Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-09-07
REACTION HAS COME.
The Excitement Being Over, a Dull,
Lethargic Grief Siezes the
Survivors.
PINE CITY IS A HOSPITAL,
Hospltable Citizens Lend Much Aid.
Relief Committees Have the
Work Well in Hand.

PINE City, MINI, Sept. AFTER tie
deluge what? The reaction has come at
Hinckley. The excitement which has
buoyed up SO many Of the survivors
even in the face of the fact that so
many relatives and friends had persisted
in the fiery flood has passed away and
dull, lethargic grief has taken it's place.
The uninjured refugees at Pine City
and there are several hundred Of them
stand about the street corners in little
knots and 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 at first supposed to
have persisted are all discussed with the
same benumbed air, expressing neither
sorrow and despair in the one case or
citation and joy in the other. The
night was a very gloomy one.
The hospital patients demanded the
attention of the physicians all night
and the only druggist in Pine City was
kept busy until daylight filling per-
scriptions and supplying lotions, for
most of the injuries were burns, more
or less serious. By morning all were in
a state Of comparative comfort, and
there were none whose hurts were
deemed fatal. Among the good citi-
zens of Pine City who had opened their
hearts, their homes and their public
buildings to their stricken neighbors,
all was hustle and activity. The town
hall was kept open all night and coffee
and plain fare served to all corners.
Relief Committee at Work.
The court house, the school house and
many a private home was thrown open.
Every blanket in 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. Before daylight the town was
astir. The arrangements for the relief
of the destitute further up the line,
where hundreds Of men, women and
children are not only homeless, but alb
solutely without a scrap of food, or bed
ding or extra clothing, were taken up
where they were dropped at midnight.
The appointed committees met and
got their work well in hand. Be-
fore z o'clock in the morning
the construction train, loaded with
bridge material for the repair Of the
bridge across the Grindstone river at
Hinckley, came up from Rush City. A
couple of hundred loaves of bread and
other light provisions were placed on
board in charge of Judge J.. g. Netha-
way, of Saltwater, representing the re-
lief committee. A party of laborers to
dig graves and inter the bodies was col
lected. and the train proceeded into the
burned country.
Provisions Sent by Hand Car.
At Hinckiey the provisions were
loaded onto a handcar manned by Judge
Nethaway and a volunteer crew, and a
start was made across the shaky bridge
to Miller, nine miles further north,
where a dozen or more are dead and
three or four times as many hungry and
homeless. From Miller they expect to
work east to Sandstone, about five miles
across the country on the Eastern Min
nesota railroad, where there are be.
tween forty-fve and fifty dead and a
couple Of hundred living who were
saved in Kettle river and in the great
sandstone quarries.
About II o'clock the bridge was sufi.
GENTLY repaired to admit the passage OF
a train, and an engine, freight car and
caboose, with a plentiful supply Of food
and a meagre store Of collins, was sen
north.
At Hinckley the visible situation had
not changed over night. The thirty OF
forty caskets and boxes with their grue
some contents still lay alongside the
track, where they were placed Sunday
night. No attempt had been made tc
dress or embalm the bodies, and they
were already growing very offensive.
Fortunately Monday was cool anc
cloudy, and grateful showers fell at in
tervals during the forenoon, The re
mains Of the dead, however, were il
such a horribly blistered and burned
condition that decomposition rapidly SCI
in. Undertakers advised that the bodie!
be put under mother earth as rapidly al
possible.
All Attempts at Identification Futile.
From these bodies by the track til,
officials Of the Duluth road had re
moved and carefully preserved ever,
trinket and article of jewelry, and eve1
shoes and scraps Of clothing, placing
those from each body in a recepticl
numbered identically with the casket
SO that possibly when the refugees re
turn they may recognize them ant
know whether their friends have beel
Out in the little cemetery q mile cas-
of town, was a scene which
, Word are Powerless to Describe.
At best the little spot would be a
dreary as could well be imagined. I
10 on ron IF a rouuh condr lrno11 xr,ho,.