Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1896 — AFTERTHETORNADO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AFTERTHETORNADO

Storm-Stricken Cities Now Face the Future. BRAVE AND HOPEFUL. Thousands Are Busy Clearing Away Wreckage. Story of Violence, Terror, Ruin, Deeolation and Death—Burying the Dead and Caring for the Injured, Hungry and Homeless—Close Estimate of the Property Damage—Thousands Go to View the Storm's Work—Pen Picture of the Horrors the People of St. Imais Have Endured. Bruised and torn and bleeding, staggerlag from the force of the blow, but still reliant and confident in het own strength, ‘he city-jgof St. Louis is standing in the tew of hundreds of thousands of visitors, a beautiful picture even in her misery and pain. Though 200 of her children were torn from her by . the merciless wind, and ■cores are lying dn the hospitals on beds of agony, she is rallying her superb re■porces ready to begin again the march of progress. Property worth millions was ■natched from her bosom, and from the fair surface of, her vicinage huge factories, beautiful dwellings, gigantic elevators and thousands of homes of the poor hare been razed. Dazed and half Weeding, she has struggled to her sept, groping in the darkness of affliction. Her little neighbor is scarcely able to move. The full force of the storm that laid her waste was not lost in the long and remarkable voyage across the river. Out of a population of nearly three-quar-ters of a million St Louis lost two hundred souls. East St. Louis has scarcely a family in her limits that does not number in its membership one dead or wound-

ed. The list of victims to the fury of the wind runs up to 150, and to say who is injured would be to enumerate one-half the population of the bustling little community. Weaker than St. Louis, in that ■he lacks the size and wealth, she is strong in her own might With the assistance of the outside world she will recover from the blow in time and her Nocked streets will again be the tLorfull of teams and men they were'' efore the terrible visitation. But

in the history of the world, the disaster that overtook the sister cities will live on and on as the greatest of modern times. Birth of the Tornado* On that fateful Wednesday afternoon the clouds formed in conclave over St. Louis. For months, weeks they had been hovering in an atmosphere that made them worried and restless. They were •urcharged with energy generated by excessive heat and they were surly. They thirsted for rapine and slaughter. Down below them myriads of mortals ran about the streets Of the big city like ants, each carrying out his part in the daily journey of the world. Across the river dense volumes of smoke arose and from the many nilroad yards the shriek of locomotive whistles mingled with the rumble of moving cars. The great stock yards and the roiling mills and the foundries were adding their quota**to the atmosphere that was irritating the vapory masses in the sky. Traitorously the storm crept upon the city, and even as the people wondered why the shadows of vapor were behaving in a manner so unusual they framed their battle front and brought to being the tornado, the child of unusual atmospheric conditions, the concentratiop of the power of the elements. In less than ten minutes it caused damage to property that cannot be replaced in years and loss of life horrible to dwell upon. It swept a dty from end to end, attacked a swollen river, lined with shipping, made of it a waste of muddy water, showing here and there on its surface a wreck, and ruahed on through the little city across the bridge, demolishing it most utterly. It left behind a long trail of blood and twisted ruin. „ When the force of the wind abated from •very door and every place of shelter men and women swarmed with blanched faces and trembling lips. Every thoroughfare ' was a vista of broken signs, overturned vehicles, ground and shattered glass and twisted wires. Lights were snuffed out by the fury of the gale and the wonderful current that propels so many of the cars of the city was rendered useless. In the downtown business districts, where thf damage was slight, the streets were crowded with citizens anxious to get to their homes to reassure loved ones. All felt that a dreadful calamity had occurred, but none could say’the extent of it While the news of all the fatalities was being circulated in the manner that news was circulated in the olden time, when town erlers were the chroniclers of the events of the day, night was falling rapidly. The telephone system of the city was useless and the rapid transit conveyances stood idle in the streets. Light was at a premium. Candles were called into requisition and gas jets that had not Men service for years were pressed into use. The streets were wildernesses of risk. On every hand the wires were Spitting and snapping and froip roofs pieces of debris were falling suddenly and without warning. An hour bejfoW*the usual time the town was buried In a black pall

