Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-06-03
MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1889.
The Scene of a Great Disaster-NIe-
neurological Phen omena.

The Scene of a Great Disaster-Me-
neurological Phen omena.
TIE wires have been burdened for
some days past by details of the great
calamity which has happened at Johns
town, Pennsylvania. This town lies at
the first sharp activity of the Allegheny
mountains, east of Pittsburg, on the line
of the Pennsylvania Central Railway.
Between it and Pittsburg lies the largest
single body of bituminous coal in the
world. In addition, tremendous deposits
of iron lie alongside of the fuel, which,
until natural gas was discovered, trans
muted the iron ores into various sources
of wealth. The traveller who leaves
Pittsburg in the night time, and ascends
the mountains which intervene between
the "smoky City" and Altoona, surveys
q scene which is probably not paralleled
on the earth. First come the splendors
of natural gas, which has Teen utilized
for the manufacture of iron and steel, and
which flames out on all sides till the
summit of the mountain is reached. Next
one strikes an interminable series OF
coke-oveps, which impart weird and
brilliant aspect to the landscape. Parton
described Pittsburg itself as shell with
the lid eff" and, looking from her CEN
trail hills into the mouths of her thou
sands Of furnaces, the word picture is
not overetrained. Pits that look like the
very me nth of hell line the ascent and
sides of the mountains eastward until
Johnstown and beyond are attained.
This town probably contains from 25,-
600 to 10000 inhabitants, and the Cone
maugh river runs through it. As our
recollection ferves us, it is about eighty
four miles from Pittsburg, is traversed
by the Conemaugh river, and is the
center Of tremendous iron and steel
manufacture. The Conemaugh river is
much such another stream as the Los
Angeles would be if the full volume of
it's waters were not drawn eff into the
zanjas and ipto the mains Of the
City Water Company. Its banks
show no such evidences OF floods as those
which characterize the Arroyo Seco, q
tributary of the Los Angeles river. II
really marks the debatsble line between
q creek and river, which is go frequent
in the East. The only solution Of the
overwhelming desolation wrought by it
is, therefore, to be sought in water
spout, and in the conse quent demolition
of a great reservoir. That the water
spout had spread to the dimensions Of a
deluge is shown by the universally OF
the downpour, which reached as far east
in Pennsylvania as Bedford, which en-
braced Altoona, at the eastern sun NIT OF
the Allegheniee, and whose full fury was
chronicled all through Maryland. and
along the whole line Of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, in both Maryland
and West Virginia.
The name of Johnstown is of itself OF
unhappy memory. During the famous
"swing around the circle" of Andrew
johnson, shortly after the war, it
will be remembered that great
crowd assembled to meet him there,
that they took up their position on a
bridge, which fell, killing more than
hundred people, and seriously ipjuring
Secretary Seward.
1t was on the site of that identical
catastrophe, which sacrificed 30 many
lives nearly twenty-five years ago, that
was witnessed the fearful holocaust,
amidst surging waters, in which hun
dreds of human beings were done to
death by the fre-fend. 1t was case of
"water, water everywhere" and, in.
stead of the mariners plant of ''not
drop to drink" there was abundant
water, with no possibility of quenching
the flames. In the debris, jammed up
by the food against this bridge, NOM
emily mounting higher and higher, was
enacted the most tragic scene in human
annals. The plight Of Tantalus was
nothing to it. He simply languished
for wafer to quench bis thirst. These
most miserable victims cav the
foods pass by which might
have put out The fires by which, inch by
inch, and in inexpressible agony, the
yital spark which animated them was
resolved into its own elements. The
errors of the Black Hole of Calcutta pale
n the comparison. The utmost imagin- ,
nps of Dante's Inferno were exceeded in
his single incident, in which hundreds,
4 the ten thousand souls that met a
udden and unprovided death, were
lowly, and with every accessory OF
lorror, burned alive.
In YOUNGSTOWN an honest, hard working
'eopie were visited with unheard OF
The Cambria Iron Works
rhich, with five thousand houses, was
wept away, was either the first or the /
eeopd largest establishment OF the Il
ind in the United States, the Union
ron Works Of the Messrs. Jones &'l