Morning Appeal

A NAMELESS PAUL REVERE,
His Life Pays the Forfeit of His Grand Heroism,
Johnstown, June 3.-The first man from the dam at the south fork just arrived. The dam burst open in the center in a broad break.
A nameless Paul Revere lies somewhere among the unknown dead. Who he is may never be known, but his ride will be famous in local history. Mounted on a grand, big bay horse, he came riding down the pike which passes through Conemaugh to Johnstown, like some angel of wrath of old, shouting his portentous warning:
"Run for your lives to the hills! Run to the hills!" The people crowded out of their houses along the thickly settled streets, awe-stricken and wondering. Nobody knew, and some thought he was maniac and laughed. On at a deadly pace rode this man, still ringing out his awful cry. In a few moments, however, there came a cloud of ruin down the broad streets, down the narrow alleys, grinding, twisting, hurling, overturning, crashing, annihilating weak and strong alike. It was a charge of the flood, wearing its coronet of ruin and devastation, which grew at every instant of its progress. Forty feet high, some say--thirty, according to others--was this sea, and it traveled with a swiftness like that which lay in the heels of Mercury. On and on raced the rider, and on and on rushed the wave. Dozens of people took heed of the warning and ran up the hills. Poor, faithful rider; it was an unequal contest! Just as he turned across the railroad bridge a mighty wave fell upon him, and horse, rider and bridge all went into the chaos together.
ORIGIN OF THE ACCIDENT
Nearly Billion Gallons Flow Out in An Hour
Johnstown, June 3.-At 11:20 this morning four gentlemen, relatives of members of the South Fork Fishing Club, who had come to learn the fate of their friends at the lake, returned. They report no one at the lake except the custodians and some workmen. The dam broke in the center at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon. At 4 the lake was dry, that great body of water having passed out in an hour.
An effort was made to avert the disaster by digging a sluiceway on the dam, but without avail. The water passed over the dam about one foot above its top, beginning at 2:30. Whatever happened in the way--a cloudburst took place during the night. There had been but little rain up to dark, and by the morning, when the workmen woke, the lake was full and kept on rising, until at 2 o'clock it began pouring over the dam and undermining it. Men were sent three or four times during the day to warn the people below. When the final break came it was like tremendous continued peals of thunder. Trees, rocks and earth shot into mid air in great columns, and then the wave started down the ravine. The whole South Fork was swept, with not a tree standing.