The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-12-09
Thousand Bodies of Children
Recovered From Ruins OF
Fallen School Houses
TH2EE-FOOT BLANKET
OF SNOW COVERS CITY
Relief Train From Bostoa.
Breaks Way Through 1now.
Other Help May tie snow
bound En- Route

| St John, \. L., Dec. S.--Carefa3
! estimates, made late tonight from va
/ rious official sources Indicate that fss
total death list in the Halifax csstJs-
| trophc will reach i 200.
| This may he further increased rou-
| siderabiy by deaths among the sert-
| ously injured.
! An urgent call for 5000 collins Las
| been made by the coroner,
A blizzard Is adding misery to
| stricken Halifax. Tho last word nut
of the city at 7:t5 this evening said
| three feet Of snow had fallen and d
| forty-niie gale Is raging, At this
point the wires failed and halifax WIS
cut Oft from the outside world.
However, news trici.led over the
| wires before they went down that the
| city Is in darkness, only an occasional
| flicker of n candle the flare of u
| match struck by some waudcrCF GsT0Ts-
| ing through the inBSy streets making
| for second an oasis of light in the
| desert of night.
Further Investigation -tnday dis
closed the following facts:
Children i'm wreekagc.
| The number OF dead, especsa1lv
| school children. found amid the
wreckags when the clearing of the
weather permitted a more thorough
search. surpasses all previous estI-
! mates. In one school alone more than
! $40 children were killed. only seven
pupils were extrieated alive from the
ruins OF this building.
Fearful havoc was wrought III the
| Naval college The death toll at that
institution Is large.
More than. eco ehildrent ware 1ttgeA
In the collapse of the Dartmouth
school.
The matron and every child at the
Protestant Orphans home are dead.
OF the 1000 bodies recovered to
date only. one-half have been identi-
fed.
Aiding the dangers of the darkness
are the Quilted buildings, the thunder
or whose falling walls ever and anon
sends an ember rearing skyward< The
work of the rescuers Is made more
and more difficult by the dangers OF
the falling walls and the binding
snow eddtes which sweep along in the
teeth of the gale.
Rescuers Have Narrow Escapes.
Many rescue Parties have had mar
! row escapes Every hour adds nav
hardships to their work Attempts to
dig the dead from beneath the ruins
| are frustrated by the whirlw;nds I'll
snow and by numhed hands which
are incapable OF holding the imple-
| ments for the work.
Half-shattered buildings are crowd.
/ ed TO the limit of their capacity with
sufferers huddlel In groups in An
effort 10 keep warm.
Not a single house which still,
stands as the semblance of itself hut
I mas its quota of homeless who are
slau Tor It's slight protection.
Every house holder whose house
was comparatively uninjured is well
coming his less fortunate citizens to
the scanty hospitality that can ne
provided and every residence il
| crowded to the limit But through
the unglassed window openings tha
gale sweeps undated. bringing UNI
tod misery to even those who are
protected from teh elements Glass
is Is sorelv lacking In Halifax. near
iy every window in teh city having
been shattered in the blast which
carried SO much death and destruc-
ton, In some instances tarred paper
has been pressed into service but tina
supply of this Is short and the pene-
trating cold swirls and blows through
the dwellings
Wrapped in Blankets. quilts. bed
spreds and rags thoses who have been
/ unable to find shelter roam the
streets 1nere Is not a suit of clothes
IN Halifax which Is not in use those
who manag ed to save some garments
gladly giving them to others less for-
tunate.
Little Ones Died When Schools Fen.
Rescuers are dlwgtng desperataly
/ in the ruins of two schools whose att
tendance numbered $500 and in the
ruins of which the bodies OF many
are supposed to be buried ono
thousand bodies have been recovered.
but II is not known and probakly
never will how many lives were snuf-
fed out when the heavy bulldogs
settled down. Only seventy children.
injured and uninjured, are known 10
have been rescued.
Thirty thousand persons. the ma
jority of whom are women and Grid
rem, were made destitute when no leeA
than 5000 homes went down. The
ever increasing blanket OF snow II
spreading inland and 1t ia believed
that before morning the relief trasna
that are Mastering here will be cut
rT far from the city. With all corn-
munication cut orr 1t has been futile
10 attempt to notify the onrushtmg
trains Of the snow banks which await
them and many OF thefnwill nH IN
able to extricate themselves from tnA
snow drifts M
!. Trains from. Halifax . bAArtna ~ 3
wounded to places of strcef nm n
IS7xs