Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-06-01
HORRORS GILMAN
Reached In Mays Awful Record
z Of Human carnage.i
xos6ows FR1eH9fuL CALAMITY.
From 1000 to 5000 Die In the Mad
Panic Of . Million
People.

Scene Of . Feast, Proves That Of q Reyel.
Sure Enough, but Revel Of Death-Hu-
manlty Thrown to the Earth and Tram
pied by Hundreds Into Unacceptable
Corpses-Further Storm Havoc 1t Homo
-sensca. Mo, Laid Waste by . Deluge
and Many Drowned-Situation NJ st.
LOuis-Lower Estimates on the Damages
Storm Ravages in Illinois.
Moscow, June 1.-The disaster on the
Khodijnskoje plain, in which it Is believed
that more than 1900 persons, men, women
and children, met their deaths in a sudden
and inexplicable panic, is constantly
gaining In proportion as the investiga-
tions by the authorities continue These
are made under difficulties, as the recov-
cry Of the victims was conducted by hun
dreds of volunteers and many were carried
away before they were enumerated
Many additional deaths Of the injured
who were carried away arc occurring
which are only added to the enumeration
after some time. 1t is now said that the
fatalities will amount to between 1000
and 5000, but it is impossible yet to asccr-
tain accurately the extent of the disaster.
An official statement places the number
of dead recovered at l ,336 and the seriously
or fatally injured at sS6. But in contrast
with this official statement there have
been ,2S2 cOrpses laid in the cemetery,
besides the many dead and dying that
are known to hare been removed from the
Inflated field by friends. In spite of this
terrible tragedy the car and czarina Sat
urtlay evening attended and danced at the
brilliant ball at the French embassy.
Preparations had been made on a most
elaborate scale for this ball, and it is as
serted that $4,000 was expended on the
supper alone. The czarina was not in
formed Of the disaster, owing to her deli
cate condition. While the dance within
the French embassy continued amid all
the accompsniments of luxury and gaiety,
disconsolate friends and relatives wan
dered over the desolate plain among the
dead and the suffering dying, looking,
often in vain, for their missing.
Heaps OF Killed and Injured.
The work of Identification Is most diff
cult, both on account Of the large number
of the victims and the trampled, torn and
mutilated condition of many OF the corpses,
some Of which are crushed quite beyond
the possibility of recognition and almost
beyond semblance to humanity. The ma
jOrity of the killed were peasants from out
lying villages, though the clothing of
some indicated that they were persons Of
wealth and distinction. The bodies Of a
number of women clad in silks and fine
linen were among those found. All day
Saturday the full force of police and fire
men worked among the dead, pulling
bodies from heaps of the killed and in
jured and ranging them on the ground,
which was covered for hundreds of yards
with groups Of ten and twenty begrimed,
blOOd-stained and disfigured corpses.
The Agony Drove Them Mad.
Yesterday morning the forces at work
on the plain discovered the mouth of q
disused well in the middle Of the field the
plank covering of which had given way in
the mad rush of Saturday morning. In
the well there were 0lirty dead bodies,
and wedged In among them and held
down by their weigh were found two men,
alive and comparatively uninjured physic-
ally. But the terror and the hideous sur
roundings of the night had proved too
great a strain on their minds, and they
were raving maniacs. There are count
less incidents of special pathos, one case
being that of n party of fifty-five humble
peasants who had come together from a
single village for the merrymaking at the
cars feast. OF this party ffty-three
were killed in the crowd.