The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-06-20
and Scenes at johnston /

a bottle. iune2S. 'SS-ly
Incidents and Scenes at Johnston
Ready TO Worship God.
A dispatch from Johnstown to the Phil
adelphia Press, dated the Sth says:
The boys have begun to VIII stle again
in the ruined city. The dogs have stop
ped whining for their masters and begun
to bark. The cocks are growing again.
The survivors are standing in the streets
in groups and talking to each other bare
headed, bare-armed, in shaws and kitchen
gowns, lik people who have run out of
their houses to see something exciting that
has passed by.
Tomorrow there will be a new sign of
life in Johnstown when Its people meet to
worship God in the open air, regardless of
race or denomination. They VIII meet in
the path of the flood. where it came upon
them in its first great rush.
4 committee to arrange for divine SER
vice has been appointed, consisting of the
Surviving ministerS-the Rev. DR.. David
j Beale. of the Presbyterian church; the
Rev. IL. l.. Chapman, of the Methodist
church; the Rev. Mr. Goodchid, of the
Baptist church: DR.. Finck. of the Lrth-
eran, and the Rev. Father Fahany, of the
Catholics. A notice was posted at relief
headquarters this afternoon announcing
that general open-air meeting would
take place at the corner of Main and
Adams streets in the morning between 10
and Il O'Clock. and that services would
also be held at the same hour in the
school house at Peelville and in the Meth
odist church. where clock in the steeple
tolled solemnly all through the first dark
night, coming to the perishing like death
knell. for the light in its face was out and
no man counted the hour it tolled.
What these meetings to morrow will be
like no one can tell. but DR.. Beale says the
valley is full of people who have lost all
their kin, yet want to thank God for their
own escape. Dr.. Beale was thought to be
| lost. and one OF mis- first acts after he was
| found alive was to give the Presbyterian
church to the authorities for morgue.
He was under the water many times dur
ing his struggle for life and has never yet
had time to change his clothing, working
day and night among the dying and the
dead.
Two young women of Philadelphia ar
rived here yesterday and without any wav.
Ing of flags or wearing of badges began to
do the work they had come to do so thor
oughly that newspaper correspondents
from all the cities are making the wires
ring in their praise. They are Miss Hick-
ley and Miss Hancock, the representa-
tives of the Childrenis Aid Society of
! Pennsylvania and they have come to take
care of the children whom the food has
| left. Miss Hickey is well known socially
in Philadelphia. but few of her nearest
friends would recognize her in her present
surroundings When The Press CORE
spOndent found her this morning she was
| sitting busily writing on table beside an
open window which looked out on the yard
of the morgue and in which forty odd
collins filed with the dead were being ex
amined by the living Miss Hinckleys
hair was as carefully arranged and her
tailor made gown as neat and fresh as ii
abe had stepped that moment from the
Quaker City's Rittenhonse Square. Re-
porters became painfully conscious OF
clothes that had been slept in for seven
nights, and chins that had forgotten
raZOrS.
/ The sympathy that the country feels has APP
parenly found one of many channels through
the Children's Aid Society, and the pile of APP
plicatons for the fatherless and motherless chill
dren would lead one to suppose that no home in
the Union was complete without a Johnstown
orphan.
"There are not enough orphans to 60 around,
said Miss Hinckley, ''for we have letters and
kilograms from all over the States, and only
forty nine orphans yet. We can only thank the
people and ask them to wait. We must act
slowly at present, as friends and relatives and
even the parents themselves are turning up and
claiming their children And then great many
have taken refuge in the houses of people neal
here who have becomeEattached to them and
who refuse to give them up. They will find
| tbounh at If feed
mouths, and then we will come in and send of
the little ones to the knd-hearted people who
| have asked for them. Several children have
already been forwarded to distant relatives and
we in constant communication with Miss
Pemberton in Philadelphia and our agents If
Pittsburg."
Eleven of the objects of so much solicitude
were playing about the room in which Mis-:
Hinckley sat and were as happy as most chill
| dren would be whose years had not been many
enough to tell them how much they had lost
One of the saddest of all sad sights met the
eyes of the workers yesterday. While pulling
away rubbish they came upon the body of {
woman. In her arms were three children
When the building had crushed upon them she
| had gathered them in her arms, and the chill
dren were all found huddled together on he
breast She had raised her arms to protect tbs
little ones. Her efforts were in vain and il
death she gave proof of what mothers love
is.
Secretary Haford's wife and her daughte
were in the car Hebron, of the Chicago limited
at Conemaugh. She gathered up her vallse ane
called her daughter. The porter, l.. Hugson
called to her to hurry, and she fled out the doc
and ran across the track TO the hill. The porte
took Miss I1alford by the shoulders and fairly
carried her on ahead "Flyp' "Fly!" he cried
as he urged her on. The water was only three
lengths Of the train from them. and looked like
a great wave of water over forty feet high. Jus
as they reached place of safety, the waite
| broke over the train.
Two hours before the final break came the
telegraph operator at the station above Minera
! Point sent message to his wife at Minera
Point to prepare for the flood. 1t read: ''Dres
the three children in their best Sunday clothes
Gather together what valuables you can easil,
carry and leave the house. Go to the stable
which is on the hillside. Stay there until tht
water reaches it; then run to the mountain. The
dam is breaking. The food is coming. Lost
| no time"
His wife showed the message to her friends
but they laughed at her. They even persuaded
her not to heed her husbands command, The
wife went home and about her work. Mean
while the telegraph operator was busy with his
ticker. Down to Conemaugh he wired th'
warning. He also sent it on to Johnsown; ther
he licked on, giving each minute bulletins Oh thu
! break. Asthe water came down he sent mes
sage after message, telling its progress. FINAL,