Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1896 — DIGGING UP THE DEAD [ARTICLE]

DIGGING UP THE DEAD

FIVE HUNDRED BODIES OF CYCLONE VICTIMS RECOVEREDWeeke Will Have Passed Before the Full Extent of the Calamity la Known—Whole Country Offers Help —Liat of Dead by Towns. Cities as Graveyards. The fall extent of the havoc wrought by (forms which swept over portions of Illinois and Missouri cannot be known for several days. In many places telegraph wires are down, and communication with these points cannot be had at the time this is written. The reports so far as received show the storm to have been widespread and fatal to a degree never before known in' the history of the country. In St. Louis alone the angel of death only knows how marfy victims he gathered unto himself when he rode into that city Wednesday night on the wings of the wind. Not for days, if ever, will the list of victims be complete. Nearly half of St Louis is a burial ground, and across the river in East St. Louis the dismantled, wrecked, and demolished structures seem, to cover a single grave of uncounted dead. They are being counted one by one as the masses of shattered brick, stone and lumber are cleared away, but in all probability the exact number orthose whose lives were crushed' out by falling walls or whp. met their fate under the waters of the raging Mississippi will never be known. Appended is a careful and conservative estimate.of tbe killed and Injured based on the most reliable information obtainable; Killed. Injured. St. Louis 250 300 East St. Louis 150 250 Breckinridge, 111. :.... 2 ... Brinker Station, 11l 8 30 Carlisle, Pa. ’. 2 Columbia, Pa . . 1 15 Fairfield, HL 1 Gratiot, Mo ~ 4 Hariqony, 111. . 2 Lancaster, Pa '. 1 Mascoutah, IIL 1 ... Near Centralia, 111 43 35 Near Jefferson City, Mo. 4 ... Near Mount Vernon, 111... 6 20 Near Mexico, Mo 5 13 Newark, O. .. 1 Near Vandalia. HI 13 15 New Madrid, 111 7 30 New Baden. 11l 8 13 Richfield,. 111. 4 ... Ilubhville, 111. 4 26 Total 514 750

Value of Property Destroyed. Neither can the total value of property destroyed be given. Estimates in the various papers vary from $10,000,000 to $35,000,000. It is not likely, however, the damage will be over $15,000,000. On this vast loss there is practically no insurance and little salvage. There are probably not 100 people in St. Louis who carried cyclone policies, and' they were of the better class- who- were not the ones to suffer. It is the common people who are mourning to-day. mourning over the biers of their loved and lost, and over the total annihilation of what few worldly goods they owned. The damage to' the hall in which the national Republican convention is to be held' was slight as earn pared with other losses, it being confined largely to the carrying away of part of the roof and in monetary value will not exceed $5,000. St. Ixjuis is looking after its own. The moneyed men of the town, have put their hands into their pockets, and will go deeper as the occasion demands. At a public meeting the day following the storm $15,000 was raised, and that amount was more than doubted within twenty-four hours afterward 1 . The woes of the wounded and homeless have stirred the great heart of the country to its depths. St. Louis is the stricken child of the nation, and offers of aid- have been tendered from every quarter. Congress passed a joint resolution directing the Secretary of War to place at the disposal of the Mayors of the stricken cities a sufficient number of tents to provide for the temporary necessities of the homeless and to render sueh aid as might be in his power. There are eight or ten boats used in the Mississippi river improvement which are able to render assistance, and these were ordered to the scene of the disaster. The Mayors of” all large cities, presidents of Boards of Trade and commercial clubs telegraphed offers of assistGov. Stone ordered militia to St Louis to protect the stricken people and their scattered property, and Gov. Aitgeld sent two-companies to East St. Louis The Mayor of that city believes at present that the outside help will not be needed, The offers that have poured in on him have been tentatively declined. It shows a commendable spirit of self-reli-ance and courage, but as the needs of the people are revealed this aid may be found necessary to, meet them, and its acceptance will not detract from the city’s dignity. The dead will be buried and some may be forgotten; new buildings will take the place of those that lie level with the streets to-day, and the smoke of the city will soon destroy the newness thereof, but the memory of that visitation of wind will never fade from the minds of these who witnessed it. TO AID ST. LOUIS. Mayor Swift Calle a Special Meeting of the Chicago Council. Mayor Swift on Thursday sent out a call for a special meeting o's the Chicago City Council for the purpose of considering what might best be done to aid the stricken city of St. Louis. Chief Swenie of the fire department said that no call had been made on him from the fire de partment of St. Louis, but that of course he stood ready to. act when one was made. All the city officials were deeply concerned over the catastrophe which had befallen St. Louis, and expressions of willingness to aid in every way were heard on all sides.