The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-12-10

Lowertz. Among its first victims wer,
nine persons belonging to party which
had come from Berne to climb to tn,
top of the Right. Besides the village o
Goldau, the adjacent villages of Bus
singer and Hussloch, and three-fourth
of the village of Lowertz, were over
whelmed. But the destruction did moi
stop here. The larger of the two por
tons filled up nearly one-fourth of tn.
Lake of Lowertz. The body of water
thus displaced formed wave which
swept over the little island of Scwanar
in the lake. rising to the height of sew.
enty feet, besides doing a great deal o.
mischief along the shore, especially tt
the village of Seewen.
BY this disaster nearly five hundred
persons lost their lives, and damage
was done to the amount of one hundred
and twenty thousand pounds. Of all
the inhabitants about twenty were taken
alive from the ruins. Two out of a
family of seven were saved as by a
miracle. At the moment of the catas-
trophe the father was standing at his
own door with his wife and three chill
dren. Seeing the mass rolling towards
him, he caught up two of the children,
bidding his wife follow him with the
third. Instead of doing SO, however,
she turned back into the house to fetch
the remaining child, Marianne, and
Frances Ulrich, the servant-maid.
Frances seized the little girl by the
hand. and was leading her out, when
h. xx,t,i g Il
to be torn from its foundations, and to
turn over and over like ball. so that
she was sometimes on her head and
sometimes on her feet. A storm of dust
made the day dark as night. The vio-
lence of the shock separated her from
the child. and she hung head down.
wards. She was squeezed and bruised a
good deal. and her face was much cIt
and very painful. After some time she
released her right hand, and wiped the
blood from her face. She then heard
Marianne ,groaning, and calling
Frances, Frances!' The child said
that she was lying on her back among
stones and bushes, unable to rise; that
her hands were at liberty, and that she
could see the daylight and the green
fields. Frances had Imagined that
they were buried a great depth under
ground; and thought that the last day
was come.
After remaining in this state some
hours. Frances heard a bell, which she
knew to be that of the village church of
Steinen, calling the survivors to prayer.
The little girl was now crying bitterly
from pain and hunger: and the servant
maid tried in vain to comfort her.
From sheer exhaustion, however, the
cry became weaker. and then ceased
entirely. Meanwhile. Frances, herself
was in a most painful position, hanging
with her head downwards. enveloped
in the liquid clay, and cold almost be-
yond endurance. BY persevering in
her efforts, she at length got her legs
free, and so obtained partial relief. A
the dark hours of that terrible night
had passed and morning came, she had
the satisfaction of knowing that the
child was not dead, but had
fallen asleep. As soon as she
awoke, she began to cry and
complain. The church bell now went
again for prayers: and Frances
heard also the voice of her
master making lamentations over his
loss. He had succeeded in escaping
and rescuing the two children he had
with him. though one was for time
partly buried in the fringe of the land
slip. Seeking for the other members
of his family, he had found the lifeless
body of his wife with the child she had
taken in her arms, at distance of
more than a quarter of mile from
where his house had stood. All of her
that was visible was one of her feet.
While digging out her body, he heard
the cries of little Marianne. The child
was at once d;sinterred from her living
grave; and though one of her legs was
broken, she seemed more anxious for
t1c release of Frances than for her own
comfort. The maid was soon eXtricat-
ed: but she was bruised and wounded
in friGhtful manner. For a long time
her recovery was very doubtful. Even
after she was out of danger. she was
unable to bear the light, and was for a
heightened period subject TO commissions
and seasons of extreme fear and t 'rror.
A traveller who visited the district
about week after the catastrophe has
given an interesting description of his
visit: Picture to yourself Il rude and
mangled mass of earth and stone, brist-
Ing with the shattered remains of
wooden cottages, and with thousands
of heavy trees torn up by their roots
and projecting IN all directions. In one
part you might see range OF peasants
huts, which the torrent of earth had
reached with Just force enough to over
throw and break to pieces, but without
bringing soil enough to cover them. In
another were mills broken in pieces by
huge rocks. separated from the top of
the mountain, which were even carried
high up the Right on the opposite side.
Large pools of water were formed in
different places, and many little streams.
whose usual channels had been filed
up.were bursting out in various places"
Chambers Journal.