The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-10

Halifax, N. S., Dec. 1o.-Through roads three feet deep in snow a cor respondent of The Associated Press Saturday went over strip of Hali- fax more utterly demolished than any section of Belgium or France. f
 The ruin is complete.
 The Richmond district, in the North
 End, where the poorer people lived,
 extends alond the Narrows, a channel rightly named.
 It was in these waters that the French munition ship Mont Blanc, in- ward bound with a government pilot aboard, was rammed amidships by the Norwegian steamer Imo, proceeding outward with a cargo for the relief oi the Belgians.
 How this crash, not of itself seri. lous, ripped open tanks of benzine on the deck that trickled down to the Iengine room and started blaze that wrecked part of Halifax, never will he explained to the satisfaction of the people here, still dazed by the terror of it, as the giant blast that came when tons of high explosives sent a
 wild roar far out to sea, shook the very foundation of an area of 2 1-2
 square miles and stripped it bare.
 Nearly every house in the district
 fell with a crash. In nearly all of
 these fires started, men, women and children mostly children, were
 crushed to death or mangled under . debris which a moment later was a Iroaring flame.
 There was no chance of escape.
 The horror surrounding the burn
 ing to death of hundreds who were unable to move is realized here, but
 this town has not yet awakened tc
 the enormous loss of life. Estimates
 of 1,500 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 havoc wrought by
 the explosion was gained as the cor respondent viewed scores of trees
 burly of trunk, that literally were snapped in two 10 feet from the ground. Big brick structures came down
 with smaller ones of frame, but il
 was in these modest dwellings that
 the greatest loss of life occurred.
 Fortunately 1t happened before hun dreds of children had gathered at the
 big school in the heart of the dis.
 trict, which was wrecked. But most
 of these same youngsters were caught
 while playing about their homes.
 The steamer Mont Blanc. a name
 the stretch of water from the sectior
 the stretch Of ater from the section
 1t laid low, a crumbled, olackened
 heap. Nearby, hard on the beaef
 where it was driven by the explosion
 lies the crippled relief ship, an6
 1ssarer still the Canadian cruiser
 Niobe stands with no apparent sigr , of damage Other and smaller shiI : hulks offer mute evidence of the dis.
 aster, while 1,400 freight cars on the water front were burned to the base All over this wide area the stor, , is the same. There is a sloping hil ] that runs down to the water and a
 the top a church still stands witl every window gone, it's walls cracke, } and it's steeple leaning like the Tow } CT of Pisa.
 Around and about on every sid } are the black and charred ruin 5 where most of the congregation lived Farther to the edge of the devas , tated area another church escaped but every window frame was ripped out clean.
 l It was almost impossible to mak
 progress over the streets because 0 the great drifts If snow. It lay dee] upon the wreckage and it had turnet to a solid mass of ice that defied tn
 attempts of searchers to dig througl with picks.
 How long it will take this ice t. thaw nobody knows. In any othe
 time the blizzard would have cause, as much suffering as any here il years, but coming on top of tn D greater disaster 1t simply stunned tn . thousands of volunteers not person ! ally afflicted and demoralized all eff 8 fort for concerted searching. Even the sunshine which hal brought some. comfort, failed to brin1 D relief, for a cold north wind chille' | to the bones the men and womel
 engaged in searching the ruins. Right in the heart of this area fires starting Thursday, blazed like bon fires, and the crowds moving alonl
 the rough snowpaths caught some
 thing that made the atmosphere her e welInigh uIlbeara'ble. It was tn I odor of burning flesh.
 The flames leave little trace, an this taken into account, may glv 1 substance to the new official estlmat
 of 1000 dead.
 = There was no accurate census 0 the population of Richmond distric ,, Families came and went. and whe
 whole families were lost there was II 6 one left to report their deaths. - The Halifax man who has nc looked upon that section can no nor Il approximate the death toll than ca d the Boston man.
 l. Picture two and half square mile
 of homes torn down by an explosio > and then left to the fury Of tn ' fanaes. and the person thousan :. miles away can get an idea of the ez
 tent of the disaster.
 l' There are disYrantied buildings ia the rows of streets that have not v P been, dra ~eed down. The, walls lea ,s at dangerous 1neles, and windo ! blinds. coated with ice. kept up an al ,e day Tapping as the wind swel ,* through. There are piles and pil' = of ruins that no available force .O present here can clear away in week Not much will he found to help solN IS the r7addering riddle as to the nun d Ne- gore.
 gg Going out from the business set l. ton the newnaper correspondents ot " tained the first vivid impression