Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-01-25
TEE TERRIBLE DISASTER IN CHILL.
TWENTY TWO HUNDRED BODIES RE-
COVERED.
Why tho Victims were nofsaved-Tneiden's
Ofthe CataAtrophe-TheS Site Ofthe church
TO be OecHDied by n Monument.

4AC LEgNA4EuCt JOuEHAt puDAA1ANS q" -
ter received by Mr.. W. A. Pearce, Of Prov
dence, from his father, residentin Santa
90, Chilli, who witnessed the recent appall-
ing catastrophe by which more than two
thousand human beings were burnt to
death. 1t appears that the failure to res
cue the unfortunate victims was owing to |
the idiOtic police system Of the Chilisns.
The writer says;
81 hear you asking, why we're those
sufferers not rescued2 Yes, why were they
not rescued? My heart sickens within me
at the question. Those determined, stupid
ignoramuses Of policemen Fifty foreign
ers, had they been allowed to work, and
10 work intheir own way, could and would
have rescued nearly or quite the whole
mass. But no, as is always the case here
on an alarm Of FIRE, the police plscs sem
try on every avenue leading to the FIRE
They have, as you know, no fire engines
except seme two or three old Gordon
pumps. fought my way past the police
one entire square, by wrestling guns and
ssbres from their hands, knocking them
cut Of my way and being knocked in re-
lurr, until was oTerpoWered by numbers
and compelled to retreat, and all within
hearing of the most heart-rending lamen-
tations that ever sounded on human ears
iYour brother Charles battered door
down on Calie Banders, or Flagg street,
entered and found in . small ante-room
some thirty females, shd all living, but
like so many statutes, perfectly uncon-
Da nornpa11a1 4n foEa
Of them in his arms and carry them into
the street and saved them all Mr.. Meiggs
and 81. Keith fought their way through the
police and reached the church at q late
hour, and when the tower was falling oil
around them succeeded in saving several.
Mr.. Meiggs saw q woman still alive under
a crowd Of others then dead. She recog-
nizsd him and called to kim, saying, for
Gods sake, save me- He rushed through
the fire to her and pushed several of the
dead from her, then attempted to lift her
out from among the dead, but they were
so firmly Wedged iF about her and on her,
he had to abandon that He then pro
cured g lssso, fastened that about her
/ waist and the united strength Of eight
men could not extriest9 her from her COM
panions, and they had to leave her amid
such cries for help as no Christian heart
could endure, neither can language de-
scribe.
'The police had full charge Of The front
Of the church and in such forco that the
foreigners could do nothing there. The po-
lice rescued but s few. Axes and crow
bars were not to be had until late hour.
| A single instance will suffice to show the
stupidity of the police. An officer OF the
police set some half dozen Of his men to
hew or batter down one Of these large
front doors with their old broad swords
The doors are made Of two inch hard wood,
double thickness, and Iiveted through and
through with iron rivets. You can i'm
agine the effect their old cuilssses made on
the doors better than can describe it.
"The scene at the church the following
day was the most revolving, heart distress
ing, that ever was witnessed sinoe the
world wss created. There were the poor
unfortunate dead in sll stages of feonsump-
ton, the greater portion Of then naked
But few could be recognized By their
surviving friends. The police ordered on
the peones, or laborers, to remove the dead
Those demons-wOrse than devils damned
l-commenced their work with as much hi
larity as you ever saw school Children en-
ter on come pleasure excursion. The dead
we're pulled about and pulled apart as one
would pull apart tangled brushwood- You
could see two or more peones pulling on 8
limb Of some one buried under tie ethers
until the limb was pulled from the body
Then they would have peOn howl Of ex
ultstion, and commence at another. The
dead were actually separated with crow
bars and picks. Limbs, heads and frsg
ments were shovelled into carts with nc
more feeling than Irish lsborers would
have in stovelling gravel into railroad
car. Hundreds of bodies but partially
buried, entirely naked, we're tumbled into
open carts and packed up in the cemetery
in one permiscuous heap, without even the
covering Of bundle of straw or bulrushi
and hundreds Of those hairless wretches
commenting and joking on the scene, and
all under tie supervision Of the police.
have seen within the past ten years here
among these people, macy things that were
to me very unpleasant. But this is so hoT.
rorifyiDz 70 the soul that cannot find Ian
guage to express my disgust for them.
twenty-five hundred bodies have heen
counted out from the ruinf, and it is sup
posed many were burned entirely up. The
prevailing opinion is the number Of lives
lost will reach twentp FIVE hundred. The
count and names collected to date amount
TO somr fifteen hundred. Many families
have lost the entire female members-siZ,
seven, eight and nine from one family.
all those that could not be recognized by
their surviving friends are now buried in
one grave or hole A place twenty fve
wards SQUARE Was excsvsted, and into this
they were laid, or tumbled an shoveled.
This accident has given the Catholic re-
lieion here the most severe blow that the
church has ever experienced. The men
express themselves openly and publicly
against the clergy having such complete
dominion over the females.
"The city authorities have have had
their hands full the past weekin keeping
down mob violence, as the masses are de-
termined that the church shall not again
be rebuilt.
" The government have stepped in and
ordered the ruins to be taken down and
carted of and will purchcsa the ground
and erect a monument TO the memory Of
The dead. The place is to be enclosed with
a substantial iron fence, and the remain
der Of the ground laid out in a flower gar
den."
BEN. WoOD, the literary gentleman who
edits the New York News, and represents
the late New York mob in Congress, is al.
T. T..