Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-02
e. P. WALBRIDGE, Mayor"
The Situation to Date.

St. Louis, June 1.-At o'clock this aft ernoon the Chronicle compiled the follow ing table as the latest list of fatalities:
 Known dead in St. Louis, 196.
 Unknown deaddn St. Louis, s.
 Fatally injured in St. Louis, IS.
 Missing in St. Louis, 11S.
 Known dead in East St. Louis, 145.
 Unknown dead in East St. Louis, 3.
 Fatally injured in East St. Louis, 2.
 Total fatalities, 490.
 The railroad yards on the east side of the river are being rapidly placed in good condition. On this side the damage to railroads was considerably less and the repairs are going on.
 Plans for reconstruction of the round and freight houses that were blown down and crushed to pieces are being made.
 The footway over the Eads bridge was made ready for pedestrians this after noon, and it is thought the driveway for wagons will be ready by tomorrow or next day.
 The electric line over the bridge will not be ready for traffic for several days yet, but trains will run over the bridge every twenty minutes.
 Professor Bauman, an expert insurance adjuster of Chicago, is in the city, and after looking over the field he said the total losses will foot up over $20,000,00 Professor Bauman adjusted the losses caused by the Louisville tornado about five years ago.
 mass meeting of citizens has been called for tomorrow evening to consider the advisability of appealing for outside aid for the relief of the storm sufferers. One of the peculiar features of the storm is the long list of missing persons report ed at police headquarters. Up to this morning 124 persons were reported miss ing The police incline to the belief that many of these will be found with relatives in other portions of the city.
 The situation in East St. Louis Is one of gloom and misery. There is some fear expressed of an epidemic of disease among the homeless near the river. Un- der the ruins is vast quantity of decay ing animal and vegetable matter, which is sending pestilential clouds up through the debris. The sufferers are weak from exposure and exertion, and are in no con- dition to fight the malaria that is breed ing on the island Another problem is the almost unanimous refusal of the Suf- ferers to leave their belongings and occu- py the military tents which have been pitched at Brighton. In spite of the pres ence of the militia, they fear their goods are not safe, and refuse to leave unpro- tected all their earthly belongings.
 Chief of Police Clancy has taken ex- treme precautions to prevent vandalism, and early this morning 150 tramps were rounded up and driven out of town.
 The chairmen of the four relief dis tricts established in the southern por- II. headquarters $5000 this morning for inn mediate distribution. AS much clothing and supplies as were on hand were sent to the district headquarters to be doled out as called for. What is needed most are shoes, bandage cloth, children's cloth- ing and ladies' underwear. Necessary furniture and cottons, together with dry bedding are also much called for. The situation as to street car service is stead fly improving. All lines are now run ming except Scullins, Cherokee, Tower Grove and California avenue branches of the Union Depot Railway company. The convention auditorium has been re- paired, and was turned over to the Busi- ness Mems league today.
 At the poor house temporary repairs have been made. The ruined chapel is boarded up and the male paupers quar- tered there. The pauper hospital has been abandoned and the sick transferred to the insane hospital.
 Much to the surprise of the police there has been less crime in St. Louis since the tornado than before, notwithstanding that the city has been in darkness, and that 1t was reported that hundreds of crooks from foreign cities had fiocked to St. Louis Chief Detective Desmond, in an interview today, said that during Sun day night there was not one report of a theft in the wrecked district.
 The river gives up its dead slowly, and the statisticians at work on the list of cyclone fatalities have not yet reached an estimate of the number lost in the great waterway. They know certainly that five were lost on the steamer J. J. Odill and know others whose identity remains a mystery were positively seen to disappear during the tornado. The river captains and patrolmen along the levee say that conservative estimate of the number of rousta bouts in shanty dwellings and flat boat residents who lost their lives in the storm is less than twenty.