St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-09-26
Gbe Californian.
LANDSLIDE AT QUEBEC.

Another terrible affection has be-
fallen Quebec Amid the violent
storm of wind and rain that swept
the city last Thursday evening, a
thrill of horror pulsed through the
entire community, with the report,
which spread like wildhre, that short
IN after Z O'Clock another fatal land
slide like those of 1871 and 1852 had
occurred from the face of Cape Dia-
mond below the citadel, crushing
some seven houses beneath it in
Champlain street to finder, and i'm
prisOning many inmates below the
debris, which was piled to a height,
in some cases, of 20 or 80 feet over
where the habitations of happy fam
lilies were standing few seconds pre-
viOuS.
The cause of the disturbance is per-
fectly plain. Four fearful days of
rain and flood succeeding to a month
of dry weather had filled the crevices
of the soil Immediately below and be-
yond the southern extremity OfDuffer-
in Terrace, and at 7.2O p. m. an enor
nous mass was detached from the
cliff and hurled as with the noise of
many thunders a couple of hundred
feet over the retaining wall, pushing
half a dozen houses out of its way,
and crushing most of them beneath
its weight as though they had been
so many paper boxes.
Unfortunately most of the unhap-
DIV inmates were at home, either tax
ing supper or resting themselves af-
l. ~
who saw the slide were standing at
the doors of their houses and were
too much paralyzed to move out of
its way. Others ran to places OF
safety The debris of rock filled up
the narrow street to the depth of
some 80 feet, and cut off all cOmmu-
nication between the portions of the
north and south of it On the
wharves, behind where the houses
had stood, scattered timbers and the
earth and rock that partially cover
ed them were mingled with huge
piles of coal that left little passage
way between them and the river.
AS the news spread of the extent
of the calamity the whole municipal
force were turned out and a strong
citadel Immediately came to their as
sistance, while large crowd of cltl-
zens also lent willing hand in the
work of rescue, which was carried on
with the most desperate and heroic
energy amid the darkness and strife
of the elements, picks, shOvels, crow
bars and every available instrument
being pressed into requisitiOn to aid
the humane duty, the spectacle pre-
scented being one of the most mourn
full ever witnessed. To add to its
horrors, the air rang with the piteous
appeals of the imprisoned and the
wounded, as well as the frantic cries
of their distracted relatives. and fire
declared itself among the ruins, but
was fortunately soon eXtinguished
by the fire brigade.
The houses destroyed were the
numbers from 129 to 159 Champlain
street, and contained, it is said, over
thirty families.
The shocking calamity has fallen
with special heaviness on numbers
of the Irish Catholic elements of the
city. The Redemptorist Fathers of
St Patrick's church were promptly
on the ground eager in the discharge
of their sacred office administering
the last rites of their church to the
dying
The number of the dead taken from
the debris so far is 20 and "a are
known to be wounded. The scene of
the disaster has been visited by thou
sands. Twenty bodies lie in the
temporary morgue, but it is difficult
to identify some of them, they are so
mangled. 1t is thought there will be
at least 10 more victims added to
the list
1t has been decided to use small
charges of powder to break up the
huge boulders covering the road
way, as it is certain that there can
be nothing living beneath them.
At a meeting of the city council
Friday night a resolution was adopt
ed voting the sum of $4,000 toward
the relief of the sufferers by Thursday
nights disaster.