Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-05

wood struck the little store and lifted ii high
off Its foundation. The little fellow was the
support Of his mother and younger brothers
and will succeed. He is general favorite,
everyone in the city being acquainted with him
and having good word for him.
BABIES WHO DIED TOGETHER.
Yesterday two little children. apparently not
over three and four years old. were taken
| from the water clasped in each others arms so
tightly that they could not be separated. and
they were coffined and buried together. Grue-
some incidents came oftener than pathetic ones
or serio-comic. Gen. Axline, the adjutant-gen-
eral of Ohio. walking down the station
platform yesterday afternoon. when boy came
sauntering up from the viaduct with bundle
in a handk erchief. The handkerchief dripped
water. What have You there, my boy?" said
the general The boy covered a minute. though
the generals tone kindly, for the boy. like
every one else in JOhnstown. was prepared for
a Cruff accostal every five minutes from some
official, from acknowledgement to constable.
Finally he answered: Nothing but o baby,
sir and began to open his bundle in proof of
the truth of his statement. But the big soldier
did not put him to the proof. He turned away
sick at heart. He did not even ask the boy if
he knew whose baby il was.
FROM AFFLUENcE TO POVERTY.
frequent visitor at these horrible places
where the dead have been banked up by the
waters and the fire is David John Lewis. All
over Johnstown he rides powerful gray horse,
and to each one he meets whom he knows he
exclaims: Have you seen my sisters?" Hardly
waiting for a reply ne gallops away. eth er to
seek lngress into a morgue or to ride alOn the
river banks. One week ago Mr.. Lewis was
worth 1000. his all being invested in a large
commission business. Now he owns the horse
he rides. the clothes on his back, and that is
all In the fierce wave were buried five of his
rel 1CiSf An
and Maggie. The latter was married and her
little boy and babe were also drowned They
were ali dearly loved by the merchant who
crazed with grief mounted on his horse. and is
now a conspicuous figure i'll the ruined city
The food and fire claimed among its victims
not only the living bat the dead. Yesterday a
handsome coffin was found. half burned in
some charred wreckage down near the point
Inside found the body of a man shrouded
for burial. but so scorched about the head and
face as to be unacceptable. Tie supposition
is that tie house within which the dead man
had lain had been crushed and the debris
partly consumed by fire. The body is still at
the fourth ward school house and unless re-
claimed III the morning it will be buried in the
unknown field.
HE RESCUED SIXTY PERSONS.
l. II. Klein claims the distinction Of being
the only New Yorker in Johnstown who
escaped the food and the honor of having
Ttscueu OF assisted 10 rescue Sixty persons
His base of operation was at the Merchants
hotel aud his plan to lift persons from the win
dOws of houses swimming by. Among those
he saved were Rev. Mr.. Philips and family
who, as he glded by, was seen to hold his wife
and two children above the water by means of
table. on which he had placed them and
raised the load to his head The house swung
against the hotel and stayed just long enough
for the rescue to be completed. Mr.. Klein has
been working hard to alleviate the sufferings of
the victims. He cTiticIses the city council of
JOhnStown for not taking steps to prevent the
vandalism. which he says is going on night and
day.
According TO Mr.. Klein and Chairman Mox-
ham. of the Citizens committee. they aroused
several members OF the council to the need of
holding a meeting Saturday afternoon. Only
eight members responded. less than a quorum,
and the meeting was adjourned until Monday.
still nothing was done, and Messrs. Klein and
MoNham, who had taken the responsibility of
drafting in speciatpoiice at their expense. con-
Guided to CAL the Citizens committee, which
made Mr.. Moxham chairman. Even then the
police regulations were inadequate, until the
PIttsbUrg auXiliaries came.
THE FULL EXTENT OF THE FLOOD.
JChnstOwn proper lies in the fork between
Stony creek and Conemaugh river, but Johns
town, popularity called, embraces all the little
boroughs. Cambria City, Petersvile Prospect
hernsvllle, HernerstOwn. Grubbstown, East
COnemauSh, Franklin, Woodvale and Cone
maugh. The first thing impressing a person
fInIiIar with the place is that the loss of the
first. second. third and fourth wards is almost
complete. They included the main business
portion of the town, and they have gone en-
utely out of existence. What became of them
IS shown by the acres of smoking debris that
are spread below the railroad bridge in Stony
creek. where now The dynamite blasts are boom
ing and under which the dead are supposed to
number thousands. These four wards were in
the direct path of the deluge which swept them
with It's first great force en- masse to the bridge
and the fire.
To the southwark, where Stony creek leaves
the base of the mountain and winds eastward.
dividing the town proper and Kernsville, there
stand seventy-ive frame houses or more
damned INTO small space on the brink of the
creek, some still erect, some upside down, some
catacombed. some broken in half, but all
driven together as by wedge. These houses
were never built in Johnstown; they were COM
Portable homes in Woodvale, COnemaugh and
South Fork. miles away, and were borne down
by the food on Friday night. East of them
stand prominently the ruins of the Irish Cath
ohc church, which was FIRE when the awful
disaster came. and the site of the Hurlbut house.
one Of the biggest hotels. where hundred ran
IN their terror to be caught i'll a trap.
Across Stony creek, in kernsville. which in
cludes the fifth and sixth wards, the scene is al
most as appalling. People there are looking at
their own homes on the morning after that
fearful night and wondering where they came
from and what was the fate OF the people who
lived in them. Houses in Kernsville, especially
along the line of the creek. were crushed like
paper boxes, and houses that belonged in
kernsville have been found in Grubbstown. q
miles to the southwark. All over the sitef of
Johnstown huge piles of debris are burning now
in a hundred great bonfires. while people walk
through the paths between them faint and
dizzy, to look upon the faces of the dead Just
found and laid in the open air upon straw beds
TIL the collins come. Skiftloads of collins are
continually crossing the COnemaugh from the
Pennsylvania railroad station to the heart of
the town, the footbridge erected being too
narrow and uncertain for their conveyance
Away to the east in the foods path stand the
Woodyale mills. the only thing left to mark
that settlement blottcd out of existence.
Farther east yet. at East Conemaugh the citi-
zens point to the site of the great Gautier
steel and wire works, employing 1000 men,
but the site Is all that is left of them. Cone
maugh wiped out, WOOdvale wiped out,
JohnstOwn wiped out and burned. Kernsville
and South Fork wrecked and shattered, that
Is the scene in the valley from the western
mountains, where the houses stood grouped in
hundreds and the people numbered thousands.
Damaging Statements.
Mr.. Vim. Henry Smith, general manager of
the Associated Press. says: II notice that the
secretary OF the South Fork fishing club said
IL.