The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-05-30
JAM AT ST. LOUIS
Thousands Of Visitors CrOwd1ng
Into the City.
Hotels Overtaxed and Putting
In Cots.
CYCLONE DISTRICTS
So Crowded By Sightseers That
Rescue Corps
Can Scarcely Perform Their
More Coming.

d. LDu4ss MAY oO---4 A4G IAAAS ff4A~AN
at first it was not thought there We're
any dead bodies. are now yielding them
UP. 1t was said by the officials at the
city hospital the day after the storm,
that no one was crushed in the ruins.
They are now beginning to change
their minds.
1t has been aseertained that so to Is
patients and four or five employees are
missing. Until this morning practical
ly nothing towards exploring the ruins
had been done. But a large force of
men We're put to work there at day
This was done only at the loud de-
mands of the people who had friends
at the hospital during the storm and
who have not been heard since Faith
er kenrick of St Vincent's church, who
has been attending to the spiritual
wants Of patients in the hospital for
years. says that so bodies viii be taken
out, if not more. The demand for
houses and flats by those who were
rendered homeless by Wednesdays
tornado is great and real estate men
think there are not sufficient vacant
houses in St. Louis to supply the needs /
of the people.
More than half of the available sup
ply has been exhausted and the real
estate offices are besiegedf by applicants
for quarters 1t is estimated that 1000
homes were so damaged as to render
them uninhabitaDle. Real estate agents
say that the number of vacant houses
and fats at the time Of the storm would
not exceed 5000 and in any event some
families viii have to go temporarily
without shelter or depend upon their
more fortunate neighbors.
DR.. StarlziOff fears to say how many
are dead under the Wreckage. DR. Sut-
ter estimates the number at rs but
would not be surprised if it runs over
that figure.
ELECTRICAL WRECKAGE.
Expert workmen, Hnemen. electric
ld1E- ground men and t9.nOTaTeS
being imported from neighboring cities
ia large numbers to reconstruct the
broken telephone, telegraph and cleo
tic light lines Car loads Of telegraph
p-sess aTe larrpe ela -eFio-ls
electrical apparatus, are arriving ana
with the stocks constantly carried by
the various companies furnish mater
ial for thousands of Workmen. The
Bell Telephone cOmpany's wires along
the course of the storm are total loss.
The company carries a heavy supply
and were enabled to start 500 men at
work yesterday. A conservative esti-
mate of the Bell Phone cOmpany's loss
The Postal Telegraph company got
off with a loss of $4,000, their damage
being of such nature that it is being
easily repaired.
The Western Union has 500 men in
East St Louis untangling wreckage
preparatory to repairing losses, the ex-
tent of which the officials cannot esti-
mate. Another gang of workmen is
on the line of the Missouri Pacific rail
road, where the loss is also great They
had temporary circuits working last
night but fully a month viii elapse be-
fore the damage is permanently re
paired
Twenty first class operators are ex-
pected from Chicago to relieve the
nearly exhausted force in the central
office An estimate of the loss is un-
Obtainable as the officers of the COM
amount may reach. At this writing
the company has one quadruplex work
ing to New York, four to Chicago one
to Omaha, three to Kansas City and
one to Cincinnati They also have three
wheatstOne circuits, two of which are
to Chicago and the other to Kansas
City
SIGHTSEERS BY THOUSANDS.
The storm has attracted to St. Louis
an enormous crowd. The streets are
thronged with strangers night and day.
The hotels are taxed almost to their
utmost capacity to care for the guests
Some of the big down town hOstelries
have had to put cots in the rooms to
meet the extraordinary demand for ac-
For the past three days all the rail
road trains into St. Louis from every
direction have been loaded to the
guards with passengers. The union sta
ton is jammed constantly with NOV
ing, eager. restless mass of humanity
In the rush of visitors there are about
as many women as men
Apparently all the towns within a ra-
dius of 100 miles of St Louis have emp
tied their populations here and thou
sands have come from far beyond that
limit Most of the strangers are drawn
here by curiosity, but a great many of
them come to look after relatives and
friends. The devastated district in
South St Louis has a particular fasci-
nation for the visitors. Thousands of
them throng the Lafayette park region
and really impede the work Of rescue
and repair by crOWding around the
wrecked buildings and climbing over
tOttering walls and heaps of debris that
the rescue corps really fear to ap-
DrOach too near.
The scene throughout the wrecked
district last night was a peculiar one.
I'D to 10 o'clock it was in unbrOken
darkness, save here and there where a
dim lamp sent faint CLEANS outward.
indicating the few houses which had
not suffered to such an extent as to be
uninha bitable- These seemed but to
accentuate the gloom Of the surround
ings. Constantly passing to and fro
were shadOWy forms, sometimes alone,
but more often in tWOs. and indicatin~
their progress could sometimes be heard
faint metallic clicks. which to those ia
miIiar with the sounds indicated the
presence of the militia.
The frequent rapping Of night sticks
lar police whose numbers had been in
creased as far as possible, consistent
with the adequate protection Of the bal
ance of the city The two elements of
protection were on very good terms.
stopping whenever they met and ex-
changed reports and advices. The po-