The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1889-06-13

| iority have been identlAed. This swsils tho
list TO g. ,118 bodies.
In the town Of Conemaush there are only
thirty-eight persons positively known 70
have perished.
Ten million dollars Is how some Of the
Pennsylvania railroad ofIicials now at this
place figure the loss and damage 10 their
property. Through trains viii not be run
for three weeks at least. The damage at
East Conemaugh station will run into the
millions. Further up, where the railroad
crossed the rlver diagonally on fine iron
bridge, not even q suggestion remains to
show that there ever was bridge there,
nor Is there particle Of road-bed, rails or
ties remaining for three-fourths of Q mile.
From there for distance Of mile the bal
last Ii washed away and the track badly
twisted. The viaduct at South Fork hav-
Ing span Of eighty feet and supposed to be
one Of the strongest In the country, has en-
tirely disappeared The Duncannon bridge,
large iron structure, 10 also destroyed.
A large number Of bodies were buried in
Grandview Cemetery yesterday Kernville
has been overlooked in the great rush and
excitement, and the 2,000 people at that
place were In half famished condition un-
til yesterday, when supply was estab-
lished and their wants supplied Tho stock
Of burial baskets at Kernville has become
exhausted and necessity has compelled
many bodies to be placed In the ground with
no other protection from the earth than .
winding sheet and few loose boards laid
over them In the graves. The list Of uni
Identified recovered at Kernville 10 very
small. Fifty diggers were busy excavating
and filling the graves In Grandviow Gene
tory Yesterday,
W. r. Devore has bseu given charge q
the impromptu embalming eotablishmont In
the Pennsylvania railroad station by Benja-
min Lee, secretary Of the State Board Of
Health. The best estimates On the loss Of
life, based on the registry Of living and the
unofficial poll, put Il q from 1900 TO II, 900.
Tho drift Of opinion among intelligent
mon, physicians, engineers and railroad
men 10 that from 1000 TO I 800 bodies viii
never be heard from. l.i t'2t
An eyewitness Of the horrible scenes In
and about the stone bridge Of the railroad
during Friday night and Saturday states
that nothing in art OF literature can half
delineate the horrors Of that night after the
ruins had taken Are. Dore's wonderful
Imagination would be st fault were he 70
attempt TO depict anything 20 fearful in it,
accumulation Of horrors - this showed.
low Johnstown, are that there 10 plenty 70
eat but lack Of tents, blankets and other
comforts. Altogether seventy dead bodies
were taken out Tuesday near this point.
The work Of removing the debris 10 being
pushed a. rapidly % possible. The majority
of arrests made thus far have been for
petty offenses, such rs stealing from private
houses, and suspicious characters refusing
to work. There is no doubt, however, In
spite Of all precautions, but that the bodies
of the dead have been mutilated by ruffians
to remove rings and other yaluables
The Fourteenth Regiment, reinforced
Wednesday until It is now 900 strong, is
still camped in freight cars beyond the de-
pot opposite the late city proper. Space Is
rapidly being cleared for its tents, however,
near the ruins of the Catholic church,
which was on fire when the deluge came.
Early yesterday morning the regiment went
into service. Company was detailed to
Cambria City, where the element Of ruffian-
ism, meeting that Of desperation, foreshad-
ows storm. During the day many people
Of questionable character were escorted out
Of the city limits.
From Johnstown up the valley easy COM
munication has been opened as far as Conc
maugh, two miles, and 1t is possible for any
one here to readily behold n sight ever be-
fore seen in this world, and which no one
who does not see It himself will never be
lieve did really exist. 1t is described here
as well as words can describe it, but merely
as duty to history and not with the idea
that any one who can not look at 1t will
ever think it true. Every one has seen the
light iron beam shafts and rods in factory
lying in twisted, broken and criss ss-cross
shape after fire has destroyed the factory
In the gap above Johnstown the water has
picked up u four-track railroad covered
with trains-freight and passenger-and
with machine shops, round house and
other heavy buildings with heavy contents
and has torn the track to pieces, twisted,
turned and crossed it as fire never could. 1t
has tossed huge freight locomotives like
barrels and cars like packing boxes, torn
them to pieces and scattered them over
miles Of territory. 1t has in one place put
stream of water block wide between the
railroad and the bluff, and in another place
it has changed the course of the river as far
in the other direction and left hundred
yards inland the tracks that formerly
skirted the banks.
There is little to indicate the late pres
ence Of a railroad from here to the upper
part OF the Conemaugh. The little plain
into which the gap widened here, and in
which stood the bulk of the town, Is wiped
out. There is not the slightest indication
that the center Of the plain was anything
but a floodwashed gulch in some mountain
region. At heupper end stands fantastic
collection Of ruined railroad equipments.
Three trains stood there when the flood
swept down the valley. On the outside was
a local passenger, with three cars and To-
comotive. 1t stands there yet. The cars
were tilted by the washing of tho track,
but are comparatively uninjured. Two
more locomotives have been run into the
sand bank In front. A freight train stood
on the track whereon large collection OF
smashed cars has its place now. 1t was
broken all to pieces. Inside of oil this was
the day express, with baggage and ex-
press cars, and at the end three vestibule
cars.
1t was from this train that number OF
passengers were lost Some of the freight
cars were loaded with lime and quickly had
the cars blazing. Three of the vestibule
cars burned down to the trucks. These and
the peculiar shaped iron frames of the vesti-
bules are all that show where the cars
stood.
The reason the flood did not wine out these