The Johnstown Flood.

The Johnstown Flood.
538.3

On a balmy day in May, when nature held full sway
And the hirds sang sweetly in the sky above.
A lovely city lay, serene in a valley deep in green.
Where thousands dwelt in happiness and love.
Ah, but soon the scene changed, for just like a thing deranged.
A storm came crashing through the quiet town;
The wind it raved and shrieked, thunder rolled and lightning streaked,
And the rain it poured in awful torrents down.

Refrain-
Then the cry of distress rings from East to West,
And our whole dear country now is plunged in woe.
For the thousands burned and drowned in the city of Johnstown.
All were lost in that great overflow.

Like the Paul Revere of old comes a rider brave and bold.
On a big bay horse he’s flying like a deer.
And he is shouting warnings shrill. “Quickly ny off to the hille.”
But the people smile and show no signs of fear.
Ah, but ere they turned away, the brave rider his bay,
And the inany thousand souls he tried to save:
For they had no time to spare or to offer up & prayer,
They were hurled at once into a watery grave.

Refrain.
“Twas a scene no tongue can tell, homes strewn about pell mell:
Infants torn away from loving mother’s arms
And strong men battling for their lives, husbandsstruggling for their wives,
And no one left protecting them from harm.
Fathers, mothers, children, all, both the young. old, great, and amall,
Were thrown about like chaff before the wind;
When that fearful raging flood, rushing where the
city stood, Leaving thousands dead and dying there behind.

Refrain.
Soon the houses piled on high, reaching far up to the sky,
And containing dead and living human freight:
Loud shrieks and groans soon rent the air from thewounded lying there.
With no chance to help avert their dreadful fate.
But a fearful cry aruse like the screams of bat- tling foes,
For that dreadful, sick’ning pile was now on fire.
While they poured out prayers to heaven they were burned as in an oven.
And that burning heap had formed their funeral pyre.
Refrain.