coffin had a descriptive card on it, and on the graves a similar
card was placed, so that bodies can be removed later by friends.

There are about thirty Catholic priests and nuns here. The sisters are
devoting themselves to the cure of the sick and injured in the
hospitals, while the priests are doing anything and everything and
making themselves generally useful. Bishop Phelan, who reached here on
Sunday evening, returned to Pittsburgh on the three o'clock train
yesterday afternoon. He has organized the Catholic forces in this
neighborhood, and all are devoting themselves to hard work assiduously.

Mr. Derlin, who heeded the warning as to the danger of the dam, had
hurried his wife and two children to the hills, but returned himself to
save some things from his house. While in the building the flood struck
it and swept it away, jamming it among a lot of other houses and hurling
them all around with a regular churning motion. Mr. Derlin was in a fix,
but went to his top story, clambered to the roof and escaped from there
to solid structures and then to the ground. His property was entirely
ruined, but he thinks himself fortunate in saving his family.

Where Woodvale once stood there is now a sea of mud, broken but rarely
by a pile of wreckage. I waded through mud and water up the valley
to-day over the site of the former village. As has been often stated,
nothing is standing but the old woollen mills. The place is swept bare
of all other buildings but the ruins of the Gautier wire mill. The
boilers of this great works were carried one hundred yards from their
foundations. Pieces of engines, rolls and other machinery were swept far
away from where they once stood. The wreck of a hose carriage is
sticking up out of the mud. It belonged to the crack company of
Johnstown. The engine house is swept away and the cellar is filled with
mud, so that the site is obliterated.

A German watchman was on guard at the mill when the waters came. He ran
for the hillside and succeeded in escaping. He tells a graphic story of
the appearance of the water as it swept down the valley. He declares
that the first wave was as high as the third story of a house.

The place is deserted. No effort is being made to clean off the streets.
The mire has formed the grave for many a poor victim. Arms and legs are
protruding from the mud and it makes the most sickening of pictures.

General Hastings' Report.

In answer to questions from Governor