The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-06-13

L
OPEN a woman with two children
about her, simply gazing into vacancy
The children, too, have ceased to cry.
This feeling everywhere is not hard
ness of heart. The universal sorrow
has been so great that all individual
woes seemed dwarfed in comparison
with it. \ workingman and his LITTLE
girl, four years old, stood idly in the
street. l spoke to the child and she
looked at me with wide staring eyes
and said nothing. 'She was borr
where that sand pile is" said the man
pointing to mound from which some
bits of wood protruded, land her mo-
ther and two brothers are underneath
it." He said this coldly, without ap
pearance of feeling.
IN THE MUDDY STREETS.
Even in this valley of the shadow o1
death there is laughter. Big, strap
ping country boys have ridden in from
all parts of the State and are greet
ing each other with loud boisterous'
ness. In one house there is trim
neat looking woman with dark eyes
a gaudy dress and enamelled cheeks
but nobody notices her or takes ofense
at her public appearance. At many
of the gates to the public buildings
wires are stretched across, and detail
of uniformed militia is on guard. Al
others men in their ordinary clothes
with muskets or shotguns, are on
guard-a tin star pinned to their coats
The rule is that no one shall be allowed
to enter the town unless he is in search
of relatives but it is so easy tolie that
the town is overrun with visitors who
drift away as darkness falls, for there
is no accommodation for them here
not enough even for those who are
forced to stay.
THE TOWN GOVERNMENT.
The city is unfortunately governed
It is in reality not city. It is not
even a village Johnstown is a collec
ton of boroughs, the main mass Of
houses itself being divided into sepa'
rate little boroughs. So, when this
calamity fell there was no one to take
immediate charge and rule things as q
dictator until order would be restored
They have some sort OF an official called
a Mayor, who wears a blue coat and
brass buttons, and seems to fill the
office ola Chief of Police. He isa good
man, but all power has been taken
from him by the Citizens Committee,
and be seems rather glad to be relieved
of the responsibility. All day long a
stream of woe-worn women and sad.
eyed boys have been surging in and
out of the Committees rooms, but they
never seem to he sure of what they
want and SO generally get nothing.
A crowd has been there all day-peo-
pie anxious to get passes to look for
their missing friends-and in this case,
missing" almost certainly means
dead" So those may not be far
wrong who assert that at the lowest
estimate 10000 people have been lost.
ONLY FOR THE DEAD.
In little side street an office has
been opened, and all those who have
survived are asked to register in order
that the number of the dead may be
learned. AS to the damage to proper
ty, no one thinks oft. After all, hu.
man flesh and blood is not held so
cheap, for no one is thinking of any
thing but searching for the thousands
of corpses and helping the needy.
Gen. Hastings principal effort to-
day has been the thorough organiza-
tion of the police force in Johnstown
proper He has placed several squads
Cambria Iron Police in charge of the
officers Of the Pittsburg force. These
are divided into squads of eight,
which are assigned to duty in various
districts formed yesterday, Garrett
Crossan has charge Of the district in
which the morgue and provision head
quarters are located. The men in the
squad are kept exceedingly busy.
These buildings are located on the hill
side above the site where Johnstown's
principal streets once were. Company
H, Fifth Regiment, is also on duty
here and the members have all they
can do.
Thousands Of persons visited the
Fourth Ward school-house during the
day, in which building the bodies are
placed for Identification. The scenes
about this building have been de-
scribed, but to-day they were sadder
than ever. Long lines of women,
children and men pass in apd through
the large rooms constantly. The thirty
five undertakers and assistants who
from Pittsburg and Allegheny
are nearly all at work. Some of the
so-called assistants have scrupuiously
absented themselves from that locality
and have spent the day in viewing the
ruins and the dead, the latter from a
distance. To every corpse that is iden-
titled and taken away six new ones
arrive. The work of taking the dead
from the ruins has begun in earnest,
and men with stretchers on which rest
the bodies Of the poor victims are seen
approaching the morgue from almost
every part Of the surrounding ruins.
A singularly sad and striking feature
is the weary and heart-rending vigil of
those who stand about watching for
the fresh arrival of victims. These
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