Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-06-04

VI tLlSN 20 ABOUT IN sort OF a daEe
and only haf conscious of their eriefs Every
hour, as one goes through the streets he hears
nelghbors greeting each o her and then inQuir-
ing without show OF feeling how many each
had lost IN his family. To-day l heard gray
haired man hail another across the street with
this question.
u lost five. All are gone but Mary and l."
Il am worse off than that" said the first old
gentleman. Il have only my grandson left.
Seven of us gone
citement. They and everyone else had heard
so much of these melancholy conversations
that somehow the calamity had lost its signifi.
canoe. They treat it exactly as if the dead per-
sons had gone away and were coming back in a
week.
The melancholy task of searching the ruins
for more bodies went on to day in the soaking
rain. There were little crowds of morbid
curiosity hunters around each knot of working
men Even those who come a from the neigh
boring towns with the idea of the days strange
and CHASTITY experiences, did not care to be near
after they had seen one body exhumed
There were hundreds and thousands of these
visitors from the country to-day. The effect of
the dreadful things they saw and heard was to
drive most OF them to drink. BY noon the
streets were beginning to be full of
BoIsTERIOUs AND NOISY CoUNTRYMEN
| Who were trying to counteract the strain on
heir nerves with unnatural excitement
The police toreseeing the unSeemly sights
| that were likely TO disgrace the streets drove
| out and kept out all visitors who had not some
good reason for their presence. After that and
| far into the evening all the country roads were
| nlled with drunken Stragglers, who were trying
| 10 forget what they had seen
One thing that makes the work of searching
Tor oooleS very SLOW Is the strange way that the
great masses of objects were rolled into intricate
| masses of rubbish.
As the flood came down the valley of South
| Fork II obliterated the suburb of Woodvale
where not house was lef: noe tral of the
material they had contained. It rolled on
| down the valley over and over
GRINDING IT ISTo 4 PULP
| And finally leaving it against some unusually
| firm foundation. These masses contain human
bodies, but it is slow work to pick them to
| pieces. Ipside of one of them to-day | saw the
| remnants OF a carriage, the body OF q harnesEed
| horse, baby cradle and doll, treSs of
woman's hair, rocking horse and piece of
beetsteak still hanging to a hook
The city now is very much better patrolled
than 1t has been at any time since the food oc-
Cured.
Many of the members Of the police force of
Plttsburg came in and offered their services
One of them showed his spirit by striking a
man, whom he saw opening a trunk among the
| rubbish, tremendous blow over the head,
which
KNOCKED HIM sENsELEss.
Several big trunks and safes lie in full sight
| on the deSOlate plain in the lower part of The
| town, but no one dared to touch them after
| that.
ATTENDING RELIGIOUS SERVICES.
| May devotions were in progress Friday when
| the water descended on the Cambria CITY
Church. which was filed with people at the
| time. When the noise of the flood was heard
the congregation hastened to get out of the way.
| They succeeded so far as escaping from the in
terror is concerned, and in a few moments the
| church was partly submerged, the water reach
| ing fifteen feet up the sides and swirling around
| the corners furiously.
| The building was badly wrecked, the benches
were torn out, and in general the entire struct-
ure, both inside and outside, was fairly disman-
| tied.
| Yesterday morning, when an entrance was
| forced the ruin appeared to he complete. One
| object alone had escaped the waters wrath
| The
! STATUE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN,
| That had been decorated and adorned because
| ofthe May devotions, was as unsullied as the
| day II was made. The flowers, wreath and lace
vail on the statue, which is only three feet high
| were undisturbed and unSOiled. while the
| marks on the wall showed that the surface of
| the water had risen to a hight of fifteen feet
| while the statue had been saved from all CON
| tact with the liquid
Everyone that has seen the statue and its sur
| roundlngs is firmly convinced that the incident
| was miraculous one, and even to the most
| skeptical the affair Savors of supernatural.
| Among the priests here are Rev. Fathers
| Guido Goebel, CosgraNe e. Gallagher Troutwein
Rosensteel, Joran, Corcoran, Derlin, DOYLE,
| Smith, O Connell and Lambing.
