y and carrying with it thousands of tons of wreckage of
every description, it plunged down the valley till it reached the
railroad bridge below Johnstown. There, for the first time, it
encountered an obstruction which it could not overcome. The structure
stood as immovable as a solid mountain, and the furious torrent piled up
the debris for a mile in width and many feet in depth. In this mass were
engines, houses, trees, furniture, household utensils, iron in all
forms, while, winding in and out, were hundreds of miles of barbed wire,
which knit the wreckage together. In many of the dwellings people were
imprisoned, and before a step could be taken to relieve them fire broke
out and scores were burned to death.

[Illustration: INDIAN MOTHER AND INFANT.]

How many people lost their lives in the Johnstown flood will never be
known. The remains of bodies were found for months and even years
afterward. The official list, when made up, was 2,280, of which 741
bodies were unidentified; but there is little doubt that the loss was
fully twice the number given. Nothing of the kind has ever before
occurred in the history of our country, and it is to be hoped that such
a disaster will never be repeated.

Again the calamity awoke an instant sympathetic response. Provisions,
tents, and money were sent to the sufferers from all parts of the Union,
and nothing that could relieve them was neglected. Johnstown was soon
rebuilt, and to-day there are no signs of the fearful visitation it
received, only a comparatively short time since. On November 14, 1892,
at the payment of the annuity provided for the orphans of Johnstown, the
sum of $20,325 was distributed.

We came very near to having a war with Chili in the latter part of 1891.
On the 16th of October of that year, some forty men, attached to the
American warship _Baltimore_, lying in the harbor of Valparaiso,
obtained leave to go ashore. Sailors at such times are as frolicksome as
so many boys let out for a vacation, and it cannot be claimed that these
Jackies were models of order and quiet behavior. They were in uniform
and without weapons.

They had been in the city only a short time, when one of them became
involved in a wrangle with a Chilian. His companions went to his
assistance whereupon a native mob quickly gathered and set upon them.
The Chilians detest Americans, and, seeing a chance to vent their
feelings, they did so with vindictive fury. They far outnumbered the
sa