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
Another case of attempted lynching was witnessed this evening near
Kernville. The man was observed stealing valuable articles from the
houses. He was seized by a mob, a rope was placed around his neck and he
was jerked up into the air. The rope was tied to the tree and his
would-be lynchers left him. Bystanders cut him down before he was dead.
The other men did not interfere and he was allowed to go. The man was so
badly scared that he could not give his name if he wanted to do so.
Two colored men were shot while robbing the dead bodies, by the
Pittsburgh police, who are doing guard about the town.
Fiends in Human Form.
To one who saw bright, bustling Johnstown a week ago the sight of its
present condition must cause a thrill of horror, no matter how callous
he might be. I doubt if any incident of war or flood ever caused a more
sickening sight. Wretchedness of the most pathetic kind met the gaze on
every side.
_Unlawfulness runs riot._ If ever military aid was needed now is the
time. _The town is perfectly overrun with thieves_, many of them from
Pittsburgh. The Hungarians are the worst. They seem to operate in
regular organized bands. In Cambria City this morning they entered a
house, drove out the occupants at the point of revolvers and took
possession. They can be constantly seen carrying large quantities of
plunder to the hills.
The number of drunken men is remarkable. Whiskey seems marvelously
plenty. Men are actually carrying it around in pails. Barrels of the
stuff are constantly located among the drifts, and men are scrambling
over each other and fighting like wild beasts in their mad search for
it.
At the cemetery, at the upper end of the town, I saw a sight that rivals
the inferno. A number of ghouls had found a lot of fine groceries, among
them a barrel of brandy, with which they were fairly stuffing
themselves. One huge fellow was standing on the strings of an upright
piano singing a profane song, every little while breaking into a wild
dance. A half dozen others were engaged in a hand-to-hand fight over the
possession of some treasure stolen from a ruined house, and the crowd
around the barrel were yelling like wild men.
The cry for help increases every hour. Something must be done to get the
bodies decently taken care of. The ruins are reeking with the smell of
decaying bodies. At the very edge of the ruins the body of a large
colored woman, in an advanced state of decomposition, is lying like the
body of an animal.
Watched Their Friends Die.
The fire in the drift above the bridge is still burning fiercely and
will continue to do so for several days. The skulls of six people can be
seen sticking up out of the ruins just above the east end of the bridge.
Nothing but the blackened skulls can be seen. They are all together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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