Millions of Money for Johnstown.
Never before in our country has there been such a magnificent exhibition
of public sympathy and practical charity. As the occasion was the most
urgent ever known, so the response has been the greatest. All classes
have come to the rescue with a generosity, a thoughtfulness and
heartfelt pity sufficient to convince the most stubborn misanthrope that
religion is not dead and charity has not, like the fabled gods of
Greece, forsaken the earth.
The following lines, cut from one of our popular journals, aptly
represents the public feeling, and the warm sympathy that moved every
heart:
I.
I stood with a mournful throng
On the brink of a gloomy grave,
In a valley where grief had found relief
On the breast of an angry wave!
I heard a tearful song
That told of an orphan's love--
'Twas a song of woe from the valley below,
To the Father of Heaven above!
II.
'Twas the wail of two lonely waifs--
Two children who prayed for bread!
'Twas a pitiful cry--a mournful sigh--
From the home of the silent dead!
'Twas a sad and soulful strain;
It made the teardrops start;
'Twas an echo of pain--a weird refrain--
And a song that touched my heart.
III.
Poor, fatherless, motherless waifs,
Come, dry your tearful eyes!
Not in vain, not in vain, have ye sung your refrain;
It's echo has pierced the skies!
The angels are watching you there,
For your "home" is now above,
And your Father is He who forever shall be
A Father of infinite love!
IV.
Blest be the noble throng,
With generous impulse stirred,
Who are bringing relief to the Valley of Grief,
Where the orphan's song was heard!
Peace to them while they live,
Peace when their souls depart,
For a friend in need is a friend indeed
And a friend that reaches my heart!
Among the first to start a fund for the sufferers was the New York
_Herald_. The following is a specimen of the announcement made by that
journal from day to day:
Great interest is being taken in the _Herald_ fund for the Johnstown
sufferers. In the city, employees of all sorts of business houses, and
of railroad, steamboat and other companies, are striving to see who can
collect the most money.
In the country, ministers, little girls, school children and busy
workers are all collecting for the fund. It is being boomed by rich and
poor, far and near.
With the checks for hundreds of dollars yesterday came this note,
enclosing a dime:
"NEW YORK, June 8, 1889.
"MR. EDITOR:
"I am a little orphan girl. I saved ten cents, it is all I have, but I
should like to send it to the sufferers of the flood.
"ANNIE ABEL."
Another letter written in a lady's hand read this way:
"BROOKYN.
"DEAR HERALD:--
"Enclosed please find $1.17 left by little Hame Buckler in his purse
when he died last September. Also twenty-five cents from Albert Buckler
and twenty-five cents from Paul D. Buckler. Hoping their mites will help
to feed or clothe some little ones, I am, with sympathy for the
sufferers,
"S.A.B."
Felix Simonson, a twelve-year-old schoolboy, took it into his head on
Friday to go among his friends and get help for the sufferers. Here is
what he wrote on the top of his subscription paper:
"I am very sorry for the poor people who have lost everything by the
flood, and I am trying to collect some money to send to them. Would you
like to give something to help them?"
How Felix succeded is shown by a collection of $30.15 the first day.
A large amount of clothing for men, women and children is being sent to
the _Herald_ office, as well as liberal contributions of money.
The same story was, in effect, repeated from day to day. It only
indicated what was going on throughout the country; in fact, throughout
the world. London, Paris, and other European towns, were only a few
hours behind our American cities in starting funds for relief. The
enthusiasm with which these responses were made is indicated by the
following from one of the New York dailies:
Charity Running Rampant.
Everybody's business seems to be raising funds for Pennsylvania. The
Mayor's office has been transformed into a counting room. More than a
dozen clerks are employed in acknowledging the receipt of money for the
Pennsylvania sufferers. A large number, many of them of the poorer
class, bring their own contributions. Up to noon $145,257.18 had been
subscribed. This does not include sums subscribed but not paid in. All
the city departments are expected to respond nobly.
The Executive Committee of the Conemaugh Valley Relief Association met
in the Governor's room at the City Hall yesterday, with General W.T.
Sherman in the chair. Treasurer J. Edward Simmons announced that the
fund in the Fourth National Bank amounted to $145,000 and that Governor
Beaver's draft for $50,000 had been honored. John T. Crimmins reported
that more than $70,000 had been received at the Mayor's office during
the morning. He also reported that the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum had
offered, through the Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, to take twenty-five of
Johnstown's orphans, between the ages of five and twelve, and care for
them until they were sixteen and then provide them with homes. H.C.
