enty-three miles long, practically ends at
Nineveh. It begins at Woodvale, where the dam broke, and for the entire
distance to this point the mountains make a canyon--a water trap, from
which escape was impossible. The first intimation this city had of the
impending destruction was at noon on Friday, when Station Agent
Nunamaker got this despatch:--

"We just received word from South Fork that water is coming over dam at
Conemaugh Lake, and is liable to burst at any moment. Notify people to
look out."

"J.C. WAUKEMSHAW,
Despatcher at Conemaugh."

Nunamaker started on a dead run to the water front, along which most of
the houses are situated, crying:--

"The dam is breaking. Run for your lives!"

Every spring, the station agent tells me, there have been a score of
such alarms, and when the people heard Nunamaker they laughed and called
him an old fogy for his pains. They had run too often to the mountains
to escape some imaginary flood to be scared by anything less than the
actual din of the torrent in their ears. Two hours and a half later a
despatch came saying that the dam had indeed broken.

Again the station agent went on a trot to the residential part of the
town. That same despatch had gone thundering down the whole valley.
Johnstown heard the news and so did Conemaugh. No one believed it. It
was what they called "a chestnut." But the cry had put the people a
little on the alert. One hour after the despatch came the first warning
note of the disaster. Mr. Nunamaker tells me that it took really more
than that time for the head of the leaping cataract to travel the
twenty-three miles. If that is so the people of Johnstown must have had
half an hour's warning at least, for Johnstown is half way between here
and the fatal dam.

Awful Scenes.

Nineveh is very flat on the river side where the people live, though,
fortunately, the main force of the current was not directed on this side
of the stream. In a second the river rose two feet at a jump. It then
reared up like a thing of life, then it steadily rose inches at a time,
flooding the whole town. But the people had had warning and saved
themselves. Pitiful cries were heard soon from the river. People were
floating down on barrels, roofs, beds, anything that was handy. There
were pitiful shrieks from despairing women. The people of Nineveh could
do nothing. No boat could have stemmed the cataract. During the night
there were shrieks heard from the flooded