The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-06
In the Connemaugh Valley.

JoHNSTOWN, June -NotwithS tandln g
the fact that nearly every prominent citi-
zen in the United States is raising a fund
for the relief of the Connemaugh sufferers,
the wants of the homeless and afflicted are
far from being alleviated. At various re-
lief stations crowds of applicants continue
from morning till night and many needy
were forced to wait in line hours before
their turn came and their little portion was
allotted out to them. Hundreds and thou
sands are positively suffering. Thousands of
people are homeless, and in their devaSted
homes thousands also lost their all. Labor
and manufacturing of all kinds are at a
standstill in the valley, and weeks and
months must elapse before the iron works
and other institutions can possibly resume
work and give employment to the thousands
that depend on them for support.
The mayor of Johnstown has received by
cable copy of tho resolutions adopted blythe
public meeting to-day in Paris. The warm
hearted Parisians express their deep SYM
pathy with the homeless and afflicted
of COnnemaugh valley, and state
that subscriptions have been opened
for the relief of their American neighbors.
Two hundred bodies were recovered from
the ruins to-day. Some were identified,
but the great majority not. This number
includes all the morgues, the one at the
Pennsylvania railroad station, the Fourth
Ward school, Cambria city, Narrowville
and the Presbyterian church.
AT the latter place q remarkable state of
affairs exists. The first floor has been
washed out completely and the second
while submerged was badly damaged.
The walls, floors and pews are badly
drenched. and the mud has collected on the
mating and carpets an inch deep. Walk
ing is attended with much difficulty, and
the undertakers and assistants, with arms
bare, slide about the slippery surface at a
tremendous rate. The chancel is filed
with collins and all sorts of undertaking ac-
cessories. Lying across the tops of the
pews are dozen pine boxes; each contain
ing victim of the flood. Printed cards
are tackled on each OF them. and full de
scriptiOn of the enclosed bodies is written
with the name, if known
One of the most grizzley and nauseating
sights to those unaccustcmed to death is the
lunching arrangements for the undertakerS
These men are working so hard and contin-
uously that they have no time for meals
and hugh boilers of coffee, lOaveS Of bread
dried beef and preserves are carried into
the charnel house and placed at the dis
posal Of the workers. Along comes
one weary laborer his sleeves
rolled up, an apron in front and
perspiring profusely despite the cold, damp
weather. He has Just finished washing a
clammy corpse, and manipulated it about
on the boards. An interval before the
body of another victim is brought in he
gets cup of coffee and a sandwich. With
dripping hands he eats his lunch with
relish, setting his cup occasionally beside
the face of the hideOuS corpse and totally
obliyious to his horrible surroundings
At the Fourth Ward school house where
most of the undertaking work is done,
there was some slight trouble over the
question of liquor. The Rev. Mr.. Beale,
of the Presbyterian church, has charge of
this morgue and he objected to the under
takers drinking whisky. Inasmuch as a
man with cast iron constitution could not
work at anything in this place without
stimulants of some kind, the undertakers
protested against Beale's unreasonable
prejudice. They threatened to cease work,
ana this had the effect of modifying Beale's
temperance scruples.