linton spoke 
 for the citizens. Mr. Elder said that the Citizens' 
 Committee had, at its meeting that day, adopted this 
 resolution: "General D. H. Hastings having advised 
 the Finance Committee that other official duties will 
 oblige him to leave Johnstown to-morrow, we desire to 
 put upon our records, in an informal way, our high 
 appreciation of his services to this suffering community. 
 Coming to us in the earliest and worst days of our 
 distress, he made himself one with us, he voluntarily 
 partook of the hardships which we endured, and he 
 has devoted himself unreservedly to the work of mak- 
 ing the remnant of our ruined city habitable, and of 
 comforting, strengthening, and encouraging the help- 
 less people. We shall not attempt any commendation 
 of his great labors, or try to say how thoughtful he has 
 been for us, how wise and how kind. It is best stated 
 
THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 519 
 
 in saying that he has endeared himself to all our 
 people, who will join us in saying, 'God bless him.'" 
 
 General Hastings and Colonel J. L. Spangler re- 
 turned to their homes at Bellefonte, Pa., on July loth. 
 A great public reception was given to them in Bush's 
 Arcade Hall amid cheers and music. Mr. George C. 
 Potts, a prominent iron-ore operator, was made Presi- 
 dent. Mr. E. C. Humes, President of the First National 
 Bank, delivered the address of welcom.e to the distin- 
 guished guests. General Hastings was loudly called 
 for. The General was pretty well exhausted physi- 
 cally, but responded as follow^s : 
 
 *'Mr. Chairman and Neighbors: I thank you more 
 than I can find words to express for this most unmer- 
 ited compliment. It has alwa3^s been my ambition to 
 merit the approval and good-will and kindly feeling of 
 my neighbors and fellovz-townsmen. If we have done 
 anything within the past few w^eeks that merits your 
 approval, I am duly thankful, and it shall always be my 
 ambition to merit the good-will of my neighbors in 
 Bellefonte. I will have to ask you to excuse me from 
 making any extended remarks at this time, and for this 
 compHment paid me this evening I thank you from the 
 bottom of my heart. My friend. Colonel Spangler, 
 who Vs^as with me all through the troubles, is here, and 
 he can make more extended remarks of our labors 
 there." 
 
 As early as June 14th Governor Beaver issued a pro- 
 clamation in which he said : **The propriety of using the 
 money contributed by generous donors for the benefit 
 
520 THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 
 
 of individual sufferers, for the purpose of starting men 
 in business, might be questioned, particularly if that 
 business should prove remunerative hereafter. There 
 can be little doubt, however, that the most useful and 
 judicious expenditure at the present moment for the 
 entire people of the region would be a fund which 
 could be used for putting up simple board shanties in 
 which business might be commenced by the cour- 
 ageous business men of Johnstown, who have signified 
 their intention of remaining where they are and assist- 
 ing in building up the ruins that speak so eloquently 
 in their behalf. Credit is tendered them to any extent 
 by merchants in our great trading centres. What they 
 need is simply a cover for their goods and wares." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that-^the stricken city is taking 
 on a new life, is slowly rising from the terrible disaster, 
 and bids fair in due time to fully recover from the 
 deadly shock. For such a consumation all persons 
 will devoutly wish, and will rejoice at every sign of 
 restored business, homes, industries and domestic 
 comfort. 
 
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