Miner reported that many packages of clothing had been sent to Johnstown
and that the theatrical guild was arranging for benefit performances.
Under date of Paris, June 5th, the following despatch conveyed
intelligence of the gratifying response of Americans in that city:
Duty Nobly Done.
A meeting of Americans was held to-day at the United States Legation on
a call in the morning papers by Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the United States
Minister, to express the sympathy of the Americans in Paris with the
sufferers by the Johnstown calamity. In spite of the short notice the
rooms of the Legation were densely packed, and many went away unable to
gain admittance. Mr. Reid was called to the chair and Mr. Ernest Lambert
was appointed secretary. The following resolutions were offered by Mr.
Andrew Carnegie and seconded by Mr. James N. Otis:
A Sympathetic Message.
"Resolved, That we send across the Atlantic to our brethren overwhelmed
by the appalling disaster at Johnstown our most profound and heartfelt
sympathy. Over their lost ones we mourn with them, and in every pang of
all their misery we have our part.
"Resolved, That as American citizens we congratulate them upon and thank
them for the numerous acts of noble heroism displayed under
circumstances calculated to unnerve the bravest. Especially do we honor
and admire them for the capacity shown for local self-government upon
which the stability of republican institutions depends, the military
organizations sent from distant points to preserve order during the
chaos that supervened having been returned to their homes as no longer
required within forty-eight hours of the calamity. In these few hours
the civil power recreated and asserted itself and resumed sway without
the aid of counsel from distant authorities, but solely by and from the
inherent power which remains in the people of Johnstown themselves."
Brief and touching speeches were made by General Layton, late United
States Minister to Austria; Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, General Meredith Read
and others.
A Flow of Dollars.
The resolutions were then unanimously adopted and a committee was
appointed to receive subscriptions. About 40,000f. were subscribed on
the spot. The American bankers all agreed to open subscriptions the next
day at their banking houses. "Buffalo Bill" subscribed the entire
receipts of one entertainment to be given under the auspices of the
committee.
As a sequel to the foregoing the following will be of interest to the
reader:
NEW YORK, June 17.--John Monroe & Co. have received cable instructions
from United States Minister Reid, at Paris, to pay Messrs. Drexel & Co.,
of Philadelphia, an additional sum of $2,266, received from the
Treasurer of the Paris Johnstown Relief Committee. Of this sum $1066 are
the proceeds of a special performance by the Wild West show, and with
the previous contribution from Paris makes a total of $14,166.
The pathetic story of sympathy and generous aid from every town and
hamlet in the land can never be told; there is too much of it.
Philadelphia alone contributed over a million dollars, and New York
showed equal generosity. In Philadelphia it was not uncommon to see
glass jars in front of stores and at other places to receive
contributions from passers-by. In one of these an unknown man deposited
$500 one day; this is indicative of the feeling pervading the whole
community that stricken Johnstown must not suffer for houses, clothing,
nor bread.
[Illustration: CONTRIBUTING TO THE RELIEF FUND IN PHILADELPHIA.]
So rapidly did gifts pour in that within eight days after the disaster
the following statement was made from Harrisburg:
The Governor's fund for the relief of the survivors of the flood in the
Conemaugh Valley and other portions of the State is assuming large
proportions and the disposition to contribute appears to be on the
increase. To-day letters and telegrams were received requesting the
Governor to draw for $68,000 additional, swelling the aggregate sum at
his disposal to about $3,000,000. Many of the remittances are
accompanied with statements that more may be expected. Governor Beaver
telegraphed as follows from Johnstown:
"The situation is simply indescribable. The people have turned in with
courage and heroism unparalleled. A decided impression has been made on
the debris. The next week will do more, as they have many points opened
for work. Everything is very quiet. People are returning to work again
and gaining courage and hope as they return. There need be no fear of
too much being contributed for the relief of the people. There is a
long, steady pull ahead requiring every effort and determination on the
part of the people here, which is already assured, and the continued
systematic support and benefactions of this generous people."
Feeding the Hungry.
Three car loads of tents, enough to accommodate four thousand people,
were sent to Johnstown to-day from the State arsenal at the request of
General Hastings.
