It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
chairs, and all needful housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal
of food.

This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
longer looked in vain for accommodations.

The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
poorer and more hardy people; and it did not require any great
foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
consideration, it was put in the way of realization.

On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate of each head
of a family were laid the keys to an apartment