Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-06-29
HISTORIC FOUNDATIONS.

No food so disastrous as that in
the Conemaugh region has ever be-
fore been known in the history Of
this country. In the Mill River dis
aster near Northampton, Mass, in
1874, in which number Of villages
were destroyed through the bursting
of an RECONSTRUCTED reservoir, only
LA were lost, and in the same year.
when the rivers of Western Penn
sylyania overiiowed their banks as
the result of an unusual downfall of
rain, the number of persons who
were drowned was but 200.
In the year 175S moro than 400
families were drowned in an inunda-
ton at Glasgow; at bort, in Holland,
in 1421, the sea broke in and drown
cd 1000 people, and in the most
memorable of all inundations-that
which in 1880 was caused in Holland
by general failure of the dykes
tho loss of life was reckoned at
100000. In Catalonia, in 1917, 50,-
600 persons perished by flood; in
Silesia, in 1918, 5000. The loss OF
lite during the recent floods IN
Austria Hungary and in China has
been fully reckoned up, and though
loo, 900 persons are said to have been
drowned in the Chinese foundations,
the figures are not trustworthy.
The disaster which overwhelmed
the Conemaugh Valley is not only
the most appalling in all our history,
but is likely to go for n long period
to come without a parallel or equal.
The mind fails to grasp adequately
the magnitude of the catastrophe
and to realize the desolation and
death that was worked in q few
short hours. 1t will require weeks
to gain an idea of the loss, to learn
how long the sad list of the dead
must be made and to calculate the
amount of property destroyed. 10
will only be after the public has been
put in possession OF all details, and
has been able 10 form from these a
composite picture that IL will BE-
able 20 comprehend fully the
destructive character Of the event
We hear Of cataicy oocurritg la
the Old World and listen with won
der and amaxement at the destfuc.
tiou wrought in this way 10 human
life and property. They happen 10
the form Of shlpwrccks, earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, famincs, pesii'
lenees and massAcrcs. TIE human
intellect stands helpless when q tries
90 conceive u $1,000 people perish.
ing ia an earthquake ike that ol
Lisbon IA ls55, 90 an Island disap
peaEing beneath the sea With all IT,
freight Of human beings, As has hap
pened ia the Greciau Archipelago,
or Of 81, $50 men, women and children
sent 20 their death By a great con
vulsiOn like the krakat0a eruption
Of 1888. But taking the extent Of
country affected aud the density OF
population into consideration it Is
doubtful If the loss OF life in any one
of these occurrences was greater
than that resulting from the Cone
maugh disaster.
Compared with tho Conemaugh
disaster the terrible deIuge in the
Delaware Valley and its tributary
streams in June, 1862, seems as
trifllag catastrophe, although whole
villages were swept away and near.
ly 200 lives lost in the Lehigh region
alone. "There were many frightful
Experiences during that food, +" says
an old Wayne County lumberman,
sand one especially is still the Won
der OF the Valley. A tramp tinker,
named James Riley, crawled upon q
haystack that stood on the river fiat
at CullIcom in the upper Delaware
Valley, He awoke from his drunken
stupor to find himself floating on the
haystack down the river in roaring
flood. This was about o'clock in
the after noon. The haystack was
knocked to pieces against a bridge
six miles down the stream. Riley
was thrown into the mass of wreckage
with which the river was filed. He
chung to an clubhouse, which was
wrecked in Cochecton Falls, mile
below the bridge. Riley was borne
along the crashing logs and piles OF
other drift for seven miles and at
Narrowsburg was carried mp against
one of half dozen RATS that were
moored in Big Eddy at that place.
Before he could reach shore the RATS
were broken from their mooriDgs by
the flood and swept on down the
river. They were all wrecked in the
narrow rapids two miles below, and
Riley found himself at the mercy OF
the flood, clinging to the ragged
fragments OF the raft he was on.
On this he rode thirty miles when it
was reduced to two timbers Ia the
wild waters OF Buffers Falls, above
Port Jervis, NJ 1t was then dark.
Clinging to the lashiDgs Of the two
timbers Riley entered upon the wild
est night ride that any man ever en-.
countered. At daylight he passed
through the Delaware Gap, 100
miles from his starting place. The
passage Of the most dangerous place
on the river, Foul Rift, near Belyi-
dere, which only the most experien-
ced pilots will attempt to run raft
through, was made by Riley's float.
The rift is three miles long, and RATS
have been known to clear it in eight
minutes. In passing through this
rift Riley was submerged nearly the
entire distance. An hour and half
later his timbers were thrown npon
a pile of drift against the Easton
bridge, and he was rescued. He
was nearly nude, and was terribly
torn and lacerated. The distance
between Cullicom and Easton is 100
miles, and Riley's wild ride occupied
but fourteen hours"