Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-29

such thing as salvage in Johnstown, a.
there often is in cases OF big conhagration:
or explosions. The destruction was com
plete to nicely.
IN AN AwRY SHAPE.
John Thomas building at this point de.
fed the elements and its roof furnished a
substantial perch for 100 people on the black
Friday night. All around it, the wreckage
piled to the depth of 25 feet. On the corner
of Main and Franklin streets the Opera
House rested in an awry position. 1t had
foated there clear from Washington street
Back of this lot is the postofice on Franklin
street. The front was knocked out Of it.
The Tribune office in the second story had a
bit of sidewalk hustled out, type pied and
presses damaged. John Dibert g Co. s
bank on the southwestern corner stood. The
park begins at the northwest corner of the
street here, and Fraz1er's drug store, which
faces it, lost part of its walls. On that
morning after the disaster box car and an
old frame house occupied the middle of the
street. They had been driven there by the
watery catapult from South Fork. A few
doors lower down the First National Bank
stood staunchly against the pressure.
THE HEART OF TOWN.
Here is Alma Hall, four stories in
height, a store and gas Office below, law
Offices and the lodge rooms higher up. On
the night of the flood over 800 refugees
found shelter in this building, and the
thrilling story of their awful suspense
there, put in amidst utter darkness, has be-
come familiar to the whole world. 1t was
perhaps the second strongest building in
town, and was not damaged except by mud
and water staining the walls and furniture.
From DR.. Lohman's residence, at the park
corner, to Market street, the north side of
Main was left blank. The doctors hand
some residence was only slightly disfgured,
although at the time it looked bad enough.
John Fulton's spacious residence on the
next lot was entirely demolished. The pub
lie building which contained Council cham
bers, an Office for the burgess. the head
quarters of the Police Department and the
lookup, was leveled to the ground, even
the bricks never having been found. Twenty
feet of water in the lookup strangled the
only prisoner there, man named John Nc
Kee. Then came another extensive blank
OF either side of the street, where a large
number of substantial houses were swept
away.
BEAUTIFUL HOMES RUINED.
The remaining squares along Main street
comprised the finest brick house which
Johnstown, or even Western Pennsylvania,
outside the large cities, could boast of. A
rod of the back wall of the large Cambria
Clubhouse wandered away. Jacob Freun6' 5
mansion lost the rear end and quarter sec
tion OF the upper side. At least 20 of these
beautiful homes in the immediate vicinity
passed down into the great raft of wreckage
at the stone bridge. A picture of Colonel
j. P. Linton's ruined home is printed with
this article to illustrate the character of the
losses in this end of town. 1t was left stand
ing utterly alone, houses by the score having
been swept away from all its sides.
Here the sweep of the food was greatest.
Look around you, and on Saturday morning
you would have seen nothing but acres and
acres o. open territory. They were carpeted
with single layer of bricks, or else piled
several feet deep with the sand that came
down with both Conemaugh river and Stony