The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1896-10-08
PERISH
GREAT LOSS OF LIFE In THE WEST
INDIA STORM.
Many Are
Wrecked and Their Crews, YUM
bering Hundreds Of Men, Are No
Doubt LOst-The Bodies of n Num-
Der of SpOngcrs Are Washed
ida.

Jacksonville. Fla. Oct. 4. - Cedar
Keys is a place of deSOiation and
death. F~orty-eight hours ago it was
Il thriving town of 1900 inhabitants.
To-day many of the people are corpses.
scores of others are injured and there
are but few houses standing. Twenty
corpSeS have been recovered. but few
are identified. so mutilated were they
by falling tinlhers. Many Of the
corpses We're dug out of the mud i'm
which they were buried by the mighty
tidal wave that swept over the town
Tuesday morning. The town is situat-
ed at the mouth of the Sewanee river
on a number of small keys connected
by a number of bridges. 1t had no
protection and went to pieces when
h West India hurricane, with Il We
l0rity of eighty miles an hour. came
roaring from the gulf.
AT I O'Clock an immense tidal wave
came in from the south. carrying de-
struction with il. Boats. wharves and
small houses we're hurled upon the
shore, and. breaking into fragments.
covered the streets with wrCckage and
rendered them almost impossible.
While the torrent of water was rush
ing through every open space il would
Toxic the strongest man off his feet. 1t
was this tidal wave that caused the
principal loss Of life, many houses be-
ing swept from their foundations and
the inmates drowned.
The loss of life ut Cedar KEYS nron-
en- is as nothing in comparison with
the number of SpOngerS and fishermen
who were drowned. The Mary Eliza
came in this morning dismasted. She
reports that at dark Monday night
nearly II hundred vessels were
anchored on the sponge bar below
Cedar Keys. and that all Of them but
about twenty We're lost. These boats
carried from ten To twenty men each.
and the loss of life was great. Eight
corpseS have already been washed
ashore. The schooner Rosalia was
sunk and eight of her crew drowned.
Beyond the bar there are n score of
mastS visible just above the water.
and each top indicates the burial place
OF Il sponging schooner and it's crew.
1t is possible that many vessels were
blown out into the Surfe and rode out
the hurricane. but the Mary Eliza's
captain thinks that by far the greater
number are beneath the water with
their crews. He says that there was
not n chance in q thousand for such
trail craft to live in such n hurricane.
Two gentlemen who went down the
coast a few miles this morning re-
turned to Cedar Keys and reported
nndlng the cOrpSeS of eight men
washed ashore. These men were the
crew OF n spOnging vessel. and the
crews of most of the other vessels
have undoubtedly met a similar fate.
1t is expected that for days to come
corpseS of the spongers will be found
along the coast.
Exclusive of the hundreds of spong-
ers supposed to have been drowned off
Cedar Keys, the death list in the state
proper bids fair to reach 100. and the
property loss will run into the millions.
The people seem to be paralyZed by
the calamity that has ovcrtakcn them.
M this is reflected in the accounts
sent in of the storms work. In the
majority of cases nothing like a de-
tailed description il attempted, and in
but few instances are the names of
the dead given. 1t is inferred from
this that the majority of those killed.
outside of Cedar Keys and the points
at which school children were the vic
TINS. were negroes employed on the,
turpentinc farms.