Supt. Hines, the chairman of the Committee on Transportation, is
authority for the story that for the past two days two women of
Pittsburgh have been here offering homes in that city to young girls
who have been left without any protectors. Their object was not
suspected at first, but subsequently they were recognized, and it
became evident that their intention was to take girls away to their
own places of iniquity in the Smoky City. It is not known whether any
of the unfortunate maidens fell into the trap, as the two women became
frightened and left this scene of desolation. Supt. Hines was terribly
angered at this exhibition of utter heartlessness, and declared after
he had tried in vain to find them that had he laid his hands on them
they would have had a ducking in the Conemaugh before they got away. It
is related here that women of the same class have been seen around the
depots in Pittsburgh on the arrival of trains from here waiting to see
if they could not gain possession of the poor victims who were going
into the city to begin life anew in a strange place.
To-day it is reported that a young lad, Eddie Fisher, has committed
suicide after spending a week in brooding over the loss of his entire
family, and that an unknown woman suddenly became insane in the street
and had to be removed to a hospital. It is impossible to verify
either of these stories, but they are thought to be true, though no
information could be had about them at headquarters.
New stories of incidents of the flood are heard every day, and probably
will continue to be told for weeks to come, but certainly the most
touching of any that have yet been narrated is that of the Frohnheiser
family. The father was a well-known workman in the Cambria Iron Works,
and lived with his wife, two little girls and a son in a cottage,
which was washed away. The mother and elder daughter were lost, but
the father managed to crawl from the room with the other two children
through a rent made by the flood in the roof. He reached down after
his boy and told him to come near to him, but the lad answered: “It is
no use, papa, you can’t save me, I’m too far away. Save Katie, she is
near to you.” Now the little girl had her leg broken by being jammed in
between some furniture, and she cried: “You can’t save me, papa, for
my leg is caught. Save him or cut my leg off and get me out.” The boy
also asked the father to give him a pistol and he would shoot himself,
but just then the house, which had been floating down stream, suddenly
struck high ground and fell over on its side. The father landed
unhurt, and the two children were thrown out on the hillside. The boy
was unhurt and the little girl is now in the hospital doing quite well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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