Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-04
ANOTHER ESTIMATE.
Three Thousand Bodies Have Been Recov-
cred and as MANY More Are Expect.
cd-Awful Scenes Around the
M0rgues-The Search
forReIatives and
Frfauda.
rFnoM A STAFF coRREsPoNpENr.j

rFROH STAFF CORRESPONDENCE
JoHNsrowN, June 3.-The number oi
dead bodies which have been discovered and
prepared for burial in the different charnel
houses has almost reached over 5000, and
those who are in position to know claim
that nearly as many more will be unearthed.
An effort was made by your correspondent
this afternoon to get an accurate and COM
plete list of the bodies so far handled, but
it was found impossible to do so. The
number has grown so large that the under.
takers who are preparing the bodies for burial
said they got tired counting and gave it MP.
At the Fourth street or school house morgue,
in which locality the deaths were the greatest,
the people in charge said it was impossible to
say how many bodies they have handled since
Saturday morning. Mr.. Kittell, who has been
in attendance all the time, said they had
handled over 1000, but could not give the ex-
act figures
Herman Ebbert of Allegheny, had kept tally
of the number of people prepared under his
care. Up until o'clock this afternoon he had
received 629 bodies. OF this number about 100
came in to-day and those who could not be
identified were buried almost as soon as they
were prepared. At the morgue in Millville
there was only one body received to-day. 1t
years of age, but there was nothing about her
person by which she could be identified. This
body made the forty-sixth corpse prepared at
this morgue.
One of the Many Unknown.
Upon the breast of the young girl was a
bruise about one-han inch wide. The men
who rescued he: thought that the body had
been p / = .Irfore they discovered it. The
marks on girls wrist were supposed to
have been made by bracelet which some Of
NJ. -,Nrr ~, k1lf-
farious calling on the dead were trying to
secure from the body. They evidently could
not get 1t of quick enough and in their eager
ness to get the article of 1ewelry had rudely
flesh. She was taken from the water near
Cambria City.
The sight of SO many cofins on the sides of
both tracks and oD the station platform at
back and filed them horror. Since Sunday
there has been large number of coffins scat
tered around the station in full view of the
people coming up from Pittsburg. The sight
of SO many cofans when gazed upon by those in
search of relatives and friends had the effect of
giving them the horrors. One woman. upon
seeing the collins, thought of what was to fol-
low and refused to continue on her way to
Johnstown.
The Dead at Nineyeh.
The morgue at Niniveh now has record Of
handling about 2S5 dead bodies in the last two
days The beautiful station has appropriately
been, called "The City of the Dead" The
scenes at the different morgues were not
pathetic, they were excruclating. At st. Co.
lumbus Church, every time the wagon would
be driven up to the door, there would be a rush
for the place by the greater number of the in
habitants of Cambria City.
There were mothers there almost in the
last agonies of despair over the losses
they had sustained. One woman did
nothing ali day but sit at the shrine
of one of the images in the church and, clasp
ing her hands upon her knees, would rock
backward and forward, giving vent to heart
rending sobs The church presented a DESC
late appearance. The magnificent decorative
work on the Catholic church was smeared and
and disfgured with mud and dirt The
placed upon the tops of the pews. The curios-
ity of some people, and the eagerness of others
to find the bodies of their friends did not pre-
vent them from rushing in and out of the
sacred editce made more solemn by the pres
ence of death. J
Atthe school house morgue the attendants
had to close the door against the people who
clamored for admission. Had this not been
done it would have been impossible to do any
work. Relatives of the dead people who had
been brought in had to stand back and were re-
fused admission. Some of the dead bodies
were so bruised up about the face that it was
not thought necessary to embalm them, to
await identification by friends. One little
baby girl had her head almost smashed to a
jelly. One of the eyes was sunk almost into
the middle of her head. 1t was fixed and
CLASSY. After looking at her face moment the
observer would turn away with a shudder.
MCSwIGAN.