The Greenville times., 1889-06-08
GKEAH CALAMITY.

lngle occurrence IN the United States.
indeed it parallels, in this respect, the
arthquakes of South America or the
oods of China. The daily papers
ave stated the occurrence with graph
: detail and we will chronicle it brief
'. The scene was the valley of the
,onemaugh River, mountain stream
n Pennsylvania. The famous Penn
ylvania railroad traverses the Cone
naugh valley, narrow depression,
md is lined thickly with villages and
owns teeming with manufacturing
Here are the Cambria Iron
Works, one of the most extensive and
amous in the world. AT Johnstown
he Ohio railroad joins the Pennsylva-
lia and there is an abrupt diversion of
he course of the creek to which the
railroad conforms. This wind of the
stream completely envirions and locks
in the little plain on which Johnstown
Is built with mountains. A site secure
from the turmoils as well as the
dangers of life, the picture of peace
and placidity, of prosperity and con-
tent, who would have located here
the crowning calamity of the great
North American Continent? Its
cause lay some miles above the
little city, of 5000 inhabitants, in
the high hills between the two
forks of the Conemaugh river; where
there Is a reservoir, remarkable for its
extent and depth. A masonry dam
across narrow gorge, ITO feet high
with base of 80 feet, holds back a
body Of water more than three miles
long and over mile wide, with depth
of 100 feet. The elevation of this vast
reservoir was 800 feet above Johns
town, and adjacent villages. Between
where this body of water hung sus-
pended and the point in the Con
emaugh valley below Johnstown
where its volume could expand and
become harmless their dwelt 5O,OOt
people. On Friday evening the dan
gave way and the flood was precipita
ted. The Imagination can vaguel.
supply what followed. In the tim
that 1t would have taken locomotiv
at full speed to have covered the TWEEN
ty miles of this scene Of death an
desolation, great wave thirty fee
high had passed through it, sweepin
with the force of omnipotence ever,
thing out of its path. The telegraI
announcing that the dam had broke
was followed fifteen minutes late
by the wave. A horseman ridin
at full speed down the gorge gi'
| ing tho alarm was oveitakcn an
swept away. Such was the mad velo'
| ity of the torrent. Comprehendin
the fact of such physical force exerte
over such a field and we are prepare
10 read and believe, that in its cour'
and borne on its crest there were II
900 dead human beings. In its tra'
are the verify obliterated sites Of John
town, Cambria City, Long llollo'
South Fork, Viaduct Mineral Polr
Nineveh and other once flourishii
towns. Never was death dispens'
D with more complete impartialit
There was no time for discriminate
The banker and the pauper, the m
lionaires and the "mudsills' OF t
foundries, the matron in silk and t
girls of the factories, sleep side by 81
in the sand drifts which form {
aunknown" graves of the victims
}. the Conemaugh disaster.
To complete and consummate t
perfection of horror a vast drift co
. posed of houses, fencing, goods, I
products and machinery of factorl
stranded on a stone viaduct, took
and burned scores of drowning n
n erables to death. Underneath t
t. mountain of charred flotsam and tt
: of alluvium, are entombed hundr
of corpses. What scene for the wret
cd survivors, the families and kin
= these dead to witness
y Day after day the press dispatc
have filled columns of the daily pap
until the whole people stands appal
- Now comes the work of relief, WI
will tax the charities even OF suc
nation.
: With the thoughts and reflectl
which this calamity suggests, theI
mingled a feeling of amszement'
!, capital should not bave detected
IS. lurking danger and removed it
lon chances oflife are commonly disreg
ed or outwcighed in the compuls
crs of the conditions which cluster arc
o. the masses. But that half hunt
NIB. of millions of dollars should not
a'n' sought out and removed the cause, |
&. as midday, by which such vast
has been swept away, surpasses CT
lation.
All through Pennsylvania, Virg
. West Virginia and Maryland the
ter.sbed of the Ohio, the Susqueh'
, and the Potomac, this great rain
r prevailed. The loss to railroads,
ing, factory and other propertl
flee. counted by the millions Along th
tomac there has been especially
:, loss. The flats al Washington are
Il, dated up to aud beyond the Was
ton Monument The work reclal
the flats, on which the Govern
ger. ,,.;1i;ooe IL said