The herald., 1896-05-29
THE MOURNING MULTITUDE
Throngs the Crowded Morgue 10 Search
Of Missing Friends
m List Of Wounded Numbers Thousands, Of
Whom Many Will Die
Other Cities and Other States Report Dis
ssters Small Only In Comparison
With the Awful Ruin at
St. Louis
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
ST. LOUIS, May 2S.-When the sun
rose on st. Louis and vicinity this morn
ing 1t showed scene of terrible ruin
and disaster The wind, rain and fire
had combined in mission of destruc-
ton. Two hundred lives were lost in
this city and as many more in East st.
Louis, while thousands were injured,
many SO severely that they cannot re-
cover. The exact number will not be
known for many days, perhaps never,
for the debris of ruined buildings all
over the city cover hundreds of human
beings. The damage and destruction to
property will aggregate many millions,
but the exact amount cannot be esti-
mated with any degree of certainty.
The terrible tornado that caused this
destruction struck the city yesterday
afternoon at 5:15 o'clock, and all parts
of the city and East st. Louis felt it's
effects. The greatest damage on this
side Of the river was inflicted within a
three-mile strip along the mighty
stream. Many buildings totally col
lapsed. others were unroofed. while very
few in the city escaped injury.
No possible idea of the number of peo-
pie killed can be made at this time.
South st. Louis is Uttered with the bod
les of the dead.
East st. Louis is a gigantic cemetery.
Under debris Of the buildings of that
city are scores buried whose bodies will
not be brought to light for many days.
perhaps never 1t was the most dis
astrous storm from every point of view
in the history of the southwest.
1t will never be known just how many
gave up their lives in the waters of the
Mississippi when the tornado came
down and tore all the boats in the har-
Dor from their moorings. The channel
is full of wreckage.
In South st. Louis the storm spent its
force. All the way from Papin street to
Carondelet 1t put stamp on the face of
the city that will not be effaced for
years. Big, strong buildings fell be-
fore the wind like houses made of cards.
From where 1t entered the city, outin
the southwestern suburbs, to where it
left, somewhere near the Eads bridge,
there is a wide path of ruin. Factory
after factory went down and piles of
bricks and timbers mark the spots on
which they stood. Dwellings were pick
ed up and thrown in every direction.
Business houses were flattened. There
was no chance for the escape of the
occupants. The ruins covered bruised
and mangled bodies that will not be un-
covered until a systematic search is
made. Thousands Of families in South
st. Louis are homeless, practically, and
the temporary hospitals shelter scores
and hundreds.
Health Commissioner Strakloff, two
hours after the tornado passed, sent
word that the deaths would reach 200
and no fewer than 1000 persons had sus-
tanned injuries. By midnight reporters
had visited all the stricken portions of
the city and suburbs. The list of dead
discovered fell below the first estimates
but 1t was long enough to be appalling.
Crushed beneath the falling walls, hurl-
ed.against the sides of buildings, struck
by flying timbers, cut by shattered
glass, shocked by the network of wires
humanity suffered in ways innumerable.
The names Of all the injured will never
be known. OF the destruction OF prop
erty there can be no satisfactory esti-
mate given. The loss in extent and char
acter Is beyond conception.
The work of handling the unidentified
bodies was quickly reduced to a system
by Coroner Waite. The dead were plac.
ed in rows behind screens The crowds
of people searching for lost friends and
the morbidly curious which thronged
about the morgue, glided past the dead
room at rapid pace. The bodies were
identified rapidly. and as fast as iden-
titled removed and their places were
taken by constantly arriving corpses.
The scenes among the corpses were pit
iful. a corps of nurses being constantly
engaged in caring for fainting women
and children.
The estimated death list at East st.
Louis is 200. and the injured will reach
about ESQ. The storm struck at the big
elevators, 300 yards below the Eads
bridge, followed the river to the Eads
bridge, started diagonally towards the
raiiWay depot and continued on to Col
hnsvllle avenue, then lifted and dropped
again at the National stock yards.
Nothing whatever remains of Broadway
from the river to the viaduct, and on the
east SIDE for a width of probably 600
yards there Is absolutely no semblance
OF mouse, freight sheds or cars left
standlng. Cars In the yards were thrown
on tneir Sides on top of each other, into
tne ponds abounding on the island and
completely wrecked. The Big Four.
Vandalia and l.. & N. freight sheds are
razeo 10 the ground. not so much as
SLlck remaining in an upright position
Ehe once force together with the freight
handlers at the latter shed sought ref
oge IN pox cars to the north of the plat
FORM. on the approach of the storm,
Ia owe Shear lives to that fact No one