or Johnstown, 489

[Illustration: RECOVERING THE BODIES OF VICTIMS.]

[Illustration: THE BREAK IN THE SOUTH FORKS DAM.]

[Illustration: IN THE PACK-SADDLE, ON THE CONEMAUGH, PENNSYLVANIA
RAILROAD.]

[Illustration: RUINS IN MAIN STREET, JOHNSTOWN.]

[Illustration: A GRAVEL-TRAIN RUNS AWAY FROM THE ADVANCING FLOOD.]

[Illustration: IMMENSE GAP IN THE BROKEN DAM, AS SEEN FROM THE INSIDE.]

[Illustration: FRIGHTFUL STRUGGLES FOR LIFE.]

[Illustration: THE FLOOD STRIKES THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS.]

[Illustration: HOUSES AND HUMAN BEINGS LOST IN THE FLOOD.]

[Illustration: TEARING DOWN HOUSES IN JOHNSTOWN.]

[Illustration: SOLDIERS GUARDING A HUNGARIAN THIEF.]

[Illustration: DISTRIBUTING RELIEF AT THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD
STATION.]

[Illustration: IDENTIFYING THE DEAD.]

[Illustration: RELIEF CORPS CROSSING THE ROPE BRIDGE.]

[Illustration: SEARCHING FOR LOST RELATIVES.]

[Illustration: MAIN STREET, JOHNSTOWN, IN FRONT OF MERCHANT'S HOTEL.]

THE JOHNSTOWN HORROR

or

Valley of Death.

CHAPTER I.

The Appalling News.

On the advent of Summer, June 1st, the country was horror-stricken by
the announcement that a terrible calamity had overtaken the inhabitants
of Johnstown, and the neighboring villages. Instantly the whole land was
stirred by the startling news of this great disaster. Its appalling
magnitude, its dreadful suddenness, its scenes of terror and agony, the
fate of thousands swept to instant death by a flood as frightful as that
of the cataract of Niagara, awakened the profoundest horror. No calamity
in the history of modern times has so appalled the civilized world.

The following graphic pen-picture will give the reader an accurate idea
of the picturesque scene of the disaster:

Away up in the misty crags of the Alleghanies some tiny rills trickle
and gurgle from a cleft in the mossy rocks. The drippling waters, timid
perhaps in the bleak and lonely fastness of the heights, hug and coddle
one another until they flash into a limpid pool. A score of rivulets
from all the mountain side babble hither over rocky beds to join their
companions. Thence in rippling current they purl and tinkle down the
gentle slopes, through bosky nooks sweet with the odors of fir tree and
pine, over meads dappled with the scarlet snap-dragon and purple heath
buds, now pausing for a moment to idle with a wood encircled lake, now
tumbling in opalescent cascade over a mossy