Omaha daily bee., 1903-06-03

toms of the mail cars and running strongly
II may be possible to dry out the mail after
its recovery but at present Superintendent
Taft Of the railway service classes that
mail among the lost articles.
The financial damage Is estimated by
prominent business men at anywhere be-
tween tlOOOO,OOO and 100000 in this city
alone, but there ia no method Of determin-
ing this with any accuracy. One mans
guess is as good as another's.
BuiIdings May CrumbIe.
The great danger now is the crumbling Of
brick buildings and this has begun in some
quarters where old buildings are standing
Here and there the corner Of a brick struc-
ture has gone down. but there has been no
general collapse as yet of any large build
ing. All through the freight yards num-
bers Of cars are being Ioosened from their
trucks and are floating down stream. When
swept along by the current they make a
high-class battefing ram and the front of
any building that receives many shocks
from them is bound to suffer material
damage.
The gas company has announced that 1t
hoped to restore the supply of gas during
the day, but It failed this morning to make
good its promise to supply sufficient gas for
cooking purposes. Nine-tenths of the Kan
sas City households use gas for cooking
and the result was that the great majority
of breakfasts were cold. The gas company
hopes for better luck by night
A mild type Of martial law was in force
last night. Soldiers were stationed all over
the business part of the city and. while
no attempt was made to keep people off
the streets, anybody walking abroad after
midnight was compelled to give an account
of himself.
At o'clock this morning the Raw river
was falling slowly but steadily. All through
the wholesale district the buildings showed
evidence of the decline and watchmen in
the freight houses who had rugged up
water gauges of their own declared that
the fall since daylight was about elk
inches.
No Further Loss of Life.
At noon today 1t was announced by the
police engaged in relief work in the east
bottoms that all the people who had been
imprisoned in houses had been rescued and
that there was no chance of any further
loss OF life.
The story yesterday OF fifty Belgians
drowned in the east bottoms shrunk this
morning to Ave Belgians and they were
not drowned They were penned up in the
Alliance elevator where, with keg of
beer and a pig which they had saved from
drowning and promptly slaughtered, they
made themselves comfortable until the po-
lice rescued them late last night.
The water in the east bottoms this morn
ing had fallen an inch and there Is likeli-
hood of great damage in that section.
The police upon the trestle of the elevated
railway in the west bottoms counted eight
dead bodies floating past. and the bodies
of three others can be seen caught in the
trees at the north end Of the Hannibal
bridge at what was formerly Harlem
These bodies evidently are of persons
drowned at some point west of Kansas
City, perhaps Topeka, and have f1oated
east down the Kansas river
Joseph L. Keenan,. a policeman, was
drowned in the west Bottoms here at /
o'clock today while trying to rescue two
men from the Adams house, a hotel on
Union avenue across from the Union depot,
LAWRENCE, Kah.s June 2.-The river
here is falling. No loss of life is reported
at this point and no serious suffering is be-
ing experienced by the homeless IT is be-
lieved all in the noqded district will have
been removed to places OF safety before
nightfall --4-+''"