Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-06-14

THE DRIFT AGAINST THE BHlDOE.
them dressed in white and kneeing with her
face turned heavenward, was girl six or
seven years old. She seemed stricken with
paralysis until she came opposite the tower,
and then she turned her face to the operator
She was so close they could see big tears on
her cheeks and her pallor was as death. The
helpless men on shore shouted to her to keep
up her courage, and she resumed her devout
attitude and disappeared under the trees of
projecting point short distance below
As glance at the map will show, the river
runs southwest to Johnstown, then northwest
to point just below Nineveh then southwest
and west; there are many minor turns, and
between these are occasionally wide valleys,
where the water turned into the woods and
fields and formed local cddies, and under each
of these the deposited mud and sand are very
deep and actually thick set with corpses The
view, therefore, as the first train came up the
valley, taking the towns in inverse order to
that in which the food struck them, was one
of rapidly increasing horrors. First a corpse
appeared here and there on the platforms
where the humane finders had laid it, then
they appeared by dozens, and soon the whole
muddy fiat between the train and the river
appeared dotted with swollen corpses. And
looking for, yet dreading to find, their near
and dear ones among the dead
"Conemaugh is laid low, Cambria City gone
Johnstown utterly demolished and not house
remains in Colville." Such was the message
given these Borrowing ones when the train
first halted. And there on the railroad plat
form lay 105 corpses At this news and this
sight long, loud wall of grief and horror
swept through the train, and many women
sank fainting to the floor. AS the train reached
Sang Hollow crow sailed out into the very
middle of the boisterous stream, and darting
down peered into the swift waters. The
crow then flew away and disappeared, but on
the next wave the body of small child APP
peared. wild shrek went up from the hor-
rified passengers, and full 100 voices shouted
to a number of men who were standing on the
river bank, and before the dead body floated
100 feet further it was overtaken and taken
from the river.
And all this time the great mass of wreck
age lodged against the bridge was still burn
ing, though many entangled in it We're still
alive. The fire began soon after the first
house lodged, probably by the upsetting of a
stove. AS soon as engines could be got to
the spot many streams of water were turned
ON it, though, after it was certain that it con-
tanned no living being, the physicians urged
that it be allowed to burn 1t was wedged
SO tight that dynamite had to be used to
break it up, and weeks must elapse before it
is all removed.
AL visitors to the ruins are struck by the
peculiar way in which the survivors accost
each other. They do not speak of the lost as
dead or drowned. They simply say, "Gone
down" Most of the people have no idea
what day of the week or month it is,
and stare with singular sort of surprise
when any one reports any news of the out
side world. 1t is rare to hear them say
Good morning" or "Good afternoon" the
regular salutations are, "Have you heard?
if they have met recently or glow many of
your folks went downf" if it is their first
meeting since the food. One little boy thus
accosted replied, 'Only father and mother;
the rest got through" A community in
which death is the rule and life the exception
has strange phrases.
1t were vain task to attempt a recital of
all the brave deeds done in that time of
terror. Edward Dick, young railroader,
swan into the torrent and rescued an old
man. He had barely taken breath when he
saw Mrs Adams, of Cambria, and her two
children in a floating dwelling; he plunged in
and though an artery in his left wrist was
cut and he was greatly weakened by loss of
blood, he saved them all. George Shore, an
other Lockport swimmer, saved man after
desperate struggle with the waves. John