nce is felt in moving trains.

Criminal Negligence.

It was stated at the office of the Pennsylvania Railroad early this
morning that the deaths would run up into the thousands rather than
hundreds, as was at first supposed. Despatches received state that the
stream of human beings that was swept before the floods was pitiful to
behold. Men, women and children were carried along frantically shrieking
for help. Rescue was impossible.

Husbands were swept past their wives, and children were borne along at
a terrible speed to certain death before the eyes of their terrorized
and frantic parents. It was said at the depot that it was impossible to
estimate the number whose lives were lost in the flood. It will simply
be a matter of conjecture for several days as to who was lost and who
escaped.

The people of Johnstown were warned of the possibility of the bursting
of the dam during the morning, but very few if any of the inhabitants
took the warning seriously. Shortly after noon it gave way about five
miles above Johnstown, and sweeping everything before it burst upon the
town with terrible force.

Everything was carried before it, and not an instant's time was given to
seek safety. Houses were demolished, swept from their foundations and
carried in the flood to a culvert near the town. Here a mass of all
manner of debris soon lodged, and by evening it had dammed the water
back into the city over the tops of many of the still remaining
chimneys.

The Dam Always a Menace.

Assistant Superintendent Trump, of the Pennsylvania, is at Conemaugh,
but the officials at the depot had not been able to receive a line from
him until as late as half-past two o'clock this morning. It was said
also that it will be impossible to get a train through either one way or
the other for at least two or three days. This applies also to the
mails, as there is absolutely no way of getting mails through.

"We were afraid of that lake," said a gentleman who had lived in
Johnstown for years, "we were afraid of that lake seven years ago. No
one could see the immense height to which that artificial dam had been
built without fearing the tremendous power of the water behind it. I
doubt if there was a man or woman in Johnstown who at some time or other
had not feared and spoken of the terrible disaster that has now come.

"People wondered and asked why the dam was not strengthened, as it
certainly had become weak, but nothing was done, and b