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
With a view of showing the character of living in and about Johnstown,
how the people pass each day and what the conveniences and deprivations
of domestic life experienced under the new order of things so suddenly
introduced by the flood are, an investigation of a house-to-house nature
was made to-day. As a result, it was noted that the degrees of comfort
varied with the people as the types of human nature. As remarked by a
visitor:
"The calamity has served to bring to the surface every phase of
character in man, and to bring into development traits that had before
been but dormant. Generally speaking all are on the same footing so far
as need can be concerned. Whether houses remain to them or not, all the
people have to be fed, for even should they have money, cash is of no
account, provisions cannot be bought; people who still have homes nearly
all of them furnish quarters for some of the visitors. Militia officers,
committeemen, workmen, &c., must depend upon the supply stations for
food."
At Prospect.
The best preserved borough adjoining Johnstown is Prospect, with its
uniformly built gray houses, rising tier upon tier against the side of
the mountain, at the north of Johnstown. There are in the neighborhood
of 150 homes here, and all look as if but one architect designed them.
They are large, broad gabled, two-story affairs, with comfortable
porches, extending all the way across the front, each being divided by
an interior partition, so as to accommodate two families. The situation
overlooked the entire shoe-shaped district, heretofore described.
Nearly every householder in Prospect is feeding not only his own family,
but from two to ten others, whom he has welcomed to share what he has.
Said one of these "We are all obliged to go to the general department
for supplies, for we could not live otherwise. Our houses have not been
touched, but we have given away nearly everything in the way of
clothing, except what we have on. There were two little stores up here,
but we purchased all they had long ago. It does not matter whether the
people are rich or poor, they are all compelled to take their chances.
In Prospect are the quarters of the Americus Club, of Pittsburgh, an
organization which is widely spoken of as having distinguished itself by
furnishing meals to any and every hungry person who applied."
An Incident.
As two newspaper men were about to descend the hill, after visiting a
number of points, a little woman approached and made an inquiry about
the running of trains. She was one of the survivors and wished to reach
Clearfield, where her grown-up sons were. "I'd walk it if I could," she
said, "but it's too far, and I'm too old now." She was living with her
friends, who have taken care of her since her home was swept away.
A Distributing Point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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