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
St. Mary's German Catholic Church, which is badly wrecked, was
temporarily used as a morgue, but a singular circumstance connected with
the wrecking having been noticed, the duty of becoming a receptacle for
the dead is transferred to the Church of St. Columba. The windows of St.
Mary's are all destroyed. The floor for one-third of its extent on St.
Mary's side is torn up to the chancel rail in one piece by the water and
raised toward the wall. One-half the chancel rail is gone, the mud is
eighteen inches deep on the floor, St. Joseph's altar is displaced and
the statue gone. The main altar, with its furniture for Easter, is
covered with mud, and some fine potted flowers are destroyed. Nearly all
the other ornaments are in place, even to the candlesticks. Strange to
relate, the statue of the Virgin in her attire is unsoiled; the white
vestments with silken embroidery are untarnished. This discovery led to
the change of morgue. The matter being bruited abroad the desolated
women of Cambria and Johnstown, as well as those who had not been
sufferers from the flood, visited the church, and with most affecting
devoutness adored the shrine. Some men also were among the devout, and
not one of those who offered their prayers but did it in tears. For
several hours this continued to be the wonder of the parishioners of the
Catholic churches.
The entire family of Mr. Howe, the wealthiest man in Cambria, with some
visitors from Pittsburgh and Ohio, were hurried to death by the collapse
of their residence on that fatal Friday night.
In the rubbish heaped high on the shore near the stone arch bridge is a
flat freight car banged and shattered and with a hole stove in its side.
One of the workmen who were examining the debris to-day got into the car
and found a framed and glazed picture of the Saviour. It was resting
against the side of the car, right side up. Neither frame nor glass were
injured. When this incident got noised about among the workmen they
dropped their pickaxes and ran to look at the wonderful sight with their
hats off.
Saved His Mother and Sister.
A man who came up from Lockport to-day told this:--"On the roof of a
house were a young man, his mother and a young girl apparently his
sister. As they passed the Lockport bridge, where the youth hung in an
eddy for a moment, the men on the bridge threw them a rope. The young
man on the house caught and tried to make it fast around his mother and
then around his sister. They were afraid to use it or they were
unwilling to leave him, for they would not take the rope. They tried to
make him take it, but he threw it away and stayed on the roof with them.
The house was swept onward and in another moment was lodged against a
tree. The youth seized his mother and sister and placed them in safety
among the branches. The next instant the house started again. The young
man's foot slipped. He fell into the water and was not seen again."
Where Death Lay In Wait.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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