| CHAPTER I. |
| The Conemaugh Valley in Springtime—Johnstown and its Suburbs—Founded a Hundred Years ago—The Cambria Iron Works—History of a Famous Industry—American Manufacturing Enterprise Exemplified—Making Bessemer Steel—Social and Educational Features—The Busiest City of its Size in the State, | 15 |
| CHAPTER II. |
| Conemaugh Lake—Remains of an Old-time Canal System—Used for the Pleasure of Sportsmen—The Hunting and Fishing Club—Popular Distrust Growing into Indifference—The Old Cry of “Wolf!”—Building a Dam of Straw and Mud—Neglect Ripening into Fitness for a Catastrophe, | 31 |
| CHAPTER III. |
| Dawning of the Fatal Day—Darkness and Rain—Rumors of Evil—The Warning Voice Unheeded—A Whirlwind of Watery Death—Fate of a Faithful Telegrapher—What an Eye-Witness Saw—A Solid Wall of Water Rushing Down the Valley, | 42 |
| CHAPTER IV. |
| The Pathway of the Torrent—Human Beings Swept away like Chaff—The Twilight of Terror—The Wreck of East Conemaugh—Annihilation of Woodvale—Locomotives Tossed about like Cockle-shells by the mighty Maelstrom, | 51 |
| CHAPTER V. |
| “Johnstown is Annihilated”—Appearance of the Wreck—An Awful Sabbath Spectacle—A Sea of Mud and Corpses—The City in a Gigantic Whirlpool—Strange Tokens of the Fury of the Flood—Scene from the Bridge—Sixty Acres of DÉbris—A Carnival of Slaughter, | 66 |
| CHAPTER VI. |
| Pictures of the Flood Drawn by Eye-witnesses—A Score of Locomotives Swallowed up—Railroad Cars Swept away—Engineers who would not Abandon their Posts—Awful Scenes from a Car Window—A Race for Life—Victims of the Flood, | 81 |
| CHAPTER VII. |
| Some Heroes of the Flood—The Ride of Collins Graves at Williamsburg Recalled—John G. Parke’s Heroic Warning—Gallant Self-Sacrifice of Daniel Peyton—Mrs. Ogle, the Intrepid Telegraph Operator—Wholesale Life Saving by Miss Nina Speck, | 97 |
| CHAPTER VIII. |
| Stories of Suffering—A Family Swept away at a Stroke—Beside a Sister’s Corpse—A Bride Driven Mad—The Unidentified Dead—Courage in the Face of Death—Thanking God his Child had not Suffered—One Saved out of a Household of Thirteen—Five Saved out of Fifty-Five, | 106 |
| CHAPTER IX. |
| Stories of Railroad Men and Travelers who were in the Midst of the Catastrophe—A Train’s Race with the Wave—Houses Crushed like Eggshells—Relics of the Dead in the Tree tops—A Night of Horrors—Fire and Flood Commingled—Lives Lost for the Sake of a Pair of Shoes, | 119 |
| CHAPTER X. |
| Scenes in a House of Refuge—Stealing from the Dead—A Thousand Bodies seen Passing over the Bridge—“Kill us or Rescue us!”—Thrilling Escapes and Agonizing Losses—Children Born amid the Flood—A Night in Alma Hall—Saved through Fear, | 137 |
| CHAPTER XI. |
| The Flight to the Mountains—Saving a Mother and her Babe—The Hillsides Black with Refugees—An Engineer’s Story—How the Dam gave away—Great Trees Snapped off like Pipe-stems by the Torrent, | 147 |
| CHAPTER XII. |
| A Desperate Voyage—Scenes like those after a Great Battle—Mother and Babe Dead together—Praying as they Drifted to Destruction—Children Telling the Story of Death—Significant Greetings between Friends—Prepared for any News, | 154 |
| CHAPTER XIII. |
| Salutations in the City of the Dead—Crowds at the Morgues—Endless Trains of Wagons with Ghastly Freight—Registering the Survivors—Minds Unsettled by the Tragedy—Horrible Fragments of Humanity Scattered through Piles of Rubbish, | 161 |
| CHAPTER XIV. |
| Recognizing the Dead—Food and Clothing for Destitute Survivors—Looking for the Lost—The Bereaved Burying their Dead—Drowned Close by a Place of Safety—A Heroic Editor—One who would not be Comforted, | 171 |
| CHAPTER XV. |
| A Bird’seye View of the Ruined City—Conspicuous Features of the Disaster—The Railroad LinesR
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