The following special dispatch bears date of June 5th:
Car loads of provisions and clothing are arriving hourly and being
distributed. The cynic who said that charity and gratitude were articles
seldom to be met with in Republics and among corporations would have had
ample reason afforded him to-day to alter his warped philosophy several
degrees had he been in this erstwhile town and seen train after train
hourly rolling in, on both the Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsylvania
railroads, laden with clothing and provisions from every point of the
compass. Each train bore messengers sent especially to distribute funds
and provisions and clothing, volunteer physicians in large numbers,
trained nurses and a corps of surgeons equipped with all needed
instruments and medicines. Fortunately the latter are not needed.
Philadelphia's quota consists of clothes, boots, shoes, cotton sheeting,
hard breads, salt fish, canned goods, etc., all of which will be
gratefully received and supply the most pressing needs of the stricken
people.
Relief Systematized.
The relief work has been so systematized that there is no danger of any
confusion. At the several distributing depots hundreds assemble morning,
noon and night, and, forming in line, are supplied with provisions. Men
and women with families are given bread, butter, cheese, ham and canned
meats, tea or coffee and sugar, and unmarried applicants sliced bread
and butter or sandwiches.
The 900 army tents brought on by Adjutant-General Axline, of Ohio, have
been divided, and two white-walled villages now afford shelter to
nearly six thousand homeless people.
At the Main Commissary.
At the Johnstown station, on the east side of the river, everything is
quiet, and considerable work is being done. This is the chief commissary
station, and this morning by two o'clock 15,000 people were fed and
about six hundred families were furnished with provisions. Five carloads
of clothing were distributed, and now almost every one is provided with
clothing.
The good work done by the relief committees in caring for the destitute
can never be fully told. It was ready, generous and very successful.
The scenes at the distributing points through the week have been most
interesting. Monday and Tuesday saw lines of men, women and children in
the scantiest of clothing, blue with cold, unwashed and dishevelled, so
pitifully destitute a company as one would wish to see. Since the
clothing cars have come the people have assumed a more presentable
appearance and food has brought life back to them and warmth, but their
condition is still pitiful. The destitute ones are almost altogether
from the well-to-do people of Johnstown, who have lost all and are as
poor as the poorest.
Altoona to the Rescue.
Altoona has been so hemmed in by floods and the like, and her
representatives have been so busy, that they had but little to say of
the prompt action and excellent work done by open-handed citizens of
that beautiful interior Pennsylvania city. Altoona first became alarmed
by the non-arrival and reported loss of the day express east on the
Pennsylvania Railroad Friday afternoon. Soon the station was thronged
with an anxious crowd, and the excitement became intense as the scant
news came slowly in. Saturday the anxiety was relieved by a telegram
from Ebensburg, which a blundering telegraph operator made "three
hundred lost," instead of "three thousand." That was soon corrected by
later news, and the citizens immediately were called upon to meet for
action. The Mayor presided, and at once $2,600 was subscribed and
provisions offered. By three o'clock that afternoon a car had been
loaded and started for Ebensburg, thirty-two miles away in charge of a
committee. At Ebensburg that evening ten teams were secured after much
trouble and the supplies sent overland seventeen miles to the desolated
valley. The night was an awful one for the committee in charge. The
roads were badly washed and all but impassible. The hours dragged on. At
last, Sunday morning, the wagons drove into desolate Conemaugh. There
were no cheers to greet them, no cries of pleasure. The wretched
sufferers were too wretched, too dazed for that. They simply crowded
around the wagons, pitifully begging for bread or anything to eat.
The committee report: "Impostors have not bothered us much, and,
singular enough, the ones that have were chiefly women, though to-day
we sent away a man who we thought came too frequently. On questioning he
owned up to having fifteen sacks of flour and five hams in his house. On
Tuesday we began to keep a record of those who received supplies, and we
have given out supplies to fully 550 families, representing 2,500
homeless people. Our district is only for one side of the river. On the
other is a commissary on Adams street, near the Baltimore and Ohio
Railway station, another at Kernville, a third at Cambria City, a fourth
at Morrellville and a fifth at Cambria. The people are very patient,
though, of course, in their present condition they are apt to be
querelous.
Wanted A Better Dress.
"One woman who came for a dress indignantly refused the one I offered
her. 'I don't want that,' she said. 'I lost one that cost me $20, $15
for the cloth and $5 for making, and I want a $20 dress. You said you
would make our losses good;' and she did not take the dress.
"A clergyman came to me and begged for anything in the shape of foot
covering. I had nothing to give him. Men stand about ready to work, but
barefooted. The clothing since the first day or two, when we got only
worn stuff, fit only for bandages, has been good, and is now of
excellent quality. Most of the children's garments are outgrown clothes,
good for much service. Pittsburgh has sent from thirty to forty car
loads of supplies, all of good quality and available, and in charge of
local commissary men who had sense enough to go home when they turned
over their supplies and did not stay and eat up the provisions they
brought.
