Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-01-13
Terrible Effects Of the Great Dynamite
Explosion.

THE Bremen CORES pendent of the Lon
don Times, writing on Dec. %, says:
A gentleman who visited the scene of
the disaster a few hours after the event
said it looked more terrible than field
Of battle. Hospital attendants fnd 20
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 d:3sect-
ing-room, all the individual limbs of the
human body might be seen lying about
separately in CHASTITY isolation. Here a
head was stuck on railing, while
hand was seen pointing at empty space
! from a window sill. More horrible per-
haps, than the lacerated limbs, whose out
ward shape was sufficiently preserved to
admit of recognition, were the forlnless
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 tne deadly chest was thrown
yawned a hole over six feet deep and sew
en- feet wide. Horses, vehicle, driver and
| porters were blown into atoms, without a
trace of them left. On the brink of the
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 4
note book was there, containing the mem
Oranda of a 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 leg flung
across the Goals. A woman feeding poul-
try in the hen-house was shocked to be-
hold a finger fought for by the feathery
tribe. In the harbor bloody trunks rose
and fell with the stream for several days,
presenting a 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
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
| collins for a single limb, and having it
carefully sOwn up in linen before CON
signing it to its last Enclosure. 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 hay
| 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. If there
was anything calculated to render the
effects Of the catastrophe more appalling
1t was that the inf1iction 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 Dir. Elmer,
who with all his nearest and dearest &C
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-in-law had
her left foot blown off. That son-in-Iaw
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, nfuttering noise penetrated to
the very environs of Hamburg.
The Decay of Glaciers.