The Anaconda standard., 1890-05-07
DESTROyEDBy FIRE
Tongue Point Asylum
in Ashes.
800 INMATES PERISH
The Worst Calamity That Ever Visited
the Province Of Quebec.
HEROIC WORK OF FlREMEN
All the Male Inmates Escape-Four
Sisters Lose Their Lives
Terrible Scenes OF
Suffering.
HEROIC WORK OF FlREMEN

Tongue PoIYrE, Que. May Ga long |
line of gaunt towers is all that one now
sees of the Tongue Pointe lunatic asylum
located 10 miles from Montreal and which
with many lives was to-day consumed by
flames. The sights witnessed before this
tragic scene are such as can never be
forgotten. Nothing could exceed the hor-
ror attending the terrible calamity con-
sidering the number OF victims, the ter
rible nature of their death and the manner
i'm which the helpless victims received
their fate. What to the spectators was
scene of horror was to the lunatics
a moment of supreme glee and in
their delight they deported themselves
i'm the flames and waved their blazing
limbs, looking with satisfaction at the
ruin that was about them, and not until
the walls tumbled over their heads were
their maniacal screams silenced. There
were incarcerated I'm Tongue Pointe l,'8OO
lunatics, for that asylum was a prison
more than hospital, and now not more
than 1,1OO are accounted for, but many es-
capped into the fields and woods, and the
dead are ashes amongst ashes. What
the number of dead is Is purely
matter of conjecture and can never be
ascertained since no other record
is kept than that in the asylum books,and
they are destroyed. Taking into consid-
Grafton the whole OF the evidence from
the iircmcn, half the sane inmates and
sisters in charge, il is conservative TO es-
innate that 800 victims met their death,
though some assert that the number is
double that and others place II below this
figure. However, the fact remains that
province of Quebec since the earliest
times. Ever since Quebec was a province
its management of these most helpless of
all creatures has been its shame. They
have been farmed ont to nuns ut SlO0 a
head per year and the system was to keep
them as frugally as possible.
From the construction of the
building there is doubt In some
minds as to whether il was
intended as an asylum or a blast furnace.
In any case il served the latter purpose
admirably. Ii was constructed of brick
and was 600 feet long, running back from
the river half the distance. The main
building occupied the center and on each
side extended four wings six stories high.
The fire to-day was started I'm cup
board i'm the second ward on the women's
| side 10y careless patient, and as ycntila-
ton was carried on by longitudinal
| shaft connected with the towers the
| flames soon appeared blazing up through
| the roof in the center of each tower.
| A telegram was Immediately sent to
Montreal for aid and an engine and
| reels started at once. They might as well
have remained at home, for in five min
utes they exhausted the water supply. The
| only thing that could be done to save the
| building was the 81. Lawrence river and
il was half mile distant. When the AS
sociated Press reporter arrived with the
| ilremen the dome OF one of the towers had
Just fallen and the flames were bursting
elsewhere.
As the heat increased the statues fell
from their inches to the ground and then
the habitants prostratcd themselves, cry
ing aloud to the saints who had deserted
them indeed. Beds, furniture and uten-
sils of every description were being
showered from the windows, and a
stream of ill-clad men poured out of
the eastern wing. Not a male patient was
lost. Among the women IL wns different.
The less hopeless cases were placed In the
lower wards and they were removed with
out difficulty, but from the upper wards
where the violent patients were secured
there came the widest screams as they
resisted the nuns who were bcsceching
them To make their escape. AT the win.
lows n maniac would be seen pccring
through the bars groaning and jabberlng
at the frightful fiames that went up tn the
sky. As the heat became more intense
she would grasp the bars and remain
there until the flames enveloped her.
Inhabitants had come from all parts
| uTOutu abGdtNu ny tht
and in an hour the little village
was a surging mass of shouting
vocfcrating people. When the flrcmen
found they were powerless to save the
building. they turned their attention To the
inmates and burst in the doors with axes
Inside, Chief Beivcrt says, was such a
sight as no fireman ever before Witnessed
In one ward he entered were % patients
and at his approach they huddled TO
gether like a pack of beasts entwininp
their arms into one mass OF humanity
He seized the nearest, but, said the
chief: IL could no more separate the
crowd than could parts Of your horse
He tuggcd at them until the fire dartet
into their garments aud enfolded then
like shrold of flame and then ESCAPED
with his life. In another ward three fire
men were nearly trapped TO death. The,
entered and the door, which had a spring
lock, closed behind them.As Is custoInar,
there was no handle ON inside. The dool
resisted their axes and they rushed to ia,
windows but were driven back by tn,
flames. The chief suspecting their peri
sent aid to the other side and the mel
were carried down on ladders. Tn,
engineer of the building iii,
good work. saving nine patients
and every fireman made a recor,
of which he may feel proud; On the ilrs
alarm the engineer turned on the hose
but il was utterly useless as the fire leape,
along the vcntilating shaft To the tower
and burned In a dozen places at once
! One of the tertiary nuns, Sister Marie, In!