lity to
comprehend their misfortune and the absence of sympathetic expressions
among them. It is not because they are naturally stolid, but the whole
thing is so vast and bears upon them so heavily they cannot grasp it.

People in California know much more about the disaster than any resident
of Johnstown knows; more information about it can be gotten from
towns-people forty miles away than from those who saw it. The people
here are not at all lacking in sympathy or kindliness of heart, but what
words of sympathy would have any meaning in such a tremendous
catastrophe? Every person of Johnstown has lost a relative or a friend,
and so has every other resident he meets. They seem to see instinctively
that condolence would be meaningless.

Famine Happily Averted.

On the west side of the lower town one or two little streets are left
from the flood. They are crowded all the time with the survivors. As I
have gone among them I have heard nothing but such conversations as
this, which is literally reproduced:--

"Hello, Will! Where's Jim?"

"He's lost."

"Is that so! Goodby."

Another was:--

"Good morning, Mr. Holden; did you save Mrs. Holden?"

"No; she went with the house. You lost your two boys, didn't you?"

"Yes. Good morning."

Two women met on the narrow rope bridge which spans the creek. As they
passed one said:--

"How about Aunt Mary?"

"Oh, she's lost; so is Cousin Hattie."

It gives an outside listener a strange sensation to hear people talk
thus with about as little emotion as they would talk about the weather.
But the people of Johnstown had so much to do with death that they think
about nothing else. I will undertake to say that half the people have
not the slightest idea what day of the week or month this is.

A Rope Bridge of Sighs.

To get from one part of the town to another it is necessary to cross the
river or creek which is now flowing over the sites of business blocks.
Of course every vestige of a bridge was swept far away, and to take
their places two ropes have been hung from high timbers built upon the
sandy island that was the city's site. On these ropes narrow boards are
tied. The whole structure is not more than four feet wide, and it hangs
trembling over the water in a way that makes nervous people shudder.
Over this frail thing hundreds of people crowd every hour, and why there
has not been another disaster is something no one can understand.

The river is rising stead