The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-07-31
SITUATION At Jc2ssTOXN.
The Courage and Pluck Of the
Survivors.
Rev T. pvuErt raimaxe Writes &c
scene. ssd Incident. asaus
the ssrixksn Stss.

the ssriskss CITY.
JaWSSrs.Rx. IA. lsssy "a Firsi
when caSas here to}sy | sss ia-
I pressed sith TIE courage and plyick oi
the Survivors Of the catastrophe. They
will. with the helpef outsiders. rebuild
their city, and in I've yeSrs Il will he .
more prosperous ps2ce ihsn il ever
was. They are an honest people and
can get any amount al ccas afercias
credit they ask for, Aany oi the
elftxsms temporarily absent nil retaln,
and comfortable hegnes. large store
houses and great facto les vii stand
where now are awful ruins. The
stories circulated about The Johns
'owu people having loSi Their faith in
tod and given up the hTiStian III.
hGian because of this calamity | de-
nonncs a. false end sCoandreity. The
pastors tell me that there was net enc
snch case. On the contrary. there i
more pTayer aud Christian devotion
than ever before. Even iatideiS pray
One Of them. the afternoon at the
disaster. Ia the upper room OF house
which was rapidly filling with water.
was overheard Ia pray; - God Il
you cSn give me any aid at this time
] viii Re very much obliged 10 yon '
All that story published through the
land about people OF lohnstosn ia
disgust burning their Bibles Is 8 hemi-
Sphere faisehood.
The work that has been done here
by their own ministers and physicians
and good men and women. and with
"a
of everywhere. In applaeaing the
outside workers we have neglected tn
appreciate the Johnstown Howards
and Florence NighiingaieS, who NAV
be counted by the score, though they
saved nothing frons the wreck except
the clothes on their own persons Let
all the PEOPLE, North. South. East and
West ON both sides OF the sea, under
stand that in their gifts 90 the flooded
districts they did not do too much or
give too quickly. Not 5 per cent. o;
the anguish has been told
NY heart i wrung with what have
seen today. Can Il be possible that
this Is the beautiful and hospilable
Johnstown that saw in other days.
Where once was street suggesting
Euclid Avenue. Cleveland. il a long
ridge of sand strewn with broken
planks and twisted iron. 1t the mo-
menf hen a great treshet which had
been raging for hours had begun to
assusee a wave from twelve Ia twenty
feet high roiis over the already angry
waters, and on that surrounding
wave fioated 500 houses, twenty eight
locomotives from the round house and
hundreds OF PEOPLE. many dead. many
dying. mass of helpless and appalled,
humanity. Two thousand dead bod
les discovered and two thousand miss
ing make me believe that the story OF
how many Thousand people persisted
vii. never pe ted until the resurrec-
ton trumpet shall be sounded.
To show how accustomed 10 scenes
Of death ehis district has become, so
day, while human body was being
taken out Of the ruins and | stood
looking aghaSt AT the spectacle and
the laborers, no crowd gathered and
workmen hundred feet away did not
stop their work.
Such an avalanche OF wre tchednesS
never slipped upon any American
city. Horrors piled on horrors. woe
augmenting woe, bankruptcy. orphan
age. sidowhood chil,ilessneSs. oblit-
Grated homesteads, gorged cemeteries
and scenes 80 eScrucisting Il
marvel that anyone could look upon
them and escape insanity. No fear
that sympathy for Johnstown be over
done, The two aud a half million
dollars contributed Is small amount /
compared with the thirty millions by /
this Hood demolished.
Was the work. OF devastation az
great as | supposed Far worse 1
Types cannot tell il. Only the eve 4
can make revelation. But the worst 4
part of il cannot be seen. The heart .
wreck caused by the sudden departure 4
of SO many can be- open only To one i
eve, and that the All-Seeing. Think I
OF one family OF fourteen all dead ex- I
cept one. and that the wife and I
mother. and she the witness of their 4
drowning saw the grave treach In i
which ECO were buried, and the whole !
graveyard like national cemetery, +
In which the unrecognized dead have 4
a particular nnmber placed above i
them and are recorded in the under I
takers rooms With description OF /
the body and clothes. ] can well un
slerstand how many of the survivors +
who had buried their kindred before 4
the disaster occurred thanked God 4
am 80 glad that they escaped this. "
Long after contributions of money 4
have ceased John~iown viii stand In 4
need of the sympathy of all nations. 4
Let those who tonight have roofs over 4
their heads and their families around 4
them or the bodies Of their departed 1
in gSrlanded sepuichres give at least 4
one prayerful thought % the shattered 4
homestesds Of 1ohnstovn and those 4
who know not in what depth Of river \
or what pile of debris the beloved 4
form of father or mother or husband i
or wife or child may be slumbering. (
Among the johnstoSn people who 4
have been heroic, assidnous and self I
denying. | mention Rev. David J. I
Beaie. u. D., who has presided over
the nlargue and been inspiration and 4
hope and cheer To all the people. On
the night of the disaster, having
escaped with hi. family from the top +
most window Of his home and 4
climbed across the roofs of floating F..
houses, he entered the window Of
tail building where there were on the j
three floors % people, and he spent /.
the night going from floor TO floor 4
praying with the distressed and frantic I
and uttering words eloquent with good +
cheer But room would fail TO write 4
not the five, bat the five hundred, acts
of this tragedy OF centaries.
RIO DE JASFIkO.