Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-31
THE HAVOC AT CHARLESTON.
A Million Dollars Worth of Property De-
stroyed-Six Lives Lost.

n hliiloh DOLLARS worth OF Property De-
stroyed-Six Lives Lost.
CHARLESTON, S. C., Aug. 31.-The cy-
clone is ended, and the city has started in
to replace damages while yet shut off from
communication with the outer world. The
sight presented is a familiar enc to people
in this city-a city almost in ruins, the
| streets and thoroughfares strewn with de-
bris from the roofs of stores and dwellings
| roadways blocked up by the hundreds of
giant trees uprooted from the earth, side
walks strewn with crumbling brick and
| mortar, the courts and alleys and by
paths under water A magnificent water
| front, with its costly docks where the fleet
of continent could bc berthed, piled with
wrcckage; some of its churches unroofed.
and almost every residence in the city
more or less injured
The Color ed Citizen l. Abroad Early.
The water and wind played havoc in the
old city by the sea- II began in the wee
small hours of dawn, anu while the fierce
gale was still bowling through the town.
threatening almost total humiliation
along the byways and on the thorough.
fares, you could see the newer of wood
the African American citizen of Charles
ton-true to the instinct of his race, armed
with big and little hatchets clearing away
the debris with a piovident eye for extra
| firewood A few minutes later, away up
| King street, you saw a battalion of stall
wart workmen armed with axes, saws.
| picks and spades working their way down
the streets, close in their rear following
one of the familiar but indispensable bob
tails of the street railway on the march
from Line street to the Battery, and as
they progressed southwark almost in the
teeth of the gale, a hedge of evergreen
arose on each side of the roadway, and the
street car-the first step toward retucn
from chaos to civilization is once more in
evidence.
| Damages of Over Million.
I The damage here was fully as great as
from the terrible cyclone of 1885. The
News and Courier estimates the losses as
follows: City property, $780, 600; fertilizer
works, S113,500; Charleston Mining COM
pany, $4,000, railroads. S3O,OOG telephone
exchange, $1,000; telegraph companies,
$40, 600; lead works, S12, 900; wharves, $780,
600; shipping $4,000; Ashley river bridge,
$50, ,000; churches, $50, 900; private property,
$500, ,000; miscellaneous, 100000 Total,
| 81, III 500. The experience of 1885 taught
the Charlestonians a lesson and over 81
000,0O0 cyclone insurance was held here.
This will greatly offset the damages.
| Half Dozen Persons Killed
| Six persons were killed and two injured
and others are missing. Rattlesnake
Shoals lightship is completely wrecked
The crew escaped. The Seminole and
Yemasse, of the Clyde Line steamers, are
both overdue at Charleston and great
anxiety is felt. The British steamer
Astoria, lumber laden, from Pensacola for
Queenstown, is 'derelict." The schooner
| Morris w. Childs from Brunswick with
lumber has been towed into port. The
vessel reports passing through wreckage
and seeing six men in the water with life
preservers on. They were barely alive
No assistance could be given them. All
| the buoys marking the south channel en-
| trance to Charleston harbor are gone.
Havoc All Over the State.
| Wires are down in every direction, and
| details are hard to get at. The damage
was general. extending over the entire
state, severest in the southeastern angle,
and the least severe in the northwestern
angle. The damage st Beaufort and Port
Royal and the neighborins icn islands
skirtiuR the Atlantic coast was frjghtful.