The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1881-11-09
A MOUNTAINS FALL.
Details ofthe.Terrible Land Slip In Switzer-

A MOUNTAINS FALL.
Details ofthe.Terrible Land Slip In Switzer-
lana.
A correspondent sends to a New York
paper the following graphic account of
the destruction of Elms, Switzerland,
through a land slip:
The end came on the evening of Sun
day, the 18th inst.-in the "Saints
Calendar" current in some parts OF
Switzerland, marked "The day of Felix,
saint of luck and happiness" During
the early part of that day the people OF
Elms went about their usual vacations
in the usual way and without any antici-
patton of the terrible calamity which
was so near ut hand. The little church
was we'll attended, hearty dinners were
eaten, and afterward, as was the custom,
most of the people, old and young,
walked through the meadows or upon
the mountain side. at 5 o'clock in
the evening, while many of them
were still out in the fields, some n
was heard crying, "Look at the Plat
enberg look at the P~lattenberg"
Those who followed the direction and
are still alive say that for a moment it
seemed to them as if every peak above
the slate quarry was in motion ; then
there came a rumbling noise, like far
off thunder, and in moment they were
blinded by clouds Of dust. When they
could see again they found that a great
slice of earth and stone had slipped
down the ~Tschingclalp, burying fine
houses and covering acres CT good land.
Men and women were at the same time
seen struggling among the ruins, and
from all sides, friends, neighbors and
relatives hurried to their aid. IN
happily, they hurried also to q terrible
death. Even while they were en-
gagged 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-over-
towering wind pressure carried every
thing before it. There was q terrible
crash, a sound Of madly-rushing tor
rents, and all was still. Then the dust
and smoke cleared away, the sun shone
in a cloudless sky, and it was seen that
far as the eye could reach the once
blooming Sernf valley was covered with
from forty to $50 feet of black stone,
moraine, dirtand slime. Forty dwelling
houses, the best in the village, together
with dozens of stables and outbuildings,
were buried far out of sight, torn
to pieces by the air-pressure, strewn
broadcast over the morainn. One hun
dred and eleven of the people of Elm
were swallowed up in the general ruin.
At last twelve strangers-Italian quar-
rymen-shared their fate. It was useless
to think of rescuing any who fell in that
awful death slough. Far out upon its
edge, from a strong house, which was
only partially covered with the slime
and stone, four persons-a graybeard of
ninety-one years and a mother with two
children-were taken out badly injured,
but alive. Every other human being
overtaken 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
orm, were taken out. The others rest
in a grave so deep and strong that no
man can uncover it. In n house
thirteen persons who sat at a christening
feast, and who are known to have
ioked with each other in regard to the
old superstition about thirteen at table,
were swallowed up as they sat. On a
lonely hillside, out of the way of dun
ger, an old man and woman lived with
their only son. After the first slide of
the mountain the father and son hurried
down to the help of their friends. They
were swallowed up with the rest. A
childless widow, who has become q
chsttering idiot, now occupies the
lonely dwelling. Daughters who hur-
ried to the help of their fathers, moth
ers who would have saved their child
rem, lovers who strove to aid their brides,
were together buried in the awful mo-
raine. 1t is feared that many of those
who have been left behind will share
the fate of the poor creature who,
mourning a 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 is in no way to be compared to the
Goldau slip of 1906, when, as will be
remembered, 457 people lost their lives.
In the latter case the mountains slid
down and covered the village. AtElma
great mass of the Plattenberg, a mass
1900 feet wide, at least 1000 feet high
above the valley, and according to the
engineers, from sixty to 100 feet deep,
fell we upon the village, it's farms,
gardens and meadows. Tons of rocks
we're 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
we're lifted up from their founda-
tons and carried a distance of 1000
fest. A barn built of heavy logs, and
filled with hay, was carried entirely
across the valley and overturned 200
feet high on the mountain opposite the
Plattenberg. An iron bridge which
crossed the Sernf was torn up, carried
scores of feet away from its abutments,
and now rests on end, more than half
buried in mud and loose stone. The
whole valley, as far as it can be seer
from the village inn, which is still
standing, very closely resembles the
bed of a glacier which has receded. As
I have already sta led, the masses of stone
and earth which have fallen are every
where piled up to height of very many
feet. At least 500 acres are covered
in this way. The river Sernf has made
for itself a new channel through the
debris. and has flooded and ruined
much of the land below, land which was
not directly harmed by the avalanche of
stone. So in one way or another the
whole valley has been injured beyond
all hope of repair. The loss in prop
e,ty will reach not less than 1000, 000f.;
at the lowest estimate 1913 people have
lost their lives. The State engineers,
fearing further land-slides, have for
hidden those who have escaped to re-
turn to the houses which are standing,
and in consequence more than 800 men,
women and children who, but a few
days, were prosperous and well-to-do,
are now almost without q roof to cover
them.
Lord LOrne's Costly Magazine.
"Would you like to buy that Har-
per's Magazine" asked the soft. voiced
and timid peanutter on the east bound
Union Pacific train the other day to a
middle,a aged passenger who was looking
over the Harper and reading Judge
Goodwin's article on the Mormon stu
alton.
"No," said the middle-aged party.
cit is my own magazine, and therefore