Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-01-17

| friends. These, of course, worked on the
| upper floors and were thrown near the
| ,op Of the debris. At some places the
| derneath are lying tonight human bodies
by the score. About $50 girls
and young women are usually employed
in the mill, bnt at 4 O'Clock about SO
were relieved from duty for today. Taey
| returned TO their homes before the storm
came. The mos reliable estimate to-
| night places the number in the building
when it went down in the ne1gbborhood
of lis, and as before stated, 100 of
these were rescued by friends or
dragged themselves out Immediately af-
ter the accident. An alarm for relief was
Immediately sent and in short time
thousands of citizens arrived to help ont
the dead and dying. The scene was q
narrowing one and beggars description.
The mill is near the foot of Mount Pam,
q high mountain overlooking the city.
When the people arrived everything was
enveloped in darkness. Then huge boDfires
were built, which cast dismal glare on
the surrounding scene. The fire com
panies left the burning paint shop asd
assisted in rescuing the dead and dying.
bulance and relief corps and thousands of
people were IN among the debris, carry
out bricks and doing whatever they could
all at the same time, but their work was
slow compared with the demand
for the rescue of the victims
of the disaster. Here a young woman
was taken out ali bruised, suffering with
cuts and bruises. One body it was no
ticed as it was dragged out, had its head
cut off. Others were in various postures,
living, all suffering from the most
terrible wounds and some almost
scared to death. An Associated
Press representative entered what
was once the basement of the building,
and cropping his way through the debris
noticed five bodies of young girls lying
close together. He tried to pull them
out, but they were pinned down, ard it
was impossible to get them
out. They were dead and be-
yond all human aid. Up to
half past 10 O'Clock tonight, probably the
bodies of dozen of the dead have been
taken out, while the greater portion of
the remainder were still under the ruins
The work of rescuing will be pushed
all night, but it may be tomorrow before
all bodies are taken out. The rescuers
still have the greatest hopes that some
of those inside are alive. All is chaos
and confusion at the mill. The
managers are missing and the cor
rect number is merely guess work.
1t may not be over 40, and then again at
this hour it may reach go or 80. The silk
mill was built about four years ago.
The builders were Reading capitalists
and the cost of putting it up was
$4,000. The mill was leased to
Grimshaw Brothers, OF Paterson.
N. j., where they also operate similar
mills, and they have been running it ever
since. The machinery they put in the
mill cost $4,000. This is
total loss. When the Asso-
ciated Press representative visited
the scene of the wreck at IL O'Clock to-
night, he found every thing in the great
est confusion. At that time about
dozen dead bodies had been taken out.
Clerk Autenbach stated at midnight
he believed that fully eighty bodies were
in the ruins under the three floors. His
list of employees is lost, and owing to the
confusion in taking out the injured, he
was unable to furnish a list of the killed,
but eighty is a conservative estimate of
those who lost their lives.