Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-23
MADE MAD BY BLUNDERs.
A Bit of Human Driftwood from TIN
Great Johnstown Flood.

A Bit of Human Dr1ftWood from the
Great Johnstown Flood.
Twas going up Broadway the other day
with a brave physician of Johnstown, Pa,
one of the heroes who, oblivious of the fact
that a majority of his relatives had been
swept away to horrid death, and that a
slower but no less horrid death by pestil-
ence menaced all who remained in that ten
mile charnel house, did not desert the
stricken vale of death.
"Hellop' he said "There goes Abe Muir
phy. haven't seen him in many day."
He pointed to poor, broken down, de-
iected figure Of man, who, with head bent
and muttering lips, was slowly shutting
up the street.
"Johnstown MANI" asked.
eyes"
'Victim of the food?"
"No: victim of the undertakers-like
many another"
els he mad?"
"Crazy as a bedbug."
"You see" he went on, "when our great
harvest of death took place YOUNGSTOWN was
simply paralyzed for means to house and
identity it's dead before burying it. At first
there was no attempt, or only the slightest,
at Identification. Pittsburg sent a raft of
volunteer undertakes, and the first and
only thought was to get the bodies under
ground and save the living from pestilence
But in time the thing was supposed to be
organized, and men were paid to properly
handle and register the corpses and care
for their valuables as fast as they were
brought to light. The way in which this
work was done was shameful in the ex-
IRENE. Not only were there wholesale rob-
berries of valuables from the bodies of the
dead-that is, the known dead-but the
records were mixed up in manner to
make the heart sick. Men were buried for
women and children for men, and then the
numbers, as it seemed, were all put in
box and shook up, SO that it became a
lottery to find your loved ones, even after
you had found description which was
reasonably sure to hit the case.
"Well, sir, poor Abe Murphy suffered
All his family, wife and six children,
went down in the flood, and he has only
been able to find one child living, and he a
big Ounce of boy. He worked like good
fellow at the time of the flood, saved sew
eral lives, and afterward turned in with a
will to help to gather the harvest of bodies
and do other labor which called for strong
arms and a willing heart. Only now and
CuGu u6 WOuld h1lOCh O1l WOlh dAo SoO 1OOh-
ing for his own among the dead. He was
big, strong fellow, and even the agony of
his grief showed no signs of turning his
head. But there came time when he be-
gan to search among the lists describing
the dead and their supposed location, and
after awhile he came upon the description
of his favorite daughter, which was so full
and accurate that there could be no mis-
take about it, 1t bore certain number in
one of the cemeteries. Procuring the
necessary authority and filed with hope,
he went and had the grave bearing this
number opened, and what do you think
they found? The body of a full grown
man! The cemetery officials sought long
andsearnestly to find the child, and many
graves were disturbed. But there seemed
a fate against it. Only Gabriels trump
will make that child come forth and
answer 4 am here.'
s'Later he had a similar experience with
another child, and then with his wife. The
latter, though, was merely case of care
less describing or of mistaken supposing
on the part of Abe. But it was all the
same to him by this time His tortured
mind had crossed the ragged edge of rea-
son, and everything in the way of disap-
pointment only added to his insanity, until
it became incurable. What he suffered no
man knows. He got to haunting the GEM
eteries and the dead houses until he be-
came nuisance, and finally the medical
staff, assisted by the Red Cross funds, took
him away and put him into merciful con-
fnement He is now harmless and shows
no desire to go back to Johnstown and, as
he has bit of property, he is allowed his
liberty. His son is working on farm in
the west. The father has no interest in
him. New York Herald.