The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-07

Captain Logan at MorTellville unloaded
forty cars of relief goods to-day. He ad-
yises that all goods be consigned to him,
but to send no committees as it only Gre
ates confusion. Drafts for the relief fund
should be addressed to James B. Scott
A carload of supplies was unloaded on
the track in Johnstown to-day by the relief
committee. There was a rush for the
goods The strong overpowered the weak
and got the best. Fights occurred at Con
nemaugh, Mineral Point and Woodvale,
Provisions and clothing are still badly
needed.
The Byron KernYille wooden mills were
burned to-day. At one time ii looked es if
the whole village would be destroyed. The
mill was a three story brick one situated in
the midst of the wrecks Of several houses.
The ruins We're on fire several times but
extinguished after hard fight by bucket
| brigade.
There is a strong movement on foot
favoring applying the torch to the wrecked
buildings in Johnstown, and although the
suggestion meets with strong opposition
there is little doubt that the ultimate solu-
| tion of existing difficulties will be by this
method.
! An army of men has been for two days
employed in cleaning up the wreck in the
city proper, and although hundreds OF
! bodies have been discovered, not one-htth
of the ground has yet been gone over. In
many places the rubbish is piled twenty or
thirty feet high. and not infrequently these
| great drifts cover an area of nearly an
acre. Narrow passages have been cut
| through Ill every direction, but the hercu-
lean labor of removing the rubbish has yet
| hardly begun.
At a meeting of the central relief com
mittee, General Hastings suggested the ad'
visibility of applying the torch to the
great sea of waste. He explained that this
was the only way great work could be &C
complished, if it were hoped to thoroughly
clear every portion of debris and insisted
| that it would take 5000 men many months
to complete the task of finding the nun
dreds OF bodies buried beneath the rub
Dish, sand and stones, and that the rotten
or putrid remains of many was all that
could be hoped to be recovered.
A motion was made that after forty eight
hours of further search of the debris thatlt
then be consumed by fire, engines to be on
hand to play upon the remaining buildings,
and despite the previous destruction the
CITY might become ignited by the general
conflagration. Those whose relatives or
friends still rest beneath the wreck remon
strated strongly against any such sum
mary action. Physicians warned the
committee that further exposure OF the
putrid bodies could have but one result:
the typhus or some other epidemic equally
fatal to its victims. Although the PROPOSE
ton to burn the wreck was defeated, 1t
was evident that the movement was gain
ing many adherentS, and the result VIII
doubtless be that in a view days the torch
will be applied.
At Ninevah 1iG bodies were consigned TO
earth to-day from the morgues about town.
This army of dead was placed in trenches.
AS less than one hundred had been recog-
nized by friends, none of them We're
claimed for private burial however, in
the majority of instances the survivors
We're too poor to stand the expense.
There is an unusual amount of sickness
about Kernyille. The physicians claim
several hundred cases of pneumonia exist.
Children also are afflicted with measels and
kindred complaints. The reaction, now
that the great shock has passed in a mea-
sure, has left hundreds of the survivors
with their nervous forces badly shattered
and broken.
Johnstown and adjoining villages are
now under military and police regulations.
Each place has been provided with men
enough to keep out intruderS and others,
and none save those who are actually eni-
ployed will be allowed to remain. The
officers are arreSting men every hour, some
of them On the slightest provocation. In
all cases where the offense is trivial the
victims are pressed into work with the re-
lief gang. Notices were posted in all the
morgues to-day stating that after to-day
the bodies would be held only twenty-four
hours for Identification. If, at the eXpira-
ton Of that time, they are not recognized,
they are to be photographed, bearing the
same number as the mOrgue number of the
corpse.
Recognition is a difficult matter, as the
bodies are most terribly bruised and dis
colored when recovered.
The work of blasting the gorge at the
Pennsylvania bridge was prosecuted to-
day with much better success than at any
previous day. Several men armed with
poles were busy pushing the logs loOsened
by the blast out into the stream so that
they would float away.
Thomas Jacobs, of Morrellville, is one of
the oldest inhabitants of Connenaugh val
ley. He said to-day that the water of the
river was much higher in 1887 than last
Friday, even after the dam broke 1.-THE
whole trouble about this deplOrable affair."
he continued, ''seems to be from the mar
rowing of the channel of the river and de-
Election OF its natural course. / re-
member well when the channel ran
down where the mill below the bridge
now stands. The Connemaugh always has
been a shallow stream. After heavy rain
falls it rises rapidly, as all mountain
streams do. Its water shed is large and
the hillsides are so constructed that the |
water runs down rapidly, causing quick |
rises and turbulent currents. Primarily l |
hold the Cambria Iron company responsible |
for narrowing the channel. Secondly, the |
South Fork club for not having made |
the dam secure beyond all pos
sibility of a break, especially when they
caused the dam to be enlarged by raising |
the breast; and, thirdly, the Pennsylvania |
railroad for having constructed viaduct
with such arches-low arches-and with |
ribs, is calculated to catch pieces of drift |
wood if they happen to strike diagonally on
the piers. The dam made by the gorge
bridge is what engulpned the town.