Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-02-17
AN AVALANCHE.
"A Family Swept Ont of Existence.
From the Quebec Chronicle, Feb. 4.

Cape Diamond are numberless home
steads OF the hardy, industrious people
OF whom Qnebec is justly proud. Many
OF these houses are of wood, protected
from the fall of gravel and shale by
wooden uprights. and, perhaps, safe
enough IN their way. Examples have
occurred to show that no dependence
whatever may be placed upon such
safeguards, and it is plain enough now
that they afford no protection against
snow. The storm which set in the
night before last, and increased in force
yesterday, served to pile an additional
load OF snow upon the tremendous heap
behind the house of Nicholas Haber-
land, on Champlain street, near the
Mariners Chapel Like many of his
nelghbors, he had never paid much at
tentlon to the constantly accommodating
load, nor would he, nor any one else in
the neighborhood, have bothered about
it without a warning of some very
shocking character. Strange to say,
last year this house was moved by a
land slide. So far as we have been en-
abled to learn, the lower portion of the
house, two-story wooden structure,
was occupied by the family of the own
er, Nicholas Haberland, consisting of
four souls. The upper flat was rented
by John Gibson, whose family was
composed of his wife and five chill
dren, and in the attics was Mr..
Haberland's mother, bed-ridden
woman of rs years of age. A sudden
crash about 9 o'clock was the signal Of
the impending catastrophe, for a huge
mass OF snow had fallen in the rear of
the house. The oil woman tried to
give an alarm, and John Gibson's voice
was heard calling his wife, who had
just entered the house from visit to a
neighbor across the road. Nearly
everybody was in bed at the time but
Haberland and his wife, who were for
tunately saved, with their children
Soon there was another crash, and this
was the crack of doom for the inmates
of the house. The enormous masses
OF snow, poised on the almost perpen-
dicular face of the cliff, came down with
o furious force, and for moment there
was nothing but whirl of feecy white
and storm of scattering timbers. The
house was wrecked in a flash, as it were,
and it's unfortunate inmates buried in a
living grave. The neighborhood was
speedily aroused, and a few min
utes after the wreck of the house there
were hundreds busy with spade and
shovel, trying to extricate from the mass
of debris spread across the street the
bodies of the inmates of the house. For
nearly an hour there was hard work,
with the constantly increasing crowd
pressing around, but the police soon in
terfered and enabled those who were in
earnest to work unimpeded. The
Haberland family-father, mother, and
three children-were taken out alive
and we'll They were Immediately con-
veyed into the grocery store of Mr..
Manning, opposite, where they We're
Hospitality accommodated, and in the
meantime the search went on. John
Gibson's body was next found, and
taken into Manning's and laid on q
lounge. His face was placid, and he
bore no appearance of pain, but, from
the state of his clothing, we should say
that he made fearful struggle with
death. A little girl was next recovered
from the ruins and laid on the floor
In the kitchen. Then there was
found sticking through the snow
portion of the clothing OF Mr.. Haber-
lands mother-in-law, and she was short
ly afterward recovered, but in fright
fully mangled condition, in consequence
of the chimney having fallen on her.
Mrs. Gibson was next found. She had
evidently been dead about an hour, and
was still warm. Her death seemed to
have been attended with suffering. The
children were gradually recovered, and
they looked, with the exception of little
Kate, just as peaceful as when they
were put to bed. Finer children it
would be hard to find than the little
bodies lying on either side of their
mother on the floor of Mrs. Manning S
kitchen. The dead are:
Johanna O'Keefe, wife of the late
Patrick Haberland, aged IS years.
John Gibson, laborer, aged IS years.
Mary O'Brien, his wife, aged 36 years.
Their children, John Francis, aged
9; Mary, s; Richard, 6; Catherine, 4:
and Eliza Ann, the baby, whose body
was not recovered when we left at 8
o'clock this morning, aged 1 year. A
terrible death roll indeed.
The Physical Standing of Americans
According to recent work Of Mr.. B.
A. Gould, Actuary to the United States
Sanitary Commissioners, in which
some interesting figures relative to sol
diers in the last war are given, it APP
pears that the American nation, instead
of being degenerate and inferior to the
European race in point of physical per
lection, is far the reverse. The figures
adduced show that 'fthe tallest mer
were from Michigan, Illinois and Wis
consin; the next tallest from New Eng
and, New York and New Jersey, an6
the shortest from Scotland, England
and Germany" In weight, the men o.
Kentucky and Tennessee were the
heaviest, averaging $50 pounds; Eng
land, Scotland, France and Belgium al
between 1873 and 139 pounds. The ratio
of weight to stature gave, in pounds *
the inch, Ohio and other Western
States, 2.185; New England, 2.121
England and Scotland, 2. l18; Germany
1.l6O.
A Military Head Stone