The chief labor of the living is still the burying of the dead. Their
sole dependence for support is upon the charity of the country, a
charity, be it said, that is proving as ready as the occasion is
pressing. The immediate daily necessities of the suffering people
are being met by trainloads of provisions and clothing that come in
from all directions. The money available is being used to employ the
idle in clearing away the debris, exhuming the dead from their hiding
places, and generally in making Johnstown, to an extent, an inhabitable
place once more for those of its people who have further need of
homes above ground. What has been done and can be done with the money
already in hand is a trifling beginning, but already the place shows
the effects of the gangs of laborers who have been set to pulling down
damaged buildings, removing and burning the bodies of animals and other
offensive debris, and doing whatever else seemed most immediately
necessary for the health and well being of the place.
From the morgue in the Fourth Ward school-house 350 bodies have been
buried, and more are taken to the Grove Hill Cemetery every hour.
They are buried there singly, if identified, and in rows and narrow
trenches, one on top of the other, if not. The scenes at the different
relief agencies, where food, clothing and provisions are given out on
the order of Citizens’ Committee, are extremely interesting. These are
established at the Pennsylvania Railroad depot, at Peters’ Hotel, in
Adams street, and in each of the suburbs.
At the depot, where there is a large force of police, the people
were kept in files, and the relief articles were given out with some
regularity, but at such a place as Kernsville, in the suburbs, the
relief station was in the upper story of a partly wrecked house.
The yard was filled with boxes and barrels of bread, crackers, biscuits
and bales of blankets. The people crowded outside the yard in the
street, and the provisions were handed to them over the fence, while
the clothing was thrown to them from the upper windows. There was
apparently great destitution in Kernsville.
“I don’t care what it is only so long as it will keep me warm,” said
one woman, whose ragged clothing was still damp this morning.
The stronger women pushed to the front of the fence and tried to grab
the pieces of clothing which came from the windows, but the people in
the house saw the game and tossed the clothing to those in the rear of
the crowd. A man stood on a barrel of flour and yelled out what the
piece of clothing was as it came down.
At each yell there was a universal cry of “That’s just what I want. My
boy is dying: he must have that. Throw me that for my poor wife.” and
the like of that. Finally the clothing was all gone, and there was some
people who didn’t get any. They went away bewailing their misfortune.
The fortunate ones were gleeful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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