The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-31

He pointed to poor, proKen down, 'us-
jected figure of a man, who, with head bent
and nuttering lips, WIS slowly shutting
up the strses.
"Johnstown mans" asked.
eyes"
'FVictim of the food"
NO; victim of the undertakers-hks
many another"
"'Is he Inady"
"Crazy as a bedbug."
"You see," be went on. when our great
harvest of death took place Johnstown was
simply paralyned for means to house and
identify its dead before 6ury4ng It, At first
there was 40 attempt, or only the slightest,
at Identification. Pittsburg sent q raft of
volunteer undertaksEs, and the first and
only thought was to get the bodies under
ground and save the living from pestiIence
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 vafuables as fast as they were
brought to light The way in which this
work Yves done was shameful In the ex-
trene. Not only were there wholesale rob
berries Of valuables from the bodies OF the
dead--that is, the known dead-bub 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 q description which was
reasonably sure to hit the case.
well, SIR, poor Abe Murphy suffered
All bis family, wife and six children,
went down in the food, and he has only
been able to find one child living, and he q
hig 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 willing heart. Only now and
then he would knock off work and go look
ing for his own among the dead He was
a big, strong fellow, and even the agony of
his grief showed no signs OF turning his
head But there came time when ne 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 a 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 foundi The body of full grown
mani The cemetery officials sought long
and earnestly 30 find the child, and many
graves were disturbed But there seemed
a fate against it. Only GabEisls trump
viii mako that child co4ns forth and
answer Il am here
Later he had similar experience with
another child, and then with bis wife. Tbs
latter, though, was merely case OF care
less describing or of mistaken surprising
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 dfsap-
pointment only added to his insanity, until
it became incurable. What be suffered no
man knows He got to haunting the Gem
eterieS and the dead houses until he be-
came a nuisance, and finally the medical
stat, assisted by the Red Cross funds, took
him away and put him into merciful con-
fnement. lie is now harmless and shows
no desire 20 go back TO Johrstown, and, as
he has Bit of property, he is allowed his
liberty. His sen Is working on a farm in
the west The fS<her has no interest IN
him. New York Herald