St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-06-13
Gbe Californian.
THE GREAT DISASTER.
Slowly Burned to Death.

horrible nature of the affair cannot
be realized by any person who did
not witness the scene. As soon as
possible after the first great crash
occurred, | hastened to the bridge.
A thousand persons were struggling
in the ruins, and enplOring, for Gods
sake, to release them. Frantic huS-
bands and fathers stood at the edge
of the furnace that was slowly heat
ing to a cherry heat, and incinerating
human victims. Every one was anx-
ious to save his own relatives, and
raved, cursed and blasphemed until
the very air appeared to tremble-
No system, no organized efforts to
release the pent up persons was made
by those related to them. Shriek1ng,
they would command: Go to that
place; go, get her out; for Gods
sake, get her out, referring to some
loved one they wanted saved. I'm
der the circumstances it was neces
sary to secure organization, but,
thinking / was trying to thwart
their efforts when l ordered another
point to be attacked by the rescuers,
they advanced upon me, threatened
to shoot me or dash me into the rag
ing river One man who was trying
to steer q float, upon which his wife
sat on q mattress, lost his hold, and
in moment the craft was swept in
to a sea of flame and never again APP
peared The agony of that man was
simply hcartrending. He raised his
arms to heaven and screamed in his
mental anguish, and only ceased that
to tear his hair and moan like one
distracted. Every effort was made
to save every person accessible, and
we have the satisfaction of knowing
that fully 200 were spared from Gre
nation. One young woman was
found under the dead body of a rela
tive. \ force of men attempted to
extricate her, and succeeded in re-
leasing every limb but one leg. For
three hours they labored, and every
moment the flames crept nearer and
nearer | was on the point several
times of ordering the men to chop
herleg off, 1t would have been much
better to save her life, even at that
loss, than have her burn to death.
Fortunately, it was not necessary,
but the young lady's escape from
or death she will never
realize"
Eight Thousand Men at Work.
Eight thousand men are now at
work clearing away the debris on
the island The feeding of the work
ers is one of the greatest difficulties of
the present moment. Supplies are
plentiful enough, but there is no way
of cooking and serving them to such
an army of people. A gang of sever
al hundred struck and refused to go
to work until they were given some
thing to eat. They had been fasting
for "a hours. They were given bread
and cheese and promised more sub
stantial aid as soon as the stoves
and cooking utensils now on the cars
can be uinlOaded.
Cost of Clearing Away the Wreckaee.
Superintendent Finn estimates
that it will take 10, 900 men 60 days
to clear away the wreck. At this
rate it will require 81 500, 900 to pay
for the work. This does not include
the other expenses. Five million dol
lars will not be enough to put Johns
town in shape for rebuilding. Early
Tuesday morning four hosting en-
gines were started at the east end of
the stone bridge and the work of
clearing away the debris at that
place was begun. Several hundred
men are at work on it and the chan
mel is gradually being cleared. The
progress is very slow, however.
A Dam of Dirt.
A correspondent of New York Sun
says:
The dam was simply a gigantic
heap of earth, dumped across the
course of a mountain stream be-
tween low hills. 1t was faced on
each side with a layer of heavy,
rough stone, loosely thrown together
and uncemented. This pile of earth
was about seventy-five feet high and
ninety feet thick at the base. At the
summit it was 1eveled on so as to be
about twenty feet wide and a wagon
road crossed it. 1t was an ordinary
dirt road, and there was no rock or
masonry beneath it The width of
the stream at the bottom of the dam
was about 40 feet. At the top the
dam was about 400 feet long. 1t
was built straight across the gap,
and neither face nor back was curved.
The slopes were about the same on
both face and back. There were five
big pipes which were calculated to
be large enough to carry off all sur
plus water that could ever be poured
into the lake above and which could
not escape by the regular exit, which
was a sluiceway around one corner
of the dam at level of eight or ten
feet below the top. This sluiceway
was really new stream, the water
passing off through it, finding its
winding course down
the hill side, and running into the
stream again some distance below
the dam. The sluiceway and waste
gates never failed to do the work for
which they were designed, and there
S no reason to suppose they would
have failed to do so at the present
time and for the future had they been
as the builders cOntem-
plated.
The Value of Expert Testimony.
Cyrus Elder, the attorney for the
Cambria iron works, who lost two
members of his family in the flood,
said that for years people had felt
that they were in great peril, but
constant association with this idea
had bred a certain kind of contempt
for it. Therefore, said he, IF any
body be to blame, l suppose we are
ourselves among them, for we have
indeed been very careless in this most
matter, and" he con-
as tears welled up in his eyes
Redeemed by weeping, most
Of us have paid the penalty for our
nenrlect Most of the eNnertS ,rlno