Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-02
A DELUCE OF DEATH
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do your said she. And without waiting for
an answer, she continued with;
"rhere are my four children In the house
and their nurse, and l guess father and
mother will go over to the house."
In a few moments all those in the car
knew the story of the pair and many pity
ing glance was cast at them. Their house
was one of the first to go.
WHAT THE OPERATORS SAW.
Just before reaching Sang Hollow, the end
of the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad,
is an as. O." signal tower, and the men In it
told stories of what they saw, so pteous
they were hard to listen to. Here are some
little odds ana ends of happenings they told
me of;
A beautiful girl came down on the roof of
building which was swinging near the
tower. She screamed to the operators to
save her, and one fellow walked as far into
the river as he could aud shouted to her to
guide herself into shore with n bit of plank.
She was a pluclSy girl and stood upon her
frail support in evident obedience to the
command of the operator. She made two or
three bold strokes and actually changed
the course of the raft for an In
out from under her. She struck out to
swim ashore, but in few seconds she was
lost in the swirlng water. Something hit
her, for she lay quietly on her back with her
face pallid and expressonless.
Men and women in dozens, in pairs and
siugly, children, boys, big and little, and wee
babies, were there in among the awful con-
fusion, drowning, gasping, struggling and
fighting desperately for life. Two men were
on tiny RATS in the swiftest parts of the cur
rent They crouched stolidiy, looking at the
shores. while between them, dressed in white
and kneeling with her face turned heaven
ward, was a girl six or seven years old
When she came opposite the tower, she
turned her face to the operator. She was so
close they could see the big tears
on her cheeks and her pallor was
as death. The helpless men on shore
shouted to keep up her courage. and she re-
sumed her devout attitude and disappeared
under the trees of a projecting point short
distance below. 1--WE could not see her
come out again" said the operator, and that
was all of it.
"Do you see that fringe of treesl" said the
operator, pointing to the place where the lit
tie girl had gone out of sight. "Well, we
saw score of children swept in there. / be-
lieve that when the time comes they will
find almost a hundred bodies of children in
there among those bushes"
Just above New Florence is the little town
of Nineveh. 1t was here that found
THE FIRST CHARNEL
house. One hundred and nine dead were
there, the larger proportion of whom were
women. Here it was that the awful work
of the freshet could be realized. What had
been fertile farms look like warn out brick
yards. Great trees had been twisted and
torn like weeds, and broken household goods
and hundreds of houses line he shortes for
miles Thieves, those who steal from the
dead and unfortunates, had been busily at
work roobing trunks, boxes, and articles of
furniture, and there is nothing worth taking
left except lumber. Every now and then
ghastly corpses could be seen in the water,
being swept down stream. Two miles
from the rs Q" tower is the rs X"
tower of the Pennsylvania railroad company
and here it is that the greatest railroad in the
world ends suddenly in the river. For more
than thousand feet the entire track is wiped
out, rails, ties, and even ballast. The north
track is euurely washed away. This is the
nearest telegraphic point to Johnstown, aud
the delay in the getting Of news dispatches
has been fairly maddening. The Associated
press was the first in the held and was ready
with thousands OF words of specials, but no
wires could be had from II a. m. until almost
2p m. No special trains could oe hired, no
locomotives were to be bought and the stu
alton can be appreciated.