Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-05
The HEARTRENDING SCENES
Fears that the Stencil from the
Decaying Bodies win Cause
an Epidemic of Disease.
THE RoBBING or THE DEAD
Lynch Law invoked Against tho yandals
who DespoiI the Bodies Of the Dead.
Several Men Hanged or Forced Ints
suioide-Relief for the sufSsring-Flood
Damage Elsewhere. -.


JoHNsrowN, june 3.-A sad and gloomy
sky. almost as sad and gloomy as the
human faces under it, shrowded Johns
town to-day. Rain fell all day and added
to the misery of the wrstched people. The
great plain where the best part Of Johns
town used to stand is half covered with
water. The few sidewalks in the part that
escaped the flood were few inches thick
with black, sticky mud, through which
tramped a steady procession Of people.
The town seemed like a great tomb. The
people 60 about the streets dazed and half
conscious. Every where as one goes through
the streets he hears neighbors greeting each
other and then enquiring. without show
OF feeling. how many each lostin his family.
Kernville is in deplorable condition. The
living are
UNABLE TO TAKE CARE OF THE DEAD.
A majority Of the inhabitants OF the
town were drowned. Boards have been
erected on the only street remaining in town
to place the bodies in the morgue. This is
the headquarters for the committee that
have control OF the dead. As quickly as
the dead are brought in, they are placed in
boxes and then brought to the cemetery
and buried.
A milkman who was overcharging for
milk, this morning, narrowly escaped lynch
ing. The infuriated men appropriated all
his milk and distributed it among the poor
and then drove him out Of town.
Ten bodies have been taken out of the
wreck near Cambria library, so bruised and
mangled that it is impossible to identity
them. 1t is supposed they were guests at
the Hulburt house, which is completely de-
molished. Eight bodies were recovered
near the Methodist church.
Captain Kuhn, for Cambria county,
claims that the entire population which
the food struck in Johnstown and sur
towns numbers $4,000 which will
entail loss of about 5000.
Mrs. ]. G. Campbell OF Allegheny City
and Mrs. w. V. Hughes OF Pittsburg, re-
ported at the scene Of the disaster for the
relief OF homeless children.
JoHNsrowN, June3.-Developments every
hour make ii. more and more apparent
that the exact number OF lives lost in
the Johnstown horror .
WILL NEVER BE KNOWN.
All the estimates that have been made
up to this time are conservative, and when
all is known it will doubtless be found to
have been too small.
Over 900 bodies have been found since
sunrise, to-day, and the most skeptical
concede that the remains OF thousands
more rest beneath the debris above Johns
town bridge. ... .~s.s.....
The population OF Johnstown and sur
rounding towns and portion oi the village
affected by the food is or was from 80, 600
to 55 900. An Associated Press reporter,
to-day, interviewed numerous leading citi-
zens of Johnstown who survived the flood,
and the concensus of opinion wae that fully
80 per cent. OF the residents OF Johnstown
and Cambria have been victims Of the con-
tinued disasters OF fire and water. II this
THE TOTAL LOSS OF LIFE
in the entire valley cannot be less than
1000 or 5000, or possibly much greater.
OF the thousands who were devoured by
the flames, and whose ashes rest beneath
the smoking debris about Johnstown
bridge. no definite information can ever be
obtained. As little will be learned Of the
hundreds who sank beneath the current
and were borne swiftly down the Cone
maugh only to be deposited on the banks
and driftwood of the raging Ohio. 80.
The total destruction Of the city leaves
no data to even demonstrate that the
names OF these unfortunates can ever find
places on the pages OF eternity 3 history.