Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1864-01-29

D, ly grasped the clothing or limbs of Il
: nearest Writhing with terror, the horrib
i group swayed to and fro. the weaker gradua
L ly sinking forward and falling, never to ris
= again, while the stronger battIed with desper
' ate energy to reach the saving hands tina
i struggled as desperately to reach them. Bu
f all was in vain, and in an awful brief space O
D time the wall of fame became inpassable; tht
entire floor of the church was sea of fire, fec
by the clothing OF the victims and intensified
by the dropping lamps. The roof fell 10 the
towers followed and the belfry, with an aw.
full crash, fell across the doorway, burying the
seorehed and Kissing bodies of those whose
suffering was over.
The scene within the church was heartrend-
ing. The streets were filed with the dead
and dying, and hundreds rushed frantically to
and fro, eolling upon the names of loved ones;
some knelt in the streets to pray, some were
carried off by their friends, raving in their
grief, while some, distracted at the thought of
wife or child perishing, rushed frantically in.
to the church and were seen no more Hun
dreds were taken to the hospitals and to the
neighboring private houses. All the physi-
clans were upon the spot, ministering to the
injured. At midnight the flames, spent for
want Of meterial to feed upon, had lowered,
and by morning had entirely ceased, The
spectacle, by the glaring light off day, was in
describably horrible. Two thousand cerpses,
in every stage of carbonization, from bIacken-
ed cinder to the slightest sOorch, lay in heaps
around the several exit doors, the last strug-
gle painfully visible in the eager position, the
outstretched hands, the staring eye-balls.-
The upper portions of the bodies were, with
few exceptions, disfgured beyond recognition
the lower extremities were scarcely touched
by the flames.
The officiating priests, although as heavily |
incumbered as the women with clothing, sue
ceeded in escaping, without a single excep-
ton, and the same paper which published TO- |
day list Of two thousand whose names are |
known, gives also a list of church ornaments |
and plate, rescued, valued at thousands ofidol- |
lars From the vestry door opened into the
church, whence the priests escaped-and one
of this mornings papers states, upon the au-
thority of persons on tho spot, that the door
was then closed, lest the FIRE should penetrate
the vestry and destroyed the church property
therein Certain it is that three rooms in a
paatial mansion are filed with
furniture, carpets, curtains and pictures, saved
from the vestry, while a few PAGES beyond
we're periohing, in frighiful torture,
hundreds of frail and helpless human
beings, many of whom could have found safe
y through the door. II
Lest it is wondered at that the Gre was allowed
70 gain such headway, 1 may mention that San {
iago, city of a hundred thousand inhabi- +
ants, possesses but three engines, all out of t
,rder and badly managed, fires being extre- 7
nelly rare. Soon after the alarm had been Civ q
IN company of regulars arrived, and with )
ixed bayonets, were stationed around the t
building, not only impeding access to it, but a
Irving back those who implored to be allow q
d to continue their exertious. A Mr.. James 4
)imalon, upon being called by name by one f
# the sufferers, insisted upon entering the E
hurch, and received bayonet wound fer his F
!,
The papers filled with incidents of the
catastrophe. One young lady, finding all hope Fl
# escape cut off, tied her handkerchief tightly "
ound her knee. In the morning her body 81
Tas discovered charred about the head aud ii
houderG beyond all recognition but the pre- n
aution she had taken identified her-her \
anne being in the corner of the handkerchief. Fl
1t is announced this afternoon that but Sc g
en- bodies have been recognized out of over t,
900 victims a
Seven dwellings have been closed and seal n
by the authorities-not one soul having re- Il
1rned Of either of the families living therein. Y
= Correspondent New York Times.