, 1889-06-04

lives to the hillsl' run to the hills!''
People crowded out of their houses along
the thickly settled streets, W struck and
wondering. Nobody knew the man, and
some thought he was a maniac and
laughed.
On at a deadly pace rode this man, still
ringing out his awful cry. In a few mo-
ments however, there came a cloud of
ruin down the broad streets, down the
narrow alleys, grinding, twisting, hurting,
overturning. crashing, annibilating the
weak and strong alike. Twas a charge Of
the food wearing its coronet of ruin and
devastation. which grew at every instant
of its progress. Forty feet high some say
and thirty according to others, was this
sea, and it travelled with the swiftness like
that which lay hidden in the heels of Mer-
curry. On aud or ran the rider. and on
and on rushed the waves. Dozens of
people took heed of the warning and ran
up the hills. Poor, faithful rider; it was
an unequal contest. Just as he turned
across the railroad bridge a mighty wave
fell upoi him and horse, rider, and
bridge all went out into chaos together.
Mrs. Fem, wife of an engineer, tells a
pitiful story. The husband went out and
was swept away. With her seven chill
dren she climbed to the second story, then
to the attic She cheered her frightened
little ones, saying God would care for
them. As the waters rose higher she was
forced to fasten them, one by one, to
pieces OF floating timber and trust them
to the pitiless waves, all the time speak
ing words of hope and and
uaa,ss.-r fha. A.- Ill IL - Al.
roof OF the house was torn off and the
frail little mother floated away with it and
was rescued sixteen miles below. Only
two of her little brood of seven have been
heard from, and they are drowned. She
is only one mother of hundreds similarly
Satisfactorily one OF a multitude.
-Four gentlemen, relatives of members
of the South Fork Fishing club, who went
to learn the fate of their friends at the
lake, have just returned. They report no
one at the lake except the custodians and
some workmen. The dam broke In the
center at 3 o'clock Friday; at 4 o o'clock the
lake was dry. That great body of water
passed out in an hour. An effort was
made to avert the disaster by digging a
sluiceway on one side TO ease the pressure
OF the dam but without avail. The water
passed over the dam about a foot at its
top, beginning at 2:30. Whatever hap
pened in the way OF n clOudburst took
place during the night.
There had been but little rain up to
dark and in the morning when the work
men woke the lake was full and kept on
rising rapidly until at 2 o'clock IL began
pouring over the dam and undermining
it. Men were sent three or four times
during the day to warn the people below.
When the final break came il was a sound
like tremendous continued peals of thun-
der. Rocks and earth shot into INDIAN
in great columns. Then waves started
down the ravine. The whole South Fork
is swept with not a tree standing. Rescu-
ing parties are at work on the mass of I'M
burned wreckage in the river finding
bodies and fragments at the rate of ten
to fifteen an hour. In other parts of the
submerged districts bodies are being taken
out. A careful estimate at this time of
bodies recovered everywhere puts them at
700 to 800. The total loss is certainly
5000 to 5000.
The Hotel Holbert was washed away.
Twenty W persons persisted in the wreck.
Frank Mcdonald, a conductor on the
Baltimore & Ohio, was at the Pennsyl-
vunia depot when the food came. He
said when he first saw the flood it was
thirty feet high and rose to at least forty
icct. Fifteen minutes before the food
came" said Mcdonald, Decker, the
Pennsylvania railroad agent, read me a
telegram just received, stating the South
Fork dam had broken. As Soon as he
heard this the people in the station, num-
bering 200, made a rush for the hill. |
certainly think l saw 900 bodies go over
the bridge. The first house that came
down struck the bridge and at once took
fire. AS fast as the others came down
they we're consumed. | believe | am sale
in saying | saw a thousand bodies burn.