The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1890-05-16
In A FIERY FURNACE,
FEARFUL TRAGEDY ENACTED A
Tongue pOINTE. QUEBEC.


Particular Of the Sad Anhir.
Tho insane asylum at Tongue Point,
nine miles from Montreal. caught fire and
soon IL was . mass Of flames with NO hope
Of saving the building from utter destruc-
ton. Az near ~ can be calculated at this
hour there are from 100 to $50 insane in.
mates in the burning building with no
chance Of their escape. The are
apparatus in the asylum is utteraly inade-
quate to control the flames and several
steamers have been sent from Montreal on
. special train. The sights in the grounds
surrounding the institution are horrible
beyond description. Hundreds oflunatics,
male and female, are grouped together.
gibbering and in afrsnzied condition. The
nuns are making every effort to control
them and allay their fears, aud as rapidly
as possible the poor creatures are being re-
moved to places Of shelter in the neighbor-
hood.
The excitement among the lunatics on
the grounds became so great that a detach-
ment Of the Montreal police force was hur-
r,ed out to assist the guards. There were
1900 persons in the asylum WREN the fire
broke out.
Particulars In Detail.
A long line Of gaunt towers is all one
now sees OF the Tongue Pointe iunatic
asylum, located ten miles from Montreal,
and which, with many lives, was consumed
by the flames. Tue sights witnessed be-
fore this tragic scene are SUCH as can never
be forgotten. Nothing could exceed tho
horror attending the terrible calamity,
considering the number of victims, the
terrible nature Of their death and the man
ner in which the helpless victims re-
ceived their fate. What TO spectators
was a scene OF horror was to the lunatics q
moment of supreme glee, and in their de-
light they disported themselves in the
flames and waved their blazing limbs in
turbulent satisfaction at the ruin that was
about them, and not until the walls
tumbied'ovsr their heads were their mania
cal Screams silenced.
There were incaScerated in Tongue
Pointe 1900 lunatics, for that asylum was
q prison more than a hospital, and now not
moro than 1.1O0 are accounted for, but
many escaped into the fields and woods,
and the dead are among the ashes. What
the number Of dead is is purely a matter of
conjecture and can never be ascertained,
since there was nc other record kept than
that in the asylum books, and they are de-
stroyed. Taking into consideration the
whole Of the evidence from firemen, half
insane inmates and the sisters in charge,
it is conservative estimate to
say that 100 victims met their death,
though some assert the number is double
that and others place it below this figure.
However, the fact remains that no such
calamity has fallen upon the province of
Quebec since the earliest times. Ever
since Quebec was . province it's manage
ment OF these most helpless Of creatures
has been its shame. They have been
farmed out to nuns at 800 o head q year
and the sisters aim in a way to keep them
as frugally as possible.
From the construction Of the building
there is doubt in some,minds asto whether
it was intended for an asylum or u blast
furnace-in any case it served the latter
purpose admirably. It 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
in height.
zoe.