The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-11-07

Three regions on this earth lure men
Stth z speli that few who once zee II Can
break-tbe Polar sol!tudes. With their eter-
rai See and silence: the primevsl forest o.
the Amazon. with their everlasting WI
lght and their mystery. and the APPS the
klace Of the white death
Of these thrse. Pole and Amazon com
lined have not gaFnered as many victiIns
"a a century a. the Alps have taken In
generation. And In the season when Is
endfng now, a season which has been rec
ord breaking FOR the number OF Foreign
visitors. the accidents have been appA-
ling The little graveyard at the ioot OF
che Gross CI0ckuer-the mountain Of me
Great Bell-in the eastern Tyrol Where
every other grave Is mat OF victim Oh
IFS preciplces. has many new MOUNDS
marked with The simple cross that tells OF
a tragedy in few simple words. In the
BeTch,esgaden district the authorities
have forbidden the official guides 70 lead
any more parties TO the peak Of the Watt
mann Alp because OF the successive fatal
files. From the veranda OF a hotel In
Southern Switzerland more than hun
dred horror-stricken guests for three hours
watched the night for life OF two men
without being able TO aid them. They
were cIinging to the edge OF a peak over
a vast abyss. having slipped TO II from
path above owing to the breaking OF a
rope Guides FASTENED up the mountain &
aid them. but long before they reached
the spot the strength OF the unhappy men
had given out, and they hurled down
more than a thousand feet into an abyss
whence their bodies could not even be re-
covered. Every detail of this terrible
scene was plainly visible TO the tourists
in the hotel far below.
Not less than 100000 tourists have Wis
tied Switzerland and Travelled through It's
Alpine scenery between the beginning OF
the year and this October. AS the coun-
Try has only 1888 COO inhabitants, the value
81 this immense fiOCd OF visitors can be
estimated readily. and IL IS only natural
that the Swiss authorities and people
should use all possible means 10 hush
up the facts regarding the unusual num-
Der Of fatalities. But they have been
so many and accompanied with such dra-
matte circumstances that IL was not pos
eible to hide them ALL
song brought the Avalanche.
The huge Olperer. in the ZnIer Thai Of
the Swiss Tyrol. has six victims 10 its
credit. -Four OF them persisted at the
same time. They were students from
Innsbruck and Vienna. and they had
made party 10 ascend half way up the
side of the mountain TO see the sun rise
on the following morning But they did
not reach their destination. Two days
after they had started they were found
at the foot Of a precipice. Their bodies
were shOckingly mangled. A mass OF
dirt and rock which covered them partial
~ told the story. They had been caught
In the path OF a landslide. which had
carried them over the brink with prob
ably not q seconds warning. Shortly af-
terward. another party of four again
students from Vienna. started over al
most the same path. When they reached
a part Of the mountain where an immense
wall towers over the road, which is scarce
~ wide enough there to permit the pas
sage of a single person, one of the party
began to sing. His voice scarcely had
begun to ecno among the rocky walls be-
fore there was a tremendous roar far
overhead and almost instantly an ava
lanche OF stones swept down on them.
They, too. were carried over the brink,
stunted pine trees. which broke their fall.
When help reached them they were nearly
death. One had both his feet smashed
so that they had to be amputated at once.
The others managed to escape without
permanent disability.
Hardly had the excitement over these
accidents died away when a party Of
mountaineers brought in the bodies of DR..
nf
Johann Hofer, OF Walls. The two corpscs
had been found In deep ehasm Of the
great glacier Of the Olperer. The rope
still connected both men, and the guide :
body was deeply marked with It, where
evidently he had wound 1t around his
waist In a desperate effort to save his
patron. Apparently the doctor had lost
his footing and his fall had slowly
dragged both men 10 death.
Evidence of Frishtful Fall.
In the same week another doctor left
Pertisau, near Innsbruck, for a short
walk. He climbed the Seeker Mountain
for only short distance. But short as 1t
was, 1t was a fatal Journey for he was
found the next day in a rayine. His
clothing was tattered absolutely TO rags,
and this. with the condition of the body.
gave mute evidence OF the frightfulness OF
the fall He had stepped into what he
thought was a coy place 10 rest. But II
proved TO be only a bush that grew M
from the very edge Of the ravine, and the
unfortunate man went headlong down the
side OF the rock. Bloody fineermarks on
the protuberance IN the course OF the
descent showed how hard he had fought
Tor life grasping at everything as he went
flying downward. But all his effort had
been In vain.
little more than a month ago Miss
Thompson. an English tourist was found
dead wedged in the rocky bed OF torrent
IN the Engelberg-Angel Mountain-in I'm
terwald, Switzerland. She had been miss
ing for two months. When she left her
hotel. II had been with the intention OF
taking stroll up a road which was con-
Sidered perfectly safe. But she must have
wandered from the path and slipped down
the rocks. Two days after the finding OF
her body Erich Schandlbauer, the four
teen-year-old son of a hotel keeper in
Eel. fell over the edge in the High Way
over the MoseTboden, and was picked up
with Injuries that II is thought will prove
fatal, On the same day young woman
icll in the Schneeberg and broke her right
foot
Tn the same week q carpenter named
Wessak from Berlin. climbed 900 feet 10
The peak OF the HOefaet Mountain, near
oherstdorf. IN the Tyrol Having accom-
pshed the feat successfully. he wished
90 take a souvenir OF the achievement
with him. He climbed out 10 the edge OF
the wall where q descends sheer for 200
ieat and leaned over to pick a sprig OF
e1elweiss, the beautiful and rare pant
il2i grows only in the most inaccesslbi lie
places OF the highest Alps. The earth on
which he had braced his knees erumbled
away and he dropped like a plummet
Days passed before his body could be re-
covered A Hungarian woman named
beWbska and her brother essayed 10
climb the famous Hohe Tatra-the High
l-.ra-Which rises more than 5000 fee,
above the sea level. Despite the warn
ings Of ALL they declined TO hire guides.
Tive Fell, One Wni Live.
when they climbed about half way up
NE mountain a heavy fog rolled down on
Them from % mn