Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-07


vale provisions and clothing are still badly
needed.
Byrons Kernville wooden mill burned.
to-day At one time it looked as IL the whole
village would be destroyed. The mill was
three story brick, situated in the midst of
the wrecks of several houses. The ruins
were on fire several times, but were ex-
tinguished after hard fight by the bucket
brigade. There Is n strong movement on
foot tavoring the applying of the torch to
the wrecked buildings in Johnstown. AL
though the suggestion meets with strong OPP
position there Is little doubt the ultimate
solution of the existing difficulties will be by
by this method. Army men have been for
two days employed IN clearing up the wreck
in the city proper, and although hundreds of
bodies have been discovered, not one-fifth of
the ground has yet been gone over In many
places rubbish is piled twenty or thirty feet
high, and not infrequently these great drifts
cover an area of nearly al acre. Now pas
sages have been Cut through in every direc-
tion but the herculean labor of removing
the rubbish has yet hardly begun.
AT meeting of the central relief commit
tee, General Hastings suggested the advisa-
bility of applying the torch to the great sea
of waste. He explained briefly the great
work yet to be accomplished if it were hoped
to thoroughly overhaul every portion of the
debris, and insisted it would take 5000
men months to complete the task
A motion was made that after forty-eight
hours further search the debris of the city
should be consumed by fire, engines to be on
hand to play upon any valuable building,
that, despite previous precautions, might be-
come ignited by the general conflagraton
Those whose relatives or friends still rest
beneath the wreck demonstrate strongly
against any such summary action.
The physicians warned the committee
that further exposure of the putrid
bodies could have but one result.
typhus or some other epidemic equally fatal
to its victims Although the PROPOSE ition to
burn wrecks was defeated, 1t was evident
that the movement was gaming many ad
herents, and the result will doubtless be
that in a few days The torch will be APP
piled.
AT Nineveh TAG bodies were consigned to
the earth to-day from the morgues about
town. This
ARMY OF DEAD
was placed in trenches. Less than 100 had
been recognized by friends. None of them
were claimed for private burial, however,
as in the majority of instances, the survivors
were too poor to stand the expense.
There Is an unusual amount of sickness
about kernville. Physicians claim that sew
eral hundred cases of pneumonia exist. The
reaction, now that the great shock has
passed, in measure, has left hundreds of
survivors with their nervous forces badly
shattered and broken. Johnstown and ad-
joining villages are now under thorough mil
itary and police regulations. Each place has
been provided with men enough to keep out
intruders, and none save those who are actu-
ally employed will be allowed to remain.
Officers are arresting men every hour, some
of them or the slightest provocation.
Notices were posted in all the morgues to-
day stating that after to-day bodies would be
held only twenty-four hours for identified
tion. If at the expiration of that time they
are not recognized they are photographed,
the photograph bearing the same number as
the morgue number of the corpse.
The work of blasting the gorge at the
Pennsylvania bridge was prosecuted to-day
with much better success than on any previ-
GUS day. Several men armed with poles were
busy pushing logs loosened by the blast
out into the stream so that they
would float away.
AN OLD SETTLERS THEORY.
Thomas Jacobs, of Morrellville, is one of
the Oldest inhabitants of the Conemaugh
valley. He said to-day that the water of the
river was much higher in 1887 than last Fri
day. even after the dam had broken. 1.-The
whole trouble about this deplorable affair.""
he continued, "results from the narrowing of
the channel OF the river and the DETECTION of
its course. l remember well when the chan
mel ran down where the mill below the bridge
now stands. The Conemaugh always has
been a shallow stream. After heavy rain
falls it rises rapidly, as all noun
tain streams do. It's watershed Is
large, and the hillsides are so constituted
that the water runs down rapidly, causing
quick rises and turbulent currents Pri-
marily l hold that the Cambria iron com
pany is responsible for narrowing the chan
mel; secondly, the South Fork club for not
having made the dam secure beyond all pos
sibility of break, especially when they caused
the dam to be enlarged by raising, and third,
the Pennsylvania railroad for having con-
structed viaduct with such low arches,
with ribs calculated to catch pieces of drift
wood if they happen to strike diagonaly on
the piers. The dam made by the gorge at
the bridge Is what engulfed the town.
Heavy Damage Co Property.
WILLIAMsPoRT, Pa, June 6.-The people
here are little easier now that apprehen-
sions of suffering from hunger have been
dissipated. Several cars of supplies brought
up yesterday evening" are ready to be un-
loaded and the work will begin some time
to-day. The river is now down to seven
feet at this place. The body
of Calvin Miller, who was missing