Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-05-30
A YEAR AFTER THE FLOOD.
HOW A NEW CITY OF JoHNsTowN is
RISING FROM THE RUINS.

| may-lOWh LobH SAhC
Were Before the Flood, Money Is Not
Scarce, the Mills Are Running. Pay Days
Have Taken the Place of Charity, and
the Community Is Regaining Its Pros
perity.
The Pittsburgh Times, OF Saturday.
containsd the following, written by Mr.
{, George II. Welshons, "St. Geo." a cor
respondent of that paper, who was in this
city on Friday:
In week it will be a year since the
| food.
The grass is green and lush In the
mountain bound hollow where the lake
crouched for its deadly leap, and green
over thousands of little hillocks on the
hills hereabout, that would not be there
but for that day. The forgetful grass
has covered both. The stream which
burst restraint, and with the gathered
force of sixteen million tons of water,
holding in its grasp hundred thousand
tons of stone and IRON, sprang down the
valley, has shrunk again to slender
thing that giggles among the stones and
would not float a washtub half mile with
out stranding. 1t frets itself in Intellectual
froth at every barrow load OF cinders
that disputes the way where it played
pitch and toss with sixty-ton steam
engines. The sunshine barely finds it
out with searching at the foot of the rock
bound Eills, whose SUBMITS it challenged
with its flood. Its ripples break in silver
dimples round hundred jagged spikes
of iron and ends of wire that thrust them
selves up from the creek bed. A boy OF
ten would not stoop to jerk a stone across
I it, and in the streets of Johnstown every
other woman you meet wears black.
JOHN FuLToN's PROMISE.
The town is building up again. We
have heard it before, and were glad to
have cause for anything but tears for
Johnstown, The millions poured in from
the open hand of the world relieved the
instant suffering. The liberal credits
given to those who had the heart to open
stores again did much more to set the
people on their feet. Much was lost, but
some was left-enough for seed. The
causes which had made this the center OF
a rich community of 10000 people were
not destroyed. On the second Sunday
after the water had been pouring through
their works. John Fulton, speaking tor
the Cambria Iron Company, male aspeech
at prayer meeting over in the camp Of
the Fourteenth Regiment. Prayers were
said there, and the hymns they sung and
sobbed needed no printed lines TO prompt
them, hut nothing that was said or sung
that day brought so much brightness to
the faces of those gathered there as this
declaration of the manager of the mill
q" We still stand by Cambria, men. The
works will be built bigger than ever, You
shall have work and wages. We have
worked together heretofore and pros
pered we have been swept INTO the
wreck together, and with Gods help and
good courage, men, we will pull through
it together"
HOW IT WAS KEPT.
The n en- were put to work at once
clearing up the wreck of the mill and
patching up machinery that was worth
men ling. New machinery took the place
of those that had been destroyed. Occu-
patton conquered despair. Work brought
reliet from suffering. Pay day took the
place of charity. The first gathering Of
tie men after the flood was like the roll
call of an army after great battle.
Yet no battle that ever was fought cost
so large proportion of slain. Not one
third of the Areat industrial army on the
rolls of the Cambria Iron Company and
the Gautier Steel W orks answered here "
when their names were called.
The promise Mr.. Fulton made that Sun
day has been kept. The output of the
Cambria Iron Works for the last six
months has been greater than that of the
same period of last year, and the employ
ment of labor has been proportionate.
Tho Gautier Steel Works, operated by the
same company has been rebuilt and will
be enlarged The contract is let for an
additional building to be called "The
New Gautier," 600 by 400 feet. An adj
dition is being built to the company store
at a cost of S35, 900 Payday has been as
constant as it was before the Hood. Save
to those for whom those who earned
wages have done their last turn, the chief
resource of the community has not
failed.
REBUILDING THE TOWN.
The rebuilding of what we carelessly
call the material part of a town has gone
on rapidly. Not less than million dol
lars has been spent, by the best estimate
of builders whom / have seen, in perma-
nent rebuilding and repairing in the last
year. One brick business block, occupied
by stores, offices. etc, has been put up
that cost $4,000. Another, four story
brick, cost S22, 900. The new library, the
gift of Andrew Carnegie, is under contract
at S65, 200. The firm of Hoover, Hughes
t5 Co. kindly furnish me the following