St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-08
Pneumonia and Diphtheria
Spreading and Causing
Great Alarm.
The Stencil Arising From the
Debris Is Becoming Al
most Unbearable.
Over a Thousand Decomposed
Bodies Yet Remaining in
the Wreckage.
The Fertile Valley Of Central
Pennsylvania a Barren
Waste.

waste.
JoHNsTowN, Pa, June Flight
thousand men have been at work here
to-day clearing out the debris, but truth
compels the statement that the under
taking has not yet been fairly started.
Fires are burning up and dow the val
ley of the Conemaugh as far as the eye
can reach. The air is thick with smoke,
and yet to people familiar with the sit
uation the efforts of this army of earnest
toilers is hardly appreciable. Some
thing like system is being established,
but the most careful estimates are to
the effect that it will take 10000 men
four weeks to clear out the
heaps of ruin piled up for
miles between hills up and down
the course of the river. There is. an
established belief with many people
that newspaper reporters live chiefly in
world of fiction. Could every person
who reads these lines see the frightful
sights that have confronted the men,
bers of the press here during the last
week they would all unite in declaring
that only small portion of the story
had been told. Human fancy can not
conceive the horrors of the situation.
This report is being written from the
second story of a building worth proba-
bly, S15. which commands view of
the mountainous wreck at the
point off the bridge. The stencil
that is waited through the doorless
and win dowless structure by
every passing breeze is sickening.
An hour ago the writer made tour of
the mighty wreck in this vicinity in
company with Arthur Kirk, the mill
ionaire oil man, who is looking after the
work of opening up the river channel,
chiefly by the use of dynamite. Dozens
of human beings and animals were to
be seen on the surface, charred and
blackened by the fire, and in such
state of decomposition that the strong
est man could do no more than glance
at them. Mr.. Kirk, who is a man of
iron nerve and stranger to fear, de-
clared that he was sick at heart and
anxious to quit the scene. In fact, while
he was talking with the reporter, the
chief of the sanitary committee came to
him and said that Director Scott begged
him to stay and carry on the work. He
will stay to the limit. but his task is
AN AWFUL. ONE.
Eighty-six men from Altoona, under
orders of the sanitary officials, are scat
tering disinfectants over the acres of
wreckage that the railroad bridges
stopped. Mr.. Kirk declares that thou
sands of bodies will yet be found in
this territory alone. The great trouble
thus far experienced at the bridges has
been caused by the mass of telegraph
wires that reach across the various
spans through which the water has
passed. Line repairmen are badly
needed to help in removing the wires,
and Mr.. Kirk says that as soon
as they are gone he will hustle the
debris through by the acre.
The problem of the hour is the
disposal of the debris above the
Pennsylvania railroad bridge. Unless
it is got rid of the stencil will be so
overpOwering that no human being can
Withstand it: The pneumonia sconrge
grows alarmingly, Notwithstanding the
health board. DIR. Sweet. of Philadel-
phia, came down from the Cambria hos
pital tonight with startling report.
DR.. Croft had retired, and no official
action could be taken. To your cor
respondent DR.. Sweet said: prospect
Hill is full of pneumonia. with some
diphtheria, and measles. The hospital
is full to overflowing, and to-day [ at
tended fOrty-twO cases on the outside.
They were almost severe pneu-
monia. There is every con-
dition needed for the spread of
the disease and fear an epidemic" DR..
Darlington also reported several cases
of pneumonia, having found them on
the hill near Morrellville. DR.. Fuswell
came with load of information from
the Kernville-Hornerville district this
evening. The cellar of house on
Bedford street was found stored
with clothing which was full of dis
butcher shop on Franklin street
was found full of putrid meat, which
was destroyed. Nine horses and four
COWS were cremated, making $50 ami
mails in this district. A row of human
feet we're noticed sticking out of the
sand on the river bank near Kernville.
A gang of men soon unearthed the
bodies of two men and one girl in good
state of preservation. The men were
identified as Messrs Young and Bant-
ley. The girl was buried among the
great army of ''unknOwns." Sheriff
McCandless thinks the condition of
this place of such
SERIOUS NATURE
that the National board of health should
take hold of the sanitary work in order
to give it national character. He says
all the communities living between here
and the Mississippi river are interested
in the health of this point, which makes
the matter one of national interest. The
body of Rev. AlOnZO p. Diller, rector of
the Johnstown Episcopal church, and
recovered to-day under circumstances
both sad and strange. Four Episcopal
clergymen. who had been sent
by Bishop Whitehead were working
about the ruins near Lincoln street
when they came upon the body of their
late brother. Clasped in one rigid arm
was the body of his babe, and in the
other his wife, whose arms we're about
his neck. They we're removed in this
position and will be so buried to-mor-
row, the Episcopal clergymen Officiat-
ing. Father Smith, pastor Of the Catho-
lie church at Ebensburg, Cambria
county, reached here to-day after two
days journey from South Fork. He
says the residents of Mineral Point,
COOpersville, DutchtOwn, East Cone
maugh and other small settlements
along that valley are in destitute cir
cumstances. and are in need of immedi-
ate supplies of groceries and CLOTHING.
ReDOrtS from each of these villages