Morning journal and courier., 1889-06-03

through by means of couriers across the
 | established One of the Catholic churches
 in the town was burned on Satur-
 day. A burning house drifted down
 against it and set it on fire. A funeral
 was being held at the church at the
 time of the flood. The congregation desert
 ed the church and the body was burned with
 | the building. Two large trees passed entire
 ly through a brick Catholic church located
 l near the center of the town. The building
 still stands, but is 8 total wreck. Thirteen
 bodies were taken from the river at New
 Florence, 16 miles below this point. Five
 were taken to the lookup in the town and
 then brought east to this point. Several were placed in rough boxes and buried on l the hill side opposite New Florence. Several l were recovered below that point and brought | to MorrelIville.
 I Five hundred tents arrived from Ohie to- ! night in charge of Adjutant General Axline. | Sixty-fve have been put on the hillside and 1 are now occupied by families.
 THE LOSS OF LIFE ESTIMATED AT 5000. ! JoHNsTowN, Pa, June 2.-City Solicitor I Kuehne places the number of buildings swept ! away at 300. From the woolen mill above | the island to the bridge, distance of prob | ably two miles, strip of territory nearly a half mile in width has been swept clean. Conservative people place the loss of life at 5000 at least.
 A HEART BENDING TALE OF WOE. An utterly wretched woman named Mrs. Fenn stood by muddy pool of water to-day trying to find some trace of once happy home. She was half crazed with grief and her eyes were red and swollen. As the writer stepped to her side she raised her pale and haggard face and remarked: "They are all gone. o, God, be merciful to them. My husband and my seven dear little ones have been swept down with the flood and am left alone. We were driven by the raging torrent into the attic, but the waters fol lowed us there. Inch by inch it kept rising until our heads were crused against the roof. It was death to remain. So raised window, and one by one placed my darlings on some drift wood, trusting to the great creator. As I liberated the last one, my little boy, he said: You always told me look after me knows I saw him drift away with his loving face turned toward me, and with prayer on my lips for his deliverance he passed from sight forever. The next mo- ment the roof crashed in and I foated out- side to be rescued fifteen hours later from the roof of house in Kernville. If I could only find one of my darlings I could bow to the will of God, but they all are gone. have lost everything on earth now, but my life and will return to my old Virginia home and lay me down for my last great sleep" THE FLOOD IN WASHINGTON. WASHINGTON, June 2.-This city has had taste of high water and the flooded Potomac has filled cellars and basements, gullied thor oughfares along Pennsylvania avenue and the adjacent streets to the southward and done other damage. Boats were in use near the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio road. Along the wharves the losses were considera- ble Several bridges in the vicinity were carried away and roads were badly washed The president did not attend church to-day but spent his time in communicating with people in the food-stricken districts with 8 visw to granting such succor as lay in the power of the government. About nine o'clock in the morning Gen. Schofeld, came to the White House and he and the President repaired to the telegraph room where they were put into communication with as many joints and as many persons near the flooded districts as possible. The presi- dent offered to extend to the people in dis tress any succor which the government could give. He said the government would supply as many tents and rations and sol- diers to assist in the work of reclamation as possible.
 THK JOHNsT0wN HORROR. The ola Reservoir Had Been a men- acc to she Towns Below for Years Jehnstown's LocatIon-Seven Hun- dred Acres of Water Precipitated Upon the Town.
 PITTsBURa, Ps.,-Johnstown, with It's twelve thousand inhabitants, occupies both banks of the Conemsugh river, ordinarily a mere brook draining the westerly deolivities of the Alleghany Mountains. In summer it can be crossed easily by stepping from stone to stone, but when swollen by heavy rains or melting snows it becomes an angry tor l rent. It joins 8 few miles below the Kis- 1~s. 1f AAo which falls into that river thirty miles above Pittsburg. By the windings of the streams the distance from Johnstown to Pittsburg is about one hundred miles. By ! the Pennsylvania railroad it is seventy eight | miles easterly from Pittsburg and forty miles southwest from Altoona. It Is also l reached by branch of the Baltimore and ! Ohio road.
 About two thousand persons were em- ployed at Johnstown iu the main works of the Cambria Iron company, besides which the town had many minor manufacturing establishments, national bank, two daily and four weekly newspapers, sixteen church es and convent. It was one of the most thriving towns in Western Pennsylvania It's population completely filled the low and narrow valley with their thrifty homes, forming busy hive of enterprise and indus try.
 Up the valley two miles from Johnstown was Conemaugh village: Two miles further whose bursting caused the fearful catas- trophe. The reservoir, called Conemaugh lake, WAS three and half miles long, from
 mile to mile and half wide and in places
 one hundred feet deep. It stood two hun dred and fifty feet above the level of the val ley at Johnsrown, and was we'll known as 8
 standing menace to the busy throng who lived along the stream. Formerly it was used as feeder for the Pennsylvania canal, but 1t had been bought by Pittsburg club, who maintained 1t for the purpose of fishing and boating. Conemaugh valley stood only few feet above low water mark. The river passes through a gorge to point below Conemaugh and through a narrow valley
 to Stony Creek, below Johnstown, where the stone bridge of the Pennsylvania railroad forms buttress, which acted as a dam to the flood, keeping it back in the valley. Mineral Point is literally on level with low water mark, while Johnstown and its suburbs are close down by the water line. There could be no surer death trap for flood than this, and all of these towns have suffered by the flood. Bolivar is about eighteen miles below Johnstown, and the flood gates once opened the water must sure- ly go rushing on clear to and beyond Boli- var, for there is no other way of escape for it.
 eve were afraid of that lake," said gen. tlefnan WQO nRu uFcO HI JOuustOWh 1OE years, five were afraid of that lake seven years ago. No one could see the immense height to which that artificial dam had been built without fearing the tremendous power of the water behind it. I doubt if there was a man or woman in Johustown who at some time or other had not feared and spoken of the terrible disaster that has now come. People wondered and asked why the dam was not strengthened, as it certainly had be- come weak, but nothing was done, and by and by they talked less and less about it as nothing happened, though now and then some would shake their heads as if conscious that the fearful day would come some time when their worst fears would be transcended by the horror of the actual occurrence. CONVERTED INTO LAKE. "Johnsrown Is in hollow between two rivers, and that lake must have swept over the city at 8 depth of forty feet. It cannot be, it is impossible that such an awful thing could happen to city of ten thousand in habitants, and if it has, thousands have lost their lives, and men are to blame for it, for warnings have been uttered thousand times .5 I,oxz