Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-06-07
The Firemen Are Unable to Put Out
the Fire Which is Burning
in the Wreckage,
Which Was Blasted With Dynamite
Yesterday to Let the Water
Through the Bridge.
A Pneumonia Scourge Breaking Out
Among the Fugitives From
the Flood.
wouldn't Heed the Warning.


JoHNsTowN, June 4.-People who visited
the reservoir say the lake is completely
dried out. The dam broke in the center at
So'clock on Friday afternoon and at 4
O'clock it was dry. That great body of
water passed out in one hour. Parker and
Van Buren, who are building a new drain
ing system at the lake, tried to avert the
disaster by digging a sluice way in one
side to prevent the dam breaking. They
had about forty-one men at work and did
all they could without avail The water
passed over the dam about foot above its
top, beginning at about 2:s0. Whatever
happened in the. way of a cloud burst took
place during the night. There had been
but little rain up to dark. When the work.
men woke in the morning the lake was
very full and it was raising at the rate of
foot an hour. 1t kept on raising until at
2 2o'clock it first began pouring over the
dam and undermining it. Men were sent
three or four times during the day to warn
the people. below of the danger. When
the final break came at O'clock there was
sound like tremendous and continued
peals of thunder. Big rocks and earth
were shot up iii midair in great columns
and then the wave started down the
ravine. A farmer who escaped said the
water did not come down like wave but
jumped on his house and beat it in. In an
instant he was safe upon the hillside but
his wife and two children were killed. At
the present time the lake looks like a
cross between the crater of a vo1cano and a
mud puddle with stumps of trees and rocks
scattered over it. There is small stream
of muddy water running through the cen
ter OF the lake site, but very little of the
dam remains.
MOT A RAY OF SUNSHINE.
JoHNsTowN. Pa, June 4.-Four days
have elapsed since the wave Of death
swept down through the valley Of the Con-
emaugh, but no ray of sunshine has yet
liehtened the scene of horror at the Johns
town bridge. The sky is still overcast
with heavy clouds, and the sun rests be-
hind menacing pail as though reluctant
to view the handiwork of his potent ele-
ments. For thlrty-six hours without inter-
mission, fire engines have played upon the
smoking ruins above the bridge, but the
flames that break out afresh at frequent
intervals in this floating field of ruins seem
to defy the suDduing force of water.
Nearly 1900 men are employed In the diff
ferent parts Of the valley clearing up ruins
and prosecuting diligent search for undis-
covered dead. Their investigations are
not without fruitful results, for bodies of
dead and charred victims of the flood and
fire are discovered with un-
diminished frequency. 1t becomes
hourly mere and more apparent that not
a single vestage will ever be recognized of
the hundreds that were roasted in the
flames about the bridge. Since the last
sentence was penned, a party Of searchers
unearthed a charred and unsigbtly mass
from the smouldering debris, within thirty
yards in front of the Associated Press
headquarters. Unused to such frightful
discoveries, the leader of the gang pro-
nounced the remains to be q blackened log.
and it required the authoritative verdict of
physician to demonstrate that the
CHASTITY discovery was the charred remains
Of human body. The water has receded
in the night almost as rapidly as it came.
and behind it remains the sorriest sight
imaginable. The dove that has come has
no green leaf Of promise for its wings are
draped with hue of mourning and desc
lati0n. Before the windows of the Associ-
ated Press headquarters lies the great
skeleton Of dead Johnstown. Great ribs
Of rocky sand stretch across the chest,
SCARED and covered with abrasions. Acres
Of mud. acres Of wreckage, acres of un-5
steady, tottering buildings, acres of un-
known dead, acres Of CHASTITY objects
which have been eagerly sought for since
Friday, acres Of smoky, streaming ruins,
acres of sorrow FOR somebody lie out there
In tho aunahina 0nf in tho m ;d7lo ne tho