Huntsville gazette., 1894-09-08
THE LANDS LAID WASTE
Nothing Left But the Charred Re-
mains of Numberless Dead.
LAKE LANDS LAID Low BY THE FIRES
Many Towns of Minnesota and Wisconsin
Lie in Ashes With but Pew Occupants
Left to Tell the Tale-Story of
The Forest Wastes.


MINNEAPoLIs, Mimi, September s.
Late advices from the forest fire district
show that the damage has not been ex-
agerated. Duluth reports that mil
lions of dollars of property has been
destroyed and that 800 lives were lost.
Relief trains have been sent out from
here and st. Paul. A train of sufferers
arrived here during the night. In Wis
consin the towns of Barnett, Granite
Lake, Cumberland, Pineville, Comstock
and Forest City have been burned.
Seventy-fve houses were destroyed at
Shell Lake, and Spooners is threatened.
One hundred and forty-eight bodies
have been taken out of Hinckley and
placed in the vicinity. The neighbor-
ing town of Pokama is wiped out. The
eastern Minnesota train which left st.
Paul at 1:50 o'clock Saturday afternoon
and arrived at Hinckley Saturday night
took 500 people on board and moved
westward toward st. Cloud. The train
has not been heard of since. 1t has not
reached st. Cloud and has not gone back
to Hinclley. There has been general
fear that it has been burned with all on
board. There is no chance that they
are alive, unless they have found a
stream or slough into which they could
go and escape the fire. Every family
in Pokama is homeless and in danger
of starving to death.
Lives Yet in Danger.
A freight train is in ditch one and a
half miles west of Pokama. Twenty
five people are in the caboose and the
fire is all around them. If they are not
rescued soon all must perish. Hans
Nelson, section foreman at Pokama,
started away yesterday afternoon with
his family on a handcar to escape the
fire. and nothing has since been seen
or heard of them. 1t is certain that
they have perished.
A st. Louis special says the Great
Northern road is doing all in its power
to reach fire-stricken Hinckley. Ever
since Saturday afternoon work trains
have been engaged in rebuilding burn
ed bridges, and all the men that can be
used are being rushed to the front
Three large bridges were down. The
officials expect to get into Hinckley
about noon toby. The scenes at the
front where the work trains are en-
gagged are frightful. One crew report
ed that they saw flames sweep down on
house close to the track. The place
was enveloped in fire before the people
could escape. The workmen were pow
erless to render any assistance al
though they were SO close that they
could hear the people screaming as they
We're being cremated.
BY One of the Rescued.
The first train over the ST. Paul and
Duluth railroad direct from the scene of
the great fire reached Minneapolis yes
terday afternoon. There were about
one dozen persons on board including
Mrs. Laurence, the only one of the pas
sengers on the Limited" which started
Saturday afternoon.
Mrs. Laurence says the first evidence
of the fire was noticeable about ten
miles north of Hickey when the air be-
came almost suffocating. One mile
north of Hickey a number of persons,
Mrs. Laurence estimates the number at
fifty, rushed toward the train scream
ing frantically. The engineer seeing
the danger they were in if they re-
manned, stopped the train to let them
aboard. The heat became intense
and the whole volcano of fire seemed to
burst out in a mighty effort to wipe the
train and its occupants off the face of
the earth.
Panic With No Humanity.
Mrs. Laurence describing the scene
said: "At the first rush of the flames
toward the cars the window panes bust
with loud report, and the train began
slowly to return toward Skunk Lake
People screamed and men jumped
through the car windows. The wild
panic was horrible. There was no hui
manity in it. Every person was
for himself and did not care how he
got out of the swirling, rushing ava
lanche of flames. My dress caught fire
but extinguished the flames.
II saw two Cinnamon. can remember
the scene as if before me now. They
were paralized by fright and made no
effort to get away but simply hid their
heads under their seats and were burn
ed to death. / stood it as long as I
could and then rushed out of the car,
jumping over one or two persons that
were lying on the ground injured.
Some of the people jumped into Skunk
Hickey Blackened Waste.
Lake but simply ran along the ties.
The fire had burned away and after
running until my strength gave out
| fell down between the rails. l ex-
pected every minute that my dress
would be burned from my body. I put
out the flames in my dress half dozen
times, and had to hold my hands over
the baby's face in order to keep it from
suffocating."
Sunday morning Mrs. Laurence was
picked up in the middle of the track
two miles from Hickey by a relief
party from Duluth. which made the
trip on handcar.
The ste of Hickey. says Mrs. Laur-
ence, is nothing but blackened waste
with the bodies of dead and injured
persons lying everywhere.
Retired Withost Making an Attack.
SHANGHAI. September 3.-The Chinese