Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-06-04
HOSTS OF DEAD.
Broken and Bruised, Burned
and Buried.
THE SORROWFUL SEARCH
Swinging and Shooting De-
spoilers of the Dead.
THE SORROWFUL SEARCH
PROMPT PROFFERS OF RELIEF.
The Heart of Humanity Touched and
Its Hand Opened to Aid the
Helpless in Their Need.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD

Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD.
| JoHNsrowN, Pa, June 3.-The dark
disaster of the day, with its attendant
terrors, has thrilled the universe and
drawn two continents closer together in
the bonds of sympathy that bind human
ity. The midnight terrors of Ashtabula
and Chatsworth evoked tears of pity from
every freside in Christendom, but the
true story of YOUNGSTOWN, when all is
known, will stand solidly and alone as
the acme of mans humiliation by the
potent forces to which humanity is ever
subject.
Menacing clouds still hover darkly
over the valley of death, and muttering
thunder that ever and anon reverberates
in the distance, seems like the sardonic
chuckle of the demon of destruction.
But the modern deluge has done it's worst
for Jamestown.
| BLACK FRIDAY.
The waters are rapidly subsiding, but
the angry torrent still eddies around the
scene of destruction, and the time has
not yet arrived to tell the pathetic tale of
destruction of Black Friday. 1t is not a
hsckn eyed utterance to say that no pen
can adequately depict the horrors of
those twin disasters, the holocaust and
the deluge. The deep emotions that
swell in the heart of every spectator find
the most eloquent expression in silence
the silence that bespeaks mans recog-
milton of his subservience to the elements
and this impotence to avert the catas.
trophe.
The morning opens dark and dreary.
Great drops of rain fall occasionally
Another storm seems imminent. Every
one feels thankful, though that the
weather still remains cool, and that the
gradual putrefaction of hundreds of bodies
that still lire the streams and lie hidden
under miles OF driftwood and debris is not
unduly fastened.
THE RANK DOOR OF DECAY.
This morning the peculiar stencil Of
decaying human flesh in plainly per-
ceptible to the senses as one ascends the
bank of Stony creek for half mile along
the smoldering ruins of the wreck, and
the most skeptical now conceive of the
worst, and realize that perhaps thousands
of bodies lie charred and blackened
beneath this great funeral pyre. The
searchers wander YEARLY over the
smoking mass, and as occasionally a
sudden shout comes over the waters, the
patient watchers on the hill realize that
another CHASTITY discovery has been added
to the long list of revelations that chill
every heart and draw tears to the eyes
even of the pessimist.
From the banks many charred remains
Of the victims of the flames and flood are
plainly visible as the receding waters
reluctantly give up their dead. Beneath
almost every log or blackened beam the
glistenipg skull or blanched remnants of
ribs or limbs mark all that remains of
life's hopes and dreams.
STILL FIGHTING THE FIRE.
Since 10 o'clock last night the fire en-.
gines have been busy. Water has been
constantly playing on the burning RUNE.
at times the fire seems almost extin-
guished, but fitful flames suddenly break
out afresh in all new quarters and again
the water and the flames wage a fierce
combat. The chief sensation of the
morning has been the united remon-
STRANGE of the physicians against the
extinguishment of the burning wreck.
They maintain, with philosophy, that to
the anxious searchers seem heartless,
that hundreds, if not thousands of life.
less, decayipg bodies lie beneath this
mass of burning ruins.
ADVOCATING CREMATION.
1t would be better, they say, to permit
natures creates scavenger, the flames,
to pursue its work unmolested, than to
lexpose to further decay the horde of
putrefying bodies that lie beneath this
debris. There can be but one result
Days will elapse before the rubbish can
be sufficiently removed to permit of the
recovery of these bodies; and long ere
that every corpse will be a putrd mass,
Welding forth those frightful emanations
of decaying human flesh, that in a
crowded community like this can give
but one result. The dreadful typhus on
every battlefield has demonstrated the
necessity of hasty interment of decaying
bodies, and the stencil that already
arises is a forerunner of impending
danger.
SENTIMENT vs.. SCIENCE.
"Burn the wreck Burn the wreck !"
A loud cry of indignation arose from the
llips of vast multitude, and the warn.
ings of science were lost in the eager de-
m ands of those that sought the remains
of the near and dear. The hose was
again turned upon the kissing mass, and
rapidly the flames yielded to the suprem-
acy of water. 1t is almost impossible to
conceive of the extent of the smoking
ruins. An area of eight or ten acres
Iabove the dam is covered to depth OF
forty feet with shattered houses, borne
from the neighborbood of YOUNGSTOWN. In
each OF these houses it is estimated there
are from one to twenty or twenty-five
people. This is accepted as the data
upon which to estimate the number that
persisted upon this spot, and, if the data
be correct, the bodies that lie beneath
must run we'll up into the hundrede, if
net thousands.
THE BODIES IN THE PYRE.
There is no telling how many bodies
have been lost. Adjutant General Hast.
Iings, who has charge of everything,
stated this morning that he supposed
there were at least 1000 people under
the burning debris, and the only way to
find out how many lives were lost was to
take a census of the people now living
and substract that from the census be-
fore the food.
Said he: "In my opinion there are
any way from 1000 to 600 souls lost"
"Battery B." Of Pittsburg, arrived
here this morning, sent by the Chamber
of Commerce, but Adiutant- General
~