River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-06-06


strength with every piece OF wreck and
every body that was crushed into it and
bound them all together In tangled wall.
closing up half the outlet toward which the
mountain waters hurled their flood
The water burst even the food limits
which 1t had taken for its new banks and
poured a new river in new channel
through the heart of the lower part of the
city. The drift piled up against the dam II
had formed at the bridge. House after
house added its wreck to the heap until il
formed tangled mass from thirty to sixty
feet thick, rising high above the water and
stretching back three-quarters of a mile
along the curve Of the hill Here it was
that the awful holocaust took place.
The thousands Of houses fioated against
the bank on one side have been jammed
and pounded by ogs coming down from
above, and human occupants have been
wedged in as part and parcel of the
heterogeneous mass which extends for
quarters of mile and is 40 to 90 feet
high and 500 TO 500 feet wide. IL is this
mass which has been burning above the
water line.
THE HOLOCAUST.
DERRY, Pa, June S-Of all the fearful
occurrences the most terrible was the fire
In which Supervisor Hays, of the Pennsyl-
vania road estimated that from 600 to
1900 beings Were burned TO death Over
800 frame houses were jammed together in
heap forty feet high against the
massive viaduct of the Pennsylvania
road at Johnstown All the houses
were destroyed and the majority of the in
mates were crushed TO death before the
terrific fire began. Men, women and chill
Gren, with their limbs pinioned between
| the timbers. their life-blood slowly ebbing
away. begged for relief One woman
asked n man on the banks to cut
her legs off man was caught by
the arm and he asked for a knife
to sever the member. Others were all
smashed and squeezed to death beneath
the grinding timbers and surging waters
Some were pressed deep into the water,
and the flood soon ended their misery
But when the fire broke out in the mass OF
timbers nobody escaped Saturday after
noon men succeeded in reaching the ruins,
but were powerless TO aid. No APP
pliances were at hand to do proper work,
and the people who are wedged in among
the ruins of their houses against the i'm
mense stone bridge, facing death by flood,
by fire, by hunger and by exposure, are, in
all human probability, beyond hope. How
many OF them are in this awful plight may
never be fully known
TRAINS WASHED AWAY
PHILADELPHIA June 3-lntormation was
received Saturday night at the office of the
Pennsylvania railroad of frightful dis
aster to two of the through trains from
Pittsburgh, which have been supposed to
be safe ut Conemaugh Assistant Superin-
tendent Trump teegraphs from Blairsville
Junction that the day express, east-bound
from Chicago TO New York, and the mail
train from Pittsburgh, bound east, were
put on the back tracks in the yard al
Conemaugh when the flooded condi-
ton of the main tracks made it apparently
unsafe to proceed further. When the con
tinued rise of the water made their danger
apparent the frightened passengers fed
from the two trains to the hills near by
NJ ny, in their wild excitement, threw
themselves into the raging current and
were drowned 1t is supposed that about
fifteen persons lost their lives in
this way. When Superintendent TRUMP
reached Conemaugh he Immediately
gathered together the remaining passen-
/ gers OF the two trains and had them con-
veyed by wagon to Ebensburg, a distance
| of about ten miles These survivors are
now at that place. The conductors of the
trains went with the passengers TO Ebens-
burg, and the Pullman conductor, who is
supposed to have a list of those under his
charge. is there also
Mr. Trump said that if the passengers
had only remained where they were in
stead of jumping into the water the ter
rfble loss of life would have been avoided.
| After the people had deserted the cars the
railroad officials state the two Pullman cars
attached to the day express were set on
fire and entirely consumed, A car of lime
was standing near the train. When the
water reached the lime it set fire to the car
and the flames reaching the sleepers en-
tirely consumed them.
Mrs. Halford wife of the Presidents pri-
vate secretary, was on one of these trains
with her two children. She was helped out
of the parlor-car by trainmen and friends,
and by the greatest exertion the party sue
ceeded in gaining point of safety far up
the hillside before the roaring water swept
away the train.
On one of the other trains was a Mr. Ross
cripple of Homewood. He begged the
conductor piteously to carry him out OF
danger The conductor took him on his
shoulders and ran as best he could until the
water was up to his neck. He then faltered,
but Ross begged him for Gods sake to
carry him "a little farther. Bravely the
young man forged forward, but growing
weak he was unable to hold the unfortu-
nate Ross, who was swept away In the flood
with an agonizing shrek. The conductor
reached safety completely exhausted
THE RUIN IN JoHNsTowN
SANG Hollow, Pa, June IA reporter
was the first man TO cross to Johnstown
proper by means of basket suspended
from a cable, as passengers are removed
from wrecked ships. Here the scenes were
magnifed in their horror. Police officers
and others were rendering all possible aid,
but the number of the dead seems greater
than the number of the living. Cinder,
Market Main. Locust and Washington
streets have been swept clean and
bare of all buildings of whatever character,
ana their inhabitants seem to have fed into
the streets at the first warning of danger,
and others rushed to their deaths, for those
who remained in their houses had an oppor-
tunity to flee to the upper stories. When
the houses were frame they were hoated
from their foundations, and many were
saved.
The Hotel Hubert, a brick structure, had
sixty-five guests, and sixty-three Of these
were killed by the falling in of the floors
and walls
Four travellers who were staying at
the Hurlbut went to the top floor when
the flood came. and after wishing each
other goodbye" surrendered themselves
to fate. Fate was death to three OF them
The Morrill, library, the school-house,
Alma Hall, general stores and offices OF the
iron company and one other brick building
are all of probably 1900 buildings that have
not been fioated from their foundations or
cayed in.
The condition of the streets is one of
unparalleled desolation Fine thorough
fares in the most densely populated parts
OF the town are denuded of the shores
which once were the pride OF their inhabit-
ants Trees have been denuded of their
branches, their trunks standing bare and
broken, or are uprooted and swept
away. 1t is no exaggeration to say that
not a single structure now left within the
confines of the city is safe as a place of
habitation, and all must be torn down and
rebuilt All boats and water craft having
been swept away, the means OF getting
about the deluged streets is attended with
danger
A stencil arises throughout the whole val
ley of the Conemaugh 1t is more awful,
more fetid as the hours go by with each re-
ceding ripple of the sullen river. A
score of additional corpses are hourly
revealed with CHASTITY faces upturned
to an unfriendly sky OF clouds.
Death stares one in the eyes at
every turn. The unparalleled calamity
has transformed the rugged scenery of the
Chestnut ridge Pack Saddle and the sylvan
glories of Laurel Hill into monsrous
valley Of the shadow Of death. Johnstown
is as completely shut off from the world as
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