The Dickinson press., 1898-04-30

altitude. Up to the present time thirty
dead bodies have been taken out. Will
lis was up there this forenoon rendering
what assistance he could, and eleven
were taken out while he was there. The
bodies were brought down to the Sheep
Camp hospital and every effort is made
to resuscitate those who show any signs
of vitality. Several men have been tax
en- out alive, among them n Murphy,
of Dickinson, who is with Geo. M. Prem
tiss. He was the only n of all the
Dickinson contingent who was caught
in the slide. He was taken out about
ten o'clock last night, brought down to
n of the hotels and attended to, and he
will probably be all right in a few days.
Sad and heart-rending are the scenes at
the place of death, where wives are
searching for their husbands, fathers for
their sons, men for their partners, and so
on. From one tent a husband and wife
were taken out, still in their sleeping
bags, with nothing to indicate that they
had awakened or even known that death:
was at hand. One oma was killed in
the tent while her husband, who was at
work on the trail, escaped. The re-
mains of those belonging to Masonic or
Odd Fellows fraternities are at once
taken charge of by members of those
orders here. Money has been raised to
pay the expenses of embalming the
bodies. They are then placed in hastily
constructed collins and sent to Dyea to
a committee of the orders there. The
bodies will be temporarily buried while
relatives r being communicated with
and upon request will be forwarded to
their former homes. Since l began this
letter, two sled-loads of these rough box
es have passed our tent door. How my
heart aches in sympathy with those far
of ones at home, to whom this crushing,
overwhelming blow must come. Their
dear ones who left them only a few short
weeks ago, full of life and hope and
courage, will be returned to them
thus. All, how we realise here that "in
she midst of life we are in DEATH" But
we realize also that God is everywhere,
and He alone can soften the blow and
comfort the stricken ones.
This is the day that we had set to
cross the summit and go over to the
lakes. But in the midst of all this dis
tress and confusion we cannot go and
shall wait several days until all has been
done that can be done regarding the re-
covery of the bodies. How little did l
think upon my first view of the Scales,
about two weeks ago, that it would ever
become the scene of death and desola-
ton that it now is. The snow-slides did
not occur exactly at the Scales, either,
but at the first steep hill this side. At
the top of this hill the trail branches in
two directions, the one at the left con-
tinuing directly up the next steep hill
and the n at the right leading through
a deep canyon close to the side of the
mountain. There were tons and tons of
outfits piled up in this canyon, as it was
the hand-sled trail, and these are all bur-
led under twenty-five or thirty feet of
snow. The loss in outfits must necessa-
riiy be great, as it does not seem posi-
bic that these can ever be recovered.
Later; Tuesday morning, April 5.
AS have an opportunity to send this
letter, l will add a few words more.
Forty-one bodies have been recovered
J and the rescue work is still going on.