Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1889-06-13
UNDER THE WRECKAGE.
Slow Progress OF the Work OF Re-
covcry at Johnstown.

A Johnstown dispatch of the 10th
says: The great raft is an endless,
measureless graveyard, made in n
night. Its tombstones are the shat
tered timbers sticking out Of tho wreck
age, the torn, ragged fragments OF
walls marking where the streets had
been. Though hundreds have already
been uncovered, the dead to-day are
coming 10 light in surprising numbers
III any one here can be surprised
and there are some faces among them
that had never been missed. People
just arriving In Johnstown say that the
stencil is sickening and fearful, faint
ing the air Of the valley everywhere,
while those who have worked here
throughout the trying scenes have
noticed 1t only at times and in certain
places, showing their senses are numb
ed. All the waters are giving up their
dead, and the skiffs and grapplers are
in waiting for them. The red-shirted
lumberman standing midway in the
raft, who Is called the marker and
color bearer, raised his axe to strike
once this forenoon, but the blow never
fell. II 1t had, 1t would have cut
| in twain the first OF the bodies
taken from the point on the morn
ing of the tenth day. II was the re-
mains OF n woman, Emma Roth by
name, identified by her broken-heart-
ed husband an hour later. DR.. G. G.
Brinkle, one of Johnstown's brightest
and most prominent physicians, was
found at last in tho raft near where
the woman lay. Although but 80 years
of age, his appearance, when the re-
mains were rescued, was that Of man
rs years old. Others, unknown, were
taken from tho raft at all hours OF the
day, among them an old man with his
little boy clasped In his arms. With
every hour comes salute for the hun
of dynamite. Five bodies were found
under one single heap Of wreckage in
the town to-day. One of them was
Kate Neary, the milliner and modiste.
One OF the saddest identifcations was
that OF Miss Blanche Harnish, OF Day
ton, o. She was passenger on the
day express, and her father had search
ed for her for the last throe days.
Some workmen found her body lying
under the trestle near tho Pennsylva-
MIA railroad station. Geo. G. Humm was
well known insurance agent. Nobody
had given him thoughtuntil this after
noon, when his body was carried TO the
Presbyterian church morgue, The
day Is past when the discovered dead
can be kept any time, for indentiflca-
ton, Frightful scenes at tho morgues
bear quick testimony of this. The keepers
say that as soon as the air strikes tho
corpses now, 1t becomes almost impos-
sible to handle them and the sooner
they are buried the better. The dead
Valdeman. There are over fifty new
faces on the slabs at the morgues to-
night and record shows that up TO
noon yesterday, which was just n week
from the time the morgues were
established, 1,492 people were buried
from them who were discovered right
in this vicinity. This has nothing to
do with the valley or tho dead OF
Mineveh, at New Florence and else
where. A great many were also
buried who were not taken TO these
morgues.
| The work of the registration Of the
survivors OF the food is going steadily
on. Up to last evening there were
about p 900 registered and the list is
still increasing. The number OF the
lost is placed now at 5000 by those
who held that it would reach 10000 a
week ago. A conservative estimate Is
between $500 aud 1000. Up to date
there have been 1900 bodies recover
| ed