Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-06

oil bodies beneath these blackened ruins are
TO be recovered for christian burial the la
bors OF to-day must be continued with in
creased vigor.
SENTIMENT VS. SCIENCE.
There are many conservative minds that
recommend the use of the torch in this work
of clearing the river, but they are not among
the sufferers, and when such counsels are
heard by those whose wives, children, sis
ters or brothers rest beneath this sea of
fiotsam and ietsam, the suggestions of Gre
nation meets indignant objection. 1t Is
only in Difference to the uureasoning man
date of grief that the herculean labor of
clearing the river by means of dynamite and
derricks is persisted in. There is no hope in
calmer minds that this task can be pursued
to the end. The progress of to-day is hardly
discernable and ere two more days have
elapsed there is little doubt the emanations
of the putrid bodies will have become so
frightful as to drive the hardest workmen
from the scene Until that time arrives
however, there Is no hope that this stricken
populace will abandon the cherished hope of
again gazing upon the forms of loved ones
whose lives went out in the fire and food of
Conemaugh. The peadings of sanitarians
and the logic of engineers, alike fail to find
echo in the minds of the grieving and af-
ficted, but IN few more days the sterner
logic of nature will assert itself, and crema-
ton will become Christian duty.
MORE HELP NEEDED.
Notwithstanding the fact that nearly every
prominent city in the United States is rails
ing funds for the relief of the sufferers, the
wants of the homeless and afflicted are far
from being alleviated. At the various sta
tions, to-day. the crowds of applicants,were
continuous from morning till night and
many Of the needy were forced to wait in
line for hours before their turn came,
and their little portion was allotted
to them. Hundreds of thousands of
dollars must pour into this stricken
valley if positive suffering and privation is
to be avoided. Labor and manufacturing Of
nearly every kind is OF a standstlll in the
valley, and weeks or months must elapse
before the Cambria Iron works and other
industrial institutions can possibly resume
and give employment to the thousands that
depend upon them for support.
TWO HUNDRED BoDIEs
were recovered from the ruins to-day. Some
were identified, but the great majority were
not. This number included all the morgues,
| the Fourth ward school, the Cambria City,
| Morrellville, Kernville and Presby-
terian church. At the latter place
a remarkable state of affairs ex-
washed out completely, and the second, while
| submerged, was badly damaged but not
| ruined. The floors and pews were drenched
| and mud has collected on the mating and
| carpets an inch deep. Walking is attended
| with difficulty, and undertakers and attend
ants with arms Dared slide about the slip
perry surface at tremendous rate. The
| chancel is filed with cofiins strips of mus
| lin, boards and all undertaking acce Sor-
! les; lying across the tops of pews, are
| dozen pine boxes, each containg victim of
| the flood. Printed cards are tackled on each.
| Upon them the sex and full description of
| the enclosed body is written, with the name,
| if known.
| THE UNDERTAKERs' LUNCH.
One of the most grizzly and nauseating
trbt fn or tn nf
| death is the lunching arrangement for the
| undertakers. These men are working so
hard and conscientously they they have no
time for meals, and huge boilers
| of steaming coffee, loaves of bread,
dried beef and preserves are carried into the
charnel houses and placed at the disposal of
| the workers. Along comes one of the weary
| toilers, his sleeves rolled up, apron in front
| weather He has just finished washing a
| clammy corpse, and has daubed it
| with cold water, manipulated it about on
boards, and in the interval before the body
| of another poor wretch is brought in, gets a
| cup of coffee and a sandwich. With dripping
| hands he eats his lunch with relish, setting
his cup occasionally beside the hideous face
| of decomposing corpse, and totally obvious
| to his horrible surroundings.
THE CRANKY PREACHER.
At the Fourth ward school house, where
| most of the undertaking work is being done,
there was some slight trouble over the ques-
ton of liquor Rev. Mr.. Beal, of
| the Presbyterian church, has charge OF
| this morgue and objected to the undertaken
| drinking whisky. Inasmuch as man with
| cast iron constitution could not work al
| anything in this place without stimulant
of some kind the Indertakers protested
| against Beals unreasonable prejudice, it is
said and threatened to cease attending the
bodies This had the effect of modifying
| BeaPs temperance scruples.
| A GLOOMY OUTLOOK.
AS the days roll on and the heaps of debris
| are penetrated, it becomes more and more
| apparent that the death list will be more
than five thousand, and the general i'm
preston is that the victims will number
| between eight and ten thousand. The deeper
the wreck drifts are penetrated the greater
the number discovered. On Franklin street
thirteen were found in cluster to-day, and
few minutes afterwards twelve more wert
found. DR.. Lee, of the Pennsylvania state
board of health, was to-day asked what il
his opinion were the prospects OF an epi
demic in the Conemaugn valley. He said:
God only knows. No man living csn tel
what will come out of those piles of drift ant
wreckage. To-day we started portion o
our corps of sanitary inspectors INTO thu
thick debris and in a little while the bodies
of fifty dead animals, mostly horses, were re
moved and hauled away for burial. If thi
percentage is kept up here, ther,
is fearful amount of decomposing anima
matter to be removed or encountered. hav
to-day ordered the surgeon general at Wash
ington to forward unlimited quantities o
dsinfectants to Johnstown. There is NOR
promised from up the mountain, and hop
to be able to have the whole city fortifie'
inside of few days.
| FIFTY IN ONE ROOM.
| house to house canvass was ordered b.
the sanitary authorities to-day, and its reve
lations, so tar as it went were startling il
| the extreme. 1t was found that four ant
even six families are being crowde
into single house; that a
| high as fifty slept in one room
| that the doors and windows wer
left closed to shut out the stencil and the
dampness, and that as result, pneumoni
(the existence was first discovered by the
Associated press correspondent, was gain
ing an alarming foothold. 1t is estimated
| there are at least hundred well defined case
| of the disease in JohnsLoWn to-day.
| A FALSE RUMoR.
Investigation shows there is no truth in tn
report that at Ihillipsburg yesterday ther
had been great loss of life. and that "a
bodies were recovered.
AMERICANS ABROAD ACTING.
Subscriptions Handed In BY Tray
elers and Charitable Foreigners.
4 n I..T T.. y .afa.aI d..