Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-31
IAN Rights Reserved. I

SuGlis.
Everything appeared to melt away at
touch of the flood s hand as it careeret
madly down the valley, and for a dozel
miles around Johnstown, the pitiless ant
! powerful tide blotted out every town ant
village, and destroyed all the houses
mills, telegraphs and railways, beside
| drowning thousands of human beings.
SO terrific was the speed of the hoot
that IN marvellously short time it haC
hurled itself through several miles o.
rugged, sinuous gorges and had entered
! every house in Johnstown with the ex.
ception of two; and the Conemaugf
river IN the space of five minutes had
risen thirty-six feet in height.
The horrible scenes which followed this
fearful onrush of water battles all de-
scrlption. AT one minute thousands OF
people in Johnstown and the neighborine
towns were standing high and dry, the
next they were overwhelmed by the great
wave and were struggling for life in q
wild, surging sea.
Children playing in the streets were
caught up and washed away; mothers,
daughters and decrepit old men sitting
peacefully at home, became aware of
the disaster only when their homes were
Whlrled topsy turvy, and they were
floating away on the breast of the tor
rent; hundreds of work people were en-
quilted at work; and the air for miles
around was filled with the grinding roar
of the pitiless food, the crash of falling
houses and workshops, and the sharp
despairing shrieks of those whom the
fear of death had smitten.
At the first mad rush of the invading
waters a fnr hull
both sides of che river had gone down,
and many of the solid bridges of stone
which span the Couemaugh, had melted
away when the food struck them. Ten
minutes after the bursting of the dam,
thousands of persons were afioat on the
rushing stream, imprisoned in their
overturned and floating homes.
The torrent from the broken dam
struck the town of South Fork, at the
confluence with the Conemaugh river,
destroying over 1900 souls. Then the
flying wall of water rushed down upon
the village of Mineral Water, annihilat-
ing it and most of its inhabitants.
The waters then swept on to the town
of Conemaugh, where the gorge grows
broader, and the valley is covered with
iron mills. This town with its near
neighbor, Woodville, were both over
whelmed and almost blotted out.
But the work of destruction was great
est and most appalling at Johnstown.
The whole village was here covered with
industrial works, which the flood almost
Obliterated, with vast mass of dwell
lings on the flats adjoining the river, and
the debris Of hundreds of dwellings and
workshops were carried down the raging
stream.
At the lower end of Johnstown a fine
bridge OF stone crossed the river diagon-
ally from north to south. Here the most
terrible scene of all was enacted. This
bridge resisted the fierce impact of the
flood, and upon it many excited people
crowded, watching the uprooted dwell
ings drifting by, and endeRvoring to save
some of those poor creatures who were
beng borne away on the breast of the
water.
But very soon the arches on the left
side of the great bridge became choked
with debris. Into the upper angle of the
structure the houses, trees and fences
which had come down the left side of the
river rushed and were piled until the
arches under the bridge were blocked up.
The current of the Conemaugh was
then changed, and the wreckage began
to be piled up until rafters aud timbers
projected above the stonework of the
bridge. Then houses, nearly all crowded
with human beings, crashed up, one
after another, until the awful pile of
debris extended for nearly q mile up
the stream.
The penman never yet lived who could |
describe the horror of the |
,cene or the shrieks and tumult of the |
lgonized thousands, held fast in that !
mass of floating ruin.
Then the huge pile of wreokage caught |
ire near the bridge, and hundreds not |
drowned or crushed to death in the rush |
Town stream were burnt alive. Amid |
hat seething, roaring mass of wrecked
ZONES, mothers and daughters, fathers
md sons, husbands and wives died to-
.ether in the most terrible plight the
mind can conceive.
Tossing about there on that raging sea,
heir ruined homes lying at all angles on
he stream, hemmed in by piles of
prisoned beyond all hope of
when escape from the flames
meant dying in the flood, what must
hose suffering thousands have endured?
The shrieks raised by the victims as the
re reached them rent the air and could
70 heard above the roar of the torrent
Y those who stood on the bridge. And
hese spectators could only wiring their
ands in agony at their own impotence
0 aid the dying.
And the fearful work went on, and
resently above the sea of rushing water
sea of roaring fire ragged. From house
D house the leaping flames spread, and
DON the prayers, shrieks and curses of
be pTisoned ones were drowned by the
bud kissing and rushing of the white and
ed tongues OF fire.
The wind was blowing up stream, and
his caused the flames to spread more
uickly, and the air became filed with
odors until at last the horrors
svealed TO the senses of sight, smell,
caring and Imagination became intol-
rable, and the strongest nerved and the
lost strong hearted were fain TO flee.
Below Inflated Johnstown the havoc of
lie flood was only less terrible, every
ling being overwhelmed. There the
onemaugh valley is broader, with small
illages, all of which were completely
lbmerged.
AT Oakley 200 people persisted. Long
ollow had scarcely one house left stand
e, and Bolivar ,Nineyeh, New Florence
nd Saltsburgh were inundated
For many miles along the course of the
pod every bridge was swept away, and
lie wild, wide rushing torrent tore on,
5 surface dotted with inEumerable
Fellings, upon the sides and roofs of