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
Palefaced women looked out through the flaps of tents on the scene, and
the only object that seemed to be taking things easy was a lean, black
dog, asleep in front of one of the fires.
In one of the tents a baby was born last night. The mother, whose
husband was lost in the flood, was herself rescued by being drawn up on
the roof of the Union Schoolhouse. One of the doctors of the Altoona
Relief Corps at the Cambria Hospital attended her, and mother and babe
are doing better than thousands of the flood sufferers who are
elsewhere. There are other babies in Camp Hastings, but none of them
receive half of the attention from the people in the camp that is
bestowed upon this little tot, whose life began just as so many lives
were ended. The baby will probably be named Johnstown Camp O'Connor.
The refugees who are living along the road get their supplies from the
camp. They pour into the wretched city of tents in a steady stream,
bearing baskets and buckets of food.
He Wanted Tobacco or Nothing.
An old Irishman walked up to the tent early in the day. "Well, what can
we do for you?" was asked.
"Have yez any tobaccy?"
"No, tobacco don't go here."
"I want tobaccy or nothin'. This is no relief to a mon at all, at all."
The aged refugee walked away in high dudgeon.
Just down the row from the clothing tent are located two little girls,
named Johnson, who lost both father and mother. They had a terrible
experience in the flood, and were two of the forty-three people pulled
in on the roof of the house of the late General Campbell and his two
sons, James and Curt.
"How do you fare?" one of the little girls was asked.
"Oh, very well, sir; only we are afraid of catching the measles," she
answered; and with a grimace she tossed her head toward a tent on the
other side and further up. A baby in the tent indicated has a slight
attack of the measles, but is getting better, and is next door to a tent
in which is a young woman shaking with the ague.
A Multitude to be Fed.
In the houses along the road above the camp are several hundreds of
refugees. In one of them are thirty or forty people rendered homeless by
the flood. These are all supplied with food from the camp. Some idea of
the number of people who have to be fed can be gathered from the fact
that 350 pounds of coffee have been given out since yesterday. In the
hills back of Cambria there are many hundreds of survivors. Dr. Findley,
of the Altoona Relief Corps, went there to-day and found that they were
without a physician. One from Baltimore had been there, but had gone
away. He found many people needing medical care, and they will be looked
after from day to day.
"Wherever we go," said one of the doctors yesterday, "we find that there
is an alarming spread of pneumonia." Of the refugees at the Cambria
Hospital but two have died.
Bayonets in Control.
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