Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-06-07
towns and portion of the valley affected
by the flood Is or was from $4,000 to 55,OOO

towns ana portion or the valley anecteQ
by the flood Is or was from $4,000 to $1,000.
The Associated Press representatives to-
day interviewed numerous leading citizens
of J0hnstown who survived the Hood and
it is estimated that fully 30 per cent. Of the
residents of Johnstown and Cambria had
been victims of the continued disaster of
fire and water. If this be true the total
loss Of life in the entire valley can't be less
than 1000 or 5000 and possibly much
greater. Of
THE THOUSANDS WHO WE'RE DEvOURED
by the flames and whose ashes rest be-
meath the smoking debris above the Johns
town bridge, no definite information can
ever be attained. AS little will be learned
of the hundreds who sank. beneath the
current and were borne swiftly down the
Conamaugh only to be deposited hundreds
Of miles below on the banks and in the:
driftwood of the raging Ohio. Probably
one-third of the dead will never be re-
covered and it will take the list of missing
weeks hence to enable even close esti-
mate to be made of the number of lives
that were snuffed out in that brief hour.
That this estimate can never be accurate
will be understood when it is remembered
that in many instances whole families and
elativesswere swept away and found a
common grave beneath the wild waste Of
waters. The total destruction of the city
leaves no data.
2,20O RECOVERED BODIES.
"All indications point to the fact
that the death list will reach 5000
in number" declared Gen. d. H.
Hastings tonight. AT present There
are said to be 1890 recovered bodies.
Great difficulties are experienced in getting
a correct list as there are great number
of morgues. There is no central bureau of
information, and to communicate with the
different dead houses is the work of hours.
At 6 o'clock this evening 6S8 bodies had
been recovered at the Cambria City de-
pository for the dead.
THE HOSPITALS OVERLOOKING.
The Cambria hospital has now 300 pa.
tients. DR.. Buck, with an efficient corps of
aides, is in charge. Twosof the patients
died yesterday. A committee from the
citizens of Altoona and Mountain Lodge
No. 282, F. & A. NJ, arrived in Johnstown
in the morning. They had driven over
the mountains. The horses were covered
with mud and when they drew UP at the
station stood painting and steaming after
their dash down the mountain side. They
brought physicians and medicines. and
both were badly needed. The hospital in
the upper part Of Johnstown is full to
overf1owing. Many have been carried to
surrounding houses. One of their patients
died on their hands and several are very
low. Hospitals have been established at
Conemaugh and Mineral Point, but little
could be learned of how many patients it
contained and how they were faring.
There are about thirty Catholic priests and
nuns here. The sisters are devOting them
selves to the care of the sick and injured
in the hospitals, while the priests are doing
anything and everything and making
themselves generally useful. Pathetic
personal experiences are SO numerous as
almost to deaden their own pathos.
WHERE wooDvALE ONCE STOOD
There is sea Of broken mudI but rarely
by a pile of wreckage. Your correspon-
dent waded through the mud and water
up the valley to-day over the site of the
former village. As has been often stated,
nothing is standing but the old wooden
mills. The place is swept bare of all other
buildings but the ruins Of the Gautier Wire
Mill. The boilers OF this great works
were carried 100 yards from their founda-
tion. Pieces of the engines rolls and other
machinery was swept far away from
where they once stood. 'rhe wreck of q
hose carriage is sticking up out of the mud.
1t belonged to the crack company of
Johnstown. The engine house is swept
away and the cellar is filled with mud so
that the site is 0bliterated. A German
waterman was on guard at the mill
when the water came. He ran for the
hillside and succeeded in escaping. He
tells graphic story Of the appearance of
the water as it swept down the valley. He
declares the first wave was as high as the
third story of a house. The place is de-
serted. No effortis being made to clean
off the streets. The mire has formed q
0AsSsO IVA AAAssAAy ~ HSOA tACSllus' tAll0S tSIlu
legs are protruding from the mud and it
MAKES most sickening picture.
A ROPE FERRY
Is now being operated in the lower part of
town, and an effort is being made to CON
struct q bridge across the Conemaugh at
point where the old county bridge stood
A man named Mcguire was met on his
way from South Fork to Johnstown. He
said he was standing on the edge of the
lake when the walls broke. The water
was rising all day, and was on level with
the pile of dirt which he said was above
the walls of the dam. All of
sudden it burst with report like
q cannon and the water started down the
mountain side, sweeping before it trees as
If they were chips. Boulders were rolled
down as If they were marbles. The roar
was deafening. The lake was emptied in
an hour and half All the water, he said,
was now out. The railroad is in terrible
condition. At some points holes twenty
to thirty feet deep were washed in the