Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-29
For Watches, JeWelry and Valuables
Under the Floods Wreck.
7. P. ROBERTS TELLS OF, A PLAN
By Which Thousands of Dollars Worth of
Goods May be Saved.
MARVELLOUS FACTS ABOUT THAT GORGE.

ZVu ltcV-but WatefS covering say ANU
three acres. This is the scene Of the wors
part Of 'the jam" above the arch railroad
bridge. Into this space the wrecks of sew
eral hundred houses-with an assortment o
debris from stores, warehouses, bridges
wire mills and forest trees-were squeezed
into compact mass. Here also hundreds
of human beings, with the furniture of theil
houses and valuables of all kinds, were in
Discriminatory mingled with the wrecks Of
their homes. With the aid of fire and hoist.
ing engines all the material standing in
heaps above the water level has been re.
moved.
When the writer on Tuesday last visited
the place it appeared at first sight to be a
simple matter to remove the remaining por-
tion Of the debris, but after being informed
by Messrs. Shaw and Anshutz, who have
charge of forces there, that the depth Of
water is in some places 26 feet in this pool,
and that most of it is fully 15 feet deep below
low water surface-a different phase is put on
the problem. 1t could not be learned whether
or not there was such deep hole in the Cone
maugh before the flood, but Pittsburg civil
engineer Is inclined to the belief that this deep
scour in the bed of the creek was made by the
passage of powerful current developing un-
der the drift, which for time during the
highest water did not touch the bottom. The
appearance of the great boulder bars in the
bed of the stream Immediately below the
bridge tends to support this conclusion. This
engineer has often observed the formation of
gravel and boulder bars below ice gorges
caused by powerful bottom currents excavat-
ing the bed of the stream beneath the packed
ice. AT Johnstown instead of ice there was
timber gorge.
AN ENGINEERING HORROR.
As the case now stands no more of the stuff
in the river can be burned until 1t is dragged
out on the banks, deposited in heaps, covered
with petroleum and fired. This of course is a
very tedious proceeding with the inefficient
means at command. To expedite the work
Major Phillips is sinking charges of 40 pounds
each OF dynamite in the water as deep as he
can place them. The chief utility of this blast
ng is to loosen up the masses of timbers, shake
the sand from them and burst the rods and
wires, which seem to have knit the material
together. just how long it will take to remove
all the wood and other debris from this pool It
is difficult to estimate. There are horrors con-
nected with the work the descriptions Of which
would fairly sicken your readers. The force of
the blasts is something terrific-ugly black
water boils high In the air with more or less of
the blackened debris, pieces of which are
hurled sometimes several hundred feet high.
As Major Phillips says.,but few men indeed
can stand the sickening stencil created for
some time after the shots are fired, and it is
well to be on the windward side in approaching
to fasten the lines to timbers. The workmen
walk over the surface of the debris with safety
excepting in crooked channel in the center,
which is probably not clear all the way to the
bottom, although there are spots where the
bottom can be reached with sounding poles.
The effect of the blasting Is, of course, to
tear the bloated and fast decomposing remains
of the dead to fragments, but this must be
done. This pool of three acres must be cleared
to the bottom, and every bone Of the human
beings it contains taken out. Common human
itarian instincts demand this, because it must
not be said that there Just above the railroad
bridge In Johnstown remains heap of the
dead which could not be recovered for want of
means.
MINE OF WEALTH.
So much blasting has been done, and the con-
dition of the bodies of the dead must be such
by'this time that they will never float up. So
also has the blasting shaken loose metals. such
as coins, watches, trinkets and jewelry of all
kinds, ornaments, etc., and these will gravitate
to the bottom. The sand which filled the
wreckage in great quantities has long ere this
worked to the bottom, and may be now several
feet deep. covering ether heavy objects which
have dropped from the blasted debris above.
How to recover these valuables from their
submarine bed is a problem that The DIS
PATCH undertook to solve yesterday. The
views of Colonel T. P. Roberts, the well-known
engineer, were sought by reporter He said
the valuables and all human bones should be
recovered by all means. AS to the manner Of
doing it he said:
"It would appear to the writer. therefore.
that after all the floating debris has been re-
moved that these three acres must be gone over
with dredge boat. Mr.. Shaw suggested it to
me while | was in Johnstown as something
which would probably have to be done. II it
is postponed the first considerable food from
sner % in n' all 01s%sa probasty fiji 0f tie 'Issa poo
with 10 to Is feet of gravel and
the removal of which would vastly Increase the
cost should 1t be proposed in Che future to do
this work. The best way to do 1t is to have
capable Of going to 2S feet depth transported
to the place, and put on the boat Instead of
ordinary dumping scows two large nat boats
should be provided-on which the material
removed can be sorted over with shovels.
There is no doubt that the contents of many
stores were washed into this place-though the
chief object of doing this work would, of
course. be the recovery of human remains. 1t
sponsible parties to advantage.
THE DREDGING SCHEME.
"The rough bars referred to in the bed of the
creek for several hundred yards below the
BRIDGE" continued Colonel Roberts, should
also be dug up and cast back in a system attic
way, for the recovery of valuables, which may
have been washed through the bridge. This is
work that can be accomplished by hand at
eXnenga r a
"Johnstown may be referred to as far worse
wreck than that of Pompeii. There the in
nearly all escaped with their lives,
But no one can visit the ruins of Johnstown
without realizing that he is treading ground
more sadly desolated than any of which history
makes mention since the destruction of JerIl-
salem and Carthage The place cannot hope to
recover as rapidly as did Chicago, for that was
a great market and distributing center to
which merchants 1ocked from every direction.
Johnstown was simply the abiding place Of an
population of working people
mostly the owners of their own dwellings. They
will need enough from their generous country
men to provide them at least decent shelter
until with their savings they can rebuild per- !
The money SO far raised is not more
than half enough to do even this-and yet we
hear that the State expects to do its work of
clearing the streets, and stop work within a
week or so, and leave the Johnstown people
the weary task of clearing away the sand and
debris from great desert of hundreds of acres
in extent. Can they do this, while working for
their living in the mills? / wot not. 1t is to be
hoped that the Governor and his excellently
chosen commission will be able to devise means
to conclude the work properly"
Colonel Roberts views are important in this
because of his engineering expert
ence and his Investigations on the spot.
-
What You Want IL an Kolian Organ.
"What would you do with it? Why, play
nm IL of course - ttYou can't nlav2 That