y strange scenes.
There the houses were toppled over one after another in a row, and left
where they lay. One of them was turned completely over and stands with
its roof on the foundations of another house and its base in the air.
The owner came back, and getting into his house through the windows
walked about on his ceiling. Out of this house a woman and her two
children escaped safely and were but little hurt, although they were
stood on their heads in the whirl. Every house has its own story. From
one a woman shut up in her garret escaped by chopping a hole in the
roof. From another a Hungarian named Grevins leaped to the shore as it
went whirling past and fell twenty-five feet upon a pile of metal and
escaped with a broken leg. Another is said to have come all the way from
very near the start of the flood and to have circled around with the
back water and finally landed on the flats at the city site, where it is
still pointed out.

CHAPTER XI.

New Tales of Horror.

The accounts contained in the foregoing chapters bring this appalling
story of death down to June 4th. We continue the narrative as given from
day to day by eye-witnesses, as this is the only method by which a full
and accurate description of Johnstown's unspeakable horror can be
obtained.

On the morning of June 5th one of the leading journals contained the
following announcements, printed in large type, and preceding its vivid
account of the terrible situation at Johnstown.

Death, ruin, plague! Threatened outbreak of disease in the fate stricken
valley. Awful effluvia from corpses! Swift and decisive means must be
taken to clear away the masses of putrefying matter that underlie the
wreck of what was once a town. Proposed use of explosives. Crowds of
refugees are already attacked by pneumonia and the germs of typhus
pervade both air and water. Victims yet unnumbered. Dreadful discoveries
hourly made! Heaps of the drowned, the mangled and the burned are found
in pockets between rocks and under packed accumulations of sand!
Pennsylvania regiments ordered to the scene to keep ward over an
afflicted and heartbroken people. Blame where it belongs. The ears of
the inhabitants were dulled to fear by warnings many times
repeated--forty-two years ago the dam broke--vivid stories of witnesses
of the great tragedy--the owners of the lake must bear a gigantic burden
of remorse--sufferings of survivors!

These were the terrible headings in a single