Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-03-07
thither, that appeals to the people of the
country.

THE PEoP LIE AND THEIR PROGRESS.
This much for the city, and now for
the people and the progress they have
made.
In the heart of the old Johnstown bor-
ough itself there has been but trifling pro-
gress made in the matter in which the
people of the country at large are inter
ested, namely, that of the building of
homes. There have been some very ex-
cellent stores built, well lighted, well fur
nished, cleanly places, but In the quar-
tiers in which the life blood of the flowed,
in which the workingman lived, there is
regretable dearth of activity. Little
Oklahomas, miserably constructed shan
chills, are in the majority of cases the
only things to be seen in the parts of the
town made most desolate. They are
merely the make shifts into which the
people huddled after the flood, patched
up to keep out the snow and the frost.
And poorly indeed are they fitted up
for winter use. The season has been
one of phenomenal mildness 10 the valley.
1t would still, however, be idle to dis
guise the fact that there has been good
deal of suffering, the story of which has
never reached the outside world. On the
Friday and Saturday of week ago. days
beth of them sharp and wintry, your cor
respondent visited some of these cabins
aud found them extremely comfortable
The houses were not adequate to keep out
the cold. Draughts raced up and down the
room and chased each other through the
chinks about the doors and the window
sllls. The families huddled about the
stove. Their faces were flushed with
heat, while their backs were chilled. |
find, too, that the observation | had made
was amply confirmed by others. On my
way from one of these visits l met Rev.
DR.. Beale, the Presbyterian clergyman of
the town, who assured me that he had
only an evening or two before known of
three families who were suffering severe
ly, and whom he had relieved.
These Oklahomas, as they are styled,
are one of the blotches of the city, and to
those who merely pass through the town
on their way east or west their existence
may be taken to be a reflection on the
people who inhabit them. And yet they
are not.
Two causes, neither of them discredit-
able to the survivors, account for this
state of affairs. The first is that delay,
in very great part unwarrantabie, kept
from the people the money which was
sent to them from all over the world until
the fall set in and building brcame a prac-
tical mpossibiity. For too many months
the people were merely fed. Their
spirit was broken by the humiliation of
food. JOhnstown was turned into vas
almshouse. instead of its being taken by
the hand and given the money with which
to purchase for Itself the things that were
needed they were doled out in measured
supplies. There was great deal too
mucL of the appearance of almsgiviug
about everything. The $4,000 600 sent
by the charity of the world was intended
to food the valley-to 20 into every
home-and make up, so far as money
could make up, and as quickly as it was
possibly, for the things swept away. Too
much olficialism clogged the stream.
There is cold in Johnstown to-day and
there is suffering from it that it was with
In the power of the authorities TO have
prevented had they acted rs promptly as
the people who sent the money When
the money was distributed the season
was well advanced, lumber was scarce
and consequently dear and the sufferers
had practically to be content with the cir
cumstances which presented themselves.
Still, must say that against the Flood
Commission heard but very, very little
complaint. 1t was generally said that
they erred, but the most violent in their
outcries against it always added as mat
ter of justice that they believed the Com
mission had been actuated solely by de-
sire TO do what was right, but that too
great consCienliousness had actually rob-
bed the gifts of much of their value.
FUNDS YET UNDlsTRIBUTED.
Then, too, there yet remain undistribu-
ted some funds collected by private indi-
viduals amounting probably in the gross
to $50, 600 or 100000 that mas not been
distributed. They are honestly held and
will beyond any question be hone tly and
! iudiciously distributed, but the delay has
been exceedingly great. The fund is now
IN the course of distribution, some of
which will go in a channel in which it
cannot but do good Immediately after
the food the residents of Kernville and of
Prospect both little hamlets on the sides
of the hills opened their doors to the
homeless and hapless ones, shetering
and feeding them out of their own little
stores. With business wholly destroyed
and no work for month and more, these
charitable people really pinched them
selves to degree that has told on them