The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1878-08-08
AWFUL HOLOCAUST.


Fourteen Hundred People Burned at i'ents'n
China. ...Terrible Scene o fAgony and Eeath
Aletter from Tientsin, China, gives tnt
4 following particulars OF the fire IN thai
city, by which I, 400 people lost theil
lives:
The number of refugees who have
been collecting at this point has beer
augmenting by daily additions until tine
aggregate was vafiously estimated at
anywhere from 10000 to 100000. "A
few weeks since, an additional coup dis.
-pensary was opened on a piece Of vacant
ground known as the flower garden OF
the K'ang family. When this relief de
not was established, the whole premises
were surrounded with q STRONG fence of
reeds and millet stalks, plastered with
mud. AS the place was to be occupied
only by women and children, the great
eat cure was taken that all communities.
ton between the inside and outside be
prevented. The alley on the west side
was fenced up at its north end, and the
only gate at the soup.yard was at the
south end of the same alley--a gate
about ak feet wide. About ten O'Clock
on q i1itterocold morning an alarm was
given that fire had broken cut in this
relief yard, roofed with infammable
mats, and crowded with human beings.
Crowds of people began to gather on all
sides of the yard and tear down the
strong fence, The moment that COM
municetion was established between the
inside and the outside, q considerable
number of outsiders .leaped into that
part of the inclosnre forming the alley
to attempt to rescue those that were
still struggling to escape. The scene
within was awful. The long sheds mad
already melted into smoke and ashes,
and only the poles were still burning
yet not the poles alone, for beneath
stretched long lines of something only
inaistinctly seen, and which, between
the gusts of fame and smoke, could be
recognized as the heads, arms, and
bedies of human beings, all shuddled
within the limits of tho former comparta
msnts, and just as they were caught by
the fiery sirocco. Not one in twenty
had time to move q yard before they
were met by flames and sufiocated where
they CHANGED to be. In front of the
locked gate q large number of poor
wretches were caught and imprisoned by
the flames. Their wadded or skin
garments caught fire and could neither
be taken off nor extinguished. Scores
of poor women were reduced to q con-
dition too horrible to be described-ab.
roasted on one side, and utterly
helpless to escape.
The greater part of those who were
burned must have persisted instantly.
Within five minutes of the time the fire
broke out, it is probable that those who
failed to escape were suffocated by the
flames. Long after every scrap Of mat
and wood had been consumed. the
bodies of the victims continued to burn
and smolder. The ccorpses were most
of them reduced literally to cinders, ut
terly beyond recognition. Macy of the
survivors, on the day of the fire and the
three following days. while the bodies
were being taken out, wandered about,
uttering the most piteous lamentations,
striving to discover their children; hus
bands came to institute hopeless quest
for their wives. Nothing was left upon
the ground but hundreds of horribly
mutilated ccorpses, fragments of half
burned clothes and broken pottery. 1t
is definitely ascertained that the number
who persisted is somewhat more than
4, 400.
The Waste OF War.