The Dickinson press., 1894-09-08
THOUSAND LIVES \
MAY BE LOST.
FEARFUL POSSIBILITY AS A RE.
SUIT OF THE FOREST FIRES.


Many Bodies Are BeinE Found by
Relief Parties Sent Out From Pine
City, and 1t IL Thought That at
Least Five Hundred People Were
Burned to Death, and 1T In Po.si-
bic hat the Number Will Reach a
Thousand-snd Scenes at the Little
Grave Yard at Hinckley-Over "a
Hundred Bodies Burned Beyond
Recognition Are buried Together
Fires Still Raging In Wisconsin-
Excellent Relief Work.
Pine City, Mimi, Sept. 1. - Relief
parties sent out in various directions
return and report finding more bodies
anu it is safe to say that the loss of
life in this part Of Minnesota and
across the line III Wisconsin will not
he less than 800 and many think that
il will reach Il thousand.
The reaction has come at Hinck-
Icy The excitement which has buoyed
UP SO many of The survivors. even in
the face of the fact that SO many
friends and relatives had perishcd in
tn. fiery flood, has passed away, and
dull. letharsic grief has taken its place.
The ulinjured refugees ut Pine City,
and there are several hundred Of them,
stand about the street corners in little
knots AID discuss the incidents of the
catastrophe which struck the town.
The probable death of this one or this
family, and the news of the escape of
another, who was ut first supposed to
have pcrished, are all discussed with
the same benumbed air, expressing
neither sorrow or despair in the one
case, nor elation or joy in the other.
The hospital patients demanded the
attention OF the physicians all night,
and the only druggist in Pine City
was kept busy until daylight filling
prescriptions and supplying lotions,
for most of the injuries were burns,
more or less serious. BY morning all
were III Il state of comparative COM
fort, and there were none whose hurts
We're deen:ed fatal.
Among the good citizens of Pine City
who had opened their hearts, their
homes and their public buildings to
their stricken ntigll.Ors, all was hustle
aid activity. The town hall was kept
open all night, and coffee and plain
fare served to all comers. The court
house, the school house and many q
private home was thrown open. Every
blanket in the town was called into
service. The women and children were
given the better quarters, and the men
stretched out in rows on the floors OF
the two public buildings named. Be-
fore day light the town was astir. The
arrangements for tho relief of the des.
titute further up the line, where hun
dredS of men women and children are
not only homeless. but absolutely with.
out Il scrap Of food OF bedding or extra
clothing. were taken up where they
were dropped at midnight The ap.
pointed committees met and got their
work well in hand. Before Z O'Clock
In the morning the construction train,
loaded with bridge material for the
repair of the bridge across the Grind
stone river Mt Hinckley, came up
from Rush City.
A couple Of hundred loavcs of bread
and other light provision were placed
OH board in charge of Judge j. e.,
Nctlaway of saltwater, representing
the relief committee a party OF labor
crs to dig graves and inter the bodies
was collected, and the train proceeded
into the burned country. At Hinck-
ley the provisions We're loaded on to
a hand car manned by Judge Netha-
way and a volunteer crew, and n start
was made across the shaky bridge to
Miller, nine miles further north, where
are reported a dozen or more dead
and three or four times as many
hungry and homeless. From Miller
they expect to work cast to Sandstone.
about five miles across the country on
the Eastern Minnesota railroad, where
there are between forty and fifty dead
and couple Of hundred living who
were saved in Kettle river and in the
great Sandstone quarrics. About IL
O'Clock the bridge was sufficiently re-.
paired to admit the passage of train
and an engine, freight car and caboose,
with a plentiful supply of food and a
mcager store of cotfins in charge of
Undertaken OHalloan of st. Paul
was sent north.
AT iiinckley the visible situation had
not materially improved over night,
The thirty or forty caskets and boxes
with their grueSome contents still Law
alongside the track, where they were
placed last night. No attempt had
been made to dress or embalm the
bodies, and they were already grow.
ing very offensive. Fortunately tho
day was cool and cloudy, and grateful
showers fell at intervals during the
forenoon. The remains Of the dead.
however, We're in such horribly
blistercd and burned condition that de.
composition rapidly set In. Under.
taker J. G. Donnclly Of st. Paul was
on the ground and he advised that tho
bodies he Iut under Mother Earth as
rapidly as possible. Every attempt at
identification lad been exhausted
From these bodies by the track the of.
hcers of the Duluth road had removed
and carefully preserved every trinket
and article of .jewclry, and even shoes
ana scraps of clothing, placing those
from each body in a receptacle num-
oSASu iuehtISdJiy Wltn the clSket. SO
that possibly when the refugees return
they may recognize them and know
whether their friends have been in.
tered
Out In the little cemetery. a mile
east Of town. was II scene which
words are absolutely powcrless to de-
scribe. At best the little spot would
be as dreary as could he we'll i'm
aglned. 1t is on top Of n rough sandy
Knoll, where nature ts seen at her
worst. and absolutely no attempt to-
ward artificial establishment has ever
been made.
There were only few little sandy.
Hnsodded mounds before. Now. with
the blackened, fire-scarrcd stulpps an,.
fallen trunks Of trees all about, 1t pre-.
sented an appearance of dcsolatiop
hard to describe. But in the center OF
the open was tho crowning horror. In
an indiscriminate heap lay more than
ninety corpscs, men. women aud little
children. Some burned crisp. others
only Drowned by the heat, and none
with fragment Of clothing larger