THE JOHNSTOWNS FLOODS. DETAILS OF THE DISASTER. HARROWING SCENES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 386, 20 July 1889, Page 4

THE JOHNSTOWNS FLOODS. DETAILS OF THE DISASTER. HARROWING SCENES.

ROBBERS OF THE DEAD LYNCHED. The terrible disaster in Pennsylvania has sent a thrill of horror throughout Europe, as well as America, and the horrible details of the woik ot devastation havo been the all-absorbing topic of interest. The extent of the calamity is so great as (o be almost beyond comprehension, and contrary to the usual custom the estimated number of deaths increases as later reports come in. After the bursting of the lescrvoir, the rus>h of the ! mighty torrent 40ft in hoight, the damming of the waters by the railway- bridge, the piling 60ft high of wreckage, the scene be came horrible beyond description. Infants a few deys old. and ajred men and women, were consumed before the eyes of the beholder, and no rescue was possible. Tho flames soon sunounded tho unfortunate shrieking human beings, and slowly, roasted them to death. Many in despair threw themselves into the water, and were drowned or dashed to death against the floating houses, or giound between them and sult'ocated. Among the wreckage appeared portions of railway carriages and locomotives, and it was atterwards learned that two passenger trains on the Pennsylvania railway had been caught in the torrent, and tho passengers were drowned. The trains were standing on tho side track when the great Hood overtook them. Only the lefb-hand side ot the bridge was blocked at first, and down the right-hand side the stronra rushed at a tremendous rate, carrying hundreds of hou.ses, numerous men, women, and children alloat on the wreckage, and innumerable corpses. Many corpses were carried as far as Pitcsburg, 80 miles lower down the river, and among the few who survived and floated down the .stream was a woman, who was discovered on a raft just above Pittsburg, perfectly naked, all her clothes having been stripped off by the Hood. A few personal etiects hare been picked up 300 miles below Pittsburg, indicating that the corpses and decaying debris may cany danger to a distance of nearly 400 miles from the scene of the disaster.

A TERRIBLE WORK. When the water began to subside, more tci'ribie sights were witnessed. The mass ot wreckage continued to burn for several days, and ib was impossible to rescue any of the bodies from the burning portion. Gangs of men began to work on other parts of the wreck searching tor bodies. In one spot a man, woman, and child were found together, evidently a family, the child being clasped in its mother's arms. Under a school-house no fewer than 124 bodies ueie found. The stench from all parts of the valley wat> frightful. Every effort was made to proceed rapidly with the work of burying the dead. Collins were =ent from all quarters and stacked in immense piles upon the hill sides. The sound of hammers was heaid on all sides around the ruined villages, and it was a common thing to see a father making rude coffins for the remains of his own family. Hundreds of corpses were discovered in the bed of the river as the water receded. Most of the bodies were naked the clothing having been torn off by the flood which rushed onwaid with such terrible violence. A locomotive and five cars loaded with piej iron weie caught up from the bridge and carried for several hundred feet on the top of a 40f b. wave. It was absolutely impossible to save the unfortunates as they swept under the only budge which survived the first wave, for they simply had their brains dashed out if they clutched at ropes let down to them.

DYNAMITING THE WRECKAGE. The work of recoveiing and burying the bodies ha« been canied on with great energy. Thousands of men wore employed clearing away the wreck, dynamite being used to open a passage through the burning wreckage above the budge. More than 3,000 bodies have been lecovered at Johnstown, and 800 more at> Nineveh, further down the river. More than a thousand funerals were in progress during Thursday, the 6th. The total loss can ne\ er be accurately estimated, but it is believed that upwards of 20,000 were drowned or burnt. The popu'ation of the valley numbeied about 50,000 souls, and though iegictry ofh'ceb for survivors to renter their names have been open four days, only 18,000 have been registered. It is equally |im possible to form any estimate of the loss of property, which must be enormous. It is doubtful ii it is less than 50,000,000 dollars. The Cambria Company's plant was annihilated so far as water can destroy it, and the loss is about 78,000,000 dollars. The Pennsylvania Railway losses are over "20,000 dollars. Bridges, some of which were xery costly, and several miles of solid stone-ballasted lailway track, have disappeared. One firm lost 80,000 gallon? of whisky, another 50,000,000 logs of lumber. To these have to be added thousands of dwelling* and smaller losses of individual farmers.

