THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1918, 18 July 1889, Page 4

THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER.

DESCRIPTION OP TUP, DISTRICT. AcciPinta are now to hand of the fearful disaster in Fannaylvania. The Conein High Valley H little more than a gorge in the Alleghany mountain I*, 1 *, about 18 iiiilea long and only a few hundred 3 arch in width, precipitous hills rising, on both aides. Two small creeks fl)w through it, uniting at iho lower end into a shallow and rapid stream ca'led the Coemaugh river. At the head of the valley, high among the hills, was a huge body of water, formerly a natural lake, but since increased to many times Us natural size by artificial means. This was three and a-half miles long, over a mile wide, and in some places 320 feet deep. To hold back this immense body of water a darn 1000 feat wide, ICO feet high, and with a thickness of ninety feet at the bass and twenty at the lop, had been built. The lake reservoir, intended to supply the Pennsylvania Canal, was five years ago bought by a group of prominent Pittsburgh people as a fishing and shooting lake. When tire lake was bought by the present owners each subscribed £IOO, and the whole of the earthwork was thoroughly examined and considerably strengthened. The lake ran emt and west, and was fed on all sides by mountain streams which were of late very much swollen. Scattered along below the dam through the valley were numerous townships, The largest was Johnstown, situate at tire lower end, and containing 30,000 inhabitants. Just below Johnstown two creeks united to form the Oonemaugh River, across which stretched a massive stone bridge belonging to the Pennsylvania Railway. TOE WARNING. All day on Thursday and Friday, May 30 and 31, tremendous south-easterly g-des blew from the Atlantic seaboard, bringing the warm moist air of the Gulf Stream into the Allhegany Mountain regions. The heavy rainfalls resulted in the swelling of all the rivers that drain the Allheganies. When these heavy rains came down on Thursday night and Friday the dam supporting Coneraaugh Lake began to show signs of weakness, and the water rising began to flow in places. A warning was telegraphed to Johnstown, and a mourned msss-enger also galloped along the VMI.-y advising the people to seek the h'gb ground. These warnings were laughed at, but suddenly, about four o’c'oclf in the afteraoo", the dam gave, way in the centre. In the words of an eye-witness, the wa'er seemed to leap, scarcely touching the ground, and bounding down the valley, its front,

LIKE A SOLITt WALL twenty font high, crashing, roaring, and carrying everything before it. Houses went down before it, tottered for a moment, and then rose, crushing rgiinst one another like cggflic Is. The torrent flowed eighteen miles to Johnstown, through a narrow crooked valley 7, in less than an hour. The (Joneinangli, which was already flooded, rose 3ft, ; in five minutes the vdley was transformed into Hie bed of a roaring, leaping river, 40ft. deep in front, moving in a huge wave like a wall over the helpless lovns. The first villages reached were inhabited chTfly by working men, whose small wooden houses were swept away like straw and hurled in a mass upon Johnstown. When the advancing wave reached Johnstown it was 50ft. deep, and was rushing on with awful force, carrying with it huge masses of loose earth which came from the mountain streams, together with the wreckage of countless housss and hundreds of corpses, many horror-stricken human beings being whirled away with it (he torrent passed over the city. Johnstown was blotted out like a child’s house of sand upon tho seashore. The immense buildings of the Cambria Iron Company, massively built of biick, and extending a mile along the river bank, in which 7000 men were employed, disappeared with the rest of tho city, The tall chimneys remained standing for a few minutes, but soon crumbled with the walls. When the advancing w ive reached tho Railway bridge it struck it with a great noise and tremendous force. Incredible as it may seem, the slruoture did not give way, and a mighty dam was instantly formed, shutting off the last hope from tho submerged villages. A mass of wreck (iOffc high and from 700 ft to 800 ft wide was piled against the bridge,'which kept the water b»ck, leaving Johnstown buried under a lake 40ft deep. Wedged into tho mass of wreckage were bodies, horribly mutilated-,-of the many dead, and t be wounded were shrieking in agony, HORRIBLE SCENE Then came the final touch of horror. The truss caught fire, prob ibly from an overturned stove or some similar cause, and living and dead were alijee burned to cinders. Into the flaming mass was hurled floating wreckage with living victims screaming in terror ns tho flames crackled and roared among the dry limber of the floating bouses. Human beings were ieen pinioned between the house ruins and other ruins, while the greedy flames were closing round them. The ecane was horrible beyond description. Infants a few days old and aged man and women wereonsumed before the eyes of the beholders, and their rescue was imposaib/rtL The flames soon surrounded I he i.a/Jrtnnate shrieking human beings, ’ind tin #’ were slowly roasted to death. 'Jatjy ini drepair threw themselves into the H’atef ’"'d wore drowped, dashed, or groi,i).| w:-tween ihem and suffocated. Anio-g liV wnckage appeared portions of 'ailway barri ges and locomotives, and jt Vf,a afterwards ie urned that two railway passenger mains on dm Pennsylvania Hailway haw beau ,caught in tho terron! anj the passengers drowOnly tho l-ff. innd side'of the bridge won b'ocknd at first, and dV>wn the right Innd side the stream rushed V H trsmifendoua rite, carrying huodivdn oT houses, with numbers of turn, women ftlpd children afloat ou ifl« brack ge, Wd inWmop.ble corpse 17 . THREE HUNDRED MILES AWAY, if any co r pses carried as far as Piitsburg, eighty rifles lower down (ho river, and among thth few who survived and flouted down slrXf'n was a woman who whs discovered on ihraft just above Pittsburg, perfectly nakedV a| l he 7 clothes iuwmg bfou a'ripped by the flood. A few personal eff-cts lnvb v been picked up 300 miteis flalow PiMshurg, indieuing that tho corpses and ck-caying debris may curry tho danger of infection'ip o djfltoimfi of ncar'y 400 miles from the scene of the disaster. \ THE HIM I), Wlren tho water subsided the scene wa« fearful. Families were found with mothers embracing their infants ; under a

schoolhouse were found 124 bodies. Coffins were stacked in immense piles ; 300 bodies ■were found nt Johnstown, 800 at Nineveh, and 20 000 in nil perished out of a population of 50,000. TUE THIEVES. Hungarians and Slavs found robbing the dead were lynched, shot dead, or driven nt the pistol’s mouth into the water, and kept their till drowned. Four hundred soldiers kept order. MIRACULOUS. There is a convent attached to the Roman' Catholic Church at Johnstown, nod the Mother-Superior happening to look out of tho window saw a raging torrent sweeping down tho doomed valley. She nt once summoned the mins into the Convent Ch«p'-1, and there they knelt in prayer for Divine protection. The torrent hurst against the Convent and shattered the entire building excepting the chapel in which the nuns knelt in prayer. Not one member of tho community, it is asserted, perished, and the cbapel is still standing. THE CRIME OF THE OWNERS. The Standard’s correspondent says that the disaster is due to the criminality of the gentlemen who maintained the pleasure lake of Coricmangh. One of the employes had frequently told them that tho water leaked through tho dam. Ho repeated hia warning until threatened with dismissal. Ho warned the Mayor of Johnstown, who net more than s month ago replied tint ho would tend an inspector and complain to tho Governor. ,The Mayor never did either. For three days before Friday the front of the dam resembled a watering pot, jets bursting out 39ft horizontally. All this time the rain and soaked earth added 3,000,000 gallons of water every hour to the ressrvoir. Before noon the water seemed to fell, and •vithin three hours the masonry of tho dam opened like dock gates.