Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1914-01-02
LulAL DEATHS AT
CALUMET ARE 72
Three More Dying, Result Of
Sire" Panic.
FIGHT OVER VICTIMS BODIES
Relatives Of Victims Refuse All Offers
Of Assistance, Declaring "We
Miu Care for Our Own Dead
Like Our Living"
FIGHT OVER VICTIMS BODIES

Calumet. Mich, Dec. 26.-Freezing
BLASTS are hourly adding to the horror
nRd misery in Calumet, where 72 per-
zcns. principally children. we're killed
IN "A panic at Christmas celebration.
Three more are dying.
Christmas is the most awful day in
lhe history not only of Calumet. but of
al Michigan.
Since daylight blankets of snow,
have been driven by biting wind that
EDereased In intensity until at noon a
Aowiing blizzard held the stricken city
I'm its grip.
Fsfsy-four homes have been desolaS
ed by the catastrophe. Every morgue.
and undertaking establishment In the
Eazy Ia hlled with bodies. and every one
an day has been beset with weeping,
Aystsricai group of relatives and
1rienEn.
Starvation Stalks Streets.
Tho strike OF the copper miners has
e9en under way for months. That
xueans that for weeks the specter of
starvation has stalked the streets. and
g5ffs for the children have been few,
So Tor days this Christmas celebration
hHs been looked forward to. 1t was
70 be one bright spot in a series of
MANY dark and gloomy days, although
20 impoverished were the folks that
gave IL that they were unable to pro-.
rasis even a single candle for the trees
Thersfore when more than 700 men,,
wcuses, and children assembled in Ital-
I'm hail joy was the watchword.
Around mammoth Christmas tree
vxrc piled hundreds of gifts, mostly
Acaae-snade, from toys for the babies
w bats and balls for the older boys,
xSzd sewing kits for the girls
zhe torment, the bitter anger, the
stzdte and the hunger Of the past
Dnnths was momentarily forgotten.
III was swallowed up in Christmas.
ExaBness- One of the Christmas car
sls had been sung and Santa Claus was,
distributing gifts when like a thun-
zefbcit came the dread cry of ''Fire!"'
Within one minute thereafter thel
Asl Of gle dness was transformed into
q chamber OF death. A life for every
gecond. and more. was the awful toll.
u she punfe-
zne man responsible for the trag-
s6g has been sought in vain. The,
strikers declare that some one not in
sympathy with them did it to break up
their celebration. Several declare that
a man wearing a beard resembling
that worn by the EST Nick on the
ziaEe thrust his head inside the door
Eish the cry that started the stampede
20 fsaa single narrow stairway. A wom-
za 10 said to have grabbed him as he
rarned to flee, but he knocked her
aawRa ard fed down the steps that so
Escunds later were cfoked with dead
ErH- Jacob Lustig, wife of striker,
and who host one child. says the alarm
was given by man who sat beside
Azar. and who really thought there was
Fire.
Matt SaaTf, who lost son, says he
WAS standing at the top Of the stairs
VIXEN ne alarm was raised and that no
vne came up the stairs. Instead, he
facRares. the cry came from inside of
xsse haIl
~ rs also fairly well established that
n anan rushed through the exit carry
ING boy whose clothes were afire.
possibly from match or a pipe.
SEzder IT'S pan of tragedy this is the
gr5rn Ezystery that confronts Calumet
alone With its dead today.
whatever the cause, the fact re-
-7stEs that scores were killed, crushed.
Snnthered, and, atop OF all this horror.
etnzes stiA more misery in the shape