Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1896 — DIGGING UP THE DEAD [ARTICLE]

DIGGING UP THE DEAD

FIVE hundred bodies of cyclone VICTIMS RECOVERED Weeks Will Have Passed Before thfj. Full Extent of'the Calamity Ia : Known—Whole Country Offers Help —List of Dead by Towns.. , Cities as Graveyards. The full extent of the havoc wrought by storms which swept over portions of Illinois and Missouri cannot be known for several days. In many places telegraph wires are down, and com,munication with these points cannot be had at the time this is written. The reports so far as received show the storm td~have been widespread and fatal to a degree never before kadwn in the history of the cduntry. In St. Louis alone the angel of death only knows how many victims he gathered unto himself when he rode into that city Wednesday night on the wings of the wind. Not for days, if ever, wjll TTjenw-nf-vActiius-lie complete. Nearhr half of St. Louis is a burial ground, and across thwriver in East St.- Louis rhe 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 brigk, stone and lumber are cleared but in all probability the exact number of. those whose lives were crushed out by falling walls or who met their fate under the waters of the raging Mississippi will never be known. Appended is a careful and conservative estimate of the killed and injured—based-en the- most reliable information obtainable: Killed. Injured. St. Louis . . .250 300 "Ejist St. LliplT;.... r.-‘;.. 150 ——2 so Breckinridge. 11l 2 . .. Brinker Station, 11l ■. 8 30 Carlisle. Pa 2 Columbia, Pk, . I——ls1 ——15Fairfield, 11l 1 ... (iratiot. Mo. 4 ... Harmony. 111. 2 ... Lancastiy. Pa ~'... 1 ... TMascoulinir THU- . . r —-I Near ('entralin, 111, .... 43 35 Near Jefferson'City, M 0... "4 ... Near Mount Vernon. 111.. . 6 1 20 Near Mexico, Mo '■ 5 13 Newark. (> 1 Near Vandalia. 11l .. „ 1-3 15 New Madrid. 11l 7 30 New, Baden. 11l . . 8 13 Richfield. 111. 4 ... Rushville. 111. 4 26 Total .514 750 Value of Property Destroyed. Neither call the total value of property destroyed be given. Estimates in the various papers'vary from $t0,000,000 to $35,0110.01 Mt. It is not likely, however, the diimagi 1 wjjl be over_sls,ooo.ooo. On this vast loss there is practically nd insurnwfv and little salvage. There are probably not 100 people in St. Ixjuis 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 inoniiring to-day. mourning over the biers of their loved and lost, and over the total annillflation of w.hht few worldljt goods they owned. The damage to the hall in which the natio.mil Republican convention is to lie hellT’ was slight as compared-with other JjL_.beaig con fl nod la rgely to the carrying iivvnj- of part of the roof and- in monetary value willsnot exceed .$5,000. St. Louis is looking after its own. The moneyed men of the t’oWn have put their hands intotheir p<>ekc>ts. aud will go deeper, as the occasion, demands. At a public meeting the day following the storm $15,000 waft raised. and., that amount was more than doubled within twenty-four hours afterward. The woes -<il’.4-h.e- woundedmuLhameless have stirred the great henrt of the country to its depths. St. I a >u is ist lie stri<• ke n child of - the nation, and offers of aid have been tendered from every quarter. ..Congress passed a joint resolution directing the Secretary of War Io place at the disposal of'the Mayors o* the stricken cities a sufficient number of tents to provide for the temporary necessities of the homeless and to Tender stTC-lt aid as might be un his power. Tbdre are eight or ten boats used in lite 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 assistance. Gov. Stone ordered militia to St. Louis to protect the stricken people and their scattered property, and Gov. Altgerd sent two companies to East St. Louis fffhe Mayor of that city believes at pres-■enUUHiT-thewiitside 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-a'tice and courage, but as the needs of the people are revealed this aid may beJOund necessary to meqt them, and its acceptance will not detract from the city’s dignity* The dead will be buried and some may lie forgotten: new buildings will take the place of those that lie level with the .streeta_lj>.-dn.v...and. the_snmkc of. the city will soon destroy the newness thereof, but the memory of that visitation of wind will never fade from the minds of those who witnessed it. TO AID ST. LOUIS. Mayor Swift Calls a Special Meeting; of the Cliicntio Council. Mayor Swift on Thursday sent" out a call for a special meeting of 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 t'hat no call had been made on him from the tire de partment of St. Louis, but that of course ' he stood ready to aet when one was made. All the city officials were deeply concerned over the catastrophe which had befall,ett St. Louis, ami expressions of willingness to aid in every way were heard on all irides.