The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-06-04
Thursday Mornings Sun Rose on a Sad
Scene in st. Louis.

st. Louis, May 2S.-When the sun rose
on st. Louis and vicinity this morning il
\ showed scene of terrible ruin and dis
aster. Wind, rain and fire had COM
bined in a mission of destruction. Two
| hundred lives were lost in this city and
as many more were killed in East st.
| Louis, while thousands were injured,
many of them so seriously that they
will not recover. The exact number will
not be known for several days and per-
| haps never, for the debris of ruined
buildings all over the city covers hun
dreds of human beings and will long
leave traces in that part of the city
which lies east of Scventhieth and north
of Carr streets to the Eads bridge.
The boats of the wharf We're torn from
their moorings and capsized or set adrft.
The cloud crossed the river and de
molished the upper work at the east end
of the bridge and then wreaked its fury
on East st. Louis.
Shortly after q o'clock. with the sun
more than an hour above the western
horizon, there settled upon the city
clouds so dense that daylight quickly
gave place to the darkness of midnight.
That was the precise order of the tor
nadO from the southwest. The hurri-
cane from the northwest gave the west
crn part of the city its severe shaking up.
The tornado from the southwest was
responsible for the loss of life.
What must be charged up to this
double visitation only daylight can tell
it all. Health COMMISSIONS StarklOff,
two hours after the tornado had passed
feared the dead would reach 300, and
not fewer than 1000 had sustained seri-
Gus injuries.
BY midnight reporters of The Associ-
ated Press had visited all of the stricken
portions of the city and suburbs. The
list of the dead falls far below the first
estimate but il was large enough to be
appalling.
Crushed beneath falling walls, hurled
against the sides of buildings. struck by
flying timbers. cut by the shattered glass,
shocked by the network of down wires,
humanity suffered in ways innumerable.
The names of all the injured will never
be known. Enough were recorded at
the dispensaries last night to show how
widespread were the tOrnado's effects.
OF the destruction of property there
can be no satisfactory estimate given.
The loss in extent is characterized be-
yond conception.
the city hospital looked like Z ruin. The
Portions of other buildings were I'M
rooted. Walls were cracked. Even in
the darkness the physicians began the
removal of the patients to temper
airy quarters, fearful that the strained
structures would go down in a general
collapse. There were $50 sick people
in the hospital when the storm came;
some gathered strength in their fright
and ran shrieking from the place to find
shelter on the outside. Fifteen were
injured in one ward
Convention hall and the four courts
were in the path of the cloud as it rushed
from the city hospital toward the river
Convention hall lost a part of the roof
at the eastern end, was punctured in
several places by flying timbcrs and Sus-
tanned some arrangement of the interior
Ten days work and the expenditure of
$4,000 will make the hall good again. 4
section of the brick wall of the Jail went
down and the prisoners We're panic
stricken.