St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-11
GIVING Up Their DEAD
Grapplers Busy in Caring for
the Bodies That Come to
the Surface.
Nearly Fifteen Hundred Bur-
ials at JohnStoWn Within
Week.
Dogs Holding High Carnival
in the Numerous Grave
yards.
The Bodies Are in a Horrible
Condition, and Men Object
to Washing Them.

JoHNSTOWN, Pa., June l0.-Ihe great
raft is an endless. meaSureleSS grave
yard, made in q night. Its tombstones
are the shattered timbers sticking out
of the wreckage, the torn fragments OF
walls marking where the streets had
been. Though hundreds have already
been uncovered, the dead to-day are
being removed in surprising numbers
if 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, taint-
ing the air of the valley everywhere,
while those who have worked here
throughout the trying scenes have
noticed it only at times and in certain
ploces, showing that their senses are
numbed. All the waters are giving up
their dead, and the skitfs and grapplers
are in waiting for them. The
red-shirted lumberman standing mid
way in the raft, who is called the
marker and color bearer, raised bis axe
once to strike this forenoon, but the
blow never fell. If it had, it would
have cut in twain the first of the bodies
taken from the point on the morning of
the tenth day. 1t was the remains of
woman, Emma Roth by name, identified
by her broken-hearted husband an hour
later. DR.. G. c. Brinkley. one of Johns
towns brightest and most promising
physicians, was found at last in the raft
near where the body of a woman lay. AL
though but thirty years of age, his ap-
pearance was that of a man seventv-fve
years old. Others unknown were taken
from the 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 hundreds
yet buried there. 1t is the blast of dv-
Mantle. Five bodies were found
under one single heap of the
wreckage in the town to-day.
One of them was Kate Neary, the
milliner and modiste. One of the
saddest identifications was that of Miss
Blanche Harnish, of Dayton, o. She
was passenger on the day express, and
her father had searched for her for the
last three days. Some workmen found
her body lying under the trestle near
the Pennsylvania railroad station.
George c. Humm was we'll known in
surance agent. Nobody had given him
a thought until this afternoon when his
body was carried to the Presbyterian
church morgue. The day is past when
the discovered dead. can be kept any
time for Identification.
FRIGHTFUL SCENES
at the morgues bear quick testimony of
this. The keepers say that as soon as
the air strikes the corpses, it becomes
almost impossible to handle them, and
the sooner they are buried the better.
The dead of to-day are as loathsome as
Poe's Mr.. Valdeman. There are over
fifty new faces on the slabs at
the morgues tonight, and a rec
ord shows that up to noon yes
terday, which was just a week from
the time mOrgueS were established, ,492
people were buried from them who were
discovered right in this vicinity. This
has nothing to do with the valley or the
dead of Nineveh, at New Florence and
elsewhere. A great many were also
buried who were not taken to these
morgues. Great credit is due the Cam
bria Iron company for setting the
stricken people of this city to work,
thereby diverting their minds from their
many sorrows. On Saturday night last
the company had its natural gas mains
under the bed of the COnemaugh river
repaired, and since that the flames
have been burning brightly. To-day
the machine shop, employing 100 men,
is in operation. The boiler shop is
changing with the hammers of full
force of workmen; the blacksmith shop
is running full, and what is still more
wonderful. the six Blast furnaces, with
started up this morning. Only those
who have seen the utter ruin
of these works can realize what
bound towards its original prosperity
has been accomplished by the company.
Nearly 5000 men are employed In clear
ing away the wreckage and operating
the departments that are open. About
twO-thirds of the whole number of the
company's employees were left alive by
tine flood. Nearly 700 men, or not quite
One-half, of the Gautier company's men
have reported for work. The loss of
men in the lower works is from 1,O00 to
1,5O0. Most of the survivors were house.
holders, but the dam bursting made
them paupers for the time being. They
will. with the company's assistance,
begin rebuilding their homes at once.
The new steel plant is not damaged to
any extent, and the No. rolling mill is
nearly ready for work. The time office
and draughtsmen's rooms are in full
operation. The rod mill will be run
ming in two days. turning out 120 tons
of finished material a day. The blowing
engines of the blast furnaces are but
slightly damaged; the general offices
are now occupied. and the company's
store will resume business Tomorrow.