The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-06-06

was past weeping, pur the IooK OF utter de-
spondency and woe that was fixed upon his
face was too expressive for description.
On the banks above the railroad, huddled
together upon quilts and blankets, were the
remnants of scores of families Down
among a pile of railroad ties sat despairing
group. A mother with a babe but few
months old in her arms sat rocking to and
fro in an agony of grief. At her side WAS
her gray-headed mother who sat dazed and
stupefed, too heart-sick to make sign or
utter groan. At their feet lay teakettle,
little trunk and two or three tin pans. No
artist who ever used brush could depict the
anguish, terror aad woe of that group, and
still it was but the counterpart of hundreds
of others scattered along the hillsides sur
rounding the town.
As the bridge was reached the full horror
of the scene broke in upon the party. To
the left across the river lay Cambria City,
with the immense plant of the Cambria
Iron Works. Scarcely house remained
standing, and the iron-works, whose build
ings and machinery represented millions and
millions OF capital. stood there useless and
wrecked. The ends of the large furnaces
and mills that received the first shock of the
torrent were completely wrecked. Huge
iron beams were snapped off like pipe stems;
heavy machinery. engines, boilers ETC.,
fat cars which had been loaded
with finished stock, were overturned
and many of them carried.
down the river. Heavy brick butresses and
walls were shattered like egg-shells. There
was nothing but ruin, the extent of which
cannot be realized even when seen. Down
the main street of Cambria City, where had
run u railway line, nothing was to be seen
but a stream of muddy water The houses
had all been razed to the ground or carried
off by the current.
Turning to the right hell on earth greeted
the sight. When the dam-burst had reached
the city it swept thousands of frame build
ings before it, which were piled up against
the railroad bridge and reached forty feet
above the structure. Backing up the stream
:his debris extended fully 1000 yards.
Those who witnessed this part of
the catastrophe describe it as the most hor-
rible that Imagination could conceive. More
rapidly than the eye could count them the
buildings came crashing into those which
had already lodged against the bridge.
High above the noise of the roaring torrent
and the crash OF houses as they went to
pieces in the general wreck, could be heard
the shrieks and cries of the doomed occu-
pants of the buildings Prayers arose to
heaven for aid; curses mingled with these
appeals, while the pecan of woe was swelled
with tire walls and cries of tine friends who
stood on the bridge and on the banks power
less to save. Many were rescued, more acts
of bravery being done than history can
chronicle; but there was but small proper
tion of them that reached place of safety.
THE WRECK TAKES FIRE.
Along in the night fire added to the terrors
of the flood. This immense pile of timber
began burning and the scene became too hor-
rible to look at. 1t seemed as though the
priests of Moloch had lighted funeral pile
and offered the awful sacrifice of human
bodies to their god. From the hilisldes
the paralyzed populace looked down
into that field of fire where brother
and neighbor lay dead, either crushed or
drowned. and with the certainty that the
flames would soon finish the work of the
flood and consume all that was mortal
ot their loved ones. Nothing more
tragic was ever conceived and never can
the horrors CT that night be described.
Imagine yourself on the top of the noun
tain at whose base lay the city and around
whose foot had curved the Conemaugh.
Sweeping around in graceful circle of
.hree or four miles the mountain range
formed huge bowl in which was the whirl-
pool of destruction and death. Looking
down in the immediate foreground YOU see
the burning field of houses. Away up to the
northeast, through a narrow valley, touch
ing the mountains on either side, comes the
Conemaugh its bosom covered with houses,
mills and workshops rolling and tumbling
in the widest confusion. Many of the houses
are filed with human beings, the whole
being horne down into that huge bowl, more
victims for Moloch, more food for the flood
and fire fiends. Rising from this world of
misery comes the music that devils love-
No battlefield ever furnished more horrible
sounds
Climbing along the mountain side for the
distance of a mile view was obtained of the
whole valley wherein laid the city of ohns-
town and its many suburbs. To the north
east ran the valley of the Conemaugh.
scarcely more than quarter of mile wide,
yet it had been built up solidly. Now for a
distance of two or three miles nothing re-
mained except the Touring mill at Wood
vile, standing alone in a desert of mud and
water. Not vestige OF another building
was to be seen. Not even foundation stone
appeared, the cellars being filled up level
with the surrounding plain. Up there had
been the extensive Gautier iron-mills of the
Cambria Iron Company. Nothing re-
mained to denote their ever having