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
A despatch from Greensburg says the day express, which left Pittsburgh
at eight o'clock on Friday morning was lying at Johnstown in the evening
at the time the awful rush of waters came down the mountains. We have
been informed by one who was there that the coach next to the baggage
car was struck by the raging flood, and with its human freight cut loose
from the rest of the train and carried down the stream. All on board, it
is feared, perished. Of the passengers who were left on the track,
fifteen or more who endeavored to flee to the mountains were caught, it
is thought, by the flood, and likewise carried to destruction. Samuel
Bell, of Latrobe, was conductor on the train, and he describes the scene
as the most appalling and heartrending he ever witnessed.
A special despatch from Latrobe says:--"The special train which left the
Union Station, Pittsburgh, at half-past one arrived at Nineveh Station,
nine miles from Johnstown, last evening at five o'clock. The train was
composed of four coaches and locomotive, and carried, at the lowest
calculation, over nine hundred persons, including the members of the
press. The passengers were packed in like sardines and many were
compelled to hang out upon the platform. A large proportion of the
passengers were curiosity seekers, while there was a large sprinkling of
suspicious looking characters, who had every appearance of being crooks
and wreckers, such as visit all like disasters for the sole purpose of
plundering and committing kindred depredations."
When the train reached Nineveh the report spread through it that a
number of bodies had been fished out of the water and were awaiting
identification at a neighboring planing mill. I stopped off to
investigate the rumor, while the balance of the party journeyed on
toward Sang Hollow, the nearest approach to Johnstown by rail. I visited
Mumaker's planing mills and found that the report was true.
[Illustration: TAKING DEAD BODIES FROM A ROOF.]
All day long the rescuers had been at work, and at this writing (six
o'clock) they have taken out seventy-eight dead bodies, the majority of
whom are women and children. The bodies are horribly mutilated and
covered with mud and blood. Fifteen of them are those of men. Their
terribly mutilated condition makes identification for the present almost
impossible. One of the bodies found was that of a woman, apparently
about thirty-five years of age.
Every conveyance that could be used has been pressed into service.
Latrobe is all agog with excitement over the great disaster. Almost
every train takes out a load of roughs and thugs who are bent on
mischief. They resemble the mob that came to Pittsburgh during the
riots.
Measures of Relief.
Pittsburgh is in a wild state of excitement. A large mass meeting was
held yesterday afternoon and in a short space of time $1,000 was
subscribed for the sufferers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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