Huntsville gazette., 1889-06-08
SCENES OF WOE.
Tne Conemaugh Valley Disaster
Almost Indescribable.
Scenes of Death, Devastation and Wos
Appalling Enough to Make the
Strongest Heart Quail-The
Search for the Dead.
Tho Number of Victims will Reach Many
Thousands-GhOuls in Human
Form Kobbing the Dead
Swift Retribution
Back on the Ruined Site of the City of
JOhnStowD.

Back on the Ruined Site of tho City of
JOhnstowD.
PITTSBURGH, Pa. June 2.--The first
force Of rescuers and press representa-
tives who had been making every effort
for TWO days to gain an entrance into the
valley in which was located the city of
Johnstown, accomplished their purpose
Just as the light of this mornings sun
broke over the mountain tops surrounding
the place Of desolation. The news re-
ceived in this city during the day con-
firms in almost every detail all Of the
gravest fears, statements and conf lectures
that have been entertained. All reports
agree that the city is literally ruin, the
description Of which is simply impossi-
BILE.
From Johnstown to Mineral Point
tower the Pennsylvania roadbed has been
completely swept away. For distance
of one-fourth Of mile the road is unin-
jured, then comes another complete
wreck to a poiut above South Fork.
Twentyseven Pennsylvania railroad
locomotives and an unknown number Of
both freight cars and passenger coaches
are lying In the river bed under the de-
bris Of Johnstown at the Stone bridge.
The towns of Woodville and Cone
maugh borough above Johnstown, are
swept as clearly off the face Of the earth
as il they had never had an existence.
OF Woodville's population, Of fifteen
hundred souls, barely half a dozen have
been accounted for.
The Hungarian colony at Cambria City
are stealing and plundering every thing
they can reach. The work Of exhuming
the dead at Johnstown has only begun,
but already more than one hundred
bodies have been carried out of the ruins.
Eleven carloads of finished cofins and
thirty undertakers arrived during the
day, and the work Of interment which
began this afternoon will rapidly
progress under the direction of spe-
lly-organized force of men.
Nineveh will hereafter be known as the
city of the dead, for at this point the
Conemaugh has given up large portion
OF its dead. When the waters receded
from the fields and bottom lands over
which it had flowed, the stiff, staring and
naked, bruised and mangled bodies of
men, women and children, from the aged
to the infant, lying in the soft mud, was a
horrible sight, making heartsick those
who witnessed it. Nunemacher's plan
ing-mill was used as q temporary
morgae, and it was there that the blood
stained, swollen and disfgured remains
of whites and negroes were first placed
for protection and Identification, if such
a thing were possible. Some of the faces
were wreathed in dimpled smiles; upon
others death stamped looks of agony and
horror that spoke the inexpressible Ian
guage Of the soul while struggling with
death. Most Of the bodies recovered at
this place were Catholics, and around
their necks hung emblems of their re-
ligiou. The attire and features of ma
jority showed them to be of the lowly
class, yet there were many bearing evil
dence Of culture, refinement and pros
raritY