Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-01-28
The Late Catastrophe in Chill.

catastrophe at Santiago, Chilli, announ-
ced yesterday, by which between 1000
and 5000 persons lost their lives. We
have room only for the following extracts:
One of those awful visitations which
from time to time afflict nations with
eternal mourning took place on Tuesday,
December s, at the festival of the In
maculate Conception, in what was the
Church of the Jesuits in the capital. A
magnificent temple reduced to ashes.
hundreds of dear lives sacrificed, the
whole city weeping its lost ones-such is
the picture Santiago offers us.
The Sth of December was great tri-
umph for the clergy of the church. An
enthusiastic audience filled every nook.
There were hardly any men there; but
three thousand women, comprising the
flower of the beauty and fashion Of the
capital, were at the feet of the ecclesias-
tics very many against the will Of their
fathers and husbands but that, of course,
only showed forth the power and might
of the gospel. Never had such pyro-
techny been seen before; twenty thou
sand lights, mostly compheme. in long
festoons of colored globes, blazed the
church into hall of fire. But the per-
formance had not yet begun when the
crescent of fire at the foot of the gigantic
image of the Virgin over the high alter
overfowed, and, climbing up the muslin
draperies and pasteboard devices to the
wooden roof, rolled torrent of fame
1t was maddening-t screaming and
wringing of hands for help as the re-
morseless flames came on; and then.
while some already dead with fright were
burned in CHASTITY Indifference, others in
their horrible agony-some in prayer
we're tearing their hair and battering
their faces. Women, seized in the em-
braces of the flames, were seen to UNDER
20 transformation as though by an op-
tieal illusion first dazzlingly bright.
then horribly lean and shrunk up, then
black statues, rigidly fixed in writhing
attitude.
The fire, imprisoned by the immense
thickness Of the walls, had devoured
everything combustible at 10 o'clock;
and then, defying the sickening stencil.
people came to look for their lost ones.
Oh, what sight the fair placid moon
looked down upon! Closely packed
crowds of calcined. distorted forms, wear
ing the fearful expression Of the last
pang, who's smile was once heaven; the
ghastly phalanx Of black statues twisted
in every variety of agony, stretching out
their arms as if imploring mercy: and
then, of the heap that had choked up the
door multitudes with their lower parts
entirely untouched, and some all shape
less mass, but with an arm or foot un-
scathed.
! The silence after those piercing screams
aoere hushed in death, soos horrible. 1t
aoos the silence of the Craze, ~nbrohcn
but by the bitter aoail or fainting cry
OYER TWO THOUSAND SOULS had passed
through that ordeal Of fire to the judy
ment seat of God.
Heroic acts of daring have not been
wanting. Enduring gratitude has been
excited in every Christian heart by the
gallant conduct of Mr.. Nelson, the Min
lister of the United States, his country
man, Mr.. Meigs, and several other for
eigners. There were generous men who
defed the fury of the flames to save lives,
and some of these died martyrs to their
noble hearts. An Englshman or an
American, it is unknown which, was seen
to rush through the flames, to seize in
his powerful arms lady, stride with her
a little way, and then, with his hair in
blaze, and choked with smoke, fall
back into the volcano never torisc again.
A young lady named Ovello. having in
vain implored some by-standcrs to save
her mother, rushed in, and shortly after
wards miraculously issued forth with her
parent in her arms, saved. A young
lady of the name of Solar, just before the
smoke suffocated her, lad the presence
of mind to tie her handkerchief around
her leg. SO that her body might be
recognized. 97s
The following gives an idea of the
class Of persons that perished by the
deplorable accident although many
heroic men performed prodigies Of da-
ring and strength in caring some from
the death grasp of the phalanx Of bod
les that cboked the door, in some Ca
ses literally tearing off their arms with
out being able to extricate them, the
number saved by this means falls short
of fifty. More than five hundred per-
sons of our highest society have per-
ished, the greater part young girls of
fifteen to twenty years of age. One
mother has perished with her FIVE daugh-
ters. Two-thirds o. the victims were
servants, and there are many houses
In which not one has esca ned Several