The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-22
TALMAGE VISITS JoHNsrowN.
He Stops Over at the Stricken City in
Ris Western Journey.

From the Ne,1 York Void.
! JoHNsTowN, PA, july l9.-First when |
came here to-day was | impress ed with the
courage and pluck Of the survivors Of the
catastrophe. They Will, with the help of
| outsiders, rebuild their city, and in five
| years il will be more prosperous place
| than il ever was. They are an honest people,
and can get any amour Of commercial
credit they ask for. Many Of the citIze r
temporarily absent will return and com
Portable no nes, large orenou<es aud great
factories will stand whore now are awful
ruins. The stories circulated about the
10 nnstowu people having lost theIr faith
in God and given up the christian religion
because of this calamity | denouuce as
ia Sc and tcoundrely. The pastors tell me
that there was not one such case. On the
cont airy, there is more prayer aud cIrls-
tian devotlo than ever befo Even
iufldels pray. One OF them, the afternoon
Of the disaster, in the upper room of
| house which wes rapidly filing with water,
was overheard to pray: ION God IT vo can
give mo any aid at this time | viii be very
much Obliged TO you" All that stO. Y pub
lisHed through the land about people Of
job lstown in disgust burning their Bibles
is hemisphere falsehood.
Toe work that has beeu done here by
their own mi i,ters and ph ysicians and
KUN illbn du1 WVuleL, anu WibI'fuL CDIii-
pc sati m, shoul be- spoke Of every where.
In applaud & the outside workers, we have
neglected to appreciate tho job stow
Howard4 and Florence Nightingales, VINO
may be counted bt the score, though the
saved nothing from the wreck except the
clio hes on their own persons. Let all the
people, north, south, east and west, and on
both sides Of the set, understand that / 4
their gifts to the flooded districts they did
n t do too much or give too quickly. Not
3 per cent of the anguish has been told.
My heart is wrung with what | have seen
| to-day. Can 1t lie possible that this is the
beautiful and hospltable Johnstown that |
saw in other days! VIII re once was a street.
suggesting Euclid avenue, Cleveland, is a
long ridge of sand strewn with broken
pa ks ID twisted iron. At the moment
wnen a great freshet which had been raging
for hours had begun to suage a wave from
IL to 20 feet high rolls oyer the already
a CRY waters and on that surmountng
wave 1oated 500 houses, % locom >tives
from tue round-house, AID hundreds of
people, many dead, many dying, a mass of
| helpless and appalled, humanity. Two
thousand dead discovered and ? 900 missing
makes me believe that the story of how
many thousand peris ed will never be told
until the resurrection trumpet shall be
sounded.
To show how accustomed to scenes of
death this district la, becom to-day, while
a human body was being taken out of the
ruins and stood lolking aghast at the spec
tacle and tie laborerS, no crowd gathered
and workmen 100 feet away did not stop
their work.
Such an avalanche of Indebtedness never
slipped upon Any American city. Horrors
piled on hor ors, woe augmenting woe,
bankruptcy, orphanage, widowhood, child
lessness, obliterated no HeSteadS gOrged
cemeterieS and see ieS SO excrucating-t is
marvel that any one could look upon
them and escape insanity. No fear That
sympathy for Johnstown be overdo lsl The
$2,5OO, 600 contributed is a nall amount
com AIRED with the $30,000,000 by this foo
demolished
Was the work of devastation a great as
l supposed Far worse. Types cannot tell
IL. Only the eve can make revelation But
the wort part Of it cannot be seen. The
heart wreck caused by the sudden departure
81 so many can be open TO only one eye, and
t iat the all-seeing. Think Of one ia nily
Of fourteen all dead except one, an tina
the life I'd mother and she the witness of
their drowning | saw the grave trench in
which 260 were buried, a.d the whole
graveyard like a national cemetery, il
which the unrecpgnlzsd dad have a partic-
uar number plac above them and are re-
corded in the undertaker's rooms with a
descrip ion OF the body and clothes. | can
well understand how many of the ST. vivors
who had buried their kindred Def ire this
disaster occurred tt anked God that they
we're gone, saying: ION, am so glad that
they escaped this"
Long at er contributions Of money have
ceased 10 .nstown will stand in need of the
sympathy of all nations. Let those who to
night have no over their b ais and heir
families around them or the bodies Of their
departed in garlanded sepulclers give at
least one prayerful thought to tle shattered
homesteads Ct J Ihust )wn aud tn Sc who
know not / villa. depth If river or VIVA -
part debris Lue beloved form of father or
mo her or husband or wife or child my b.
slunlbsring. Amo * the Johnstown people
who have been heroic, ASST iuous and self
denying | mention Rev. David j.
Beale, d. D., VINO has pre-
sided over the morgue and been aspiration
| and hope and cheer to all the people Ga
the night of the disaster, having escaped
| with his family fro the topmost window
OF his home AID climbed across the roofs of
! floating houses. he entered the window of a
| tall building where there were on the three
! zoos go people. and ne spent the night
| gAiaE from floor fl IOr praying with the
! dis resSed and frantic and uttering wor Is
| eloquent with good cheer But room would
| fail write not the five, but the 500 acts
Of this tragedy of centuries.
T. De WITT TALMAGE.
l