The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-01-13
Terrible Effects of the Great Dynamite
Explosion.

Terrible Effects of the Great Dynamite
Explosion.
THE Bremen CORES pondent of the Lon
don Times, writing on Dec. %, says:
A gentleman who visited the scene of
the disaster few hours after the event
said it looked more terrible than a field
of battle. Hospital attendants and po-
licemen, aided by volunteers from all
classes of the population, had, indeed,
removed those remnants of humanity in
which the vital spark was not wholly
extinct, but what remained was human
shambles. AS in an anatomical dissect-
ing room, all the individual limbs of the
human body might be seen lying about
separately in ghastly isolation. Here
head was stuck on railing, while
hand was seen pointing at empty space
from window-sill More horrible, per-
haps, than the lacerated limbs, whose out
ward shape was sufficiently preserved to
admit of recognition, were the formless
masses of flesh strewn in every direction,
mixed up with arms and feet. On the
fatal spot were boots and shoes, coats and
shawls, and countless splinters of iron and
wood. Where the wagon stood from
which the deadly chest was thrown
yawned hole over six feet deep and sew
en- feet wide. Horses, vehicle, driver and
porters were blown into atoms, without
Of fIa,, 1aft Nv tla hrin Of In
opening which marked the spot where
they disappeared an infants shoe was
seen, empty, and asking for the tiny foot
which had tenanted it that morning. A
note book was there, containing the mem
oranda of dead man. Later in the day
the most horrid indications of the catas-
trophe were carefully collected and
carried away to the church-yard pre-
paratory to removal; but many of the
shivered fragments were thrown too great
distance and had been lodged in too i'm
probable localities to be found at the first
search. For two or three days after the
event terrible discoveries were continually
made in houses and court yards, in stables
and river boats. A man would go up to
the loft to fetch fuel and find ley flung
across the Goals. A woman feeding poul-
try in the hen-housc was shocked to be-
hold finger fought for by the feathery
tribe In the harbor bloody trunks rose
and fell with the stream for several days,
presenting revolving aspect, and causing
the authorities to have the river dredged.
The most narrowing spectacle was that
presented in the dead house of the church
yard before the first burial of the remains.
Heads without trunks, trunks without
heads, legs without feet and arms without
hands were displayed in hideous rows for
Identification. Picture for yourself a
woman looking for her husband among
these CORY relics, and the thought beggars
description. For TWO consecutive days
these visits to torn members continued.
For two days farewells were taken of
heads and hands. For two days portions
of the cadaverous array were gradually
removed by relatives bringing full-slzed
cotfins for a single limb, and having it
carefully sown up in linen before con-
signing it to its last inclosure. Then the
grave hid its own. Meanwhile some
thirty persons not wholly killed by the
explosion were living in an improvised
hospital not far from the scene, an unas-
certained number of other sufferers hav-
ing been received in private houses. There
was great want of lint, linen and
other necessaries at first; but the Bremen
people, proverbially liberal and kind
hearted, soon supplied all requisites
Physicians, too, arrived from the country,
offering assistance and helping their
colleagues at the Haven in the first minis
trations. But it soon became apparent
that there was little occasion for doctor
ing. Only the milder cases admitted of
the services of the healing art. II there
was anything calculated to render the
effects of the catastrophe more appalling
1t was that the inhiction is confined to
comparatively few families. Whole fami-
lies having gone to see their relatives off,
whole families were killed and wounded.
A terrible instance is that of Mr.. Elmer,
who with all his nearest and dearest ac-
companied his eldest son to the boat to
wish him God-speed on his departure for
the West Indies. The father, the elder
and younger son, one son-in-law, the
brother of another son-in- law, and a
cousin are dead. The mother has had her
arm broken. One of the daughters has
just lost her right hand another daughter
is wounded in face, hands and legs; a
third daughter wounded in the arm while
the sister of one of the sons-i law had
her left foot blown of. That son-in-law
whose brother is dead is terribly lacerated
in the abdomen. This is the worst case,
but Others might be cited hardly less
melancholy. The explosion was heard
for many miles around. 1t is affirmed
that low, muttering noise penetrated to
the very environs Of Hamburg.