The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-08
Citizens Committee Takes In
sentOry of GruesOme Ruins.
$50, 100000 Loss of Property;
10000 Refugees Homeless.
ESTIMATE DEAD At 1000
Bitter Storm LasheS Devastated
Nova Scotia City.
Schools Death Traps; Heaviest
Loss of Life Is of Children.

Amherst Dec. S.-An estimate OF
1000 persons dead in the Halifax dis
aster is contained in a private tele-
gram from the stricken city today
by an undertaking firm here. The
message asks that 1000 coffins be
sent to Halifax at once.
Halifax, N. s, Dec s--A lashing
northeaster. burdened with sleet, that
howled in from the Atlantic all night
and was still raging early today. failed
to halt relief work in this stricken
city,
Twenty thousand destitute men,
women and children were sheltered in
buildings and homes which still re-
main standing. Barriers of tar pa
per were. built in the shattered win
dows to shut out the bitter gale.
Two thousand dead, five thousand
injured, twenty thousand homeless.
was the toll in Halifax and it's sub
urbs when the French munitions ship
Mont Blanc blew up in the harbor
| Thursday, according to citizens COM
mittee estimates today. The damage
is $40, 100000.
| Children Worst Sufferers.
| The loss in Halifax falls heaviest
/ upon the children. Whole schools
filled with pupils, were demolished.
leaving but one or two survivors. In
/ other schools every child was injured
! by flying glass.
/ The thoro checking up work of the
citizens committee resulted in every
| destitute person in Halifax being TAX
en- care of last night, when it was GER
tain death to wander thru the storm
swept streets without proper clothing.
Many of the refugees are going
about wrapped in blankets. Their own
clothes are torn to snreds
The widest weather the Atlantic
coast can produce has practically
ended the hunt for bodies A thick
| pail of snow covers the blackened
ruins of the North end. The sleet
helped the exhausted firemen once
again to subdue the fires in the
wreckage.
Justice Harris of Halifax chairman
of the citizens finance committee is
sued the following statement today:
! CommitIee Estimates Loss.
The committee of the citizens OF
! Halifax was appointed to make a pub
lie statement on the damage to the
/ city of Halifax and the town of Dart
as possible of the damaged area, the
committee reported that while every
! building in Halifax and Dartmouth
was more or less damaged, the devas-
I
| the explosion and embraces chiefly
districts occupied by workers and the
] poorer classes.
Between three and four thousand
of such dwellings have been complete
ly destroyed by the explosion or by
! fire
The number of those affected is
estimated at $4,000 and while, of
| course, the circumstances of all or
even most of them cannot be ascer-
tanned until each case is investigated.
yet it is feared that the destitute poor
in the area will number upwards of
! 10000 and their actual loss and the
estimated cost of their temporary
maintenance will reach between $25,-
| OOO, 900 and S30.000.0O0.
Depend on Other Cities Aid.
"It is to be clearly understood that
in this estimate the number of per-
sons rendered destitute are considered.
1 and this is the portion of the popula-
Ition of Halifax and Dartmouth least
able to bear the loss and which must
be Immediately relieved by generous
assistance of their fellow citizens
thruout Canada"
A City of Hospitals, Morgues.
Today Halifax is a place of hos
pitfalls and morgues, of bitter cold.
1Confinued on Page TWo.J