The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1900, 1889-06-04
Floods on Floods Descend!
HOURLY THE WATERY HOLO-
CAUST HORRORS INCREASE
TWELVE TO FIFTEEN THOUSAND
HUMAN BEINGS
SUDDENLY SWEPT TO THEIR TT
NAL ACCOUNT!

MOST APPALLING CALAMITY THAI
| EVER OCCURRED IN
AMERICA.
The Dark Waves Of Death and Desolation
JoHNsTowN, Pa, June 2.-The dar]
disaster of day, with its attendant ter
rors, thrilled the universe and drew tw,
continents closer together by the chord.
OF sympathy that bind humanity. Tn,
midnight terror of Ashtabula and Chats
worth evoked tears of pity from every
hreside in Christendom, but the ,rue
story OF Johnstown, when all is known
will stand solitary and alone as the acme
OF mans annihilation by the potent forces
to which humanity is ever subject.
Menacing clouds still hover darkly over
the valley of death and the mutterinp
thunder, that ever and anon reverberates
in the distance, seems like the sardonic
chuckle OF the demon of destruction; but
the modern deluge has done its work for
Johnstown. The waters are rapidly sub
siding, but the angry torrent still eddies
around the scene of desolation and the
time has not yet arrived to tell the pa
thetic story of Black Fridays devastation
1t is not hacknied utterance to say
that no pen can adequately depict the
horrors of this twin disaster-holocaust
and deluge. The deep emotions that
swell from the heart of every spectator
find most eloquent expression in silence
"a silence that bespeaks mans recogni-
tion OF his subservience to the elements
and his impotence to avert catastrophe.
The morning opens dark and dreary.
Great drops Of rain fall occasionally.
Another storm seems imminent. Every
one feels thankful, though, that the
weather still remains cool and the gradu-
al putrefacion of the hundreds of bod
les that still line the streets and lie hid
den under miles Of driftwood and debris
is not unduly hastcned. This morning
peculiar stencil Of decaying human flesh
is plainly perceptiblc to the senses as one
descends the bank Of Stony Creek for
half mile along the smouldering ruins
Of the wreck. The most skeptical now
the worst and realize that per-
haps thousands of bodies will be charred
and blackened beneath this great funeral
pyre.
Searchers wander wearily over the
smoking mass and, as occasionally a sud
len shout comes over the waters, the sill
mt watchers on the hill realize that an
other CHASTITY discovery has been added to
he list of revelations that chill every
leart and draw tears even to the eyes of
From the banks the charred remains of |
he victims Of the flames and flood are
plainly visible, as the receding waters re-
uctantly give up their dead. Beneath
lmost every log or blackened beam, the
skull or blanched remains of
lbs or lifeless limbs mark all that re-
nains Of life's hopes and dreams.
Since 10 o'clock last night fire engines
ave been busy constantly playing on the
uins. At times the fire seems almost ex-
but the blaze breaks out
fresh in new quarter and again the
7ater and flames wage in fierce combat.
The chief sensation of the morning has
'een the united remonstrances of the
physicians against the extinguishing of
he burning wreck. They maintain with
philosophy that to the anxious searchers
seems heartless that hundreds, if not
thousands, of lifeless, decaying bodies
hould be left beneath this mass of burn
ng ruins; but it would be better, they
ay, to permit natures great scavenger,
he flames, to pursue his work unmolest-
d than to expose to further decay the
orde of putrefying bodies that lie be-
eath this debris.
There can be but one result. DAYS will
lapse before the rubbish can he suffici-
ntl y removed to permit the recovery of
lese bodies. Long ere that every corpse
ill be putrid mass sending forth those
rightful emanations of decaying human
esh that, in q crowded community like ]
his, can give but one result-dreadful
yphus. II
"Burn the wreck" A loud cry of in
ignation arose from the vast multitude
nd the warnings of science were lost in ,
le eager demands of those that sought 81.
le remains of the near and dear. The ,
ose was again turned on the kissing
ass and rapidly the flames yielded to
le supremacy of water.
It is almost impossible to conceive the
ktent of the smoking ruins. There is {
D telling how many bodies have been 9
st. Adjutant Gen'l Hastings, who has (
large of everything, states this morning e
lat he supposed there were at least e. s
70 people under the burning debris; but i
le only way to find out how many lives n
ere lost was to take the census of the G
eople now living and subtract that from Z
le census before the food. an my t
9inion there are any way from 1000 to J
600 souls lost from Johnstown alone. e