Show boies town flood WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THE AFFAIR engineering authorities inspect alie dam juno b the cambria iron works are nob damaged as badly as feared half a million dollars will cover the loss A young lad named eddie firsher Fir shir whose mother and five sisters and brothers had lost their lives today to day committed suicide while in a fit of despondency by hurling himself from the top of a building philadelphia juno 6 A special dispatch to the medical cezus from a correspondent in johnstown pennsylvania today to day says notwithstanding that many messages are sent from here indicating that diseases the result of exposure are exceedingly common the fact is the very largest hospitals few cases of any kind exist and over ninety per cent of these individuals are suffering from injuries incurred during and after the flood philadelphia june 7 so many conflicting reports have been published concerning the loss of passengers and damages to trains over the central by floods on friday last that general manager pugh was asked to furnish the associated press with the exact number known or presumed to be drowned from the second section of the day express and also a statement as to what became of the trains these facts were elicited As near as can be learned nineteen lives were lost and two cars washed away A baggage car has been found missing the coach may have been carried down to the debris at johnstown bridge and some hours after the flood struck the train and the sleepers came in contact with the burning line among the names given in the list none can be found coming from points west of chicago 7 A M welling ton and F P burt associate editors of the engineering beius of new york have completed an examination of the dam which caused the great disaster wellington states the dam was in every respect of very inferior construction st and of the kind wholly unwarranted by the good engineering practices of thirty years ago both the original and reconstructed dams were of earth only with no heart wall and but only rip rapped on the slopes the origin aldam however was made in rammed and watered layers which still show distinctly in the wrecked places the new end merely added to its stability but it was to all appearances simply dumped in like ordinary railroad till or if rammed shows no evidence of good effect from it much of the old is standing intact while adjacent parts of the new works are wholly carried off there was no central wall of puddle or masonry either in the old or new dam it had been an invariable practice of engineers thirty or forty years ago to use one or the other in building high dams of earth the reconstructed dam also bears the marks of great carelessness in having been made two feet lower in the middle than at the ends it would rather have been drowned in the middle which would have concentrated the overflow if it should occur at the ends instead of in the center had the break begun at the ends the cut of the water would have been so gradual that little or no harm might have resulted had the dam been at once cut at the ends when the water began running over the center the sudden breaking of the dam would at least have been greatly diminished possibly prolonged so that little harm might have resulted the crest of the old dam had not been raised in the reconstruction 0 1881 the old overflow channel through the rock still remains at the ends but owing to the sag of the crest in the middle 0 the dam only 5 feet of water in it instead of seven feet were necessary to run the water over the crest and the rock spillway spill way narrow at best bad been further contracted by close grating to prevent the escape of fish capped by good sized timber and in some slight degree also by the trestle ft tha fool of the bridge the original discharge pipes at the foot of the dam had been permanently closed when reconstruct efi and thia while a minor matter compared to others mentioned further reduced the possible rate of maximum discharge the nat effect of all these differences of the condition was that the dam as it stood was not more safe against successive floods from its inferior construction then the original dam would have been with a crest only three and a half to four feet high above the bottom of the spill way instead of anven foet A large amount of the old rip rapping and sloped wait feill remains is of ity it does not appear that there was any great amount of through the dam before it broe the destruction st came from water flowing over the top wellington said that no engineer and good standing for such work possibly have been engaged on it since in the particulars tic ulars mentioned it violated the most elementary and universally understood der stood requirements of good practice estimates of the original dam in 1 that it waa to bo made about it i r a half of earth and half of rock but if so there was little evidence of it in tho broken dim atio rip rapping was merely a skin on each face with more or less boose mixed with the earth tho dum was 72 feet above tho water two to buo ouo feet inside the slope and twenty feet wide on the top tho rock throughout was about one foot below the surface the earth way pretty good material for lucli a dam if it was to be built of it at all being of a clay nature to this fact its standing intact since 1881 must be ascribed as no engineer of standing would have ever tried to so construct it the fact that th dam was a reconstructed one after over twenty years of abandonment made it especially hard on the older pirt of the dam to withstand the pressure of the water eight thousand men have bee at work today to day cleaning onic the debris but truth compels the statement that the undertaking has not been fairly started fires aro burning up and down the valley as far as the eye can reach and the air is thick with e and yet people familiar with the situation and aware of the efforts of this army of earnest workmen estimate that it ike men for weeks to clear ont the heaps of ruin piled up for miles between the hills aad up and down the course of tl e river an hour ago tho writer completed comple teJ a tour of the mighty wreck in this vicinity dozens of human being and animals were to bo seen on th t surface charred and blackened by jire and in such decomposition that the strongest men could not more than glance at them eighty six men from altoona under orders of the sanitary officials ara scattering bisin fec tants over acres of the wreckage that the railroad bridge stopped mr kirk declares thousands of bodies will yet be found in this territory alone the great trouble thus far experienced at the bridge has been caused by the mass of telegraph wire that reaches across the various spars through which the water had passed line repair men are badly needed to help in removing the wires and kirk says as soon as they are gone he will hustle the debris through by the acre The problem of the hour is the disposal of the debris about the pennsylvania railroad bridge unless it is soon got rid of the stench will bo so overpowering that no human boing can withstand it the pneumonia scourge grows alarmingly notwithstanding the statements of