Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1898-05-10
The TRAGEDY
AT SANTA CRUZ,
Graphic Description OF the Explosion
of the Powder MiIi at Santa Cruz,
CAL, In Which Thirteen Lives Were
Lost,

CAL, IN Whtch thirteen lives "sf0
Lost.
The following letter from Miss Lii
liam Howard, who Is teaching school
In Santa Cruz. has Just been received
by her parents in this city. Ii is dated
Santa Cruz, Cal, May 3, IS:
Ii does not seem as If this war be
longs TO us, and when | look at the
war ne ir the papers II seems as u
il all belongs TO somebody else, and
not to our own blessed United States
Yet | think We are right, aud fhat thu
Spanish needed a thrashing. and
hope they will have good cause to re-
member with sorrow and shame what
. great crime they committed
when they destroyed the Maine
The watchword here. as 1t seems 10 DC
everywhere, is Remember the
Maine"
Yes. every body here but a few old
graunies are in favor of war, and
notice that the grannies wore very
complacent smile yesterday when tht
news of Dewey's victory came TO US.
So do not think the peace element Is
very aggressive. One of our ministers
preached on the subject and called 1t
a holy war, and lauded America to tie
| skies for at last going iuto it. | think
| shall like him.
OF course you have read about the
frightful time We have had in Santa
| Cruz. | could not describe to you
what terrible thing it was. |
was sitting with Msry Burke in her
room, when the house rocked and
twisted as if 1t would go to pieces. OF
course we knew what it was for We
know very we'll the difference in the
feeling of a heavy earthquake and q
heavy explosion. SO we flew out on
the portico roof where we could Sc
the Santa Lorenzo canon, and just
above the foot hills we saw the omi
nous black cloud, rising and spreading
like a great umbrella, about four miles
away Then came another shock with
its cloud, then another, both lighter
than the first, and about twenty min
utes later another heavy one. By this
tim the fsrests around the mills were
ablaze, and an immense volume oil
smoke was pouring out to the ocean
Pieces of the mills and branches anc
twigs of the neighboring trees were
picked up IN abundance in our street:
and in our own yard there were
plenty of them, small, of course. ans
burn d and charred. Then the rumol
came that the big mag azine was il
dang .r, and for our citizens to lool
out for frightful explosion, and tt
keep away from brick buildings. But
happily, it was untrue, and soon it wa:
safe enough for hundreds of men tt
fight the fires on the surrounding hills
| Thirteen bodies werel found, Oh
rather, the charred and mangled mem
bers of thirteen men, parts here ant
there, and only one was identified be
yond all doubt. He was killed ava,
from the mills by flying rock or mis-
sile of that kind.
i There will forever be an unhappy
mystery about this affair, for only tel
men are missing from the rol
and from the town, and who tn,
those strangers are no one can tell. II
all probability they were seeking work
or were tramps who had wandered il
from curiosity. The San Francisco
papers are making great spreat
about it, declaring that the men wer'
Spanish spies who were hoist witt
their own petard."
We of Santa Cruz do not believe a
yet in the spies, and there has been a
no time the intense excitement that We
!, are credited with, since that first sat
evening a week ago. The coroner's
inquest goes on today. What they
will prove no one can tell. But some
are trying hard to work up the Span
ish spy theory. l think the works
should have a United States guard, be
cause they are important to the gov
eminent now.