I sent a message to the Levy Collection regarding the song whose lyrics I posted earlier, which now appears with its correct title, GONE DOWN THE RIVER, above. A prompt reply from a librarian clarified the situation for me: the publisher had apparently used nearly identical covers for two different songs; furthermore, someone had misread the publication date of one of them (printed in Roman numerals) as 1939 when it was in fact 1889. No doubt the error will be corrected and the page images will be posted here. In the meantime, I have made the following transcription from a PDF that the librarian kindly sent me. Thanks to the Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins University.


THE TORRENTS CAME UPON THEM or the JOHNSTOWN DISASTER
Words by Tom Hall, music by George Schleiffarth, ©1889.

1. There was peace within that city; there was plenty ev’rywhere,
In old Johnstown by the Alleghany hills.
There were happy homes unnumber’d; there were firesides free from care.
There was work for honest labor in the mills;
But the torrent came upon them like the thunder from the cloud.
An avalanche of water bore them down.
A fearful cry of terror rose one moment from the crowd,
Then they hushed to burn in agony, or drown!

CHORUS: Hear the piercing cry of horror ‘midst the angry water’s roar.
Hear the wild despairing victims’ awful cry.
‘Twas a mighty freight of sorrow that the foaming waters bore.
God! receive the many thousands doomed to die!

2. A bold hero who was nameless rode the little valley through,
Crying: “Run into the hills; the dam is burst!”
Though his horse was tired and foaming, yet he like an arrow flew,
For the speeding torrent did its very worst.
It caught the horse and rider and all those he tried to save.
It killed them with its icy, chilling breath
And left them in the morning with its wreckage for a grave—
Many thousands who were doomed to awful death!

3. A poor mother clasped her baby one last moment to her breast,
Then was dragged beneath the foam far out of sight.
A fond lover saw his sweetheart drowning helpless with the rest,
And he ran to save her doing all he might;
But the waters in their fury clothed the fearless hero too,
And they held him with his sweetheart as their own.
The heroes they were many and the cowards were but few,
And their sad fate made a mighty nation groan.

4. Then a father saw his loved ones in a moment torn away,
Saw the mother and their children by her side.
With no time to think of rescue and scarce time enough to pray,
He shuddered, wept and then in anguish died.
The children from the schoolhouse they were playing in the street.
A moment and their lessons were all o’er.
Oh! Johnstown’s sad disaster makes the heart with anguish beat.
God protect us from such evils evermore.