The Herald of Wales. — 1889-06-22 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

TIIE ROBBERS OF THE 'DEAD.  r. In the I'New York Herald" just to hand a J correspondent at eabeettovrn furnishes a vivid picture of the ghastly wanes, only partially reportxl, which took place after the flood. A. 'number of Hungarians, he writes, collected about a number of boxes at Cambria which had been washed up and began rifling the trunks. After they had secured all the contents they turned their attention to the dead. The ghastly spectacle presented by;the distorted features of those who had loge their lives during the flood bad no influence upon thegtouls, who actedmore like wild beasts than human beings. They took every article from the clothing on the dead bodies, not leaving anything of value or anything that would serve to identify the temente. It being reported that three men were going along the banks stealing the jewels from the bodies of the dead wives and daughters of men who had been robbed of all they held dear on earth, five burly men, with looks Of terrible determination written on their faces, started at once for the scene of plunder, one with a coil of rope over his ahonhbm and another with a revolver in his hand. In twenty minutes, so it is stated, they had overtaken two of the wretches, who were then in the act of cutting pianos from the:ears, and fingers from the hands of the bodies of two dead women. With revolver levelled at the sootmdrels the leader of the posse shouted Throw up you hands or I'll blow your heads off ! " With blanched faces and trembling for a they obeyed the order and begged for mercy. They were searched, and as their pockets were emptied of their ghastly finds the indignation of the crowd intensified, and when a bloody finger of an infant, encircled with two tiny gold rings, was It sand among the plum* in the heeler's pocket, a ,icry went trp, " Lynch them ! lynch them ! Without a moment' s delay ropes were thrown around their necks and they were dangling to the limbs of a tree, In the branches of which were entangled an hour before the bodies of a dead father and son. It is hinted that an Allegheny county official was one of the most pivcninent actors in this justifiable homicide. After some of the miscreants had removed all their plunder to dry ground a dispute arose over a division of the spoils. A pitched battle followed, and for a time the situation was alarming. Knives and clubs were used freely. As a result several of the combatants were seriously wounded and left cm the ground, their fellow countrymen not making any attempt to remove them from the Said ai strife. The way of the transgressor in the desolated valley of the Conemangh is hard indeed. Each hour reveals some new and horrible story of suffering and outrage„ md every succeeding hour brings news of swift and merited punishment meted out to the fiends who have dared- to desecrate the  stiff and mangled corpses in the city of the dead, and thus tortorethe already half -crazedfoictime cf the cruellest of modern catastrophes. Just as the shadows began to fall upon the earth last evening a party of thirteen Hungarians vrere notiwd stealthily picking their way along the banks of the Conemaugh toward Sang Hollow. Suspicious of their pupae, several farmers armed themselves and started in pursuit. Soon their most horrible fears were realised. The Hungarians were out for plunder. Lying upon the shore they came upon the dead and mangled body of a woman, upon whose person there were a number of trinkets, jewellery and two diamond rings. In their eagerness to secure the plunder the Hungazione got into a aquabble, during which one of the number severed the finger upon which were the rings, and started on a run with his fearful prize. The revolting nature of the deed so wrought upon the pursuing farmers, who by this time were close at hand, that they gave Immediate 'Asa°. Some of the Hungarians showed fight, but being outnumbered were compelled to See for their lives. Nine of the brutes escaped, but four vrere literally' driven into the surging river and to their death.