History of the Johnstown Flood / Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

“I’m glad to see you,” exclaimed the first. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m doing first rate,” was the reply.

The first friend looked awkwardly about a moment, and then asked with suppressed eagerness:

“And—and your family—are they all—well?”

There was a world of significance in the hesitation before the last word.

“Yes. Thank God! not one of them went down.”

A man who looked like a prosperous banker, and who had evidently come from a distance drove through the mountains toward South Fork. On the way he met a handsome young man in a silk hat, mounted on a mule. The two shook hands eagerly.

“Have you anything?”

“Nothing. What have you?”

“Nothing.”