Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1864-01-29
FOREIGN NE US.
THE CALAMITY AT sANTIAC

SCENES ON THE REMOVAL OF THE DEAD.
The Providence Journal publishes letter
received by Mr.. w. A. Pearce Of Providence
from his father, resident in Santiago, Chill,
who witnessed the recent appalling catastro-
phe by which more than two thousand hui
man beings we're burnt to death. II appears
that the failure to rescue the unfortunate VIC
tins was owing to the idiotic police system
Of the Chilians. The writer says
4" | hear you asking. why we're those suf-
ferers not rescued Yes, why we're they not
fescuedi My hearts sickeus within me at
the question. Those determined, stupid ig-
norAmuses of policemen Fifty foreigners,
had they been allowed to work, and to work
in their own way, could and would have res
cued nearly or quite the whole mass. But
no, as is always the case here on an alarm OF
fire, the police placed a sentry on every aven-
ue leading to the fire. They have, as you
know, no FIRE engines except some two or
three old Gordon pumps. fought my way
past the police one entire square, by Wrestling
guns and sabrss from their hands, knocking
them out Of my way and being knocked in re-
turn, until | was overpowered by numbers
and compelled to retreat, and all within
hearing of the most heart-rending lamenta-
,ions that ever sounded on human ears. And
sclf--was kept back. Mr.. Demilow of the
gas works received bayonet wound at the
FIRE while in the act of rescuiug young lady
That he recognized, Miss Lsrren. He had
fought his way in company with work
men at the gas-works to the church. and bat
tered down a side or private door and saw
Miss Larren she at the same time recogniz-
ed him and called on him to save her. He
Z .,t,ll ,,,o nfa ahaat nj
fame between them. He reached his cane to
her which she grasped with both hands, when
he and his friend attempted to drag her
through the flames, but she was so surround
ed and hemmed in with the dead and dying,
that her strength was not sufficient. They
abandoned this method and went in pursuit
Of some other means to rescue her, and re-
turned again. and on presenting themselves
with the means Of saving her at the door, The
! police ordered them back, and not heedins
the order, he (Demilow) was bayoneted-
His friends wrested the gun from the police
knocked him senseless to the ground, anA
made second attempt to save the poor girl
But the time lost in dispute with the polio
was life lost to her. This is only one OF
many similar scenes.
! Your brother Charles battered door dow
on Gale Bandera, or Flagg street, entert
and found in small ante room some thir
females and all living. but like so many sta,
! ues, perfectly unconscious. He was compel
/ ed to take many of them in his arms and car
4 ry them into the street and saved them al
! Mr.. Meiggs and H. Keith fought their WI
thr2ugh the police and reached the church a.
laie hour, and when the tower was falli
| all about them succeeded in saving severt
( Mr. M, saw a woman still alive under a crow !
! of others then dead. She recognized him al
called to him, saying, for Gods sake, sss
me ! He rushed through the FIRE TO her an
pushed several OF the dead from her, then a.
tempted TO lift her out ftou among the deac
but they we're so firmly wedged in about hc r
aud on her, he had 70 abandon that. II,
then procured a lssso, fastened that about he
waist, and the united strength Of eight me
could not extricate her from her companion
and they had to leave her amid such cries fo
help as no christian heart could endure, neitf
er can language describe.
The police had full charge of the front
the church and in such force that the foregr
ers could do nothing there The police rei
cued but few. Axes and crowbars wer
no: to be had until late hour. single in
stance will suffice to show the stupidity G
the police. An officer Of the police set som
half dozen of his men to hew or batter dow
one of those large front doors with the
old broad swords. The doors are mide o
two inch hard wood, double thickness, an
rveted through and through with iron rivets
You can Judge tho effect their old cutlasso'
made on the doors better than can describe
it.
The scene at the church the following +s'y
was the most revolving, heart-distressing,
=. -.
created. There were the poor unfortunate
dead in all stages of consumption, the great
er portion of them naked But few could
be recognized by their surviving friends
The police ordered on the poems, or lnborers,
to remove the dead. Those demons--worse
that devils damned-commenc their work
with much hilarity as you ever saw school
children enter on some pleasure excursion. -
The dead were pulled about and pulled apart
as one would pull apart tangled brushwood.
You could see two or more poems pulling on
limb of some one buried under the others,
until the limb was pulled from the body
Then they would have peon rejoice and
howl of ,xultation, and commence at another
The dead we're actually separated with crow
bars aud pick Limbs, heads and fragments
we're shoveled into carts with no more feeling
than Irish laborers would have in shovelng
gravel into railway car. Hundreds of bodies
but partially burned, entirely naked. were
tumbled into open carts and packed up III the
cemetery in one promiscuous heap. without
even the covering of bundle Of straw or q
bullrush, and hundreds Of those heartles'
wretches commenting and joking on the scene
I and all under the supervision of the police
have seen within the past ten years here
among these people many things that were to
me very unpleasant. But this is so horrify-
ing to the soul that cannot find language tc
: express my disgust OF them.
Twenty-Five hundred bodies havexbeer
counted out from the ruins, and it is sup
posed many we're burned entirely up. The
prevailing opinion is the number OF lives los'
will roach twenty-five hundred. The coun
and names collected to date amount to sons
= fifteen hundred. Many families have lost the
= entire female members--six, seven, eight and
: zine from one family. All those that coult
not be recognized by their surviving friends
? are now buried in one grave or hole.
place twenty-five yards square was excayated
and into this they were laid, or tumbled anC
shoveled.
: This accident has given Catholic religion