Omaha daily bee., 1886-10-07
STEAM, Gas And POWDER,
Deadly Blasts Deal Death in Maine, Dakota
and Illinois.
WRECK OF THE LA mAscoTTE.
Additional Particulars or the Horrible
Catastrophy-A Minister'S Family
Blown Up--Miners ManEied
Into Little Bits.
The Wrecked Mascotte.

of the boiler of the river steamer La Mascotte,
which caused such loss OF life, The boat is
said to have been steaming along under l50
pounds of steam, her usual amount to carry,
when the explosion suddenly occurred, blow
ing the fire in every direction: The utmost
confusion prevailed. The pilot taking adj
vantage of her heading turned her towards
the shore, but the flames caused him to aban-
don his post before the stage plank could
be lowered; After leaving his post the cur
rent turned the boats bow out into the river
again, and her stern swung close to the
bank, which afforded means of escape for
several who were at that end of the boat, the
pilot and one cabin boy getting ashore with
out any injuries or even wet feet The stage
plank was lowered ana many we're placed
upon It, mostly women and children, who
Mould have been saved nad not
It and all who were not killed by it were
drowned Captain Thompson. after doing
all in his power to save the passengers and
crew jumped overheard and swan ashore,
the boat having by this time drifted fully 200
yards out in the river. La Mascotte DIR fted
over to the Illinois shore opposite Willards
Landing, and sunk, the only thing visible at
Lew Brahan, second clerk, tells the follow.
ing story of the Disaster; I'VE had landed
| at Neeley's and were pulling out. and |
walked uD the stairs and into my room when
| | heard q small explosion like that of a sky
| rocket: L opened the door to the cabin and
| saw steam coming into 1t from the barber
| shop. l saw ladies in their cabin and called
| them to come forward. | saw fire coming
| from under the boiler deck, and took the
| ladies forward TO the boiler deck and started
| down stairs where the pilot, Geaveau,
gave live preservers to them, telling, them all
| to put them on Immediately, | ordered the
stage plank thrown overheard which was
| promptly done and we put all the ladies on
the plank. The rigging became detached
| jumped Into my arms. landed her on the
| stage while | was thrown into the river my
self. swan along the side OF the stage and
made the men get of so itwould bear up the
| ladies'. | then swan to the edge of the rocks
and crawled ashore. A man from the Itlin-
ois side with a skItf took people off the stage
and also saved a number that were SWIM
ming. ! don't recolect the skitfnan's
G.. }. Hanlon, second pilot, says: The
EARLE was near uS when The
disaster occurred and could easily
and dancer, but understand the captain did
not care to render any assistance. Ad0lphus
Evelyn, the pilot of the Eagle, told me that
Mascotte, as he did not wish to endanger his
boat If he would only have pushed us
ashore not single one would have been in
jured, except from scalds and burns"
the Post Disi atch states the wreck of the La
Mascotte resulted from the collapse of one of
her boiler fues. The explosion spent Iys
| force directly backwards into the engine
| room, anu only lhe crew ana ToustaDoutS
suffered by scalding from escaping steam
Eleven of the latter are so horribly burned
from their bodies. Six of them have
| died andrhe lives of the other FIVE dispaired
of. There are sixteen persons known TO have
been drowned. d. S. Davidson is so badly
burned around the face and throat that he
will probably die. The registe of passengers
| was lost, and 1t is thought that some were
drowned or killed whose bodies have not
been recovered
The Globe-Democrats correspondent tele-
graphed late tonight from Cape Girardeau
that nothing new had been developed today
in regard to the explosion OF the La Mascotte
and no other bodies have been found as yet.
One OF the missing. John Miller, reached
Landing with his head burned. and says that
Captain Ebaugh positively refused him to
come down here on the Eagle this morning,
%fe and to oEdren Eftd here we're before bursd s
against the law. From interviews with the
rescued passengers, it seems there was no
| found alive. The wreck is now lying Just
below Wizards Landing, with little of her
bow and several feet of her bow wheel show
So far as can be learned, the list OF passen-
gers on the IaMascotte were: Judge llagar
and wife, Cape Girardeau, missing; Fred
Tike, missing; Miss Wheeler and two chill
dren' Palsy a,l snd LILY, Cape Girardeau, @ miss
missing; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Miller and
ttTo children, of she!byyllle, H.; Mrs.
j. ii. Miller swan ashore, but is badly burned
n head; Lena Buehermann, st. Louis, badly
hurt on head, hands, arms and back from fire.
GiIr,ardEean, both saved, uninjured; J. y; Rus
Girafdeau, aninjured; 4, W, nioTard,
BURNS; captain Thompson, III uninjarssd; ed: !;
J: Ray Perkins, lirst clerk, missing, home at
Evansville: i; d. Branhaln, second clerk,
uninjnred; Ed. Daugherty, first mate, blown
Adams, second mate, badly scalded and died
| in hospital this morning; James Dono-
hue, pilot, ,qninjured; }. j. Hanlanl, pilot,
board and injured in right side, but will re-
cover; Billy O'Brien, first engineer blown
overheard aud is musings, G. S. David
son, carpenter, severely ,scalded, is at hos
scalded and died at hospital this morning /;
j. o. Simmons, scrubber, scalded head and
right arm, will probably get well; Charley
Vaughn slightly bruised; Porter Steve
Wells, missing; one of the chambermaids is
missing; and the other, Maggie johnson, was
drowned and body brought here last night
firemen. all colored, scalded and taken TO the
hospital. of these, Jack Fnnigan, William
Jones, and TheO Lacy, st. Louis; Will
Davis, Midway; KY; Henry Jordan, Evans
vile, and William Elliot are now
dead. Joe Burns, Chester; Lew Chatt-
man, Paducah; Anderson Sharp,
st. Louis; Marshall Wade, Walnut Hill,
Tenn. and Albert Rice. Cape Girardeau, are
| severely scalded with strong chances against
their recovery. VIM. Partzell and Dalls
Webster both of Evansville, we're slightly
burned and will leave for their homes this
evening: Joseph Wilson, of Nashville;
Henry Muncke, Cincinnati, and julius VII
| liam and one unknown are missing Charles
Thomas, cabin boy, is also missing.
| The total number on board, as far as
known, were: Passengers, 10: cabin crew,
s5; deck crew, a6; passengers rescued, l9;
dead and missing. 5 deck, rescued unin-
| jured 10; rescued burned, ii missing, S.
| Albert Rice, one OF the roustabouts living
here, died this evening at the hospital, and
two more are not expected TO live until
| morning.
The crew on the Eagle, as we'll as those
rescued from La Maseotte cenSure the cap
tain of the Eagle for not making greater Ell
forts TO save the victims. Captain Thonp-
son, of La Mascotte, aud several Of the res.
eued state that the captain OF the
| Eagle refused until ha Captain
Thompson) and his crew threatened
to take charge of his boat by force, to take
the rescued and injured to this city, where
assistance could be rendered them. but said
he would take them 10 Grand Tower, where
| little. If any aid could be given them. After