Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-06-08

dying in the surrounding houses. In
all this misery women gave prema..
ture birth to children.
The scene at st. Columbia's
Church was awful, Forty or Fifty
bodies had been carried into it and
laid on the muddy seats. Lying in a
row in this church were five children
from two to SIX years old. No one
had identified them this afternoon.
Their little curls were matted with
mud; their nostrils were filed with
sand, and the eyes often completely
covered. No one had come to wash
away the dirt from their tiny faces,
nor the blood veins from cuts and
bruises.
Like A Paul Revere.
Johnstoaca, Pa, June ga name
less Paul Revere lies somewhere
among the nameless dead. Who is
he may never be known, but his ride
will be famous in local history.
Mounted on a grand, big bay horse,
he came riding down the pike which
passes through Conemaugh to Johns
town like some angel of wrath Of old
shouting his portentous warning
"Run for your lives to the hills: :"
"Run to the hills ~
The people crowded out of their
houses along the thickly settled
street, awe-struck and wondering.
Nobody knew the man, and some
thought he wasa maniac, and laugh
ed. On at quick pace he rode and
shrilly rang out his awful cry. LII a
few moments, however, there came
a cloud of ruin down the broad
streets, down the narrow alleys,
grinding, twisting, hurting, overturn-
ing, crashing, annihilating, the weak
and the strong. 1t was the charge
of the food wearing its coronet of
ruin ahd devastation which grew at
every instant of its progress. Forty
feet high, some say; thirty, accord
ing to others, was this sea, and it
travelled with a swiftness like that
which lay hidden in the heels of
Mercury. On and on raced the rider
and on and on rushed the wave.
Dozens of people took heed of the
warning and ran up to the bills.
Poor, faithful rider; it vas an
unequal contest. just as he turned
across the railroad bridge the mighty
wave fell upon him and horse, rider
and bridge all went out into chaos
together. A few feet further on,
several cars of the Pennsylvania
Railroad train from Pittsburg we're
caught up and carried into the
cauldron.
Hundreds of bodies were taken to
the planning mill and placed in rows.
Some of them had their skulls
knocked in as If some brute had hit
them with a bludgeon. Fine looking
women had ugly gashes on their
cheeks, and the delicate hands were
scratched and torn as if they had
been dragged through briar patch.
Their faces were smaller and distort
ed; mouths were drawn out of shape
and the eyeballs were in some
f instances filled with mud, as also
the ears. Their slender garments
were bedraggleG with leaves, weeds
and grass, mixed with mud. The
little children arranged in rows
!, looked for all the world like large
Chinese dolls with their round,
bloated faces and bloody skins.
Many of the bodies were covered
with blood and bruised horribly.
Among the bodies at Niueveh was
that of woman with young babe
in her arms. Her limbs had stiffened
about the child, and in that position
she was stretched out on the floor.
Most of the victims at Nineveb are
women. Innocent little fellows
with their discolored faces upturned
and wearing calm expression,
brought tears to many an eye. But
it was the horrible mangling of the
bodies that made the picture IN the
sawmill so frightful and disagreeable.
The bodies in the fire can be seen
burning up, and some will be carried
into the Ohio and never recovered.
Two sleepers Of the day express
lying at Conemaugh were burned.
Oae Of the coaches OF the delayed
train, full of people, and it is report
ed that only nine of the passengers
were saved. In Conemaugh the
round houses and engines we're
moved and carried away. A -four
mill and half of a cotton mill are all
that is left of the town of Woodvale,
and Cambria City is entirly gone.
From East Conemaugh hundreds
Of houses we're washed away and
lodged against the bridge. Perhaps
fire in stove in one of the houses
started the flames. AS the houses
dashed against the immense stone
structure and were crushed like egg
shells, the flames spread, and Johns
town was illuminated by them so
that person a mile away could see
to read newspaper. The victims of
the flood were wedged in among
shattered boards and timbers, and
so became victims of the flames.
A New Florence dispatch says:
Oh the horror and infinite pity of it
all. What journey has been that
of the last half hour. Swollen corpses
lay here and there on piles of cross
ties or on the river bank among the
tangled shrubbery. Many tried to
commit suicide in their despair.
Hundreds of half dead people are
lying in buildings with no attention
the doctors being unable to attend
half of the sick. The desolation is
terrible. Whole families gone. Moth
ers raving maniacs calling for their
children. A few of a family left here
and few there,-Many of the living
wishing they had gone down with
the dead.
The calamity that has overtaken
Williamsport, Pa, the most crushing
disaster in It's history. At least
twenty-five lives have been lost and
100000 of property swept away.
The city is in darkness, the gas
works and electric light plant being
flooded. At Jersey Shore, Lock
Haven and other points north, even
!