eant death to them. With one accord they rushed to the high lands a few
hundred feet away. Most of them succeeded in reaching that place and
were safe.

[Illustration: AN ENGINEER'S TERRIFIC RACE IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH.]

"I thought of the passengers in my train. The second section of No. 8
had three sleepers. In these three cars were about thirty people, who
rushed through the train crying to the others 'Save yourselves!' Then
came a scene of the wildest confusion. Ladies and children shrieked and
the men seemed terror-stricken. I succeeded in helping some ladies and
children off the train and up to the highlands. Running back, I caught
up two children and ran for my life to a higher place. Thank God, I was
quicker than the flood! I deposited my load in safety on the high land
just as it swept past us.

"For nearly an hour we stood watching the mad flood go rushing by. The
water was full of debris. When the flood caught Conemaugh it dashed
against the little town with a mighty crash. The water did not lift the
houses up and carry them off, but crushed them one against the other and
broke them up like so many egg shells. Before the flood came there was a
pretty little town. When the waters passed on there was nothing but

Few Broken Boards

to mark the central portion of the city. It was swept as clean as a
newly brushed floor. When the flood passed onward down the valley I went
over to my train. It had been moved back about twenty yards, but it was
not damaged. About fifty persons had remained in the train and they were
safe. Of the three trains ours was the luckiest. The engines of both the
others had been swept off the track and one or two cars in each train
had met the same fate.

"What saved our train was the fact that just at the curve which I
mentioned the valley spread out. The valley is six or seven hundred
yards broad where our train was standing. This, of course, let the
floods pass out. It was only twenty feet high when it struck our train,
which was about in the middle of the valley.

"This fact, together with the elevation of the track, was all that saved
us. We stayed that night in the houses in Conemaugh that had not been
destroyed. The next morning I started down the valley and by 4 o'clock
in the afternoon had reached Conemaugh furnace, eight miles west of
Johnstown. Then I got a team and came home.

"In my tramp down the valley I saw some awful sights. On the tree
branches hung shreds of cl