The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1889-06-02

stone viaduct is forty feet high
from the river bend at low
water and over this the water
rushed in a resistless flood o. this, or the
west side of Bessemer, and the nail mills OF
the Cambria Iron Co. although warned to
nee TO the hilIsides, many of the men, rest
ing in fancied security, loitered about the
hills and were engulfed instantly. To-day
their bodies are strewn along the Cone
maugh, Riskiminatis and Allegheny rivers
and are being caught as far down the Ohio
river as Rochester. Below the mills at
Cambria, suburb, in which district reside
probably 1000 people. The scenes here
are put a repetition of other parts of
the food washed city. At ST. Columbea
church, a new structure which had
been flooded TO the depth OF six feet in the
auditorium, the water and receded and the
floor was covered with a Shiny Ooze 70 the
depth of seven or eight inches. On boards
stretched along the tops of the pews were
thirty bodies which had been snatched
from the stream by Father Thomas Darlin
and some of his parishioners whom be had
impressed into service. While in the aw-
full presence of the dead the Associated
Press representative saw Joseph Smith, q
man of extraordinary size and strength,
enter. He said not a word, but quietly
went from corpse TO corpse, lifting
stained and mud covered coverings of the
dead. At last be came 10 the corpse Of a
child about 9 years old-his daughter. He
looked at the swollen and blood stained
features and then with a voice of most un-
utterable agony cried, "my Maggie, my
i he.
the inanimste form to his bosom and giving
expression to alternate earessings and
gesticulations of grief. The man took his
child and went with it to what had been
his home. He placed it besides those of
his wife and two other children, all of
whom had been drowned.
! 1t is impossible 70 narrate the many pa
thetic incidents that occurred on all sides.
At MorreIleIn fOrty-three bodies were
laid out waiting 10 be identified. Eight OF
them were children, one that of a child
which a physician said had been born while
the mother was fighting for her life in the
raging flood.
AT Ninevah, nine miles down the stream
4 100 bodies, mostly women and children,
were laid out in a sawmill, and additions
were being made by wagon loads at a time,
which were being picked up on the meadow
over which the great tide had surged with
the fury of a demon. Many were found
with their hands clinging tenaciously
to the branches Of trees and shrubs.
In one case a young couple were found
locked in each others arms. In another
case a mother was found with a child
clasped in each arm and held closely to her
bosom. There is no possibility of telling
| just who has been lost, as thousands are
missing. The survivors, many OF whom
tell of most thrilling escapes, seek the
banks and gaze with a stupOr born of par
alysis of their mental faculties resulting
from the fright and horror TO which they
have been subjected.
The number of people who are visible
from the banks are so few in contrast with
the population of the various little bor-
oughs which constitute the city that the
question, where are these people ?'' is
asked on all sides. The impression is
gaining that the disclosures yet to come
where the gorge collected, and which is
now burning over an area of several
acres, IS yet more ghastly- The
awfulness of the scene defies language TO
depict, as it does the Imagination 10 con
ceive. Without seeing the havoc created
no idea can be given either of the area of
the desolation or of the extent of the dam
age. The people of Johnstown are actually
starving. Men who were yesterday worth
half a million dollars are to-day penniless,
suffering for the necessaries of life. A
loud cry of distress is being sent up from
the entlre clty for relief from suffering.
Millions cannot repair the damage, and
the desolation covers miles of territory.
The number of bodies thus far recoveredis
about 500. How many may be beneath the
great bed of fire, underswept by the raging
torrent, the uncovering of their bodies can
alone determine; but from all appearances
there are thousands. The agonizsd cries
and lamentations of friends who have not
been able TO learn any tidings
Of their loved ones is deplors-
BILE and pathetic. When a form
is seen to drop down deeper into the flames
from the burning away of the supports
shrieks iIl the Gir IKE I wall from a lost
soul. The condition of the streets is one
Of unparalleled desolAtion. The thorough
fares in the most densely populated parts Of
the town are denuded OF the stores which
once were the pride of their inhabitants:
trees have been robbed of their branches.
their trunks standing bare and broken, OF
are uprooted and swept away. 1t is not an
exaggeration to say that not a single struc-
ture is now left within the confines of the
city rs place Of hsbitation. and all must
be torn down and rebuilt. The gorge has
so obstructed the sluice way of the viadnct
that the water does not recede as fast as il
otherwise would.
Identifying the Dead.
FLORENCE, Pa, June I.-5 .. NIT is
now thought the loss in the vicinity of
Johnstown will be about sll. 900, ,OOO CIV.