New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1889-06-12
slCKENING SCENES.
Horrors Increasing as the Work OF
Recovery Progresses at
JOhnstOwn.

JoHNsTowN, Pa. June 5.-The gray mists
had hardly arisen from the hills this morn
ing until a thousand funerals were coursing
1 their green sides. There were no hearses,
few mourners aud as little solemnity as
| formality The majority of the collins were
of rough pine. Silently the professions moved
| and silently they unloaded in the lap Of
| mother earth. No minister of God was there
to pronounce last blessing as the clods
ratified down, except few faithful priests
who had followed some mangled representa-
tives of their faith to the grave All day
long the corpses were being hurried below
ground. The unidentified bodies were
grouped on high hill west of the doomed
city,w one epitaph suited for all and that
the word Unknown" There are hundreds
of these graves already, and each day will
increase the proportion. The possibility Of
identification diminishes every hour. Fires
are raging over the mangled graves of hun
dreds, and the partial cremation of many
bodies is inevitable. Others are becoming so
blackened in their contact with the debris
or through putrifcation that grinning
skeleton would show as much emblance
to the persons in life as they. Almost every
stroke of the pick in some portions of the
city to-day resulted in the discovery of an
other victim Wherever one turns the mel
ancholy view of a coffin is met. Every train
into Johnstown was laden with them, the bet
ter ones being accompanied by friends of the
dead Men could be seen staggering over
the ruins with shining mahogany caskets on
their shoulders. Several stumbled and fell
into the Astounding pits. The hollow houses
of the dead went bounding over the stones
like drums in funeral march. The coffin
famine appears to be alleviated.
THE ENoRM1TY OF THE DEVASTATION
Wrought by the Conemaugh flood is becom-
ing more and more apparent with every eff
fort OF the laborers to resolve order out Of
chaos Over one hundred men have been
all day engaged in an effort to clear a mar
row passage from the death bridge upward
through the sea of debris that blocks the
Conemaugh for nearly half mile Every in
genuity known to man has been resorted to
by this crew. The giant power of dynamite
was brought into requisltion, and at fire.
quenu intervals the roar of explosions re-
verberated through the valley, and sticks,
stones and. logs would fly high in the air.
When one reflects that fully twenty-five
acres are to be cleared In this
way, the task ahead seems TN
lnterminable one. But there is no roJa
road, and if the hundreds or thousands of
bodies beneath these blackened ruins are to
be recovered for Christian burial, the labors:
OF to-day must be continued with Increased
vigor. 1t is only in Difference to the unrea.
sonlng mandate of grief that the Herculean
labor of clearing the river by means of
DYNAMITE AND DERRICK
is persisted In. There is no hope IN the
calmer minds that this task can be pursued
to the end The progress of to-day is hardly
observable, and ere two more days have
elapsed there is little doubt the emauations
of putrid bodies will have become so fright.
full as to drive the hardest workman from
the scene Until that time arrives.
however. there is no hope tEaJ this grief
striker populace will abandon the cherished
hope of again gazing upon the forms of the
loved once whose lives went out in the fire
and food of the Conemaugh, The work Of
clearing up the wreck and recovering the,
bodies is now being conducted most
Systematically. Over SIX thousand men are.
at work in the various portions of the
valley, and each little gang of twenty men
is directed by foreman who is under orders
from the general headquarters. As the rub
Dish is gone over, and the bodies and scat
tered articles of value recovered, the debris
is piled up in one high mass and the torch
applied In this way the valley is assuming
a less devastated condition.
LONG DEATH LIST
Conservative men are of the opinion that
the number of people destroyed Will reach
from II, 900 to Is 600. This view of it is
based on many fragments of evidence OBJ
tanned from over one hundred citizens, be-
ing careful to select as intelligent men
and women as could be found They
were chosen from as many occupations
nc, OF III
They were asked to estimate the percentage
of loss to the total population, to tell how
many people Of their acquaintance have
disappeared and how the gathering of resi-
dents on the streets and in public places
compare with the same in former times
Their statements of fact and estimates were
proved as far as possible, and the pendulum
of calculation seems to be beating time
when it swings from 10000 to $4,000. It
must be RENE mbered that very large pro-
portion of this loss is made up of children.
Being lighter and smaller they have been
swept into out of the way recesses
and are almost inaccessible, and they
are more easily carried away. The
drift OF opinion among intelligent men,
physicians. engineers and railroad men. is
that from 900 to 1. 500 of the bodies will
taken from the debris in front of the Catho-
lie church in Johnstown borough. About
forty of the bodies were those of women.
They Were Immediately removed to the
morgue for Identification. Eve bodies were
taken out of the Wreckage near Dibert's
bank on Main street this morning. Miss
Clara Barton of Washington, D. O., the orig
inator of what is known as the Red Cross
corps, known all over the world, arrived
here this morning and will at once assume
charge of all female relief corps
MANY IN WANT.
Notwithstanding the fact that nearly every