The Johnstown Horror!!!: or, Valley of Death, being A Complete and Thrilling Account; of the Awful Floods and Their Appalling RuinWalker, James Herbert
History
The Johnstown Horror!!!: or, Valley of Death, being A Complete and Thrilling Account; of the Awful Floods and Their Appalling Ruin
Last night Robert Bridgard, a letter carrier of Johnstown, marched at
the head of three hundred men to the corner of Morrell avenue and
Columbia street, where he mounted a wagon and made a speech on the needs
of the hour. Chiefest of these, he considered, was good workmen to clear
away the debris and extract the bodies from the wreckage.
He closed with a bitter attack on the lazy Huns and Poles, who refused
to aid in the work of relief and yet are begging and even stealing the
provisions that are sent here to feed the sufferers. The crowd numbered
nearly one thousand, and greeted Bridgard's words with cheers.
Another resident of the city then mounted a barrel and made a ringing
speech condemning the slothful foreigners, who have proven themselves a
menace to the valley and its inhabitants. The feelings of the crowd were
aroused to such an alarming extent that it was feared it would culminate
in an attack on the worthless Poles and Hungarians.
The following resolution was adopted with a wild shout of approval, and
the meeting adjourned:--
"_Resolved_, That we, the citizens of Johnstown, in public meeting
assembled, do most earnestly beg the Relief Corps of the Johnstown
sufferers to furnish no further provisions to the Hungarians and Poles
of this city and vicinity except in payment of services rendered by them
for the relief of their unfortunate neighbors.
"_Resolved_, Further, that in case of their refusal to render such
service they be driven from the doors of the relief trains and warned to
vacate the premises."
Hospitals and Morgues.
Those who doubt that many thousands lost their lives in this disaster
have not visited the morgues. There are three of these dreadful places
crowded so full of the unidentified dead that there is scarcely room to
move between the bodies. To the largest morgue, which I visited this
morning, one hundred and sixty bodies have been brought for
identification. When it is remembered that most of the bodies were swept
below the limits of Johnstown, that many more found here have been
identified at once by their friends and that it is certain that many
bodies were consumed entirely in the fire at the gorge, the fact gives
some idea of the extent of the calamity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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