The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-06-12

Vile. Two additional cases of typhoid
fever are reported from Minersdale, making
a total of seven in that village alone since
yesterday morning"
AN OLD MANS GRIEF.
William Gaffney, an insurance agent, had
pitiful duty to perform Wednesday morn
ing. He lost fourteen relatives, all told,
and among them were his wife and chill
dren. To make his calamity complete, he
was obliged to perform the awful duty of
digging his wifes and children's graves, as
well AS those of his other relatives and bury
ing them. Another sad sight was to be seen
on the river bank one morning last week.
Ever since the disaster an old man named
Gilmore, who lost his wife and family of
five children had been seen on the river
bank looking for them. He insisted on the
tiremen playing a stream of water on the
place where the house formerly stood and
where he supposed the bodies lay. The
fremen, recognizing his feelings, played on
the place for several hours Thursday morn
ing, and at last they got to the place where
the old gentleman said his house for
IRerly stood, and one of the men picked
up burned, charred skull of a child.
This stirred the old man up and he ex-
claimed That is my child. There lies
my family; go on and get the rest of them"
The workmen continued, and in few min
utes they came to the remains of the mother
and three other children The heads were
burned completely off, but there was
enough of their clothing left to recognize
them by. Old Mr.. Gilmore was so over
whelmed with grief that the rescuers had to
take him in charge.
NO CHILDREN SEEN.
Children are rarely seen on the streets,
and for a sad reason-they are all dead.
There is never a group of the dead dis
covered that does not contain from one to
three or four children for every grown per-
son. Generally the children are in the arms
of the grown persons, and often little toys
and trnkets clasped in their hands indicate
that the children were caught up while at
play and carried as far as possible toward
safety. In the morgue the little ones lie in
dozens where the adults are in half dozens,
but there is and has been a much greater
difficulty in recovering the bodies of the
children. Being lighter and smaller, they
have often been swept into out-of-the-way
recesses and carried away. A very great
proportion of the children have been swept
down the river and their bodies driven
under overhanging banks, under thickets
and other places where the search is not
carried on in careful and organized man
ner. AS an illustration of this, just above
New Florence some fragments of clothing
were in full view of the path on the river
bank. Hundreds of people passed the
place for three days looking for bodies, but
thought it was only shreds of worthless
body poked at the rags with stick, and a
swirl in the current brought a two-year-old
babe to the surface. The drift of opinion
among intelligent men-physicians, en-
gineers and railroad mems that from 900
TO /, 800 of the bodies will never be found.
THE PECUNIARY LOSS.
The exact amount of property destroyed
by the flood is as yet as much matter of
guess-work as the exact number of lives
that were lost. From all appearances the
losses will amount to not less than 30,000,-
600. This seems vast amount, but it must
be remembered that the valley was full of
valuable shops and factories The Cambria
Iron Works alone lost no less than 50 000,-
600 worth of property. This has been dis
counted in the sales of its stock, which have
fallen in value fifty per cent, the shares
being of the face value of $50. The market
value of the Cambria Iron Works before the
hood was $S,500,000.
THE LATEST.
The registration of the survivors of the
dood is going steadily on. Up to Sunday
evening there were about 81 600 registered,
and the list was still increasing. The num-
Der of the loss is placed now at 5000 by
those who held it would reach 10 900 week
ago. A conservative estimate is between
$500 and 1000. Up to date there have been
1,500 bodies recovered. The loss of the
Cambria Iron Company is not as heavy as
was at first thought. Much of the ma
chinery is uninjured and the works will
soon be running again. The Pennsylvania
Railroad Company is the heaviest loser,
S13,000,000 being the estimate.