Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-09-15
THE TRACK OF The FLAMES
Awful Spectacle Of DesO'atlOn and
Death.
CITY of Minneapolis Sends Out a
Relief Train.

ca mad ms Reported ut Pine Cts" 4
s,cLenlnC sights at Hinkiey and VI
cinIty---FIye Hundred VICTIMS
Thought to Be - Con-
ssryative Estimate.
ufycKLry. MINI. Sept 4-The spe.
cial train sent out by the citlzehs W
Minneapolis bearing supplies D iheu
zeal relief 10 the sufferers OF hihch'ey
aud vicinity had on eleven physiciahs
a nd rgeon with n full supply o
and instruments and htty can vas
cots. Pine City was the main obJectiVe
point. for il was there that reliet par
Ties were to be distributed and tempo
rary hospitals nad been opened.
The medical committee was met
at the depot by the heroic niue
wife OF DR.. Barnum, the local physl'
elan, who with her husband had been
working day and night for the nre
victims until both were almost COM
pletely worn out. The platform was
crowded with people, with ~olaekened
and Scared faces and bandaged hands
and arms, bearing pathetic witness OF
their terrible experience. Near the
edge of the platform rested a coffin box
in which were enclosed the
remains of what was once the
general passenger agent OF the Ninni'
peg and Duluth road, Rowlcy. Inc
poor fellow was one OF the passengers
on Conductor Jim Roots Inflated train
and his body was found yesterday
morning n short distance from the
burned train, but so charred and dis
figured that its identity was only es-
tablished by the name printed on the
inside of the burned fragment OF a
linen collar.
Notwithstanding the reports re-
ceived, matters relating 10 the number
and condition of the wounded and the
necessity for, supplies rave been greatly
mlsrepresented, as far as Pine City is
concerned. Instead of 200 wounded
10 be cared for there are about 20 and
many OF these had not been seriously
hurt. All the injured have been
brought in, ard it is learned
hat even those at Duluth
scarcely numbered those at Pine
City. 1t seems as though it was a
clean cut case of either life or death.
Most of those who escaped did so with
out any physical hurt while those who
were unable 30 escape persisted. The
most serious and dangerous cases in
Pine City mad been taken to ~improyised
hospitals at the rink, and here nine of
the medical relief set TO work while
the other two went on TO liincklev.
Only about twelve patients were being
cared for Mt the rink, but all in
all they presented IA pitiful and
heartrending spectacle. The poor
blackened, blistered faces, the burned
and sightless eyes, the parched and
swollen lips feebly moaning all the
time and the bandagel hands tossing
in restless agony to and fro made a
sight that might well weaken the
strongest man. If the individual expe-
rience that each had passed through
were TO be related with all their
graphic and heartrending details and
%agonizing gaspings and fearful means
for lost ones who had persisted il would
make such Il volume as few people
could bear to read. iiairbreadth es-
capes and providential interpretations
were told until one felt that the
miracle was not that this or that one
was saved, but that any could possibly
have escaped. Nearly all of the
patients were Scandinavians.
None of the cases at the rink are
considered especially dangerous except
two. The first Is that of Mrs. Wester-
land, who saw her husband and
baby drowned before her eyes.
The intense mental shock and the
rurv Huereu ner recovery ox.
tremely doubtful. The other Il
that of Mrs. NJ. A. Greenfield. who IL
terribly burned about the abdomen and
is raving maniac besides. Mrs. Ma.
tlida olson was another dangerouslv
burned patient. She too lost five chill.
dren and her husband. but jumped into
,he RIVER ana managed To save her own
= 70 wen as '"h1 ~ a man nearly
su~focateo' whom she c.rercd with q
blanket. '' .
beaving the hospital scenes e.,
United Press reporter Detook himself
to the public square, where tho state
had pitched fifty army tents as shelter
tor the homeless. Not more than a
oe<sn of these were occupied, however,
DC mental and bodily condition of
.nose "-thin was in marked contrast
10 the suh>yers he mad left. None of
.n.se hau lot relatives, although all
haa los. MONIES epd property.
Leaving Plne Cies the United Press
correspondent wehta Hinckley, thir-
teen miles distant, on a h>ndcor Words
utterly fail to describe tn .;aso,a,;aa
that marked the country ON eS.n 49,
rs he nearcd the place of the te..;hIa
disaster. Yesterday morning, ~
miles the other side of Hinckley, n LITTLE
live calf was picked up. How it came
there or how il could ever have es.
capped in such a hell swept region no
one knows. Not u vestige is left stand.
ing OF the town except the charred
walls of the school house and relief
house and a couple of iron safes. A,
the time of .his writing 200 bodies have
been gathered. Prof Hayes OF
the Hincltley schools himself found
by actual count III corpses
Sunday and eight more today. by this
time most of them have been buried.
1t was only towards evening that
friends and relatives began to come In
from Duluth and other points to assist
In the sad services. Other bodies are
being found constantly in groups oil
eight or ten and when all the outlying
farming districts are heard from it will,
be n low estimate that places the list
OF dead ut be tween 400 and 500.