Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-05

SVhAsbOHu yesterday. anu
dreds were buried. The fear of pestience is
the latest menace to the stricken valley, and
the dead are being disposed of rapidly as
possible to prevent disease.
Estimates of the number of dead stiH vary
and the real number will not be known, even
approximately. until the work of registering
the living, begun yesterday, has been COM
pleted. Superintendent Thompson, of the
Cambria Iron company, last evening expressed
the opinion that the total number of dead in
the valley would reach about $4,000
Superintendent Morgan. of the same COM
pany declared that only 5000 persons are now
alive where 295O0 had lived before the flood.
Adjutant General Hastings maintains that the
death list may not exceed 5000 and of this
number he thinks 5000 bodies will never be re-
covered. Mr.. McConnaughty, the chief of the
bureau of registration. Is convinced that the
number who perishedis 0.000 or more.
The central mOrgue. which was formerly
school house. Is filled with rows of CHASTITY dead,
the desks being used as blers for the bodies.
Three Of the former pupils yesterday lay on the
desks dead, with white pieces of paper pinned
on to the white sheets that covered them, CIV
ing their names.
Touching scenes are enacted every hour
about
THIS MOURNFUL BUILDING.
morgue is the central office of the registry
bureau" This was organized by DR.. Buchanan
and II. G.. Connaugh for the purpose OF having
a registry made of all those who had escaped
They realized that 1t would be impossible to
secure a complete list of dead. and that the
only practicable thing was to get complete
list of the living Then they would get all the
JobnstOwn names and by that means secure
list of the dead. For two days and nights
great corps of men have been at work day and
night In the twrn.y-elght sections that have
been opened. Vest, rday more than 1000 pco-
pie had registered and names are still pouring
in. There were 2J.JO0 people in JOhnstOUn
proper, Cambria. kerwinyiIle, MOrrellyille and
Conemaugh- Ii II thought that by
tomorrow night the Est Of saved
will be completed. and then fairly accurate
estimate can be made Of the total loss of life.
That estimate VIII be based on figures secured
by the subtraction of the total registry saved
from total population OF JOhnstown and SIR
pounding bOTOushs. Until that time all fig
ares given Of the dcath-rOl Will be purely con-
jectural. 1t Is impossible to conceive that the
figures viii remain anywhere near those of the
bodies far discovered 1880. One of the
most prominent citizens OF JohnstOwn last
night admitted that 1000 bodies had been dis
covered then. and said that the total of those
buried ont of sign. would probably be no less
than 1868 more. 9th IS say that the number
must largely exceed that.
APSEU1oNIA sCoURGE.
Up on Prospect Hill there is pneumonia
scourge which bids fair to do for a number of
the escaped victims what the food could not
Death has pursued them to their highest places
of refuge. and tarrOr viii nos die. Every little
hOuze on lie hill taud there are "A hundred or
two of them had thrown lis doors open TO re-
eeivc tne bruised and haTf-cltd fugitlves on the
dark day of thG dc.U2e, and every one is now "A
crude hospital Half the women who had
scaled the height were 80 overcome with fright
that they have been Oed-ridden ever since.
There had been pneumOHlI on the hill, but
only a few isolated cases. Yesterday several
fresh cases developed among the food fugi-
tlyes. and a local physician said the prospects
for a scourse are all too promising. The en-
feebled condition of the patients the unhealthy
atmosphere peryading the valley. and the nee
essarllv close quarters IN which the people are
crowded render the spread of the disease al
most certain.
Yesterday ray of light came in the nature
of a carload Of provisions and another from
Columbus Ohio. containing clean mattresses
and bedding. all specified for the Prospect
Hill sufferers. On this eminence stands the
Cambria hospital. and III this rambling cot
tage-it resembles one in exterior and com
f0rts-a great work is being done through the
combined agencies Of medical science and
brotherly love.
The hospital is in charge of a corps of Al
toona physicians. which the Pennsylvania rail-
road rushed to the scene the morning after the
Hoods Their names are NJ j. Buck. VIM.
Fndlay, Vim. Ross. F. q. ArRey, W. X. Bruder
j. b. Harmon. A. l.. Spangler, Henry Jacobs
and s. VI. Sellers. J. ID. Hicks attorney for
the Pennsylvania railroad. is chairman of the
alternating relief committee, assisted by Hon
j. W. Currie, also of Altoona. The wards are
full of bruised and suffering ones, who were
dragged from the teeth of the food.
SOME OF THE REALLY PATHETIC SCENES
Of the flood are Just coming to the public ear
John Henderson, his wife, his three children
and the mother NJ Nrs HanIarsnp 4
in their house until they were carried out by
the Hood. when they succeeded in getting upon
some drift. Mr.. Henderson took the babe from
ms wife. but the little thing soon succumbed
to the cold, and the child died in its fathers
arms He chung to it till il grew cold and stiff
and then. kissing it. let it drop into the water
His mother-In-law. an aged lady. was almost AS
fragile a. the babe. and in a few minutes Mr.
Henderson. who had managed to get near to the
board upon which she was floating saw that
she. too, was dying He did what little he could
TO help her, but the cold and the shock COM
Dlned were too much. Assuring himself that
the old lady was dead. Mr.. Henderson turned
ms attention 20 his own safety and allowed the
body 10 float down the stream. In tie mean
time Mrs Henderson, who had become sepa-
rnted from her husband. had continued 10 keep
her other two children for some time but
nnally a great wave dashed them from her
arms and out of her sight. They were cling
ing 10 some drIftwOod, however. and provi-
dentially we're driven into the very arms OF
Their father. who was some distance down the
stream quite unconscious of the proximity OF
ms loved ones. Another whirl of the food and
al were driven over into some eddyiug water
IN stony creek. and carried by backing water
70 hernyllle. where all were rescued Mrs
Henderson had nearly the same experience
DIR. HOLLANDS AWFUL PLUNGE.
DIR. Holland, a physician who lived on Vine
street, saw both Of his children drown before
bus eyes, but they were not washed out of the
building. He took both Of them in his arms
arm and bore them To the roof caring
nothing for the rising water. Finally compos-
ing himself. he kissed them both and watched
them float away. His father arrived here to-
day from ONO to assist his son and take home
with him the bodies of the children. which have
been recovered DIR. Holland. after the death
OF his children, was carried out into the Hood
and finally to a building, in the window of
which a man was standing. The doctor held
up his hands; the man seized them and dex-
rously slipping valuable ring from the finger
OF one hand brutality threw him out into the
current again. The physician was saved. how
ever, an d has been looking for the thief and
Would-be murdererer ever since.
CRUSHED IL HIS own HOUSE
David Dixon. an engineer in the EMPLOY of
the Cambria iron-works. was with his family in
his house. on Cinder street. when the flood
struck, the city. The shock overturned his