The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-06-07
Johnstown Under Military Rule and
Strangers Not Permitted to Enter 1t.
Official List of the Passengers Who Lost Their
Lives on the Ill-Fated Trains-Flood
Damages at Various Points.
MUST APPLY THE TORCH.


The Only Method by Which the Debris Can
Be Disposed of and Disease Avoided.
JoHNsTowN, Pa, juno 6.-There is a
strong movement on foot in favor of apply
ing the torch to the wrecked buildings in
Johnstown, and, although the suggestion
meets with strong opposition at this time.
there is little doubt the ultimate solution.
of existing difficulties will be by this
method. An army of men has 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
the ground has yet been gone over. In
many places the rubbish is piled twenty 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 hercu-
lean labor of removing the rubbish has yet
hardly begun.
At the meeting of the central relief COM
mittee this afternoon General Hastings
suggested the advisabillty of drawing a
Gordon around the few houses that are not
in ruins and applying the torch to the re-
naming great sea of waste. He explained
briefly the great work vet to be accom-
plished if it were hoped to thoroughly over
haul every portion of the debris, and in
sisted that it would take 5000 men months
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
g. a., mol f,,- Al
of the city be consumed by fire, the engines
to be on hand to play on any valuables that,
despite previous precautions, might become
ignited by the general confagration. This
motion was debated pro and con for nearly
half an hour.
Those whose relatives or friends still rest
beneath the wreck, demonstrated strongly
against any such action. They insisted
that all the talk of threatened epidemic was
only the sensational 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 that the further exposure of
putrid bodies in the valley could have but
one result-the typhoid or some other cpl
demic equally fatal to its victims. 1t was
question of whether the living shou Id 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 wreckage was
defeated, it was evident that the move
ment was gaining many adherents, and the
result will doubtless be that in few days
the torch will be applied, not only to the
&aI1 nf ta in Tnh hx,< IL <ho
avalanche of debris that chokes the stream
above the Pennsylvania bridge.
The State Board of Health and the Penn
sylvania railroad are to-day cooperating
in the work of removing bodies from the
debris above the stone bridge. DR.. Gross,
of the health board. says there will be one
thousand men at work here tomorrow
moGnng hs Se sSSsbay bayq Ss S Is the spsId
of Health Is looked upon as more potent
factor than the militia and civic forces
combined. This afternoon the work of the
board was distributed, DR.. Lee taking re-
lay to Pttsburg with the intention of es-
tablishing headquarters in the City Hall.
There force of sanitary inspectors will be
established. half of which will 60 up the
river by boat. while the remainder will
The latter has adopted cremation as the
cry. and tomorrow night the desolate val
lev will be lit up with bontires of wreckage,
which will be the pyre of hundreds of dead
bodies.
DIR. Morrell; deputy chief of the State
Board of Health. said to-day: "The point
has come in this horror when sentiment
should be Land aside: To endanger the
lives of the living that the dead may be
identified is no longer justifable. Besides,
the bodies are all past being. embalmed.
and friends can scarcely recognize features
any longer Identification is possible only
by clothing or iewelry on the persons"
Dr. Croft, who is now in charge of the
Johnstown bureau of the State Board of
Health and sanitary inspectors. assured
your correspondent this afternoon that
there is no immediate danger of an epi-
demic, in Pittsburg. The, danger is."'
into being sick; but the work looms up be-
fore, us like a mountain. We need thou,
sands of men to work on the debris and
clear il of carcasses. By the way. hear q
great deal of complaint against harboring
such large body OF militia here in compar-
ative idleness. / think one company of
militia can keep order aud guard the sup
plies. The others should be put to work
aauifarv nrawa Thia Ia fha air, q