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
The corps of workmen who were searching the ruins near the Methodist
Church late this evening were horrified by unearthing one hundred
additional bodies. The great number at this spot shows what may be
expected when all have been recovered.
When the mass which blazed several days was extinguished it was simple
to recover the bodies on the surface. It is now a question, however, of
delving into the almost impenetrable collection to get at those lodged
within. The grinding tree trunks doubtless crushed those beneath into
mere unrecognizable masses of flesh. Those on the surface were nearly
all so much burned as to resemble nothing human.
Meanwhile the searchers after bodies, armed with spikes, hooks and
crowbars, pry up the debris and unearth what they can. Bodies, or rather
fractions of them, are found in abundance near the surface.
Tracing Bodies by the Smell.
I was here when the gang came across one of the upper stories of a
house. It was merely a pile of boards apparently, but small pieces of a
bureau and a bed spring from which the clothes had been burned showed
the nature of the find. A faint odor of burned flesh prevailed exactly
at this spot. "Dig here," said the physician to the men. "There is one
body at least quite close to the surface." The men started in with a
will. A large pile of underclothes and household linen was brought up
first. It was of fine quality and evidently such as would be stored in
the bedroom of a house occupied by people quite well to do. Shovels full
of jumbled rubbish were thrown up, and the odor of flesh became more
pronounced. Presently one of the men exposed a charred lump of flesh and
lifted it up on the end of a pitchfork. It was all that remained of some
poor creature who had met an awful death between water and fire.
The trunk was put on a cloth, the ends were looped up making a bag of
it, and the thing was taken to the river bank. It weighed probably
thirty pounds. A stake was driven in the ground to which a tag was
attached giving a description of the remains. This is done in many cases
to the burned bodies, and they lay covered with cloths upon the bank
until men came with coffins to remove them. Then the tag was taken from
the stakes and tacked on the coffin lid, which was immediately closed
up, as identification was of course out of the question. There is a
stack of coffins by the railroad bridge. Sometimes a coffin is carried
to the spot on the charred debris where the find is made.
Prodding Corpses with Canes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account