Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-06-14

INall the columns thus far published
regarding the great calamity in western
Pennsylvania, the following piece o
descriptive writing from the pen of Rev
Talmage, published in the New Yorl
World, stands out as the most thrilling
the mort brilliant, the most unique:
The woes aggregate. The flames EN-
brace the floods. The doomed valley be
comes an uncovered sepulchre on which
the filthy vultu1es swoop. The five hun
dred lives lost at Johnstown become the
become ten thousand, and the ten thousand
have become fifteen thousand, and the hor.
ror rises with every day and hour, until
the nation is in an agony of sympathy
The two elements of water and fire are in
contention as to which shall do the wrOst.
Enough water to put out the fire and
enough fire to lick up the water. but they
mountain of debris are many of the dead.
Surgeons and health officers cry:
sLet the fires burn until the bodies are
cremated and so the valley be kept free
from the pestilence that must come If fthese
bodies are left to dissolution in the open
air.
ssNo! Mop cry out husbands and wives,
fathers and mothers, and children. "Let
the engines play upon the flames and the
of our loved ones for one more look before
they so out of sight forever. Let our white
hands of grief bury them, and not the red
hands of confagrati0n." ken
If I were a physician in that stri cn.''
valley would say "Let cremation 60 ohe
If l had one of my household in the
ruin, l would say, "Put out the firew
r ALL vl>nk =
and that is, leave all to God. This is ca
lamity too big for human management.
The angels of destruction are presiding at
those obsequies. Thank God, the souls
have gone free and the waters cannot
drown them and the fires cannot burn
them.
But while water and fire are in raging
controversy as to which shall make black
est the wretchedness, another combat more
scended charity anu diabolism. While
Christian relief, with food and medicine.
comes upon the scene it is confronted with
demons who are robbing the dead. From
the swollen fingers of beauty and love the
rings are torn and the pockets of the dead
are rihed. May there be shot and ropes
enough on the ground to hang or shoot
them! No judge or jury or trial are appro-
pirate for such incarnate fends. They
ought not be allowed to live an hour. Away
with them from the face of the earth-the
quicker the better. Did ever such opposites
meet on any scene of calamity, charity and
ruffianism, angel and devil, rescue and
lOathsOmeness.
Why is it multitudes are crying? Why
is it that all this has come upon those
beautiful valleys and that these multitudes
are so awfully slain?
Let no one say, st was judgment of
God upon that people," as so often it is said
in regard to such disasters. No! There
are no better people under the sun than
those last Friday slain. have been in their
homes and knew them we'll. Besides that,
there are hundreds of towns and cities by
their iniquities inviting the divine judg-
ment who were never struck with light
ming or washed under inexOrable waves.
If Brooklyn and New York had been pun
lshed for all their sins, the Hudson and
East rivers would now stand higher than
the piers of the East river bridge. and the
bluefish would be holding high carnival in
our dining halls and pantries.
The JOhnstOwn disaster will be set
down in history beside the three or four
greatest disasters in the nineteenth cen
tury. Since the chaotic food that stood
fifteen cubits above the highest mountains
there has been very few deluges to equal
it. Now upon this modern deluge let the
ark of our nations sympaty sail!
T.DEWITT TALslAGE.
No. South Oxford street, BrookIon, 1I:sO
p. m., June 8, 1889.