Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-09
TIE SILVER LINING
or the Black Ciohd Over Johuutown is III,
ReveIatIon of Human Nature ut It's Best.

| Of the black Cloud Over JohuHfoWn 10 the
ReveIatIon of Human Nature nc Its Best.
III hard to believe that it is now ten days
since the dam at South Fork gave way, so vivid
and absorbing are the scenes OF that terrible
! Friday still. Everybody, ] imagine; finds 1t i'm
possible to keep away from the subject. A
| good deal of the SAVIOR has been extracted from
life for the time being How can cue take
| pleasure In material things while so many
hearts are bleeding and 50 many eyes are
streaming close at hand. Blood is thicker than
| water; the kinship of nationality and neigh
borhood is potential in such crisis as this.
We are deeply distressed Mt the blotting out of
thousands of useful and lovely lives the more
SO because they are SO near to us. at our doors
almost; but II i've hundred times as many lives
had been sacrificed TO food or sword or famine
| in the far Indies or In China we would have dis
missed the news with word or two: How hor-
rible" maybe, or 'sLives are valued cheaply
there" and never thought upon the massacre
| again.
Here the death-dealing monster struck 50
near to us; the horrid remnants of destruction
! floating under our very eyes and the sympa-
thetic quivering OF many about US told how far
and how deep the anguish reached-that the
man who could not catch the pathos of the
hour must have been stone or steelt his hearts
core.
Now that the bitterness Of the afiiction, the
primal horror of the catastrophe have passed
there is some interest in examining events that
have succeeded the great one which made the
name of Johnstown pitifully musical all the
world over.
1t is interesting to notice who the men are
that jumped into the lead in the relief Of the
devastated city. In such an emergency as that
which confronted Pittsburg the day after
Johnstown had been washed out it is only one
class of men that can come to the front. The men
who were equal to the occasion were without
exception YiriIe, intense and aggressive. Lead
ers from their birth. Those of lesser force were
plentiful to follow, buttthe leaders, the actual
movers of men, of necessity were few. They
were enough, too. No need exists to explain
why Captain w. R. Jones. Mr.. William Finn
and Mr.. ]. B, Scott General Hastings and
others maybe are the leaders. They are all
men of force, the two former more generally
known for administrative power. perhaps.
But although these leaders have long been
recognized in Pittsburg, yet at first thought
one might very reasonably have thought of
other men whose private business might
have been supposed to have fewer claims upon
them. If the need for really large caliber di-
rectors of the work Of rescue and relief had
been less have no doubt that men of smaller
size would have been now in charge.
sxs
IT is as if you were TO insertan advertisement
in THE DISPATCH for man Of a certain de-
scription. There would be lots Of respondents
who would not suit. Of course, but by and by
the right man would appear. When catas-
trophe, like that at Johnstown occurs
it carries with it specification OF the man
needed for the occasion. In such case as that
Of Johnstown the qualities desired in the man
for the hour are on the surface. The very
force of natural circumstances will drive the
unsuitable material away and open an avenue
for the right man. Sometimes it happens that
the interference of man viii delay the consum-
nation of the process Of selection. 1t is impos-
sible to always escape the interference of I'M
beetles; and wooden.headed official or two
must always be included in the calculation of
problems OF this kind Pennsylvania hardly
recognized this fact early enough, but she is
fairly aware of its Importance now.
sxs
ANOTHER thing for which we ought to be
thankful to great crises for doing, is the GER
tain demonstration they make of iuefliciency,
cowardice and pettiness In all sorts of men.
No citizen is SO high but the test of . great
emergency may lay him low Nor can q man
be of such low degree that his response to the
bugle call Of mighty opportunity may not ele-
Doubtless when the records are all in there
will be found there many name glistening in
golden merit that never shone before, and
many name we had thought to see will be
totally erased.
TALKING of the records, could not glorious
roll be made of the heroes who appeared like
meteors to shine and then perchance die, amid
the music of the monstrous food, the crash Of
fa11 f1A ragn olz - lie fho
awful sights in the doomed town. The girl
who patiently waited, pinned In the gigantic
pyre that the food formed and kindled at the
railroad BRIDGE while the rescuers and the
flames raced for her life, who, when the heat
of an awful death was scorching her pale
cheek, and the last of her would-be rescuers
was beaten OIL reached out her hand and said
to him gently, THANK you" as she gave him
her handkerchief There was heroinei Not
wall of despair, not weak peal Of fearful
cries, not word Of all the supplication she
might have made-but che met death with
more bravery than it takes soldier to face
battery.
Even the babes were heroic They lisped
words Of comfort to distracted parents and
met the perils of the passage through the
tumultuous food with calmly clasped hands
and minds serene. Surely this was in the mercy
of God.
How many heroes there were, who can say?
Countless stories Of superb self-sacrifice have
been told. In part the excess of women VIC
Tins among the dead may be accounted for on
the ground that they are always more unselfish
than men. To save her loved ones, many
woman lost the last chance to preserve her life
when the flood came.
But among those who went to succor the
saved and recover the dead we're manv in
whom one would hardly expect to see the
broad, bright light of charity and unselfish
courage shine. Men who have not been known
to spend thought upon anyone's existence but
their own before, felt the appeal of the Johns
town victims. and went over to help them.
Young men whose hands had known the con-
tact of nothing harder than tennis racquet, or
who had spent thought upon no more serious
subjects than q game of pool; men of an elder
age, whose souls had seemed glued to money
bags or the material pleasures of lazy life;
men Of fashion, men Of learning, all sorts and
conditions OF men responded to the call of
help. And when they reached Johnstown there
was no mistakiDg them for idle visitors; they
helped to carry and bury the dead; to bind up
the wounded, and cheerfufly lent their backs
and their brains to the pack-horse service of
the commissariat.
So even this hideous calamity has something
of silver lining in the revelation of human
nature at its best IN places not always to be
looked for. HEPBURN JOHNS