Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1881-11-10

blinded by clouds Of dust. When thev
could see again they found that agreat
slice Of earth and stone had slipped
down from the Tschingelalp, burying
fine houses and covering acres oil
good land. Men and women were
at the same time seen struggling
among the ruins. and from all sides
friends. neighbors and relatives hur-
ried to their aid. Unhappily, they hur-
ried also to terrible death. Even
while they were engaged in their work
of love the mountain above them
moved again. This time the sound OF
thunder was not far distant. but only
too near at hand. The pine trees on
the grassy slopes were seen to sink. A
great cloud of dust and steam covered
the whole valley, thousands of tons OF
stone were hurled through the air. An
all-overpOwering wind-pressure carried
everything before it; there was hor-
rible crash. sound of madly-rushing
torrents; and all was still. Then the
shore in cloudless sky, and it was
seen that, as far as the eye could reach.
the blooming Sernf Valley was
covered with from forty to one hum
dred and sixty feet of black stone,
moraine, dirt and slime. Forty dwell
ing houses, the best in the village, to-
gether with dozens Of stables and out
buildings, were buried far out of sight,
torn to pieces by the air-pressure,
strewn broadcast over the mOraine.
One hundred and eleven of the people
of Elm were swallowed up in the gen.
eral ruin. At least twelve strangers =
Italian quarIymen-shared their fate.
1t was useless to think of rescuing any
who fell in that awful death slough.
Far out upon its edge, from strong
house, which was only partially
covered with the slime and stone. four
persons--a graybeard of ninety-one
years and mother with two children
were taken out badly injured. but
alive. Every other human being over
taken in the path of the avalanche was
forever buried out of human sight.
Fifteen Jumps of torn and bleeding
flesh, masses of pulp without shape or
form. were taken out. The others rest
in q grave so deep and strong that no
man can uncover it. In one house thir-
teen persons who sat at q christening
feast. and who are known to have
joked with each other in regard to the
old superstition about thirteen at ia
BILE, were swallowed up as they sat-
On a lonely hillside, out of the way OF
danger. an old man and woman lived
with their only son. After the first
slide of the mountain the father anG son
hurried down to the help of their
friends. They were swallowed up with
the rest. A childless widow, who has
become a chattering idiot, now cccu-
pies the lonely dwelling. Daughters
who hurried to the help Oftheir fathers.
their children. lovers who strove to aid
their brides, were together buried in
the awful moraine. 1t is feared that
many of those who have been left be-
hind will share the fate Of the poor
creature who, mourning husband and
a son. has gone mad with sorrow.
The extent of the land-slip is almost
beyond belief. To give anything like
an adequate idea of it is no easy task.
1t isno way to be compared to the Golden
slip Of 1906. when, as it will be re-
membered. 457 people lost their lives.
In the latter case the mountains slid
down and covered the village. At Elm
a great mass of the Plattenberg, a mass
800 feet wide, at least 1000 feet high
above the valley, and. according to the
engineers, from sixty to 100 feet deep,
fell over upon the village. its farms,
gardens and meadows. Tons of rock
were dashed entirely across the valley.
and now rest quietly 800 and 400 feet
high upon the hillside. The air-pressure
was so great that houses were lifted up
from their foundations snd carried a
distance of 1000 feet A barn built of
heavy logs and filed with hay, was
carried entirely across the valley and
overturned 200 feet high on the mount
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