Ohio's Timely Work.
"But above all, I want to praise the supplies sent by the Ohio people in
Cleveland and Columbus. These cities forwarded eight cars each. These
were stocked with beautiful stuff, wisely chosen, and were in charge of
Adjutant General Axline, sent by Governor Foraker, who worked like a
wise man."
Grave Mental Conditions.
The mental condition of almost every former resident of Johnstown is one
of the gravest character, and the reaction which will set in when the
reality of the whole affair is fully comprehended can scarcely fail to
produce many cases of permanent or temporary insanity. Most of the faces
that one meets, both male and female, are those of the most profound
melancholia, associated with an almost absolute disregard of the future.
The nervous system shows the strain it has borne by a tremulousness of
the hand and of the lip in man as well as in woman. This nervous state
is further evidenced by a peculiar intonation of words, the persons
speaking mechanically, while the voices of many rough looking men are
changed into such tremulous notes of so high a pitch as to make one
imagine that a child on the verge of tears is speaking. Crying is so
rare that I saw not a tear on any face in Johnstown, but the women that
are left are haggard, with pinched features and heavy, dark lines under
their eyes. Indeed the evidence of systemic disturbance is so marked in
almost every individual who was present at the time of the catastrophe
that it is possible with the eye alone to separate the residents from
those outside.
Everything required in the way of surgical appliances seem to be on
hand, but medicines are scarce, and will probably be needed more in the
next few days than heretofore.
A fact in favor of the controlling of any malady is to be found in the
very general exodus of the town's people, who crowd the platforms of
departing trains. There can be no doubt that this movement should be
encouraged to the greatest possible extent, and it would be well if
places away from Johnstown, at no too great distance, could be opened
for the reception of those who, while not entirely disabled, are useless
at home. The scarcity of pure spring water which is not tainted by dead
animal matter is a pressing evil for consideration, but we doubt if this
is as important a fact at Johnstown as it is further down the river,
owing to the large amount of decomposing flesh in the water at this
latter point. No disinfectant can reach such a cause of disease save the
action of the large volume of water which dilutes all poisonous
materials.
The Torch for Safety.
There is a strong movement on foot in favor of applying the torch to the
wrecked buildings in Johnstown, and although the suggestion meets with
strong opposition at this time, there is little doubt the ultimate
solution of existing difficulties will be by this method. An army of men
have been for two days employed in clearing up the wreck in the city
proper, and although hundreds of bodies have been discovered, not
one-fifth of the ground has yet been gone over. In many places the
rubbish is piled twenty or thirty feet high, and not infrequently these
great drifts cover an area of nearly an acre. Narrow passages have been
cut through in every direction, but the herculean labor of removing the
rubbish has yet hardly begun.
At a meeting of the Central Relief Committee this afternoon General
Hastings suggested the advisability of drawing a cordon around the few
houses that are not in ruins and applying the torch to the remaining
great sea of waste. He explained briefly the great work yet to be
accomplished if it were hoped to thoroughly overhaul every portion of
the debris, and insisted that it would take 5,000 men to complete the
task. Of the hundreds of bodies buried beneath the rubbish, sand and
stones, the skeleton or putrid remains of many was all that could be
hoped to be recovered.
A motion was made that after forty-eight hours' further search the
debris of the city be consumed by fire, the engines to be on hand to
play upon any valuable building that despite previous precautions, might
become ignited by the general conflagration. This motion was debated pro
and con for nearly half an hour. Those whose relatives or friends still
rest beneath the wreck remonstrated strongly against any such summary
action. They insisted that all the talk of threatened epidemic was only
the sensation gossip of fertile brains and that the search for the
bodies should only be abandoned as a last extremity. The physicians in
attendance warned the committee that the further exposure of putrid
bodies in the valley could have but one result--the typhus or some other
epidemic equally fatal to its victims. It was a question whether the
living should be sacrificed to the dead, or whether the sway of
sentiment or the mandate of science should be the ruling impulse.
Although the proposition to burn the wreck was defeated, it was evident
that the movement was gaining many adherents, and the result will
doubtless be that in a few days the torch will be applied, not only to
the field of waste in Johnstown, but also to the avalanche of debris
that chokes the stream above the Pennsylvania bridge.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Johnstown Horror, by James Herbert Walker