The story of Johnstown : its early settlement, rise ... - JohnstownCafe

I! VOD I -ALE .
IWiniLA TED. '^7
taincd their hold until the swL-lling tide overturned ihc cars. looseniuL;
their :_;'rasp and drowninL, all hut nine of the hapless untortunates. Ani.^iii;
the rescued \\-ere workniv'n. two yoinii; tiirls and a hii\-. Tlirir escajie from the
fate^that o\XTtook their companions was one ol the surprises of a flood marked
h\' niany curious features.
Tlic Gautier Wire .Mills and Steel Works, pint of them in Woodvale and
part in Concmaugh Borough, wxrc .soon licked up. the si.\ or cif^ht immense
departments furnishing a morNul of which the il(.)o.l made speedy work. Tl leir
demolition was complete, not one lirick tarr_\-im,' ahove the stone foundations
Heaps of sand entombed what machinery the ruthless wati-rs did not thrust
from its moorin-s and grind to powtler. Lart^'e rolls of barbed wire entangled
with the rubbish and wound tightly about scores of the four hundred men. women
and children who by this time were fighting for life in the turgid current.
Held in the inllexible gvlp of the wire, fastene.l liy timbers, or sinking from
exhaustion. _\xmng and old met death in forms unutterahh- hi.rrdile. Clinging
to logs or fragments of buildings, some ran foul of obstructiijus ^\llich crushed
titem into distorted, shapeless corpses. C)thers swam or Hoated long distances
only to be pulled under at last. Chililren were wrenched from the arms of
agonized parents, wlio perished in their turn, .\cconling to the closest enume-