Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-06-06
THE ST. LOUIS HORROR.

Later Reports Fully Confirm the Terrors of
tho storm-searching for the DeAd-Get-
ting at the Facts.
ST. LOUIS, May 29.-When darkness
temporarily interrupted the search for
storm victims last night, 315 people
were known to be dead on both sides
of the river, and although the COM
plete death list will never be known,
it is believed that it will approximate
400 in the two cities The number of
the injured is even larger and many
of the MANNED cannot survive The
property loss will reach well into the
millions. but insurance people, fire
men and police alike refuse to hazard
even a guess at accurate figures The
miles of wrecked buildings, as yet UNI
explored, and the numerous collapsed
factories, toward the investigation of
which little has been made, may hide
almost any number of bodies, as the
police have been unable to secure any
thing like an accurate list of the miss
ing.
In the factory districts many of the
employees on duty at the time the storm
broke were without relatives in the
city, and their disappearance would
scarcely be noted, even though they
be buried in the ruins 1t is believed
by the police, too, that, owing to the
came, many tramps and homeless ones
sought shelter among the buildings
which were leveled. and that nothing
will be known of their death until per-
haps weeks hence their bodies are
found The list of known dead in ST.
Louis is 169 and in East St. Louis 146.
Hundreds of homes are in ruins, doz-
ems of manufacturing plants and doz-
ems of business houses are wrecks,
many steamboats, are gone to the bot
tom of the river and others are dis
mantled. Railroads of all kinds have
suffered great loss and wire and pole
using companies have weeks of toll
and large expenditures of money to
face before they will be in satisfactory
shape again. The most furious work
of the storm was along Rutger street,
Lafayette and Chouteau avenues and
the contiguous thoroughfares east of
jefferson avenue. The houses are in
the streets, with the roofs underneath,
buried by brick and mortar. Under
the brick and mortar are household
goods of every description, and
on top of all are uprooted trees and
tangled masses of wires There is not
tree nor a building standing in Lafay-
cite park. The wreck of the city hos
pital is so surrounded by wreckage
Many of the handsome residences on
Fourteenth street and about Lafayette
park are ruined, but the most damage
was done on Sixth, Seventh, Eighth
and Ninth and south along Chouteau
avenue, in the tenement house dis
trict Many churches also suffered
from the storm. The path of the
storm is about a half mile wide and
over four miles long. sweeping through
the thickly populated southwest por-
ton of Eastland and across the river
in to East ST. Louis
Col Wetmore, manager of the Lig-
gett s. Myers tobacco plaut, which was
wrecked, estimates the en- tire property
damage at So, 900. 600, which will be,
he says, almost a total loss, owing to
the lack of cyclone insurance. Other
estimates range from SIS. 600. 600 to $780,.
0O0, 600, but the ma ority of them are
close to that made by Col. Wetmore:
The following official statement has
been furnish ed the Associated press:
1.-THE convention auditorium was
practically uninjured by the great
storm, the only damage being that
some of the light roof covering on the
southeast corner of the building was
blown off. The damage can all be re-
paired in very few days. There is
not the slightest doubt but that the
building will be perfectly restore d
and in first-class condition long before
the day the convention is to meet"
ACROSS THE RIVER
EAST ST. LOUIS, May 29.-This
city is in ruins. The tornado which
swept down upon the city Wednesday
night obliterated block after block of
business houses and dwellings,, and
left behind in its red trail of death
scores of human beings buried beneath
| the walls of hattened buildings or
crushed to death in the streets by the
flying debris The improvised morgues
and hospitals are fairly choked
with dead, some crushed and bat
| tered out of all human shape,
and through them flow a steady
stream of hysterical women and grim
faced men looking for their missin G
ones. 1t is almost impossible to make
accurate estimates of those killed. At
the various morgues and at St Mary's
hospital there are sd Six are in the
Big -Four freight house ruins How
many more there are scattered about
the city in private houses it is impossi-
BILE to tell, but conservative estima tie
| would place the total mum Der at at
least $50. The scene is simply
| appalling. From the river bank
to the National stock yards,
a distance of over mile,
scarcely a building is left standing.
The greatest slaughter was done or
the island, SO called. Here were To-
Gated the Vandalia freight house and
general office OF the river boats
warehouse and humble abodes OF
/ yorlxiuomen NOTHING is left STANDING