St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-09-04
st. Paul, Minneapolis and Other Cities
Coming to the Rescue With Pro-
visions and Clothing.
More Than One Thousand OF the Refu-
gees Flock to Duluth--Story Of
the Great Disaster.

meager store of coffins. in charge of
Undertaken OHa!loran, of st. Paul, was
sent north.
At Hinckley the visible situation had
not materially improved over night.
The thirty or forty caskets and boxes
with their gruesome contents still lay
alongside the track, where they were
placed last night. No attempt what
ever had been made to dress or
embalm the bodies, and they were
already growing very offensive. For
tunately the day was cool and cloudy.
and grateful showers fell at intervals
during the forenoon. The remains of
the dead, however, were in such a
horribly blistered and burned condition
that decomposition rapidly set in.
Undertaken J. g. DonneIly. nf st. Paul,
was on the ground, and he advised that
the bodies be put
Under Mother Earth
as rapidly as possible. Every attempt
at Identification had been exhausted.
From these bodies by the track the
officials of the Duluth road had removed
and carefully preserved every trinket
and article of jewelry. and even shoes
and scraps of clothing. placing those
from each body in receptacle mum.
bered identically with the casket, so
that possibly when the refugees return
they may recognize them and know
whether their friends have been
inferred.
Out IN the little cemetery mile easl
OF town was a scene which words are
absolutely poweriess to describe. At
best the little spot would be as dreary
as could well be imagined. 1t Is on top
OF rough sandy knoll. where nature is
seen at her worst. and absolutely 10 at
tempt toward artificial establishment
has ever been made. There were only
few little sandy unsodded mounds be-
fore. Now wi tn the blackened, fire.
Scared stumps and fallen trunks of
trees all about, it presented An appear
ance of deSolatlon hard to describe.
But in the center Of the open was the
Growing horror. In an iudiscriminate
heap lay more than ninety corpses,
men, women and little children. Some
burned crisp, others only Drowned by
the heat, and none with fragment of
clothing larger than a mans haad to
conceal
Their Awful Nakedncss.
Some were mere trunks, the extrem-
tiles having been burned off. Some
were bloated until the abdomen had
cracked open and the intestine were
protruding. Skulls were burned open
and brains escaping; all were twisted
and cramped in agony of death that
had overtaken them.
A force of men was quickly at work
digging shallow trench along the
south end Of the cemetery. The sandy
soil was hard as flint. 1t had been
been baked to crust by weeks of
drought and almost solidified by the
fire. The work progressed slowly. Off
in the cornerof the clearing two smaller
graves were being dug. One was for
Mrs. William Grissinger and her two
baby girls, Caroline. aged, six, and
Mabel, aged three. The husband and
father had recognized them in the
grisly heap, and was hari at work pre-
pairing for them fnai resting place
apart from the Trench designed for the
unidentified, his labors dulling for the
time the acuteness of his anguish, The
other grave.wa for the Best family.
whose nunl0sFs make
Their Destruction Notable
even In this time Of death: John Best