Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-14
A LONG VOYAGE.
Captain Lew Clark and Four Others Return
From Johnstowu In Skiffs What
They Saw on the Route.

They Saw on the Route.
At o'clock yesterday morning two skiffs
belonging to the steamer Mayfower shot under
the Point bridge and were rowed up to the
steamer. The occupants of the smallest skifi
were the Messrs. Phillips, Of the Iron City
docks, and in the large skif Captain Lew Clark
and Messrs. Austin and Frank Bailey were
seated. These intrepid voyagers had come a
long distance. The Conemaugh river from
Johnstown to the Kiskiminetas and from the
mouth of the Kiskiminetas to Pittsburg was
traversed By Captain Clark's party, over lou
miles being made with only one stop, at Blairs'
vile.
There were to have been enough men in the
party to bring down the five skins. but only
enough materialized to man two. Johnstown
was left early Tuesday morning and the dan
gerous and exciting work of navigating the
Conemaugh in drizzling rain began. So rapid
were the breakers that number of hairbreadth
escapes were made and the party was drenched
to the skin when Blairsville and CIVILIZATION
were reached.
WHAT THE voYAGERS SAW.
Mr.. Frank Bailey one of the party, gave a
graphic account of the trip to DISPATCH
representative 1--WE found the bulk of the
debris was lodged along the river banks from
Johnstown to Bolivar where the sights are GER
tainly terrible, but with all our looking we
found no bodies. In several places we noticed
Grand pianos and organs and secured some
ivories OFF the keys as relics. Railroad cars Of
all roads were scattered along the river banks
and even far out in the fields. We noticed
an iron rail standing bolt upright in the
midst of pile of debris. One thing we noticed
was the careful and thrifty natives along both
rivers, hard at work extracting lumber and
timbers from the debris Trees were covered
with fragments Of clothing and fine lace under
wear, and the smell from the debris was very
oppressive at great many points. Our party
concur in the belief that the banks of the Con-
emaugh and Kiskiminetas should be thoroughly
cleaned up and the debris fired for the sake of
public health.
Il doubt If we would have got through safely
had not the rain caused the Conemaugh river
to rise three feet in the II hours we were upon
1t.
There are thousands of dollars worth of lum-
Der, barrels, furniture and every variety of
articles along the route we came, and salvage
corps could make a stake in the work of clean
been found and secreted, as even at this time
the avidity of searchers shows that finds have
been made. About Is miles below Johnstown
we saw the heavy f1shbar rails of the street
railroad among the debris. As we passed
Saline, on the Kiskiminetas, we saw 2O0-foot
section of railroad bridge, apparently intact,
at the LETT side of the river. 1t probably was
the Blairsville bridge, on which young Stitt
lost his life. We passed Tunnelton, on the
West Penn, late Wednesday evening. and saw
the first train cross the bridge-trestle so feet
high which has been built Heretofore trans
fers were made at that point.
THROWN INTO THE WATER.
1--WE came near meeting with a serious acci-
dent at the bridge. The channel of the Kiski-
minetas is very narrow and the water boils u n
der the trestle at a great rate. The small
skif went through safely, but our boat was
capsized in jiffy and we all were IN great dan
ger of drowning, but managed TO cling to the
boat until we got ashore 100 yards below. We
landed, built fire and dried ourselves an@ the
accident losing us three hours of time"
I'VE ran all night on the Allegheny river in
order to reach home in time, and when we got
off the boats were pretty well used up by the
trip. An amusing illustration of the avidity
with which people read THE DISPATCH was
afforded all along the route. At great many
points people shouted questions as to the
whereabouts of the other boats, and we were
puzzled to understand what they meant At
New Florence rustic bawled across the river
at us wanting to know where Captain Lew
Clark was, and we were astonished to find our.
selves known and expected. When we reached
BlaIrsville we saw that THE DISPATCH was
the only paper giving an account of our pro-
posed journey. But it was wonderful to find
that people way back in the mountains were so