--to allow him to burn up the wrecked houses wholesale without
the tedious bother of pulling them down and handling the debris. The
timorous committees would not countenance such an idea. Nothing but
piecemeal tearing down of the wrecked houses tossed together by the
mighty force of the water and destruction by never-dying bonfires would
satisfy them. Yet all of them must come down. Most of the buildings
reached by the flood have been examined, found unsafe and condemned. Can
the job be done safely and successfully wholesale or not? That is the
real question for the powers that be to answer, and no sentiment should
enter into it.

Four thousand workmen are busy to-day with ropes and axe, pick and
shovel. But the task is vast, it is herculean, like unto the cleaning of
the Augean stables.

"To clean up this town properly," said General Hastings to-day, "we
shall need twenty thousand workmen for three months."

The force of the swollen river upturned the town in a half hour. These
same timorous managers weakened to-day, after having the facts before
their eyes brought home to their understanding by constant iteration.
They have found out that they have, vulgarly speaking, bitten off more
than they can chew. Poisons of the foulest kind pollute the water which
flows down the turgid Conemaugh into the Allegheny River, whence is
Pittsburgh's water-supply, and thence into the Ohio, the water-supply of
many cities and towns. Fears of a pestilence are not to be pooh-poohed
into the background. It is very serious, so long as the river flows
through the clogged and matted mass of the bridge so long it will
threaten the people along its course with pestilence. The committee
confess their inability to do this needed work, and to-day voted to ask
the Governors of the several States to co-operate in the establishment
of a national relief committee to grapple with the situation. Action
cannot and must not be delayed.

Hope Out of Despair.

The fears of an outbreak of fever or other zymotic diseases appear to be
based on the alleged presence of decomposed animal matter, human and of
lower type, concealed amid the debris. The alleged odor of burnt flesh
coming from the enormous mass of conglomerated timber and iron lodged in
the cul-de-sac formed by the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge is extremely
mythical. There is an unmistakable scent of burnt wood. It would not be
strange if the carcasses of domestic animals, which must be hidden