The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1889-06-15

would show about four million cubI
= yards OF water. The pressure mus
have been tour hundred pounds to tn
. square inch. Pent up between th
d narrow valleys the terrible force be
comes evident. It did not lose 1t
omnipotent power until It found room
To spread out.
THE GREAT BREAK
in the dam must have occurred abou
4 O'Clock. 1t took It twenty minutes
to come ten miles. Several clocks II
Johnstnwn that saw stopped at s:3l
O'Clock. This was the supreme ans
awful moment of the frenzy. Above
here only two houses were carried
away and only four lives were lost. UI
to this point the mighty b,llow ol
madness and despair was on dress pa.
rade. 1t was gathering itself for Its
terrible work. But its banner-bearers
were pines and oaks Of great length
and mighty bodies that had nodded
their heads in sunshine and storm
for centuries, They had withstood a
thousand storms, only to no uprooted
in an instant aud torn by tho roots
and stripped OF branches aud bark TO
decorate the maddest exhibition of
August and awful power that has ap>
palled and maddened n1an Ia modern
ages. Every tree has been stripped of
Its bark and shorn OF Its limbs as
have twisted u paw paw twtg In my
youth to make whistle or Q whip.
Corpse after corpse have been found
with all the clothing Oh. II seems as
II the people of the valley had stripped
for this
AWFUL AND FINAL BATH,
But ia 1t any wonder they are paked
whom trees and locomotives have been
shed OF all things hut the bare bodyP
When tho great wave came thunder
ing down tho valley, there 10 our left
the trees stood out on the front OF It.
like quiils on tho hack OF the fretfui
porcnpine, or the long lances on the
front Of the MacedOn phalanx-nay,
more, from Time to time they wonld be
shot out from the crest aud frout of the
great billoWs like arrows, and would
weather and leap aud jump clean out
Of the water into the air and strike the
earth away In front of the water. They
all
CAME POINT FIRST.
The roots and heavy butts seemed AZ
q balance to poise them. Auy tree
that any chance threw sideways was
twisted and broken into fragments.
You can see buildipgs where a giant
tree has shot through them like q shot
from cannon. Oae may be seen that
b'owcd over boilers and ran through !
corner Of brick we'll In the Cambris !
iron mill. AS they got further down,
when they 'ell sideways, they gathered |
the drtff aud served as points of pro-
lection. In the drift above the bridge |
they stand up,ight by the hundreds. |
The fire has burned them of and the
blackened points stick up in the air
like SO many vast iead,pencils, sharp
ened by tho demons of destruction,
awaiting some mind vest enough to
ntiiiz' them in recording the tDcom.
prehensihle story of the disaster.
THE DEAD.
The question that keeps putting It,
self to me constantly Is: "Where are
the people of Johnstown and this VAL
ley ~ They are not here. II the city
had q, 600 what has become OF the a.
600 that have not been heard from :?
About 1000 bodies have been recov.
cred thousand or more have been
lost in the valley above and below
Johnstown. Where are the others :?
The sea may give up its dead, but this
flood will mover surrender its victims.
Thousands OF them sleep In their last
resting place where mother nature has
taken them to her fond embrace never
to e We them back.
There must be at least 5000 dead
bodies in that wreck above the bridge.
They will recover 1000 more above
and below. and here. Let us believe
that all tho dead, made such by this
awful exhibition of power which we
call calamity, whether found or un-
discovered, are safe In the bosom of
that FIRST Cause, that gave and hath
taken away as seemeth unto Him
good. There is
A TERRIBLE FASCINATION i
that draws me back to the ruin in the
Town aud the wreckage above the
stone bridge. Some impression has
been made yesterday and to-day in
he town on the vast piles of misceIe
ancou3 ruins. A hundred fires are
eating up the ghasiIy evidences, and
200 willing hands, made 80 BY lib>
'ral contributions from the glorious
people of these United States, have
oiled to clear the city. Ats,his rate the
site Of the city ought to DO cleared in
lwo weeks, and then IL Johnstown