Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-12-11
Nearly Every House in Rich
mond Destroyed by Crash,
Burning Walls Crushing Its
Inhabitants Into the Debris

HALIFAX, n. s., Dec. S.-Through
roads three feet deep in snow, a CORE
spondent of the Associated Press today
went over a strip of Halifax more ut
terly demolished than any section of
Belgium or France. The ruin is COM
plete.
The Richmond district in the north
end, where the poorer people lived, eX-
tends along the narrows, a channel
rightly named. 1t was in these waters
that the French muntion ship Monte
Blanc, inward bound with a government
pilot aboard was. rammed amidships by
the Norwegian steamer limo, proceeding
outward with a cargo for the relief of
the Belgians.
How this crash, not of itself serious,
ripped open on the decks tanks of ben
zine that trickled down to the engine
room and started a blaze that wrecked
part of Halifax, never will be explained
to the satisfaction of the people here,
who are still dazed by the terror of the
giant blast that came when tons of high
explosives sent wild roar far out to
sea, shook the very foundation of an
area of two and a half square miles and
stripped It bare
Nearly every house in the district fell
with a crash. In nearly all of these
fires started, and men, women and chill
dren-mOstly children-were crushed to
death or mangled under the debris
which a moment later was a roaring
flame.
Town Not Awake to Loss
There was no chance Of escape. The
horror surrounding the burning to death
of hundreds who were unable to move
is realized here, but this town has not
yet awakened to the enormous loss Of
life. Estimates of 1900 dead accepted
heretofore as high seem far below the
mark after travelling over the Richmond
district, where the brunt of the blow
fell.
Some idea of. the powerful havoc of
the explosion was gained as the CORE
spondent viewed scores OF trees, burly
of trunk, that literally were snapped
in two, ten feet from the ground Big
brick structures came down with small
Ter ones of frame, but ii was in these
modest dwellings that the greatest loss
of life occurred.
Fortunately il happened before hum
dreds of children had gathered at the
big school in the heart of the district
(which was wrecked. But most of these
same youngsters were caught while
playing about their homes
The, steamer Mont Blanc, name
never to be forgotten here, lies across
the stretch of water from the section 1t
laid low, a crumpled blackened heap
Nearby, hard on the beach where it
was driven by the explosion, lies the
crippled relief ship, and nearer still the
Canadian cruiser Niobe stands with 30
apparent sign of damage. Other and
smaller ship hulks offer mute evidence
OF the disaster, while fourteen hundred
freight cars on the waterfront were
burned TO the base All over this wide
area the story is the same. There is
sloping hill that runs down to the water
and at the top church still stands with
every window gone, its walls cracked
and it's steeple leaning like the Tower
of Pisa. Around and about on every
side are the black and charred ruins
where most of the congregation lived.
Further to the edge of the devastated
area another church escaped, but every
window frame was ripped out clean.
Street Progress Difficult
It was almost impossible to make
progress over the streets because of the
great drifts of snow. Tt lay deep upon
the wreckage and tonight it had turned
to a solid mass of ice that dehed the
attempts Of searchers to dig through
with picks.
How long it will take this ice to
thaw nobody knows. In any other time
the blizzard yesterday would nave cauS-
ed much suffering, but coming on top
of the greater disaster, it simply stun
ned the thousands of volunteers, not per-
sonally afflicted, and demoralized all
efforts for concerted searching.
Right i'm the heart of this area.
fires starting Thursday blazed tonight
like bonfires and the crowds moving
along the rough snow paths caught
something that made the atmosphere