Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-06-07
A vivid Pen Picture of the Scene nj
LOhustoMu.

New ork sun correspondent describes
the location Of Johnstown as an unusual and
picturesque one. The main portion of the
town lay on N-shaped level between the
Conemangh river and Stony creek. with
high bluffs on either side and wooded noun
tains rising on both sides Of the gap through
which the river flowed. When the flood
came down the Conemaugh and piled the
debris against the long railroad bridge, an
immense eddy or whirlpool was formed
which swept the buildings off territory of
four square miles and piled them in solid
mass covering 60 acres and 40 or 80 feet
high. 1t was in this mass of wreckage that
the fire occurred which added horror upon
horror Hundreds escaped, but other hun
dreds-perhaps thousands-were burned
with the water surging beneath them.
This N-shaped fiat, the correspondent
continues, is peculiar thing. 1t looks like
a level and uninteresting patch of waste
ground. 1t is as clean Of debris aud wreck
age as though there had never been build
ing on It In reality it was the central and
busiest part of Johnstown. Buildings, both
dwellings and stores. covered it thicklv
It's streets were paved, and ITS sidewalks of
substantial stone. 1t had street car lines
gas aud electric lights, and all the other
improvements of substantial city Of 10
900 or 20, 900 inhabitants. Iron bridges
spanned the streams, and the buildings
were of substantial character Not a
brick remains-not stone nor a stick of
timber in all this territory There are not
even hummocks or mounds 10 show where
wreckage might be covered with layer of
mud. They are not there, they are gone
every building, every street, every side
walk and pavement, the street RAILWAYS.
and everything else that covered the face
of the earth has vanished as utterly as
though it had never been there. Not even
the lines of the streets can be even remote
ly traced
But the boards and timber of four square
miles of buildings the correspondent con
tinues, are not all that is in that 80-acre
mass. An immense amount of debris from
further up the valley lies there Twenty
seven locomotives several Pullman cars.
and probably Il hundred other cars, or all
that is left of them, are in that mass Frag-
ments of iron bridges can be seen sticking
out occasionally above the wreckage Scat
tered over the area also are many blacken-
ed logs that were too large u be entirely
burned, and that stick up now like spar
buoys III sea of ruin. All this is horrible
to see, but the worst is untold. The smoke
that hovers over the wreckage by the
bridge, and floats in light blue clouds above
the town, is heavy with an Odor rarely
smelled People in New York who remem
Der the smell of the ruins of the Belt Line
stables after their destruction by fire where
in 1900 horses persisted, know what the
ings, not of horses that causes the odor at
which every newcomer here shivers with
horror. Those who have been here long
don't mind it they are used to it, and
there are more matters than smells 70 at
tend to. The cruel whirlpool that pounded
four square miles of buildings into dust and
splinters did not spare the people They
were torn limb from limb, heaped togther
torn apart, scattered and mingled in the
mass as were the timbers and boards of the
pine buildings. Finally they were lodged
in that solid mass of 60 acres of debris
along with the ruins of their homes, wedg
ed in as tightly as though human flesh was
no more than broken wood and iron. The
shrieks and cries of the victims, which fill
ed the air for hours, will never be forgotten
by those who heard them.
This is Johnstown and its immediate vi
cinity nearly as words can paint il 1t
is a single feature-one section out of 10
miles of horror that stretches through this
once lovely valley of the Allegheny What
is true of Johnstown is true of every town
| for miles up and down. The desOlation of
one town may differ from the desolation of
others as one death may differ from anoth-
er but it is desolation and death every
where-desolation so complete so relent
less, so dreadful as TO be absolutely beyond
the conception of men who have not seen
| it-death in forms more varied, more pain
| full and more horrible than ever were de
vised by the most atrocious torturer of the
lnquisition.