Omaha daily bee., 1893-11-19
DEATHS JUBILEE SEASON
Terrible Loss of Life in Accidents During the
Last Summer.
CASUALTIES OF THE COLUMBIAN YEAR
over Four Thousand Victims of Disasters
of All sorts During the SIX Months
that the Fair at Chicago
Was Open.

and casualties of the last Six months dis
closes that in a manner entirely apart from
the manifold wonuers of the magical White
City the Columbian year has been a record
breaker. Particularly has this been true in
the matter of wrecks on the rail, where dis
aster has followed disaster, and death has
almost invariably been a passenger.
There can be little doubt that the heavy
increase In travel, due to the fair, was in n
measure responsible for several of these
heart-reudIng casualties, but aside from any
possible connection with the great exposi-
ton the disasters Of the past summer, at
tended with heavy loss oflife, have been far
in excess of the previous record in this di-
~rection. Frightful fatalities by fire, flood
and hurricane have repeatedly startled the
news-reading public, while crime has been
rampant and man has perpetratcd the most
shocking atrocities in taking the life of his
fellow.
1t may not be out Of place, as this very I'M
usual year draws toward n close, to briefly
summarize some of the more sensational ana
startling occurrences of the Columbian
summer.
Disaster on Etyor and Rail.
With the very opening of the fair the
flood Of contemporaneous disaster seemed to
break loose, for on the list day of May the
encroaching waters of the Mississippi's
raging tide threatened to inundate all the
lower portions of st. Louis. East Caronde-
let was abandoned, and Venice ana North
St. Louis We're heavy sufferers, while a num-
ber of lives were lost and several persons
injured under the debris of wrecked build
ings undermined by the flood. The high
water also caused immense damage in Ar
kansas and Illinois.
On the night of May 6 occurred the disas-
trous wreck on the Big -Four at Lafayette,
Ind. where the failure of theair brake to work
prevented the slowing down of the train as
it reached the sharp curve entering the city
and the engine jumped the track, followed
by the entire train, crashing into the depot
and bringing down tons Of structural iron to
augment The wreck. Ten lives were lost,
and eleven were seriously injured.
On the following day the steamer Ohio
collapsed a fiue on the river near Belmont,
Mo-, frlghtfully s~calding twenty-five men,
six of whom died before th5yi could be con-
yeyed to the hospital.
Dynamite In the Dark Hours.
The dynamite outrage at Muscatine, Ia,
occurred on the night of MAY 10.
May II, four of the lifeSa wing crew of
Cleveland lost their lives in Lake Erie
while unsuccessfully attempting to rescue
two men who were drifting out into the
lake, and on the same day five members of
the crew of a dredge were drowned off Con-
neaut harbor in the lake, their vessel being
carried from her moorlngs by the high
water and capsiZed. So
Fire in a lumber camp near Lake City,
Mich, on May 81, hemmedifn a number of
men and eight of them were cremated in an
old well, where they had sought refuge from
tile flames, while Two more were burned to
death in attempting to run the gauntlet ~
A deluge andjoyclone devastated southern
Dakota and some of the towns on the north
ern Nebraska border on the'same day.
Buried in a Tomb of Fire.
On June 3 fire broke out in the Fuente coal
mines in Mexico, near Eagle Pass, Tex.
spreading rapidly and cutting off the escape
of twenty-siX miners, who miserably per-
ished from the heat, smoke and poisonous
gases that filled every portion of the mine.
On the morning of June 10 the old Ford
theater at Washington, occupied by clerks
in the pension department, collapsed without
warning, and 500 government employees went
down in the awful wreck. Twenty-three
lives were lost and over 100 received injuries
more or less severe.
On that same ia teful morning deputy sher-
ifs collided with the armed strikers on the
Chicago drainage canal at Lemont, Ill, and
bloodshed followed, eight lives being lost
and fourteen persons injured.
On June 20 a train on which 800 excur-
sionists were returning from the races at
Sheepshead Bay was derailed in a tunnel
hear Parsville, l.. l., eight deaths resulting,
while eighteen others were bruised and
mangled.
Lightning's Swift Work.
While Ringing Bros. circus was exhibit
ing at River Falls, Wis, June 81, lightning
struck the big tent and seven victims of the
subtle fluid were taken out dead and eight
others unconscious and terribly burned.
On the same day the most destructive,
death-deallnS cyclone that ever visited east
ern Kansas passed through Williamstown
| md the gnrrOundjnD Rn1nfpu n IaffppCnn
county, leaving the lifeless bodies of nine
teen victims behind IL, as well as a score OF
others whose Injuries were not sufficient to
cause death.
gas in a coal mine caused the death of five
miners, und three others were horribly
burned.
Horror OF the English Navy.
On June "a came the news of the sinking
of h English battle ship Victoria in the
Mediterranean, with the loss of $50 lives, in
GLIDING Admiral Tryon and twenty-five
officers.
On the afternoon of July G a disastrous cy-
clone passed over the counties OF Cherokee,
Buena Vista, Pocahontas and Calhoun, doing
great damage over a wide scope OF territory,
and within Il narrow track destroying every
thing in its way. The town OF Pomeroy was
swept from the face of the earth, eighty-one
people being killed and over 100 injured.
Sunday afternoon, July @, q tornado
swooped down on Lake Michigan, capsizing
the sailing yacht, Chesapeake, about two
miles from the shore, and four of the nine
people aboard of her were drowned.
DIED Like Heroes.
July 10 occurred the frigttfal holocaust al
the Worlds fair when seventeen firemer
found their funeral pyre oDtHe cupola of the
Cold Storage building, and aas many more
were sent to the hospitatIIs suffering from
broken limbs sustained in jumping or burns
caused by their passage through the flames
Three days later the West Shore day ex
press jumped the track at Newburgh, N. Y.
crashing into q passing freight, and five PEG
pie were killed and twenty-five injured.
July 10, a premature explosion Of fire work'
at an Italian picnic In Chiomgo, resulted IL
the death OF four Of thcpieasure-seekeri
and the serious injury of four others.
The next day another crossing horror II
Chicago added four to thesdeath list, an,
eight were Injured under the wheels of
Grand Trunk train at the Espty-ninth stree
crossing. oa.
Victims Of Lead ana steel.
Workmen and strikers aEehe Kansas Goa
mines at Weir City met insqdeadly conaic
July 20, and seven persons were shot.
August 8, a collision between q passenge
aud freight on the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern killed three people outright, in
hicted fatal injuries on three others an