Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-06-06

was ready, and the long, pine tables were |
crowded with men. Coffee, bread and |
cheese was the fare tonight, but more
rations will be given out to-
morrow. AS darkness drew a veil over |
the scene the valley became quiet, the |
only noise being the occasional chal- |
lenge of militiaman, as he bade some |
belated individual to obey the orders of
the Sheriff, and leave the city OF the |
dead, for YOUNGSTOWN is under martial
law, and only laborers are wanted.
THE PRESIDENT OF A RAILROAD LOTT.
SAN Diego, June Sit is feared here
]. G. Long, President of the Cuyamaca
Railroad, is lost in the Johnstown
disaster. Long left San Diego for New
York on May 22nd, and was either on
the wrecked train or one which left for
Altoona half an hour later. He should
have arrived at New York last Friday,
but had not reached there up till to might
or been heard from, although the officers
of the Pennsylvania Railroad have made
every effort to locate him. He was &C.
companied by his wife and child, and
carried with him an abstract of the right
of way and the bonds for the road.
THE CROWDED DEAD.
Although the funerals of the morning
had relieved the morgues of their crush,
before night they were as full OF dead as
ever. Over hundred men have been
all day engaged in an effort to clear a
narrow passage from the death bridge
upward through the sea of debris that
blocks Conemaugh for nearly bali mile.
Every ingenuity known to man has been
resorted to by this crew. Giant powder
and dynamite have been brought into
requisition and, at frequent intervals,
the roar of explosions have reverberated
through the valley, and stones and logs
flew high in the air. Gradually, a few OF
the heaviest timbers were demolished
and the fragments were permitted to
float downward through the center arch.
THE DEATH DEADLOCK.
At nightfall, however. the clear space
above the bridge did not exceed an area
OF 60 feet in length and 40 feet in width.
When one reflects that fully twenty-five
acres are to be cleared in this way, the
task ahead seems an interminable one.
But there is no "royal road" and If the
hundreds, or thousands, OF bodies be-
meath these blackened ruins are to be
recovered for Christian burial, the labor
of to-day must be continued with in
creased vigor.
| SENTIMENT BLOCKS THE WAY.
| There are many conservative minds
that recommend the use of the torch in
this work of clearing the river, but they
are not among the sufferers, and, wher
such counsels are heard by those whose
wives, children, sisters or brothers rest
be meath this sea of folsom and jutsom
the suggestions OF cremation meet with 6
wild furore of objection. 1t is only il
Difference to the unreasonable mandate
of grief that the herculean labor of clear
ing the river by means of dynamite ant
derrick is persisted in. There is no hope
in the calmer minds that this task car
be pursued to the end. The progress o
to-day is hardly discernible, and, ere two
more days have elapsed, there is little
doubt that the emanation of the putriC
bodies will have become SO frigbtful al
to drive the hardest workman from the
scene.
THE DERNIER RESORT.
Until that time arrives, however
there is no hope that this grief-stricker
jpopulace will abandon the cherished
hope of again gazing upon the forms o
the loved ones whose lives went out II
the fire and food of Conemaugh. Tit
pleadings of sanitarians and the logic o
engineers alike fail to find an echo il
the minds OF the grieving and al
flicted; but, in few more days, tn,
sterner logic Of nature will assert itself
and, in the face of impossibi!ity, the tasl
of cremation will become Christian
duty.
| SANITARY MEASURES TAKEN.
As the days roll on and the heaps o
debris are penetrated, it becomes NOR,
and more apparent that the death lis
will be more than 1000, and the genera
impression is that the victims will mum
Der from between 8, 1000 and II 900. TIL,
deeper the wreck drifts ar,
penetrated, the greater the number il
discovered. On Franklin street clever
were found. In Custer, to-day, a few
minutes afterward, twelve more were
found. DIR. Lee Penn, the State Boarc
lof Health representative, was to-
day asked what, in his opinion
were the prospects of an cpl
demic in the Conemaugh valley. He
said: GOOD only knows. No man
can tell what may come out of those
drifts and wreckage. To-day we started
a portion of our corps of sanitary inspec-
tors into the thick OF the debris, and in a
little while the bodies of fifty dead ami.
mails, mostly horses, had been re.
moved and hauled away for burial.
If this per centage is kept up
here, there is fearful amount of decom-
posing animal matter to be removed or
encountered. have to-day ordered the
Surgeon General at Washington to for.
ward unlimited quantities Of disinfectants
to YOUNGSTOWN, There is more promised
from up the mountains, and hope to be
able to have the whole city fortified in
side of a few days."
THE FISHING CLUB WILL CATCH 1T.
JoHNsTowN, June 5.-The Coroner's
jury today proceeded to South Fork and
Investigated the cause of the breakage of
the reservoir dam. A witness testified
that slight breaks had appeared in the
dam several times in past years, but it
had each time been clumsily repaired
with straw, sticks and rubbish. The
general impression is that the jury will
declare that the Pittsburg Fishing Club,
that owned the reservoir, was guilty OF
gross negligence. In that event, many
suits for damages against this millionaire
club will doubtless follow.
THE MATTER OF INSURANCE.
The question of accident and fire in
surance is, at present, assuming large
proportions here. Various insurance
companies having policies in YOUNGSTOWN
are represented by their agents in
large numbers. E. E. Clapp, Superin-
tendent OF the Fidelity and Casualty Co.,