Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1864-02-03
THE CALAMITY AT SANTIAGO.
Why the Victims We're Net Saved-Bruta,
Scene on the Removal of the Dead.

ter received by hf. w. a. Pearce, OF PrOVI-
dence, from his father, resident in Santiago,
Chill, who witnessed the recent appalling
catastrophe by which more than two thou
sand human beings were burned to death
1t appears that the failure to rescue the un-
fortunate victims was owing to the idiotic
police system of the Chilians The writer
says:
hear you asking, Why were those suff-
erers not rescued ? 1es, why were thev
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 to
work in their own way, could and would have
rescued nearly or quite the whole mass
But no, as is always the case here on the a.
larm OF fire, the police place a sentry on every
avenue leading to the fire. They have, as
you know, no fire engines except some tive
or three old Gordon pumps | fought my
way past the police one entire square, by
wrestling guns and sabres from their hands,
knocking them out of my way, and being
knocked III return, until | was overpowered
by numbers and compelled to retreat, and
all within hearing of the most heart-rending
lamentations that ever sounded on human
ears. And nearly every foreigner Jared sim
liar to myself was kept back Mr. Demi-
low, of the gas works, received bayonet
wound at the fire while In the act of rescu-
ing young lady that he recognized, Miss
Larren
He had fought his way in company With
one OF the workmen at the gas works TO the
church, and battered down side or private
door and saw Miss Lanen she at the same
time recognized him and called on him to save
l.
sheet of flame 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 surrounded and hemmed in with the dead
and dying, that her strength was not suffi-
clent. They abandoned this method and
went III pursuit of some other means to res
cue her, and returned again, and on present
ing themselves with the means of saving her
at the door, the police ordered them back,
and not needing the order, he (Demilow)
was bayoneted. His friends wrested the
gun from the police, knocked him senseless
TO the ground, and made second attempt
to save the poor girl. But the time lost in
dispute with the police was life lost with
her. This is only one Of many similar
scenes.
Your brother Charles battered a door
tered and found in small anteroom some
thirty females and all living, but like so
many statues, perfectly unconcious. He
was compelled to take many of them in his
arms and carry them INTO the street, and
saved them all Mr. Meiggs and Keith
fought their way through the police. and
reached the church at late hour, and when
the tower was falling about them succeed
ed III saving several Mr.. Meiggs saw
a woman still alive, under crowd of others
then dead. She recognized HIM and called to
hlm, saying, for God sake save me ! He
pushed through the fire to her, and pushed
several of the dead from her. then attempt
ed to lift her out from among the dead, but
they were so firmly wedged in about her and
on her, he had to abandon that He then
procured a lassO, fastened that about her
waist and the united strength Of eight men
could not extricate her from her companions,
and they had to leave her, amid such cries
for help as no christian heart could endure,
neither can language describe.
The police had full charge of the front of
the church, and in such force that the for
eigners could do nothing there. The police
rescued but few. Axes and crow bars
were not to be had until a late hour 4 sin
gle Instance will suffice to show the stupidi-
ty Of the police. An officer of the police set.I
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 thick |
ness, and rivited through and through with |
iron rivets. You can judge the effect their |
old cutlasses made on the doors better than
| can describe it.
TIE scene at the church the following day |
was the most revolving, notwithstanding |
that ever was witnessed since the world was |
created. There were the poor unfortunate |
IN all stages of consumption. the greater |
portion of them naked. But a 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, commenced their work
with as much hilarity as you ever saw school
children enter on some pleasure excursion.
The dead were pulled about and pulled a
part as one would pull apart tangled brush
wood. You could see two or more persons
pulling On limb of some one buried under
the others, until the limb was pulled from
5he body Then they would have peon
'ejoice and howl of exultation, and com
nence atanother. The dead were actually
separated with crowbars and pick Limbs,
With no more feeling than Irish laborers
would have in shoveling gravel into a rail
way car
Hundreds of bodies, but partially burned,
entirely naked, were tumbled into open carts
md packed up in the cemetery in one pro-
niseous heap, without even the covering
If bundle of straw or bullrush, and hum
ireds of those heartless wretches comment
ng and joking ON the scene, and all under
he supervision of the police. | have seen
within the past ten years here among these
,eople many things that we're TO me very