HUNGARIAN DESPOILERS. AJany incidents of an affecting: kind happened during the flood, and many equally revolting details have .been published. Among the latter is the story of bands of Hungarian slaves going round despoiling the dead, while one gang of thieves were seen quarrelling over a body. Some farmers who saw them steal a dead woman's trinkets attacked them. Nino escaped and four were driven into the river and drowned. Half a dozen railroad men saw some wretches cutting oft the fingers and earb of the dead in oider to j-eciire the jewellery upon them. The railroad men searched Lhe robbers, and found among the booty a baby's finger with little gold rings. Next day a number of thieves were hanging irom fcho neighbouring trees. Opportunities, however, constituted so great temptation that the robbers still continued. One Hungarian woman thief took 7,500 dollars in cash Irom one trunk. One woman's body has been found with diamond jewellery upon it, and a roll of Government bonds. The improvised police shot one man without warning, and drove seven Hungarian thieves intotberiverin frontof cocked revolvers, and kept them there till they were drowned. The bodies were not even pulled ashore. The lynchingsaraount to 16 dead and several wounded. In order to' prevent pillage, 400 soldiers were brought from Pittsburgh to Johnstown for guard duty. Gcod order was afterwards maintained. Several thieves were arrested. It i«j impossible to recount a tithe of the touching incidents which happened, but a few will suffice to show the bravery and resolution with which many victims met their deaths. Floating under the bridge on wreckage, one woman refused to be rescued because she

WOULD NOT LEAVE HER CHILDREN. One man instructed his mother and wife how all three should seize a rope. They failed to grasp it, and he let go in order to stay with them. The wreckage they were oh carried them to a tree into which the women climbed. The debris carried the tree away, and all were drowned. A woman was found tho day after bhe

flood standing by a muddy pool trjj ing to find a brace of nor children. She had been crushed againsb fche roof by the rising waters, bnfc she sot seven childron afloat; through the window on buoyant pieces of furniture. Scarcely had she finished the task when the building collapsed, and by tho irony of fate she alone survives. In frighb soveral babies were born prematurely, and the mothers have been found dead, with thoir lips pressed to thoir infants' lips in a (ir&b and final hiss. Children were scon drowned while kneeling in an attitude of prayer. Mrs Ogle, the local manageress of tho Western Union Telegraph Company, who died at her post, was a

HEROINE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER. Notwithstanding tho repeated notilica tions which she received Lo get out of reach of the approaching danger, sho s>tnod by her instruments with unflinching loyalty and undaunted courage, sending words ot warning to those in danger in the valley below. "" When every station in tho path ot the coining torrent had been warned, sho wned hoi companion at South Fork, " Thi« is my last message," and at th.it very moment the torrent engulfed her. ltich and poor woie served alike by the terrible disaster. A correspondent saw a girl standing with her bare feet on the liver bank clad in a loose potticoat, with a shawl over her head. At fii>t he thought she was an Italian woman, bat her faco showed that ho was mistaken. She was the belle of the town, and tho daughter of a wealthy Johnstown banlcoi. This single petticoat and shawl wore not only all that had been left her, but all that had been saved from the magnificent residence of her father. Sho had escaped to tho hills nob an instant too soon. A most thiilling escape reported serves to illustrate the awful suddenness of the deadly flood. A freight train was lying at the signal tower awaiting orders. The booming roar called attention to the advancing wave, then visible up the valley two miles away. Shouting to the employees on tho rear of the cars, tho engineer

CUT THE LOCOMOTIVE LOOSE from the train and clashed away. Looking back, the engineer saw the signal tower, car.°, houses, trees, and his colleagues in a group dashing about in tho water, which almost caught the engine before he acquired the desired momentum. The steam held out until, upon da-hing round the curve upon the bridge leading to the high ground, tho engineer saw that the track was blocked. He leaped from his engine, ran acioss the track, and afeeended thchill, whence he saw tho biidge and locomotive thundering down the stream together. There is a convent attached to dlie Catholic Chinch at Johnstown, and it i.i alleged that the Mother Superior, happening to look out of the window, saw the raging torrent sweeping down the doomed valley. She at once summoned^ the nuns into the convent chapel, and there they knelt in piayerlor Divine protection. The tonent bur.st against the convent and shattered the entire building excepting tho chapel in which che nuns knelt in prayer. Not one member of the littlo community, it is asserted, perished, and the chapel btill stands.

