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History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.Johnson, Willis Fletcher

History

History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.

Name: History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.
Author: Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Floods -- Pennsylvania -- Johnstown (Cambria County)

On the other hand the town's resemblance to a new mining camp is just as
striking. Everything is muddy and desolate. There are no streets nor any
roads, except the rough routes that the carts wore out for themselves
across the sandy plain. Rough sheds and shanties are going up on every
hand. There are no regular stores, but cigars and drink--none
intoxicating, however--are peddled from rough board counters. Railroads
run into the camp over uneven, crooked tracks. Trains of freight cars
are constantly arriving and being shoved off onto all sorts of sidings,
or even into the mud, to get them out of the way. Everybody wears his
trousers in his boots, and is muddy, ragged, and unshaven. Men with
picks and shovels are everywhere delving or mining for something that a
few days ago was more precious than gold, though really valueless now.
Occasionally they make a find and gather around to inspect it as miners
might a nugget. All it needs to complete the mining camp aspect of the
place is a row of gambling hells in full blast under the temporary
electric lights that gaudily illuminate the centre of the town.

Matters are becoming very well systematized, both in the military and
the mining way. Martial law could be imposed to-day with very little
inconvenience to any one. The guard about the town is very well kept,
and the loafers, bummers, and thieves are being pretty well cleared out.
The Grand Army men have thoroughly organized the work of distributing
supplies to the sufferers by the flood, the refugees, and contraband of
this camp.

The contractors who are clearing up the débris have their thousands of
men well in hand, and are getting good work out of them, considering the
conditions under which the men have to live, with insufficient food,
poor shelter, and other serious impediments to physical effectiveness.
All the men except those on the gorge above the bridge have been
working amid the heaps of ruined buildings in the upper part of the
city. The first endeavor has been to open the old streets in which the
débris was heaped as high as the house-tops. Fair progress has been
made, but there are weeks of work at it yet. Only one or two streets are
so far cleared that the public can use them. No one but the workmen are
allowed in the others.

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