The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-06-06
Trains Loaded With Passengers Caught in the Swelling Tide
Thrilling Stories of Escape.


JoHNSTowN. Pa, June The tale will
never be told; the black nights of horror,
the days of hunger. woe and death; the
ruined homes. wrecked fortunes and all the
fearful detail of horror of the Conemaugh
can ne yer be told in print or portrayed by
the artist.
The marks on the banks high above the
then swollen stream showed where the wave
had struck. Immense trees, sycamore, oak
aud hickory, had been torn violently from
the earth and tossed about like chips. The
many islands in the river were covered with
these lords of the forest twisted and torn
and lett lying in all conceivable shapes and
places. The meadows aud wheatields along
the fertile river bottoms were swept of their
promise of rich harvests Nothing but
rank, Shiny mud and ooze where had smiled
the blossoining clover or waved the deep
green fields of wheat.
But what is that object lying out there in
the middle of what had been an oats field,
Just west of Niueveh. That is surely not
one of the victims of last nights flood. Yes,
it is. Look at it lying there bloated, foul
and horrid, with arms twisted in wild distor-
tion as though still battling with the
relentless waves. It will battle no more.
Rough but kind hands have already begun
the Christian work of preparing it for burial
other lying near that pile OF driftwood. It
might at this distance be taken for a bundle
of water-soaked clothes, but as the hands of
the workers lift it up the long dark hair,
matted together with sand and gravel, falls
away and reveals the distorted, agonized face
of woman
At Nineveh, the CHASTITY burdens that had
been gathered as the train passed along were
taken off and added to the number that had
already been collected in the station ware.
room. There was sight to make the stout
est shudder. Ranged according to size, from
the stalwart man to the help
less babe, were over ninety bodies.
There lay the grizzled, horny-handed
laborer, his working clothes, soaked and sod
den, clinging 10 his bruised and broken
limbs There lay the form of careworn
mother, the scant hair drawn back from the
pale brow and the work-worn hands folded
over the breast, plain homely dress, with
gingham apron tied about the waist pair
of coarse shoes showed the house wife and
that the Hood had taken her away almost in
the midst of household work. But saddest
of all, away down at the foot of that CHASTITY
row lay q golden-haired angel, whose infant
spirit, far above the wreck and fury OF the
food, sleeps on the bosom of the Great Shep-
herd. With the Shiny mud clinglng to that
tender little body, with its baby clothes torn
ana OFencUeu, IucIc Is StiiA ooLhCthius 81
sweet and peaceful about the pretty face and
the dimpled hand crossed on the river
stained bosom, that one can hardly realize.
that the baby form had been the toy of the
waves for miles down through the gorges OF
the mountains.
The train pushed on, forcing its way as
near the center of the devastation as possible
The scenes witnessed in the meadows below
Nineveh were repeated. AT each little vii
lage the signs of the fury of the deluge in
creased Here was house overturned and
there was the wreck of a stable. Scattered
along the shore until the latter was lined
with the wreckage, were piled the ruins of
hundreds of houses. Where they came from
could only be guessed. There would be seen
the whole side of a two-story frame house,
windows, doors and all. Another place
would be seen large carpets strung on the
limbs OF trees, bedclothing strewn among the
bushes, and every evidence that houses had
been broken and their contents whirled
dozen miles from where they had rested.
Just above the upper tower, "Sz," at
Sang Hollow, is shown the niightiest work
of the flood. Around a bend in the river,
along the foot of the mountain, and just
where the full weight of that destructive
wave could strike with the most terrible
force, the tracks of the Pennsylvania rail-
rort were picked up and twisted like
willow withes. Pieces of the track, the
rails held together by the cross-ties, were
bent double as easily as broom wire ia