The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1889-06-14
THE DAM All SOUTH FORK LAKE.
The view is taken from IL point below the d,m md .n.
peculiar way in Witch lie a an. c,t S,.s. IL :: sne

through putrifaction that a grinning skel-
atom would show as much re -cmllance 20
the persons in life as they. Almost every
stroke OF the pick In some portions Of TIN.
city to day resulted in the discovery of
another victim, and although the funerals
of the morning relieved the morgue Of
their crush before night they were as full
IS ever.
Wherever one turns the melancholy
view of a coffin is met. Every train into
Johnstown was laden with them, the bet
ter ones being generally accompanied by
friends Of the dead. Men could be seen
staggering owe the ruins with shining
mahogany caskets on their shoulders.
Several stumbled and fell into the abound.
ing pits. Tho hollow houses of the dead
went bouncing over the stones like drums
in q funeral march. The Colin famine
seems to be allevinted.
b enormity Of the devastation wrought
by the flood is becoming more and more
apparent with every effort of tho laborers
to resolve order out Of chaos. Over 100
men have been all day engaged in an
effort to clear q narrow passage from the
death-bridge upward through the sea Of
debris that blocks tho Conemaugh for
nearly half a mile. Every ingenuity known
to men has been restored to by tile crow.
The giant power of dynamite was brought
into requisition, and at frequent intervals
the roa. of explosions reserberated
through the valley, aud sticks, stones. and
logs would fly high in the air. Gradually a
few Of the heaviest timbers were demol.
tshed and the fragments permitted to float
downward through the center arch. At
nightfall, however, the clear space above
the bridge did not exceed an area of sixty
feet in length, by forty feet in width.
When II reflects that fully twenty-five
acres are to DO cleared in this way the task
ahead seems an interminable one. But
there is no royal road, and IL the hundreds
or thousands Of bodies beneath these black
eneo ruins are to be recovered for Christian
burial the labors Of to-day must be contin-
ued with increased vigor.
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, sisters, or brothers rest beneath
this sea of fiotsamI end jetsam, this sug
gestion of cremation meets a wild furore
of objection. 1t Is only in defa ence tn
the unrea oning mandate Of grief that the
hurculear labor OF clearing the river by
means Of the dynamite and tie derrick ID
persisted in. There rs no hope in tho
calmer minds that this task can be pursued
to the end.
The progress to-day is hardly discerni.
BILE, and ere two days more have elapsed
there Is little doubt that the emanations of
putrid bodies will have become SO fright
fLl as to drive the hardest workimen from
the scene. Until that time arrives, how
ever, there is no hope that the grief .strick-
en- populace will abandon the cherished
hope Of again gazing upon the forms Of
loved n . whose lives went out in the fire
and hood Of tile conemaugh. The plead.
tngs OF sanitarians and the logic Of engi-
neers alike fail to find an echo in the
minds Of the grieving and afflicted, but in
. few more days the sterner logic Of nature
will assert itself, and In the face Of impos.
sibillty the task Of cremation will become
. Ct ristisn duty.
Where Johnstown's principal storas
stood last Friday are now pitched 1000
tents, and before night this number will
probably be doubled. Under this shelter
are accommodated the workmen who ara
trying to clear the streets. Over 5,OtI
men n thus employed in Johnstowp
proper, about LOO Of these being the reg
uiar street hands hired by Contractors
Booth and Flynn Of Pittsbprg, the others
being volunteers.
Mr.. Nynn's estimates show mure than
anything the chaotic condition Of this city.
10 rays: sit will take 1000 men thirty
days to clear. the ground 80 that the streets
are passahls and the work Of rebuilding
can b commenced, aud ] am ata lnss "a
know how the work Is to be dope. Thu
enthusiasm will room die opt and The yo(un.