Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-05-30
MANY DROWNED.
Ferry Boat Capsizes and Fourteen
Persons Lose Their Lives
AWFUL ACCIDENT TOA TRAM CAR.
A Bridge Gives Way and the Car Is Pre-
cipItated into the Water Below and
Probably Fifty People Are
Drowned.

CAIRO, Ill, May 2T.-The steamer
Katherine, used as a ferry boat, was
caught at the mouth of the Ohio river
by a sudden hurricane at $50 o'clock
yesterday morning and capsized, and
all on board, except the captain, engi-
neer and clerk, were drowned The
dead, as far as can be learned, mum Der
IA, among them Capt Rittenhouse, SUI
perrin tendent of the Cairo City Ferry
Co.; DIR. Orr's two daughters, Mr.. and
Miss Stanley, of Wickliffe; Mrs. Will
liam Shannon and baby, of Bird S
Point, Mo-; Mrs Mary Jones, of Jack
son, Tenn; Richard Thurman, of
WickEffe, and Charles Gilhoffer, a
merchant of this city. Only three
bodies-those of Thurman, Miss Orr
and deck hand-have been recovered
A tug is searching for the Others
Business in the city is practically at a
standstill.
The opera house and Union depot
were unroofed, a number of trees de-
stroyed and signs blown down, but 10
houses were destroyed or lives lost in
the city. Five miles of telegraph
poles were blown down on the Mobile
& Ohio railway. 1t is impossible to
tell the extent of the damage south of
here, but it is believed to be very
great The storm came up very sud-
denly from the northwest, just as the
ferry boat had started from Cairo and
while it was still in the Ohio river near
the Illinois shore The rain was very
heavy and the people were all in the
cabin with the door shut. The boat
turned over when the squall first
struck it The captain and the clerk
were at the pilot wheel and were
thrown out of the pilot house into the
water and the boat turned over on
them They happened to be SO far
away that they caught the guard and
pulled out from beneath her. OF those
in the cabin only DIR. Orr and Joseph
Curry got out
At Birds Point, Mo-, church and
ten other buildings were partly
wrecked.
AWFUL ACCIDENT TO A TRAM CAR
VICTORIA. b. c., May 27.-The Point
El1ice bridge over Victoria arm coll
lapsed yesterday afternoon precipitat-
ing a tram car heavily loaded with
human freight into the water 100 feet
below. All the passengers in the car,
proba bly, so, were drowned. sham
fight and review was to take place at
Macauley Point near Esquimalt, in
the afternoon and crowds were making
their way by every route All the
tram cars were packed Two cars left
Government street with more than 100
people. The first got over Point Ellice
bridge, which crosses Victoria arm,
safely, but when the other was about
half way over the middle span of the
bridge, about $50 feet in length,
gave way and the car plunged into the
water some 100 feet below. The car
was completely submerged and all on
board were drowned, with the eXcep-
ton of some of those who were stand
ing on the platforms, and who, escap-
ing injury from the falling timbers,
managed to save themselves by using
the floating ruins of the bridge and
thus got ashore Numbers of the
bodies have already been recovered,
and the work of Identification is pro-
ceeding, but it is a difficult matter as
a great many of the bodies are those
Of visitors