The Christian Literature Society! came forward og that time and prom-town came into view. About Atty barrels of whisky had been washed ashore Just below Johnstown and these who had lost everything. sought solace in drink, One man, a clerk named Woodruff, was reel: Ing along intoxicated, when suddenly with a frantic shout, he threw himself over the bank into the flood and would have been carried t0 death had he not been caught by the persons below. 'Let mo dic,' he exclaimed, when they rescued him, my wife and children are gone; T have no use for my life" He had never drunk before.
Taken from contemporary accounts of the disaster which placed the death roll at 10,000,—afterwards proved to be an exaggeration—this narrative of—Johnstown's misfortunes towards the end of last Jcentury is a tragic background to; the present disaster but it is trem~ jendously brightened by improved conditions which have lessene' the extent, and also by America's wonderful organization of relief which has been demonstrated time Jand time again in meeting emlergencies which a perverse fate in-'Micts on humanity. As the telegrams report, a far greater area is involved by the present flood but the call to rescue and succour is being' ably and nobly met and [President Roosevelt is mobilizing all resources to ald the stricken district which cheplhes such sombre memories.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.