DANGER OF PESTILENCE. Relief funds have been started in all parts of America, and many subscriptions arc being received. In Europe, too. much money has been subbcribed towards the relief fund, which already amounts to a million and a-half of dollars. An emergency committee has been formed to look after the wants of the destitute and homeless. Large supplies of food, clothing 1 , and bedding have been distributed. The greatest fear is that pe&tilenco may foim a climax of the tale of horror. The cities of Pittsburgh and Alleghany, with an aggregate population of 350,000, draw their water supply from the Alleghany River, down which the corpse? and debris from tliß ruins are floating a& far as 150 mile.s from Johnstown. The water is dark and muddy, and occasionally bodies aio found. The air is burdened with binning putrid, smells. iVloreover, washing down the stream is the contents of thousands of cesspools and barnyaids in addition to the mutilated and decaying corpses. Anxiety is felt that to drink the water ot the s>&ieam would cause an epidemic of typhoid. The "Standard" correspondent says the disaster was due to tho criminality of gentlemen who maintained the pvef-smoat Lake Concmaugh. One employeefiequently told them

THE WATER LEAKED THROUGH THE DAM. He repeated his warnings, until he »\ as fchieatcned with dibmifesal. He warned the Mayor of Johnstown, and not more than a month ago the Mayor replied that he would send an expert inspector and complain to the go\ernoi>. The Mayor never did either. For thiee days before the disaster the tront of the dam resembled a watering pot. Jets wclc bin sting 30 feet horizontally. All this time the rain, which soaked the eaith, a^ded three million gallons eveiy hour to the reservoir. Before noon the waterseemed to fal), and within three hours the masonry of the dam opened like dock gates. Although tho disaster along Conemaugh overshadows evciy thing cls>e, yet the loss to other districts i? onoimoua. The wesl branch of the Susquehanna River, Northern Pennsylvania, was in mi unparalleled state ot Hood, and at Lock haven, Milton, YVilliamsport, and othei towns, 150 lives are alieady repoi te c i to have been lost. The Hood deluged William&porb, the river rising 34 ft. and breaking the timber boom, releasing 20C,000,000ft. of logs, besides destroying timber millsand carryingdown 40,000,000 ft. of sawn timber. The freshet corried away every bridge spanning the Hesugehanna River for over ICO miles, and di owned 30 persons at Williams-port, 20 at Milton, and 50else\vheic in the noighbouihood, while caficfa of drowning aro fatill constantly reported. The final misfortune was a log ]atnb, which ichulted in bi caking the bridge in MuikeL-bbicct. Willianivsport, which wab covered with sightseeis ; 50, in addition to the above 30, being drowned, and the rest being saved on logs iloating down the ri\er.

A perusal ot the last Government " Gazette" with reterence to the Education Department, affords food tor reflection for those who purpose to become beachers. The total number of certificated toacher& employed by the Education Department in this colony is 1,717, of: whom 936 arc men, 80 married women, and 701 single women. There are no less than 751 holding certificates who are at present not employed in public instruction. 01 this number 365 are men, 234 married women, and 152 single women. A large number of those ranked as unemployed aro those who, after obtain ing their certificates, have _ sought other retired from active service, or left the - colony. The preponderance of women amonesl these unemployed is no doubt attributable to the fact that the majority of female teacher 3 naturally retire from the service when they enter married life. In addition to this list of unemployed it must also be remembered that each Board in the colony has a large number of Misses who aro awaiting appointments as pupil teacheis.