Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-09-10
DISASTERS OF THE YEAR.
Gu Five Months 1896 Acquires a
Terrible Record.
Hundreds of Lives and Millions of Dol
lars Destroyed by Fire, Flood and
Railway Accidents All
Over the Land.

record of destruction that Will stand.
1t cannot be surpassed.
St. Louis was the scene of the first
horror of the year. Compared with the
present black misfortune that rests on
the city it was as nothing. January
5 a great stock of fireworks stored at
so North Second street exploded. The
building and adjacent structures were
ruined and some six persons were killed
outright or suffered such injury they
died later. Thirty-two were seriously,
although not fatally, hurt.
Early in February great storm
whipped the eastern United States
coast. The greatest loss was to prop,
erty on shore, as the warning had been
fluttering from signal stations so long
in advance that the sailor men had
hugged the docks. Four or five vessels
were destroyed. Hundreds of houses
and other buildings were wrecked. In
the state of New Jersey the damage was
the heaviest. Bridges and buildings of
all kinds were destroyed. Bound Brook,
small town near the ocean, was fiat.
tened as if some monster road crusher
had trundled over T.. The loss of prop
erty was great, the fatalities compare
lively few.
February 10 in Madrid several resi-.
dents of the town were killed and much
property destroyed by the explosion of
an aerolite. The sky traveller went into
fragments just over the city with the
deadly destructive effects of many
bombshclls. In one factory which was
Immediately below the center of the eX-
plosion 10 worlmen were killed.
OF accidents in mines there have been
three in this country married by great
sacrifice of human life. In South Car
olina $50 men were killed. This was
followed by the caving in of Tennes-
see shaft which resulted in the loss of
37 lives. Sixty men were killed as the
result of a gas explosion in the Vulcan
mine at Newcastle, Col This accident
occurred February 10. Three days later
&c worlSmen in u Grecian stone quarry
we're killed by the blowing up of the
magazine wherein was stored theiT
giant powder 1t was at the noon hour
and the men were gathered at the sheds
getting their pay. They We're crowded
and took the full force of the dyna-
mite.
The same day an explosion of gas in
a mine in Wales killed 10 men, and II
more were buried by the falling earth
which was loosened by the explosion.
A great flood that came down the
Oequabuck valley in Connecticut March
/ swept away hundreds of thousands of
dollars worth of mill property and
houses and drowned many persons.
Similar floods in eastern New York and
other Connecticut streams entailcd
property losses aggregating several
millions.
March 2s a cyclone left a trail of
death and ruin across southern Illinois.
Alton was heavy sufferer. April 10
northern Ohio was visited by cyclone.
The loss in Sandusky county was great.
Few persons were killed.
Cripple Creek. the wonder mining
camp, was destroyed by fire the latter
part of April. On the 25th of the month
the fire broke and destroyed nearly all
the business part of the city before it
was quelled. The damage was about
$l,500.000 Four days later the re-
mainder of the town was wiped out.
The total loss was nearly S., 100000. May
4 an explosion of gasoline in business
block in Walnut street, Cincinnati,
wrecked two buildings and killed II
persons. More than 20 were seriously
injured. Five days later fires at Ash
land, Wis, destroyed five lives and many
buildings and lumber. May II forests
in the southern part of New Jersey
burned. The flames swept over great
areas of Cape May and Atlantic coun-
ties. Houses and barns and live stock
also burned, but no loss of human life
was reported.
The cyclone season opened May 10
with windstorms in Wisconsin and Hi.
nois. The principal damage was to
crops, buildings and animals. In the
two states six deaths only were caused
by the storms, so far as known. The
wind in this section was but a zephyr
compared with that which blew at
Sherman, Tex, May IS. This was a
true cyclone, and in its path was the
local baseball grounds, wherein were
gathered 1000 or 1000 people of Sher.
man and neighboring towns. More than
100 were killed and several times the
number were injured. The day follow
ing, Scioto, H., small town near Bush,
nell, was wrecked by hurricane, and
May II Kansas towns suffered similar
ly. Sabetha, Kan, was the most heavi-
ly injured. 1t was mass of ruins.
Afterward came the windstorms in
Michigan, the Elgin and Rockford and
northern Illinois cyclone, which had
not exhausted it's fury in Iowa. An
other and less extensive cyclone passed
over southern Illinois. Thirteen per-
sons were drowned at Cairo by the
swamping of Il steamer which lay in the
path of the wind. The next day but
one St. Louis was in ruins From May
13 to May 27 it is probable that 1900 per
sons lost their lives in the storms which
have ragged in radius of $50 miles of
Chicago. The property losses will ag-
gregate upward Of $75,OOO,ooO.
In tbe pVclone excitement three othcr