J. J. Murphy, bookseller of Pittsburg
haunted the morgue all day. His brother James
| and his entire family have been lost, and Muir
| phy is seeking for the remains. Every fresh
! arrival of ghastly burdens set him to anxious
inquiry, but as yet he has not discovered his re-
/ lations.
There is much comment on the finding of the
| BODY OF a NUN. CUT IN TWO.
| 1t was at first thought she was a resident of
| Johnstown, but as none of them have been re-
/ ported missing the supposition is that she was
| travelling at the time on the day express.
| broken hearted couple are Thomas Ieyden
| and wife, hard-wOrking people of the little town
Of Minersville;, All day they have been trudg
| ing through the slippery OOze of Johnstown,
| asking every person for news OF their daughter
| Mary.
r. S. Frazier, Pittsburg lawyer was tramp,
| ing among the ruins looking like miner
| Frazier has sister here whose
| FAMILY OF FOUR CHILDREN
Was almost drowned but managed to escape
| after an exciting experience. When he food
| came down upon them they were driven from
the first to the second story, and from the Sec
| Ond TO the third. They were kept there six
| hours before they were helped through the
| roof and from there made their escape 10 the
| hills over the house tops.
| In the neighborhood of where Woodvale
once stood there is now q sea of mud and piles
| of wreckage.
| The Associated Press correspondent waded
| through the mud and water up the valley to-
day over the site of the former village. AS has
been often stated, nothing is standing but the
! old woolen mills. The place is swept bare of all
other buildings but the ruins of the Gautier
Wire Mill. The boilers of these great works
| were carried l 900 yards from their foundations
Pieces of engines, rolls and other machinery
were swept far away from where they stood. A
wreck of the hose carriage is sticking up out of
! the mud 1t belonged to the crack company of
Johnstown. The engine-house is swept away
and the cellar is filed with mud, so that the site
is obliterated.
| A German watchman was on guard at the
mill when the waters came He ran for the
hillside and succeeded in reaching il. He tells
graphic story of the appearance of the water
| as it swep' down the valley. He declared the
first wave was as high as the third story of a
house.
The place is deserted. No effort is being made
to clean off the streets. The mire has formed
grave for many poor victim whose arms and
legs are protruding from the mud, and it makes
one Of the most sickening of pictures.
A THRILLING STORY.
A man named Dougherty tells thrilling
story of ride down the river on log. When
the waters struck the roof of the house on
which he had taken shelter he jumped astride
| a telegraph pole, riding q distance of some
twenty-thre miles from Johnstown to Bolivar,
before he was rescued
Many inquiries have been made as to why the
militia did not respond when ordered out by
| Adjutant-Gener Hastings.
| In the first place it is beyond the General s
authority to order troops to a scene of this kind
nnless the Governor first issues proclamation.
Then it becomes his duty to issue orders.
The General said he was notified that the
Pittsburg troops, consisting of the Fourteenth
and Eighteenth Regiments, had rendered their
services and no doubt would have been OF great
| Burgess of Johntewn and the sheriff of Cambria
county in regard to calling troops to the scene,
but both these
! OFFICIALS STRESUoUsLY DIRECTED
As they claimed it was unnecessary to do any
thing of this kind. As proof of this, rot
| breach of peace was committed last night in
Johnstown or vicinity.
| General Hastings said he estimated the loss of
human lives at ! 900. 1t has not been generally
believed that The district in the neighborhood
of Kernville would be so extremely prolific OF
corpses as it has proven to be.
| The Associated Press correspondent visited
| that part of the town where both the river and
Stony creek have done their worst He found
that within the past TWEEN y-four hours almost
| 1000 bodies have been recovered or were in
sight.
The place is
ONE GREAT REPOSITORY OF DEAD,
And every day adds long list OF dear ones
lost. One hundred and fifty persons were taken
out of the sand along Stony creek this morning.
| One hundred and seventy-five bodies were re-
covered to-day at Morrellville Four were still
| alive but severely Injured.
Grand View Cemetery has 500 buried in it. . II
of whom met their death in the aood. They
have So men digging graves.
Seven hundred dead bodies are in the hos.
pital on Bedford street, Conneaut One hun.