that followed exceeded in awfulness anything I
had before looked upon. The flames grew, hundreds of people were wedged
in the driftwood and imprisoned in the houses. Rapidly the fire
approached them, and then they began to cry for aid, and hundreds of
others stood on the bank, powerless to extend a single comfort.

Judgment Day.

"As the fire licked up house after house and pile after pile, I could
see men and women bid each other good-by, and fathers and mothers kiss
their children. The flames swallowed them up and hid them from my view,
but I could hear their shrieks as they roasted alive. The shrieks
mellowed into groans, and the groans into silence, only to be followed
by more shrieks, more groans and more silence, as the fire caught up and
destroyed its victims. Heavens! but I was glad when the end came. My
only anxiety was to have it come quickly, and I prayed that it might
come, oh! so quick! It was a splendid realization of the judgment day.
It was a magnificent realization of the impotency of man in a battle
with such a combination of fire and flood."

Some Have Cause for Joy.

In the midst of the confusion of the disaster and the strain of
excitement which followed it was but natural that every one who could
not readily be found was reported dead. Amid the throng of mourners now
an occasional soul is made happy by finding that some loved one has
escaped death. To-day a few of the living had time to notify their
friends throughout the country of their safety.

General Lew Wallace, now at West Point, telegraphed President Harrison,
in response to an inquiry last night, that his wife was "coming out of
the great calamity at Johnstown safe." Several reports have been sent
out from Johnstown, one as late as last night, to the effect that Mrs.
Wallace was believed to be among the victims of the disaster. Private
Secretary Halford received a telegram this afternoon from his wife at
Altoona, announcing that Mrs. Lew Wallace was with her and safe.

Did Not Lose Their Presence of Mind.

A dispatch from Carthage, Ill., says:--"Mrs. M.J. Smith, a traveling
saleslady for a book concern in New York city, was at Johnstown at the
time of the flood and was swept away with others. Her brothers,
Lieutenant P. and James McKee, received the following telegram at
Carthage yesterday from Johnstown:

"Escaped with my life on housetop; am all right.

"M.J. SMITH.

"The lady is well known in this county."

Rich M