Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-05-21
POISONED cECREAM.

Consideration Created ut . Georgia sunday
school Picnic by Three Hundred of the
Participants Being Taken Seriously III
Scenes ON Arrival Home-The Ice Cream
Blamed For 1.-THE Victims Out OF DAM
ger.
ATLANTA, Ga, May ia telegram
from Tallulah Falls last evening threw
the city into the widest state of confu-
sion. 1t announced that 100 persons
were lying around under the trees in g.
dying condition. Yesterday morning the
annual excursion of st. Paul's Methodist
Church took about l 400 people, princl-
pally women and children, to Tallulah
Falls, which is a popular resort for such
occasions. Among these people every
family in the city was represented, the
children having been sent under the
charge of the various Sunday school
teachers. The news that such calamity
had befallen the excursionists spread
like wlldfire, and the telegraph office, rail-
road depot and other places were crowd
ed with crazed fathers, mothers and
brothers, anxious to hear if their loved
ones were among the afflicted. The news,
which could be obtained from the ADA
cent telegraph stations, was conflicting
and sensational. One dispatch from
Gainesville said over thirty children were
spread out upon the open field uncon-
scious and at the point of death. The
accounts seemed to agree that the num-
Der of sick was not less than 100, and that
not less than fifty would die.
THE DETAILS.
The best details which can be obtained
are to the effect that when the excursion
lists reached their destination they rapid
ly spread out in the grove and organized
sports suitable for the occasion. The re-
freshment stand was literally patronized,
the little children especially partaking OF
the ice cream, which had been made on
the spot the previous night. Before an
hour had elapsed one of the children was
taken violently sick, and was carried off
to secluded place for attention. One
by one the number of victims began to
increase. until by three O'Clock there was
not tree in the grove that did not
have under it's shade sufferer
who was being attended to as
best they could. Not doctor
was present, and the scene batfied de-
scription. Those who were not sick were
weeping, and others were frantic with
LILO SCGuc dIOuuo tdCIu. hS AhOhhS "a
the sufferers and the cries of the relatives
all combined to make the occasion one OF
horror. The engineer at once pulled out
his engine to the towns along the road,
bringing in the first medical recruits, and
returning for others at points further off.
BY night q dozen doctors were flying
through the grove, relieving the sick, of
whom there were seventy-tive in convul-
sions, and 200 hundred others too sick to
H., -, 80 Nh1
night was cold and chilly, the
light spring clothing, and the
doctors decided that the danger
OF long trip home was preferable to the
lack Of accommodations to be had at the
place. The sick were lifted up and car.
ried to the train and fixed as comforta.
bly, as possible. Three of the sufferers,
Mrs. Pounds, Mrs. Clotworth and Miss
Maggie Clotworth, were regarded as &C.
tually dying and were left. Mrs. DR.. j.
Miss Lou Harrell, the Frizzel family of
seven, and many other families of four to
six were among those afflicted.
At ten O'Clock last night the train bear
ing the sufferers reached the city. Fully
10000 people were crowding around the
depot, anxious to meet their friends. AS
the train rolled in a 3ickening sight pre-
sented itself. Pale and haggard faces
looked out of the windows upon the
thousands who were watching for them.
Children were lying unconscious upon
the laps of their nurses and mothers,
while upon improvised pallets lay fifty
or sixty deathly sick people who
were unable to move. Anticipating the
crush, the police had opened way,
through which the sick were either car
ried in arms or supported upon their feet
as the case required, and slowly the sick
ones were removed from the train and
carried to their homes. The scene was
terrible as the mothers clasped the forms
of sick children, whom they had believed
to be dead. All the doctors in the city
were summoned, and the clatter of the
horses bearing physicians from one part
Of the city to the other recalled the first
features OF epidemic days.
The explanation of the wholesale poi
son seems to be that the ice-cream had
been made up on the grounds the night
before In new freezers, and allowed to
stay all night, when chemical change
took place, forming very poisonous
This, partaken of literally,
resulted In poisoning not less than 800
people.
At twelve O'Clock last night fifty victims
were reported as being in very critical