The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-06-05
MORNING IN JoHNsTowN.

heved. A number of lives were lost here.
MORNING IN JOHNsTOWN.
The Awful Picture Of Desolation and Death
Presented by a Look at the Ruins.
JoHNsTowN, June 4.-Four days have
elapsed since the angel of death swept
down through the valley of the Cone
maugh. but no ray of sunshine has yet
hghtened the scene of horror at JohnstOwn
bridge. The sky is still overcast with
heavy clouds, and the sun rests behind
menacing pail as though reluctant to view
the handiwork of his potent elements. For
thirty-six hours, without intermission, the
fire engines have played upon the smoking
ruins above the bridge. but the flames that
break forth afresh at frequent intervals in
this floating field of ruins seem to defy the
subduing force of water. Nearly 1900 men
are employed in different parts of the val
ley in clearing up the ruins and prosecuting
diligent search for the undiscovered dead.
Their investigations are not without fruit
ful results, for the bodies of the dead and
charred victims of flood and fire are dis
covered with undiminshed frequency. 1t
becomes hourly more and more apparent
that not single vestige will ever be recog-
nized of hundreds that were roasted in the
flames above the bridge.
Since the last sentence was penned, q
party of searchers unearthed charred and
unsightly mass from the smoldering debris
within thirty yards in front of the Associ-
ated Press headquarters. Unused to such
frlghtfuI discoveries, the leader of the gang
pronounced a hIackened
log. and it required the authoritative YER
uct OF O physician to demonstrate that the
gnastiy discovery was the charred remains
OF human being Only the trunk re-
manned: That was roasted beyond all SEM
blance to flesh. Five minutes search re-
yealed fragments of skull that at once
dlsintegrated of its own weight when ex-
posed to air, no single piece being larger
than half-dOllar and the whole resem-
bling the remnants of shattered charcoal
Within the last half hour q half dozen
discoveries, In no way less hOrrifying than
this CHASTITY. find, have been made by
searchers as they .raked with sticks and
hooks in the smoking ruins. So difficult is
1t at times to determine whether the re-
mains are those of human beings that it is
apparent that hundreds must be fairly
burned to ashes. Thus the number that
have found q last resting place beneath
these ruins can, at the best, never be more
than apprOximated.
The water has receded in the night al
most as rapidly as it came, and behind it
remains the sorriest sight imaginable. The
dove that has come has no green leaf of
promise. for its wings are draped with the
hue of mourning and desolation. Before
the window of the Associated Press head
quarters lies the great skeleton of dead
JohnstOwn. The great ribs of rocky sand
stretch across the chest, SCARED and COW
ArnAx ,t.pn II
of wreckage, acres of unsteady, tottering
buildings, acres of unknown dead, acres of
CHASTITY objects which have been eagerly
sought for since Friday, acres of smoky.
streaming ruin, acres of sorrow for some
body lying out there in the sunshine.
Hundreds of bodies are lying along the
river banks and under piles of big timber.
Out in the center of the river, on the extreme
edge of the mass which rests against the
bridge, the Pittsburg tiremen have a stream
playing on the wreckage. They are liter
ally in the midst of the river putting out a
fire. Bonfires are burning everywhere.
Fire is the agent employed to help the COM
mittees get rid of the refuse and broken
Company has cleared away most of the
lighter lumber. and will soon be able to
work on the heavier piles.
A PeliOn of calamity is piled with each
passing hour upon the Ossa of calamity al
ready uncovered. Every moment now the
body of some poor victim is taken from the
debris and the town Tor the remnants of it,
to write with accuracy is one vast charnel-
house. The scenes at the extempOrized
morgue are beyond powers of description
in their ghastliness, while the means and
groans of the suffering survivors, tossing in
agony, with bruised and mangled bodies, or
screaming in delirinm of fever as they
fro fha Ton, hos
tails, make even the stOuteSt heart quail
with terror. Nearly 1000 bodies have
already been recovered. and as the work of
examining the wreckage progresses the
conviction grows that the magnitude of the
calamity has not yet been apprOximated.
Conservative estimates this morning put
the number of lost at 1900, and many men
of calm judgment, and who are not wont to
exaggerate, who have been upon the ground
from the outset, place the number at 10000
The debris wedged against the big Pennsyl-
vania railroad stone bridge is still burning
and the efforts of the fremen to quench or
stay the progress of the flames are as futile as
were those of Gulliver's lilliputian firemen.
The mass, which unquestiOnably forms a
| funeral pyre for thousands of victims who
| lie buried beneath it, Is burning and is like
| ly to burn for weeks to come. The flames
mot put fashion, away in
bent for once upon proving how
| futile are mans efforts when the fire-god
is aroused. and perhaps, after all, the hand
| of Providence is in it, for the suggestion
made by the physicians yesterday that the
| bodies not buried be allowed to he Gre
| mated in the interest of public health, and
| which aroused such storm of in
| dignatiOn among the surviving pOpulace,
| is viewed with more calmness o-day, and
| there is a growing sentiment that it is,
| after all, the best solution of the problem.
| Weeks. months, will be required to remove
| the stupendous mass by artificial means,
and meantime the rOtting, putrefying re-
| mains of humanityburied there would be
dealing pollution and death to all the sur
| rounding country.
| Where once stood solid unbroken bust
ness blocks. for square after square, with
Easements and sub-cellers there is now a
| level plain, as free from obstruction or ex-
cavation as the fair fields of Arcadia after
they had been swept by the British flames.
| The major and prettier portion of the beau
tiful city has literally been blotted from
the face of the earth. Crowds of strangers
| anxiously watch the wreck this morning
from the railroad bridge and as far up the
| river, on both Sides as the eye can reach.
1