Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-10
THE WORST NOT TOLD.
Mayor Gourley Talks of the Titus
vile Calamity.
THE WRECK THERE is COMPLETE,
TIenty of Money Will Re Needed to Relieve
the Distress
TIE RELIEF FUND GROWING STEADILY

the relief of the flood sufferers in the oil
region was industriously pushed yesterday
The committee had short session during
the afternoon and expressed unbounded
confidence in Pittsburg's generosity and
willingness to contribute their full share OF
all the money needed to relieve the suffering
and fix the people in the stricken district as
comfortably as possible. The Pittsburg
Committee say they are content with the
contributions as they are now coming in,
but they are watching with interest the
Bob Fltzsimmons benefit at the Academy of
Music this afternoon, and the Carnegie
Hall concert tonight. Both these enter
talnments are expected to net liberal sum
for the sufferers, and the committee is anx-
ious that both entertainments be literally
Iatronized.
The Allegheny committee is still continu-
ing its house-to-house campaign and have
been meeting with satisfactory success.
The list at the Allegheny Mayors Office is
steadily growing, and Mayor Kennedy has
confidence that the Allegheny people will
not be behind their Pittsburg brethren in
their work of giving to the untortunates.
A Liberal Remittance.
Treasurer Thompson yesterday wired
$500 to the Titusville committee and
10 be used to meet the imme-
diate wants of the distressed people of
both places 1t was arranged yesterday
that the committees of both Titusville and
Oil City will report to the Pittsburg and
Philadelphia committees semi-weekly, SO
that everybody will know what is being
done and whether the relief supplied is
sufficient TO relieve those in distress. 1t is
expected that the donations from churches
and Sunday schools will swell the fund con-
siderably, and it is the belief Of Treasurer
Thompson that the entire financial loss to
the oil country people will be made good
before the food Of charity is stopped.
At noon to-day, when Mayor Gourley was
leaving his office for lunch, two well-known
business men stopped him on the street, and
each handed him a IS bill with the request
that they be sent TO Titusville. "Your re-
quest shall be granted" the Mayor said; 81
viii see that this amount goes just where
you want it,
Those people have the right idea,''
Mayor Gourley said. ''While Oil City is
distressed, and her people have suffered an
awful visitation, they are much better off
than are the people of Titusville, where the
the wreck is greater and where the distress
Is n ore widespread. l tell you," the Mayor
went on, ''the people do not realize how
the full extent OF the Titusville horror.
Our people are generous enough and their |
hands always overlooking with charity are
always extended to those in distress, but |
since the Johnstown horror they are to an |
extent cold and deliberate in their action |
The Johnstown calamity so overshadowed |
anything we had ever seen that anything |
that does not approach it in extent is not |
considered as worthy of active or personal |
consideration. The Tilusyille peo-
pie are really suffering and the
wreck is greater than is generally |
supposed. 1t does not compare with Johns
town in extent. but it is more like Johns
town than anything l have ever seen or eS-
Tect to see. Where the food and fire
worked the result is appalling, and the peo-
pie who suffered the loss of friends and rela-
zion, homes and property, are Just begin
ming to realize their misfortune, and are
just beginning to suffer keenly. L saw peo-
pie up there arranging to bury their dead who
did not seem to realize that they had lost
anything, and 1 saw people there without
home or without money enough to buy a
meal or clothes necessary to cover them,
who were unconscious Of their pitiable con-
dition and did not realize that they stood in
need of anything.
A Half Million Loss
"The loss to the people OF Oil City and
Titusville will exceed, 1 should say, half
million dollars. Their loss of relatives
and friends is, of course, irreparable,
but most of their financial loss can, and 1
think should, be make good. Their homes
and their happiness we cannot even attempt
TO restore, but by giving them generously of
money we can place them in a position to
make themselves at least comfortable and
Many Of the citizens up
there must now start anew in the world, |
and, in the interest of humanity, it is but
our plain duty to help them all we
can. Pittsburg and Allegheny will
not be expected to do ali this work. The
oil country is filed with generous charita-
bic and good people, and from every town
in the region has come some substantial evil
dence OF their disposition to help the needy.
/ believe the other oil country towns would
like to do all the charitable work that is to
be done at Oil City and Titus
vile, but they are not in the po-
Sition to do it themselves 1
would be unfair to ask it Of them. The
work is too great for them, and 1 sometimes
fear it is too great for the charitable people
Of the entire State. If our people had not
in the Johnstown work shown just what
hey can do L am fearful that even gener-
BUS Pennsylvania would fail in this case,
he calamity ard cannot realize Just
low bad their aid is now needed. A pest
lence is TO be feared at Ttusvllle and
while the people there say they can clear
he wreck up without the interference of
he State Board of Health, l am confident
hey cannot do it without the expenditure
Vt large amount OF money, and much of
his money must come from outside sources" ."
An Error Corrected.
Treasurer Thompson says the report that
nough money has already been raised to
meet the demands of Oil City and Titusville
: positively untrue Speaking of the mat
er yesterday Mr. Thompson said: 'The i
acts are we need all the money we can get.
nd all we are liable to get can
e used judicioasly and to good advantage. 1
Io sir, S500,0 600 will not be too much. i
While 1t may be true that wealthy indi-
lduals and private corporations are the
eayiest losers, it is nevertheless fact that Il
he people in the devastated districts are in
estitute circumstances The loss to these l,
eople may not have been $500, 600, but it
ill take all of that amount to keep them
n comfortable circumstances. 1t is not the {
urpose of the relief committees to restore
he homes. but it is duty we
we humanity to fix them as COM
lrtably as We can until they | A
re able, once more, to care for themselves. c.
he relief committees are working in
and to say that Oil City has
reedily asked for a larger amount than
itusville would be an injustice to the good
eople who have worked so zealously for n
leir suffering friends and neighbors. The
il City Relief Association, as soon as they
Lw what great destruction had been n
rought in Titusville, said that town d
eeded more money than they and that they !,
lOuld have 1t. They were perfectly satis- -
ed with the division of the relief funds,