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 girl must have been handsome when in the flush of youth and health.
She had seized the helpless infant and endeavored to find safety by
flight. Her closely cut brown hair was filled with sand, and a piece of
brass wire was wound around the head and neck. A loose cashmere
house-gown was partially torn from her form, and one slipper, a little
bead embroidered affair, covered a silk-stockinged foot. Each arm was
tightly clasped around the baby. The rigidity of death should have
passed away, but the arms were fixed in their position as if composed of
an unbendable material instead of muscle and bone. The fingers were
imbedded in the sides of the little baby as if its protector had made a
final effort not to be separated and to save if possible the fragile
life. The faces of both were scarred and disfigured from contact with
floating debris. The single garment of the baby--a thin white slip--was
rent and frayed. The body of the young woman was identified, but the
babe remained unknown. Probably its father and mother were lost in the
flood, and it will never be claimed by friendly hands.
A Strange Discovery.
This is only one among the many pathetic incidents of the terrible
disaster. There were only nine unidentified bodies at the Adams street
morgue this afternoon, and three additions to the number were made after
ten o'clock. Two hundred and eight bodies have been received by the
embalmers in charge. The yard of the school house, which was converted
into a temporary abode of death, contains large piles of coffins of the
cheaper sort. They come from different cities within two or three
hundred miles of Johnstown, and after being stacked up they are pulled
out as needed. Coffins are to be seen everywhere about the valley, ready
for use when a body is found. A trio of bodies was found near the
Hurlburt House under peculiar circumstances. They were hidden beneath a
pile of wreckage at least twenty-five feet in height. They were a
father, a mother and son. Around the waist of each a quarter inch rope
was tied so that the three were bound together tightly. The hands of the
boy were clasped by those of the mother, and the father's arms were
extended as if to ward off danger. The father probably knotted the rope
during the awful moments of suspense intervening between the coming of
the flood and the final destruction of the house they occupied. The
united strength of the three could not resist the mighty force of the
inundation, and like so many straws they were swept on the boiling surge
until life was crushed out.
Child and Doll in One Coffin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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