The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1864-02-06
TIE HORRIBLE ASTER AT
SANTIAGO, CHILLI.
over ?. 600 People Burned to Death.

Our late papers oring Us he details OF one
of the most horrible affairs it has ever been |
our duty to record. Il occurred on the
night of the 9th Of December, in the prin
cipal Catholic church at Santiago, Chill.
Over 1900 persons, mostly women, per-
ished in the flames. Il appears that the
people Of the city had been celebrating for
thirty successive evenings the Immaculate
Conception" of the Virgin Mary, and On
the night of the 9th was TO be the finale.
One account says there were 10000 and
another 90, 600 lights, chiefly of camphene,
in the Cathedral. At one end Of the edifce
there was q colossal statue Of the VirgiG,
at whose feet was series of lights arrang-
ed in the shape of half moon In light
ing the series, fire was communicated to
part of the paraphernalia of the image of
the Virgin, and an instant it famed up
ward, igniung thousands of yards of gos-
samer tapestry, muslin, silk, ETC., aud shoot
ing thence 10 the decorations in almost ev-
cry part of the edifce. This was about 7
in the evening, after every. available inch
of standing room had been taken, chiefly
by women. There were four doors to the
Cathedral, one large one in the center, and
two small ones on either side, also small
priests door to the sacristy, or room where
/ the sacred utensils, vestments, ETC., were
kept. The windows we're too high to be
reached by those within. The woman and
children were forward Of the men, being
separated therefrom by an iron railing or
grating. The moment the building was in
blaze tie majority of the men made for
the doors and escaped. All the priesthood
escaped. The women. and children pushed
for the center door. the screens having clos
ed on the side doors. They made so COM
pact wedge that it was impossible for even
those at the door TO get out, being held by
/ the limbs and clothes of the frantic ones
in the rear. The camphene flying from the
jets of the crescent rose to. a. great hight and
/ fell in showers Of blue fame on the dresses
of the women and children, making the
scene horrible beyond language to describe:
We give from the Valparaiso Mercury the
following
Every night Of every year. from the 9th
Of November to the 9Th of December, the
day Of the Immaculate Conception is held,
the church blazad with sea of flame, and
huttered with clouds of muslin and gauze
draperies. II could only be lighted up in
time by beginning in the middle of the af-
ternoon. and the work of extinguishing was
only ended when the night was far ad
vanced.
a priest named Ugarte, whose mind ma
riolatry had marked for its own, headed that
sisterhood from the beginning, and worked
bis way down TO such a depth of supersti-
ton that one of his least extravagances was
the invention of celestial post Office trick.
By which the Daughters of Mary might
correspond with the Virgin in writing. At
the entrance of the temple the Virgins let
terbox was constantly open, and there per-
sons of a robust faith deposited in sealed
| that ietter-box for Eternity was placed be-
for the high altar, and Ugarte, who acted as
posth1an between the Mother Of God and
her daughters, exhibited to the Divinity
those offerings, Of course keeping that sim
/ guar CO TiSS pOuaSliC6 L4ltlaSlI'
A few minutes before O'Clock in the
evening of Tuesday, the 9Th Of December.
more than 3 200 women and few hundred
men kneltin that church, crammed 10 over
1 flowing. However, that did not prevent a
compact mass of fanatics from attempting
to fight their way in from the steps, because
it was the last night Of the month of Mary,
and no one could bear to lose the closing
tsermon of..the priest Ugarte, who always
succeeded by his excited declarations in
drowning in tears that place SO soon to be a
sea of fire. Then Ezaguirre, the apostolic
Nuncio and fayorite of Pious TX, the found
er of the American college at Rome, was to
preach also. It is said that Ugarte, wound
ed in his feelings as chaplain of the F'Daugh-
tiers of Mary because Enquire had told
him that the illumiuations of his church
could not be compared with what he had
seen in Rome, exclaimed, with enthusiasm,
Il wilt give him. wnen he comes to preach,
such an illumination as the world has never
seen!" Nobody can deny that Urgate has
kept his word
Indeed, the lighting of all the lamps and
candles had hardly finished, when The liquid
gas in transparency on the high altar, set
on fire its woodwork, and wrapped in flame
a kind Of tabernacle, or image Of Mary,
wholly composed of canvas, pasteboard.
and wood. Ia less than two minutes the
altar, about twenty three yards high and
ten broad, was an unextinguishabIe bonfire
The advance Of the Ere was, perhaps.
even more rapid than the panic Of the au
dience When the fire had flown from the
altar to the roof, the whole flock of devo-
tees rushed to the principal door. Those
near the lateral doors were able to escape at
lie first alarm. nthars and narlicularlr the