Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-05-28

sible TO send out any more messages to-
night from St. Louis or its vicinity.
The reports regarding the duration
of the storm are conflicting. About s
o'clock the operator on the Wabash
road at a small station not far from
East st. Louis managed to get the
operator at Decatur, Ills, long enough
TO send him word that the round house
of the Wabash road was blown down,
and that the freight house of the Van
dalia was wrecked and thirty-fve men
were killed in the ruins. After he had
told this much
THE WIRE FAILED HIM.
Shortly after o'clock the Wabash
operator at Decatur reported to the
main dispatcher's office at Forest, Ills,
that a cyclone had just passed through
the county to the south of Decatur, and
it was reported to have done great dam
age. In a few minutes he sent word
that a second storm had passed through
the country almost exactly in the track
of the first and that he was unable TO
get any more information regarding it,
but that it was thought to have done
great damage in the country lying east
of East st. Louis.
The operators on the Alton road
were unable to get any information
from their men in the neighborhoOd of
ST. Louis, but reported that just bsfora
all their connections with that city
were broken off they had received word
that there had been a severe cyclone at
Rush Hill. Mo, which is a small town
on the Alton road not far from Mexico,
Mo.
The dispatchers' Office of the Illinois
Central were unable all night to get
any information from any point on thsir
line south of Centralia. 1t was reported
to them. however, that a cyclone had
swept through all the country south of
that point
AT East St. Louis the destruction
seems greatest. H. C. Rice. the West
ern Union manager at the Relay depot
on the east side, climbed across the de-
molished bridge and made his way into
st. Louis. He reports that the National
hotel, the fremont house. MarteA
house, DeWcif cafe, the plant of tbs
Hexel Milling company. Horns cooper
shop and a great number of other build
ings are blown down. Many dwellings
are wrecked and many of their occu-
pants are known to be dead. The Van
dalia round house, the Yandalia fright
house., in which 80 msn
ARE SAID TO HAVE BEEN KILLED,
the B. & o. round house. the Standard
oil works, East st. Louis elevator. Cres-
cent elevator. and twelve o,her freight
houses on the levee are destroyed.
The Great Republic and several other
excursion steamers with all on board
are reported to have gone down, and
th1re is but one boat now at the levee
Of all which were there before the storm
came. 1t is difficult to estimate the
number of dad and wounded, but
rough estimate would place the number
at about one thousand. Both the West
ern Union and Postal companies have
lost every wire out of the city.
After sending this brief dispatch the
telegraph wire failed.
One of the worst features OF the dis
aster is thought 10 have taksn place at
the race track at ST. Louis where races
were in full swing, and
the grand stand was
crowded with people. Returns from the
St. Louis races are received at the track
at Lakeside. Ind, and al few minutes
after O'Clock the operator sending the
report Of the races stopped his work
long enough to remark: There goes the
grand stand" and then his wire col
lapsed, and nothing more was hsard