Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-06-12

4 visitor to flood swept Johnstown,
writes Of the central part Of the town {:
Not brick remains, not a store
nor n stick Of timber III all this terri
tory. There are not even hummocks
and mounds TO show where wreckaSe
might be covered with layer of mud.
They are not there, they are gone
every building, every street railways
and everything else that covered the
surface Of the earth has vanished as
utterly a. though 1t had never been
there. The ground was swept as
clean as though some mighty scraper
had been dragged over 1t again and
again Not even the lines of the
streets can be even remotely traced
Wandering over this muddy plain
one can realize something Of what
must have been the gigantic force of
that vast whirlpool. 1t pressed upon
the town like some huge milestone,
weighing tens of thousands of tons
and revolving with awful velocity,
pounding 10 power everything be
meath. But the conception Of the
power Of that horrible eddy Of the
food must remain feeble until that
sixty acres Of burning wreckage is
inspected. Ii seems from little
distance like any other mass of wreck
age, though vastly longer than any
ever before seen in this country. 1t
must have been many times more
tremendous when II was heaped up
twenty feet higher over its whole area
and before the fire leveled it of. But
neither then nor now can the full
terror of the food that piled it there
he adequately realized until a trip
across parts where the fire has been
extinguished shows the manner in
which the stuff composing it Is pack
/ ed together. 1t Is not n heap of
broken timbers lying loosely thrown
together in all directions. 1t Is a
solid mass. The boards and timbers
which made up the frame buildings
are laid together as closely as sticks
of wood IN a pile-more closely, for
they are welded into one another un.
til each stick is as solidly fixed in
place as though all were one. \ cur.
iOus thing Is that whenever there are
a few boards together they are edge
up, and never standing on end or flat
The terrible force of the whirlpool
that ground four square miles OF
buildings into sixty acres of wreck
age left no opportunity for grasps OF
holes between pieces in the river
Everything was packed together as
solidly as though by sledgehammel
blows.
But the boards and timber OF
four square miles of buildings are
not all that is in that sixty acre mass
An immense amount of wreck from
further up the valley lies there
Twenty-seven locomotives, several
Pullman cars, and probably a hun
dred other cars, or Gll that is left OF
them, are in that mass Fragments
of iron bridges can be seen sticking
out occasionally above the wreckags
They are about the only things the
fire has not levelled, except the cur
ious hillock an eighth of mile bach
from the bridge, where the flames
apparently ragged less fiercely Scat
tered over the area also sre many
blackened logs that were too big tc
be entirely burned, and that stick NJ
now like spar buoys in sea Of ruin
Little Jets of fame, almost unseen by
daylight, but appearing as evening
falls, are scattered thickly over the
surface of the wreckage.
.'An this Is horrible TO see, NOR,
horrible than it can possibly be t.
read of but the worst Is untold
The smoke that hovers over th'
vreckage by the bridge, and float
/ in light blue clouds above the town
is heavy with an odor rarely smelled
But it is the flesh of human being
that cause the odors at which ever,
: newcomer here shivers with horror
Those who have been here long don
mind IT; they are used to IT, an
there are more matters than smell {
! attend 10. The cruel whirlpool tha
pounded four square miles of builC
! ings into dust and splinters did nc
l spare the people. Their bodies wer
ground beneath the pressure of th
awful milestone of the flood, as wei
V the brick and mortar of the building
!, They were torn limb from limb, hesl
K ed together, torn apart, scsttere
q and mingled in the mass as were Ii
3 timbers and boards of the pine bull
Ie iugs. Finally they were lodged
that solid mass of sixty acres of run