Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-06-13
A HORROR UNPRECEDENTED.
FROM 5000 TO 10000 LIVES
LOST BY FLOOD AND
FIRE.
Over Sis. 900, GOO Worth of Property
Lost.
The Horrors of thu Disaster Accumulate
as Facts Come In.

Lost.
The Horrors Of thu Disaster Accumulate |
as Facts Come In.
"A flood OF death swept down the Ale
CLANCY Mountains on the afternoon OF May
81, and at night almost the entire city oil
Johnstown was swimming about In the
rushing angry tide Dead bodies were
floating about in every direction, and al
most every piece of movable timber car
ried from the doomed city corpse OF hu-
manity. The disaster overlook JohnsloWn
about six o clock in the evening ana IL Is
estimated that !, 500 persons in this place
were drowned. AS tho train bearing the
special correspondents sped eastward the
reports at each stop grew more appalling.
AZ Derry group Of railroad omcialS were
gathered who had come from Bolivar the
end OF tho passaOle portion OF the road
westward. They had seen but small
portion of the awful food, but enough 10
allow them to imagine the rest. Down
through the Packsaddle came the rushing
waters The wooded hight9 OF the Ale
ghenies looked down in solemn wonder at
the scene OF the most terrible destruction
that ever struck tho romantic valley OF
Conemaugh.
Clinging to improvised RATS constructed
in the death battle from floating boards
and timbers were agonized men, women
and children, their heartrending shrleks
the onlookers. Their cries were Of no avail.
Carried along at a railway speed on the
breast of this rushing torrent, no human
Ingenuity could devise means of rescue
With pallid cheek and hair clinging wet
and damp TO her cheek, a mother was seen
grasping floating timber, while with her
other arm she held her babe.
The greatest excitement prevailed at
Bolivar and parties of citizens were en-
deavoring TO save the poor untortunates
L -. sr.tN fla1a
rushing torrent. The tidal wave struck
Bolivar just after dark and in five minutes
the Conemaugh rose from six To forty feet
and the waters spread out over the whole
country. The houses began floating down,
and clinging to the debris were men, women
and children shriezing for aid. A large
number of citizens at once gathered on the
county bridge aud they were reinforced Oy
number from Garfield, town on the OPP
posite side. They brought "a number OF
ropes and these were thrown over in o the
boiling waters as persons Heated by, In ct
forts 10 save some poor beings. For half
hour all efforts were fruitless, until ut last
when rescuers were giving up all hopes,
little boy astride a Single roof managed to
catch hold of one Of the ropes. He caugh.
it under his left arm and was thrown VIC
lently against an abutment but managed
10 keep hold and was pulled on 10 the
bridge amid tt.c cheers of the lockers on.
The boy name is Edward Hess or, aged
10.
The towns OF Livermore Salisbury,
Apollo, Leechburg and Arenmore were also
IN the track of the deluge, and at each of
these places the loss Of life is something
terrible, hundreds Of homes swept away,
and the destruction 10 property in the path
of the food awful to contemplate
WORSE AND WORSE.
Tho first accounts of the Johnstown dis
aster are lar below thu widest estimates
placed upon the extent of the calamity aud
instead of 1000 or 5000, IL is probable the
death list will reach 5000, many say 10,
co., Tho property loss may reach Sl5,O0O,
600 1t is now known that two passenger
trains, two sections Of day express on the
Pennsylvania raj road, have been thrown
into the maddened torrent and the passen-
gers drowned. These trains were eeld al
Johnstown from Friday at IL a. IN, and
were laying on "a sid .ng between the Johns
town and Conemaugh stations The awful
torrent came down tho narrow deiile be
tween the mountains, distance of nine
miles and with "a fall OF :OJ feet in tha
distance, sweeping away tho village 3 o,
South Fork. Mineral Point, Woodvale anC
Conemaugh, leaving but one buildin 9
standing and wooden mil, where but an
hour before had stood hundreds, and dash
ing on with the roar OF a cataract and will
the speed 81 the wind upon the fair city q
the foot hills. The plano ON which but
yesterday sat Johnstown sits IN the noun
tain like jewel in the queens di Idem
The grc,t Gautier steel works sa
on this plane and the city
below it, the railroad TRACES bounding il at
the base OF the mountains on the north
Here Is where the trains were stand n.
when a tile of wa er like catapult came
down upon them with such resistess fore,
that the heavy trains, locomotives, Pull
mans and all, were overturned and swep
down the torrent and were lodged agains
hl eft nHtn OF WtsfN 70.
one locomotives from the Johnstown round
house, the heavy machinery and pouderou
framework OF the Gnutier mill, the accumu
lated debris OF more than thousand houses
furniture, bird yes, lumber, drift and humai
beings. The low arches of the stone via
duct choked up Immediately aud the watc
backed over the entire level OF the VALLEY
upon which the CITY stood 10 the depth o
what, from the water marks, indicate abou
thirty. eight feet In the great sea thu
formed hundreds, perhaps thousands, wer
struggling for life. The scene was one o
the most narrowing possible for the imagin
alton OF man to conceive. The accumulated
drift Rorged up at the viaduct to n high
OF forty feet and then took fir
from the upsettng of stoves or lamps
Then were strong man made sick at thu
sight. AS the flames cracked and roaret
among the dry timber of the floating houses
human bodies were seen pinoned between
the house roofs, LOCOMOTIVES, iron beams
lTelRHl, pdSsenBeT, IutlUan ana baggage
cars, heavy iron beams, the greedy flame
licking with haste their diet of human
flesh. The scene was horrible beyond des
cription. From infancy, a few days old, L
the wasted figures of age, were burned be
fore the eyes of the beholders, and no res
cue from such fate was possible. Stron
men turned away with agonized expires
sions and women shrieked at the horror o
the scene. The dead has been computed a
not less than 5000, and the num- Der ma
even exceed this estimate This seems in
credible, but until the waters will hav
ab,tcd and the work of removing the doa,
from this tremendous mass it will be i'm
possible to tell how many lives have beer
lost
The Associated Press correspondent wa
the first man TO cross TO Johnstown proper
by means OF basket suspended from .
cable, as passengers are removed from
wrecked ships. Here tho scenes wer,
magnlhed IN their horror.
Cinder, Market, Main and Washington
streets are swept clean and hll buildings o
whatev character and their inhabitant.
seem TO have fed into the streets at tn,
first warning Of danger and others rushed
TO their deaths, for those who remained il
their homes had an opportunity TO fee t.
the upper stories. When the houses were