Birmingham state herald., 1896-05-30
ACTUAL LOSS IS S1O,OOO,OO0
BfadStreet's Underwriters This Estimate After Receiving Figures From Reliable Sources.
PLEASE DON'T BE so ROUGH" CRIED HE
An Incident Which Fell Like Ray of Sun- shine Upon the Ruins-East St. Louis Shaking Off Her Stupor-Eads
 Bridge Repaired.

St Louis, May 29.-The Business Mems
 league this morning issued a statement
 to the country to the effect that the dis
 aster will in no way interfere with the
 arrangements already made for the re-
 publican convention or the housing and
 entertainment of the delegates. Despite the exaggerated stories that were given
 circulation during the hours immediate
 ly following the calamity it should now
 be definitely known through the country
 that only narrow strip across the Mill
 Creek valley was devastated, and that
 the principal portion of the city is un-
 scathed. The damage to the structure
 in which the convention is to be held is
 much less than at first anticipated and
 will not exceed $15O0, and repairs can be
 completed by the end of next week.
 None of the large hotels were injured
 in any way and the section of the city
 that felt the brunt of the storm includes
 but a handful of houses that have been
 placed in the list of contingent extra ac-
 commodations for visitors. More than
 nineteenth of the houses so listed coV-
 cred radius of from half a mile to two
 miles west of the auditorium and are in
 a district entirely outside the path of the
 storm.
 Up to noon today Coroner Wallace had
 held eighty inquests In each case
 stereotyped verdict setting forth the fact
 that deceased had come to his or her
 death by injuries received as the result
 of the tornado was returned. About the
 same number of bodies were reviewed by
 the coroner in East St. Louis.
 While workmen were working In the
 ruins of one of the tenements at Sew
 enth and Rutger streets, where so much
 I ,foT xFntn
 out, Please don't be so rough An opening was quickly made in the debris above the spot whence the voice issued and through it's depths a 10-year-old
 boy, leading three girls about the same age appeared. All were uninjured, all though they were weak from hunger and confinement for nearly forty-eight hours. A shout of joy went up from the crowd and before the police could ascertain any names the little ones had been car ried away. Some, one asked the boy as he was disappearing how he came to be so lucky and he piped in childish ac- cents: Just fell in a soft place
 General Manager E. P. Bryan of the Terminal association announced at noon | that all trains are running as usual over. | the Eads bridge, and that the upper or | pedestrian roadway will be in shape by | Wednesday. He adds that the loss is | not as great as at first reported, and | the UCIdl sudI1dSe lO stock and bridge will not exceed $100,0O l No fault in construction, but purely the | frightful velocity of the wind at that | particular point, was responsible for the damage occasioned.
 | East St. Louis is waking from it's stu DOT of terror and things are beginning now to shape themselves to the ameliora- | tion of the condition of the afflicted and | the preservation of the property left after | the work of the hurricane.
 | relief committee has been formed, I with an auxiliary woman's corps. Money | is being subscribed, the town Is thor | oughly policed with local constabulary and two companies of militia, streets are | being cleared, homes made habitable, | and a feeble effort at being cheerful is | being made by the townspeople.
 | There are two companies of national | guards in the city. One from Belleville, | Company D, under Captain Rogers. ar | rived at 2 a. m., and company from | Greenville, under Captain Harris, ar rived this morning. Thursday the latter | body was at Birkner helping remove the I dead and injured in that place to the | county farm.
 l About fifty extra policemen were sworn | in by the chief, and these, with the regu- | lar force and the militia, are ample to | guard all the exposed property.
 l Hundreds of homeless persons slept in | the open air last night. The public l buildings were thrown open for the ac- l commodation of the destitute, and these | places were crowded to their capacity. | Food for the hungry was furnished lib- | erally by citizens and keepers of restau- | rants in the neighborhood of these tenn | porary shelters.
 l The property loss in this city is grow 1 ing. Bradstreet's agency on figures ob- | tained from reliable sources reports that | 10,000, 900 will amply cover the financial l loss. It is reported moreover that Dun's | agency of New York denies the state
 ment printed by the morning papers that it had placed the total destruction of | property at s50000000.
 The principal losses are in the district | between Russell and Chouteau avenues,
 Jefferson avenue and the river, and the | story of the tornado is told more graph | ically than in words by the tables show ing that in this stretch of territory alone
 no less than TOGO residences were either | totally or partially damaged | The situat ton among the east side rail- | roads, while very serious, might be worse. | The freight yards of every line on the | river front were completely covered with | overturned cars and the wreckage of the | freights, but the superintendents, with | large gangs of workmen, set to work at an early hour yesterday morning to clear l the tracks and by evening the Wabash, | the Cloverleaf, the Ohio and Mississippi and the Baltimore and Ohio routes. am | nOuHCeQ IndC tuey were III Sildpe tO Ie- | ceive freight at their yards on the east | side. The Illinois Central, the Vandalia, | the Louisville and Nashville and the Big l Four were the chief sufferers on the river | front, but the Vandalia and Louisville | and Nashville have each commodious de- | pots on this side of the river in the north | end, the capacity of which is now being | fully tested. The Louisville, Evansville | and St. Louis is receiving freight today. 1 The Illinois Central succeeded in clearing | it's tracks during the night The destruc- 1 tfon in East St. Louis was mainly in the | business portion. The fine residence sec | tions on Pennsylvania and Baugh streets | and Eighth, Ninth and Tenth streets are comparatively untouched. They are sit- uateds in a lower altitude than the island, which is, entirely covered by wreckage. Here's Crumb of Comfort. Norfolk, Va, May 2S-The greatest po-