The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-05
THE FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN
Crowded With Anxious Friends In Search
of Loved Ones.

| of Loved Ones.
! SANG Hollow, Pa. June AT $50 this
morning the irst train passed New Florence
east. 1t was crowded with people from Pitts
! burg and places en- route, people who were go
! ing TO the scene OF the disaster with but little
! hope of finding their loved ones alive. Rich
| and poor were en- board that train, all thinking
! of but one thing, and that was what will we
| see 1t was a heart-rending sight and not dry
| eve was in the train. Mothers moaued for
! their children, husbands paced the aisles
| and wrung their hands in mute
/ agony Fathers pressed their faces
/ against the Windows in an endeavor TO see
! something-they knew not what-that would
/ tell them, in a measure, of the dreadful fate
{ that their loved ones had met All along the
raging Conemaupn the train stopped and
+ bodies were taken on the express car, Ebeing
carried by the villagers who were out along
/ the banks.
| On, the horror and the infinite pity of it all.
| What journey it wasl Swollen, awful eorpses
/ lay here and there in piles of eross-tes or on
/ the river banks among the tangled greenery.
| As each stop was made. the train was utterly
! deserted as the passengers rushed TO the spo
| where the bodies were being taken on board,
so as to see il perchance they could recognize
in one of the bloa;ed corpses relative.
AT Sang Hollow Il long stop was made, and
I men from across the river called ont: Gone
meugh is laid low, Cambria City gone, Johns
( town utterly demolished, and not house
stands in Colville."
| As this dreadful news came from the oppo.
4 site bank one poor woman yelled: MY God,
my babies are gone," and fell in faint. Then
| the cries and shrieks from the passengers be-
/ came more and more terrible and when the
/ train stopped at its destination il was a sorry
/ sight to mourning humanity that left the cars.
/ Death was strewn ali along the railroad from
/ New Florence to Sang Hollow. Not less than
/ dozen bodies were picked up. while many
4 others were seen in the wreck and river, stTewn
4 along the river banks.
! AS the train reached Sang Hollow huge
| black crow sailed out into the very middle OF
1 the bosterous stream and, darting down,
| perched into the swift waters. The crow then
! few away and then disappeared but on the
/ next wave the body OF small child appeared
4 A wild shrek went up from the horrlhed pas
sengers and fully hundred voices shouted to
a number OF men who were standing on the
| river bank, and before the dead body foated
down leo feet further it was overtsken and
taken from the water.
The people of Johnstown are actually starv
4 ing. Men who were yesterday worth half
million dollars are to-day actually penniless,
suffering for the necessities of life. A loud cry
of distress is being sent up from the entire city,
and the doleful vail should meet with prompt
response. The great Cambria iron works are
| wrecked and entirely ruined. The tide of the
river is flowing through the great mills. All
/ the hanks are flooded out. The employees of
| the Cambria works would have been paid to-
| day.
! 1t was about 9 o'clock when the first pas.
senger train since Friday came to the New
4 Florence denot with its load of eager passen-
/ gers. They were no idle travellers but each
/ had mission. Here and there men with tear
! full eyes were staring out the windows
Among them were tough-looking Hnngsri-
ans and Italians who had lost friends
near Ninevah, while many weeping
on all sides. Two of the passengers on the
train were man and wife from JohnstowD. He
was quite dignifed and more or less self-pos.
sessed. She was petite. anxious, aud tried hard
! TO control her feelings. From every newcomer
and possible source OF information she sought
news,
"Ours is big, new brick house." said she
with brave effort, but with loving brown eyes
moist and red lips trembling. "It is three
story house. and don't think there is any
trouble, do you? she sad and without waIt-
ing for an answer. she continued with q sob:
There my four children in the house, and
their nurse. and guess father and mother will
90 over 10 the house, don't your?
In a few moments all those in the car knew
the story of the pair and many pitying glance
was cast at them. Their house was one OF the
first to 60. Just before reaching Sang Hollow,
the end of the main line of the Pennsylvania
Z
told stories of what they saw, piteous that
one could not listen to half of it.
Here are some little odds and ends OF hap
penings they told of:
A beautiful girl came down on the roof of
building which was swung in near the tower.
She screamed to the operators to save her, and
one big, brawny, brave fellow walked far
into the river as he could and shouted to her to
try TO guide herself into shore with bit
OF plank. She plucky girl, full of nerve
and energy and stood upon her frsl support in
evident obedience to the command OF the 0per'
ator. She made two or three bold strokes and
actually stopped the course of the rait for an
instant Then il swerved and went out from
under her. She tried 10 swim ashore, but in o
few seconds she was lost in the swirling water.
Something hit her, for she lay on her back with
face pallid and expressionless.
Men and women in dozens, in pairs, sngly,
children, boys, big and little, and wee babies
were there in among the awful confusion OF
water. drowning, gasping, struggling and fight.
ing desperately for life.
Two men on tiny raft shot out into the
swittest part OF the current. They crouched,
stolidly looking at the shores, while between
them dressed in white and kneeling with her
face turned heavenward, was a girl six or seven
years old. She seemed stricken with paraly-
sis until she came opposite the low
over and then she turned her face to
the operator. She was so close they could see
big tears on her cheeks and her pallor waSas
death. The helpless men on shore shouted TO
her TO keep up her courage, and she resumed
her devout attitude and disappeared under
the tree of a projecting point a short distance
below.
ave could not see her come out again, said
the operator. "and that was all TO it."
do you see that fringe of trees?' said the
operator, pointing to the place where the little
girl had gone out of sight; well we saw
scores of children swept in there. l believe
that when the time comes they will find almost
hundred bodies of children there among these
bushes"
Just above New Florence is the little town of
Ninevah. II was here that was found the irst
charnel house. One hundred and nine dead
were found there, the larger portion of which
were women. Here il was that the awful work
of the ireshet could be realized. What have
been fertile farms look like worn-out brick
yards. Great trees have been twisted and torn
like weeds, and the broken household goods OF
hundreds of houses line the shores for miles.
Thieves OF the Yilest sort, those who steal
from the dead and unfortunate, have been
busily at work robbing the trunks. boxes, arti.
cles Of furniture, and there Is nothing worth
taking left except lumber
Every now and then ghasrly outlines could
be seen in the water being swept down stream.
Two miles from So tower is the "Sx" tower
of the Pennsylvania railroad, and here IT is
that the greatest railroad In the world ends
suddenly in the river. For more than thou
sand feet the entire track Is wiped out--rails.
ties, and even ballast The north track Is en-
tireIy washed away.
This is the nearest telegraph point to Johns
- - 1Al -. at~<. r.ffr~