ne was an enormous pile of debris, bricks, iron girders and
timbers almost in front of the office door which swarmed with 200 men
engaged in clearing it away. This is the ruins of the Johnstown Free
Library, presented to the town by the Cambria Iron Company, the late
I.V. Williamson and others, and beneath it Mr. Smith knew many of his
most intimate friends were buried. The other thing he looked at was his
handsome residence partly in ruins, a few hundred yards away. When he
entered the office he found that the men who had been shoveling the mud
out of the office had finished their work and the floor was dark and
sticky. A fire blazed in the open grate. A table was quickly rigged up
and with three clerks to assist him, Mr. Smith prepared to make up the
roster of the Gautier forces.

The Survivor's Advance Corps.

Soon they began to come like the first reformed platoon of an army after
fleeing from disaster. The leader of the platoon was a small boy. His
hat was pulled down over his eyes and he looked as if he were sorely
afraid. After him came half a dozen men with shambling gait. One was an
Irishman, two were English, one was a German and one a colored man. Two
of them carried pickaxes in their hands, which they had been using to
clear away the wreckage across the street.

"Say, mister," stammered the abashed small boy, "is this the place?"

"Are you a Gautier man?" asked Mr. Smith kindly.

"Yes, sir, me and me father, but he's gone."

"Give us your name, my boy, and report at the lower works at 4 o'clock.
Now, my men, we want to get to work and pull each other out of the hole,
this dreadful calamity has put us in. It's no use having vain regrets.
It's all over and we must put a good face to the front. At first it was
intended that we should go up to the former site of the Gautier Mill and
clean up and get out all the steel we could. Mr. Stackhouse now wants us
to get to work and clear the way from the lower mills right up the
valley. We will rebuild the bridge back of the office here and push the
railroad clear up to where it was before."

Not Anxious to Turn In.

The men listened attentively, and then one of them asked: "But, Mr.
Smith, if we don't feel just like turning in to-day we don't have to, do
we?"

"Nobody will have to work at all," was the answer, "but we do want all
the men to lend a hand to help us out as soon as they can."

While Mr. Smith was speaking several other workmen came in. They,