The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-02
WATERS OF DEATH.
They Spread Devastation and DeS-
truction in Pennsylvania.
lPRESIDENT HARRISON SENDS AID.
He Also Sends Sympathy to the Sufferers
Scenes of SOrrOw-The Floating Dead
Stories of Disaster Still Come.

- FLORENCE, Pa pm. Aprlgl-lt is
SaosT thought that the loss in the Vicinity o.
Johnstown win be about eleven million
dollars.
c. w. Hoppenstal, of Lincoln avenue, al
the east end of P.tts0urg, DISTINGUISHED
simSelf by his bravery yesterday after
noon. He was the messenger on thc maj
train which had u turn back at Sang
Hollow. AS the train passed the point
where the water was full Of struggling
people, a woman aud child hoated in mean
shore. The train was Stopped and HopJen-
stal jumped into the water AMI in two trips
saved both the mother and child.
OF the dead nearly sixty haze been
Identified, among whom are james Nc.
Millen, superintendent Oi tha Cambria
Iron Company, the stOreiIeeper's wife and
four children and daughter-iu law; John
p Linton, a leading lawyer wife and five
children; Mrs. Thomas hirlen and two
children: John Nolan and seven of his
family; DR.. George Wagner, wife and
three children; Frank p. Bowman. wife
and two children; Mrs Richard Wor;hing-
ton and seven children: Pearson Fisher,
wife and six children.
Just before reaching Sang Hollow at the
end OF the main line OF the PENNSYLVANIA
road, is a signal tower and the men in it
told stories of what they saw, and they
were so piteous that l could not listen TO
3lalt OF II. | call attention here to some
little odds aud ends AMI happenings they
tod me of.
A beautiful girl came down on the roof of
. house which was swungin near the town.
She screamed to the operators to save her,
and one of the brave fellows walked as far
into the river as he could and shouted to
her 70 guide herself into shore with the butt
end Of u plank. She was piucky girl and
stood upon her frail support in evident ODE
d.eUce to the command of the operator. She
made two or three bold strokes and actually
stopped the course OF the raft for an in
slant, then IL Sweryed from under her. She
tried to swim ashore, but in a few seconds
she was lost in the swirIiug water Some
thing hit her for she lay quietly on her back
with her face pallid and eXpressiOnless.
Men ana women IN dozens and in pairs
and singly, children, boys. big and little,
and wee babies were in among the awful
. confusion. In the water they were thus
drowning. gaSpiug, struggling and fighting
Tor life. Two men on a tiny raft shot into
the Swiftesu part of the current and they
crOuched, stolidly looking at the shores,
while between them, dressed in white and
kueeliug with her face turned heaven
ward, was girl six or seven years old.
When she came opposite the town she
turned her face to the operator. She was
50 close they could see the big tears on her
cheeks Iand the pallor Of death on
hfSYface. The fearless men on shore
shoLted to her to keep up her courage, and
she resumed her devOut attitude and dis
appeared under the trees Of the projecting
point, short distance below. We could
not see her come ont again" said the oper-
atOr, land that was all of it" DO you see
that fringe of trees" said the operator.
pointing to the place where the little girl
lad gone out of sight, well. we saw scores
OF children swept ii there. l believe that
when the time comes. they will find almost
q hundred bodies Of children in there among
those bushes
Just above New Florence is the little
town Of Nineveh. Il was here that I found
the first charnal house: lOg dead were
there, the larger proportion of whom were
women. Here it was that the work of
havoc could be realized. What had been
fertile farms look Ike worn out brick
Yards; great trees have been twisted and
torn ike weeds and broken household goods
from hundreds OF houses line the shores
for miles.
Thieves, those who steal from dead and
HnfOrtunates, have been bUsily at work
T3Dbing the trunks and boxes and articles
N furniture, and there is nothing worth
taking left, except lumber. Every now
and then the ghastlv outlines of the dead
could be seen in the water, being swept
down stream.
Two miles from here is the S. Q. tower
o. The Pennsylvania railroad company, and
a'Te it is that the greatest railroad in the
world ends suddenly in a river. For more
than a thousand feet the entire track is
wiped ont and also rails, ties and ballast
The north tracks, entirely washed out.
This is the nearest Geographic point to
Johnston and the delay in getting off news
dispatches has been fairly maddening. The
Associated Press expedition was the first
IN the field and was ready with thousands
OF words Of specials, but no wires could be
trains could be hired, no locomotives were
70 be bought and the situation can be ap-
pCeCiated.