dr groff of the state health board dr sweet a member of dr groihs staff came down from cambria tonight to night with a startling report to an associated press correspondent dr sweet said prospect hill is full of pneumonia with some diphtheria and the hospital is full to overflowing and there are forty two cases outside they were almost all severe pneumonia there is every condition needed for the spread of tho disease and I 1 fear an epidemic dr also reported several cases of pneumonia he having found them on the hill near movel ville A pair of human feet was noticed sticking out of the sand on the river bank near kernville Kern ville today to day A gang of men soon unearthed the bodies of two men and one girl all in good state of preservation are the horrors of the flood to give way to the terrors of the plague is the question agitating the valley of tho conemaugh today to day opened warm and almost sultry and the stench through johnstown is almost overpowering sickness in of the precautions or the sanitary authorities ties is on the increase and fears of an epidemic grow with every hour five cases of malignani found this rooming in civo different houses on one street this morning the health authorities anticipate much typhoid fever and kindred diseases especially as tho weather is growing warm A scarcity of vegetables adds to the danger general hastings this morning said the situation is good as far as reported bodies are being gradually recovered all the time but not in as large numbers as the first few days lasta night several ghouls were wandering around on the wreck on evil intent and were arrested this morning they were given the choice of imprisonment or going to work at 2 per day they promptly chose the latter the waife waifs mission is doing noble work here within an hour after their arrival they had established a bureau and were receiving children and babies that have been orphaned by the flood and flames ahen all are gathered it is believed they will number several hundred this community is in the wildest excitement as a result of the recent flood the blame of the entire affair has been placed on the south fork fishing club and so angry are some people in this city that peril is feared for W S boyer superintendent at the cottages on the lake one of the pretty villas has been broken into and the furniture broken one of the boats owned by the club was stolen in daylight and reduced to kindling wood by an infuriated crowd A liquor crazed fellow who broke into the cottages was not discovered it was evident that robbery was not his intent affairs at present are as suming an aspect is dangerous the coroners jury that has been in session all day at nineveh terminated its labors today to day their verdict is fully prepared and only lacks the signatures of the jury before it is given publicity it is understood that after reviewing at length the careless breaks of the past years it declares the executive committee of the south fork fishing club guilty of gross if not of criminal neglect As far as known only eighteen bodies have been recovered in the conemaugh valley one of them lay in the middle of the road and has been driven over by wagons for two days and horribly mangled two more cases of typhoid aro reported governor foraker offers on behalf of ohio to send 2000 laborers the number of people missing 1 from Wood yale is almost from present indications it looks as if only fifty people in the borough are saed JOHNSTOWN juno 8 tho day opened with a heavy rain and thun d and the hillside streams aro filled to the banks and the air is chilly and damp while the rain is far from pleasant to the busy workers it is certainly providential that the cool weather is continuing to prevent the decomposition of hundreds of human bodies yet and the thousands of animals which perished in the flood members of secret societies in cono maugh valley have fared unusually well A trap was laid for tho crook undertaker der taker who was robbing bodies in the fourth ward morgue A female was brought and before it was dressed for burial a diamond ring was placed on one of her fingers and the undertaker was assigned to take charge of the body ho was detected in the act of stealing jewelry and promptly arrested by the police who immediately took him to pittsburg nud philadelphia june 7 A conservative estimate of the relief fund so far collected in this city places tho total at lie ana murdered CHEYENNE wyo june 8 A sun special from evanston says that louis abbott the section man who died on ahe train at green eiver wednesday was murdered by one jack bennett known as cockney the men had a terrible combat with fists and knives at bassit on tho oregon short line and was badly hurt the woman abacut whom the men quarreled stayed by abbott and he died in her arms while being taken to ogden for medical treatment cockney escaped A escapes CHICAGO june 7 the postoffice post office inspectors have advises advices from clinton giue wis that the stage robber who has been terrorizing wisconsin people has been located A posse pursued him last night and were ared on sheriff porter broke his leg and the robber made his escape in the woods deliberate murder ud suicide kan june 7 karl boht man a farmer strangled his wife and then hanged himself he left papers in regard to the disposal of his property valued at among his six child renall under twelve years of age ho declared no ono would over know the cause of his crime untie fotiuk LONDON june 7 A human leg and foot was found in the thames at fulham today to day and another at limehouse they undoubtedly belong to the body of the whose remains were found at and battersea LONDON june 7 the london police learned today to day that the unfortunate woman whose mutilated remains were picked up recently at different points in the river belonged to oxford and was named fisher at tho time of her death she was a servant in london killed iiii ill t tier LONDON june 7 A teacher named keeling while traveling by train to birmingham with his mother killed the old lady and threw her body out of tho carriage keeling then committed suicide A horrible crime NASHVILLE june 7 A special from knoxville to the american says reynolds and thomas J lloyd both noted hard cases went to the house of rev jacob harness baptist minister late wednesday night for the purpose of robbery mrs harness and a half witted son aged 16 were alone in tho house the minister being away the robbers broke down the door and rushed in shooting the old lady dead in her tracks the boy awakened by the noise rushed out at another door they followed him out and overtaking him beat him to death with garden hoes they carried him back and threw him in the doorway they next ransacked the house securing 74 and then to cover up their hideous crime they applied the torch the house and contents were completely burned the murderers were arrested in a saloon ai Jellico last night and the officers started with them to huntsville the county seat of scott county it is reported here tonight to night that they were taken from jail this morning and lynched the rumor is not confirmed there aro twenty five more holidays in mexico than there are dayt in the year |