Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-06-10

gathering additional momentum as it
swept on toward the Gulf, it became
clear that the city must be destroyed,
and that unless the inhabitants had
telegraphic notice of the breaking of
the reservoir they must perish. A
cry of horror went up from the hun
dreds ON the mountain side, and a
few instinctively turned their steps
toward Johnstown. The city was de-
stroyed. All the mills, furnaces,
manufactures, the many and varied
industries, the banks, the residences,
all, all were swallowed up before the
shadows of night had settled upon
the earth. Those who came back by
davbreak said that from 5000 to
5000 had been drowned.
The resident portion of Woodvale-
boro' is completely wiped out. The
property loss is estimated at $780,
Ona On the hills above the wrecked
village is presented an awful specta-
Gle. Here are clustered the several
thousand inhabitants who escaped,
and unless aid is given them soon
they must perish from want, as starv-
alton is staring them in the face.
They are so far above Johnstown that
the relief parties have not yet reach
ed them. Several have become de-
mented, and it is feared that the hor-
rors of death by starvation. or the
worse horrors of madness, must soon
overtake them unless at once relieved.
A large number of lives were lost
here. Abraham Gilmore, one of the
survivors, made the following state
ment: "The flood from Stony Creek
had come and gone. The water was
about three feet higher than it was
two years ago. We were joking back
and forth with our neighbors, but we
had no warning. We were looking
up stream when Conemaugh Lake
came down. We saw the wall of wa
ter come pouring over the iron bridge.
In moment it struck the town, hurl-
ing the town or Woodvaleboro' before
it, and the houses went in twink
ling"
The best estimates this morning
on loss of life, based on the registry
of the living and of an unofficial poll,
puts it at from $1,000 to $4,000.
1t must be remembered that very
large proportion of this loss is made
up of children. How strikingly fire.
quent is the reference in the death
list to ''Mrs. Jones and her six chill
dren, "s'Mrs. Smith and five children
In the morgue the little ones lie in
dozens, where the adults are in half
dozens but there is and has been a
,,ar,oh oraa+nr difficnltu in rnoovorin"
the bodies of the children. Being
lighter and smaller, they have often
been swept into out of the way re-
cesses and carried away.
In the midst of this scene of death
and desolation a relenting Providence
seems to be exerting a subduing in
fuence. Six days have elapsed since
the great disaster, and the tempera-
ture still remains low and chilly in
the Conemaugh Valley. The emana-
tions from the half mile of debris
above the bridge are no more often
sive than previously, and should this
| cool weather continue a few days
longer it is possible hundreds of bod
les may yet be recovered from the
wreck in such "a state of preservation
as to render Identification possible.
Many hundreds of victims, however,
will be roasted and charred into such
shapeless masses as to preclude a
hope of recognition by their nearest
relatives. The work of clearing up
| buC nICCh 1CSON Viii SAAN
is now being conducted most sytem-
atically. Over 5000 men are at work
in the various portions of the valley,
and each little gang Of twenty men is
directed by foreman, who is under
orders from the general headquarters.
AS the rubbish is gone over and the
bodies and scattered articles of value
recovered, the debris is piled up in
one high mass and the torch applied.
Arthur Kirk, of Pittsburg, who be-
gan blasting on the bridge to clear up
the gorge, estimates that the ruins
are on the average fifteen feet deep
They are 1920 feet in length ano
400 feet in width, and Mr.. Kirk says
that it may take weeks to do the work
thoroughly, as the mass is formed OF
pieces of iron, locked and twisted to-
gether, telescoped houses and inter
twined timbers. They work up from
the bridge through the center of th'
mass, so that the current may worl
away the inner edges.
On the morning of June 4 the frs
streak of dawn found crowd o
workmen waiting to begin a searcl
) for bodies among the acres of smoul
dering ruins above the stone bridge
Five engines had been playing thei
: hose upon the spots where the fir
1 still burned for hours and the me
e were able to begin their melanchol
e work. During the whole of Sunda
:. and the early part of Monday tn
: groans and screams of the unfortr
: nate people who had been caught
the burning trap could be heard O
! all sides. Some of them were rescue
+ by willing hands, but few of thel
r lived long after being dragged fro1