aain a dungeon. Out of the west came another storm, resembling the first, and terrified mortals fled from it wildly and aimlessly. All the time the rain beat down desperately. Night came on a’ city thoroughly and pitifully demoralized. In all its vast extent there was not a man who knew what had been accomplished by the terrible wind. Ghastly Tales Told. About 7 o’clock the eastern horizon took on a ruddy appearance, and through the blinding rain long tongues of fire could be seen mounting high in the air. East St. Louis was on fire. There were fires to the south and to the east and to the west. The city was walled in with flames on three sides and the streets were impassable. Out of the confusion and chaotic spawn of rumors, it became soon apparent that the bulk of the damage had been done in South and East St Louis. No one knew the extent of it and all feared to guess. That it was unprecedented was intuitively surmised. Up in the city, where the full force of the charge of the angry clouds was not felt, the ruin gave a faint indication of what it was where the tornado had mowed a path through the solid evidences of the industry of man. A steady stream of travel took its way toward the south and all night long it ebbed. and flowed out of scenes of misery and do vastation into scenes of devastation and misery. The rain did service in putting out numerous fires the firemen could not

reach and then died slowly and sullenly, as though angry at being called upon to render any succor to the victims of its allied, friends, the wind and the clouds. To the Rescue. Brave men, with heads cool and hearts true, realized, as soon as the full fury of the visitation was spent, that there was work for them to do. The City Dispensary naturally became the central, point of news and succor. Every minute news of fresh horrors was received. Ambulances began to reach the city hall loaded down with wounded and dead before any measures looking to their care could be taken. Physicians, full of energy, willing to do their part, came from every district in the city that had not been touched by

the storm. Volunteers poured in from every direction, ready to dig and delve or do anything to assist the authorities. Eight hours followed such as never before were ticked off by the clocks of St. Louis; eight hours of terror and uncertainty. The innermost recesses of the highest mountain ranges were scarcely more difficult of access than were the stricken districts. A darkness that seemed all the more impenetrable because it was experienced by a people unused to darkness, hid the view of one side of the street from pedestrians on the other. Wires hung at all angles or lay on the ground, tripping those who tried to cross them at every step. Telegraph poles were spread in every direction in the downtown districts and the remnants of buildings that had stood the brunt of the storm were stacked up like small hills on every corner. Those who ventured into that portion of the city lying south of Clark avenue took their lives in their hands. It was like defying fate to plunge into the vortex of ruin,.but fate was defied. Trucks loaded with firemen wejre sent out to clear : roads leading to the hospital from South St equipped with wire cutters and axes, and they blazed paths through piles of wreckage . '|he bulk of the horror of the night was grouped at the morgue, at the City Dispensary and at the hospital on Seventeenth and Pine streets. Down the nar-, row alley back of. the city hall ambulance aftgr ambulance swung in, loaded down with suffering humanity. The limited quarters were a repository'for the misery of days crowded into hours. Needy

all the victims brdught in were completely naked, stripped by the violence of the storm. Speed was necessary in treating them and the gentle, kindly words of the surgeon who has plenty of time were not spoken. It was hurry, hurry, hurry. A man with one fractured leg would give way on an operating table to a man with both legs fractured, or a woman with her tender flesh hanging in shreds. Little, children, torn and crushed, were brought in and laid before the surgeons, their shrill cries and pitiful moans contrasting with the howls of the more powerful adults. They came in a swift stream that seemed to- be without end, all night long, and it appeared to those who handled them that the sights and sounds grew more terrible as the hours crept by. Among the Mangled. The scenes at the hospital were a repetition of those at the dispensary. It was at the morgue that the full force of the disaster was brought to the understanding. The little slate-colored building on Twelfth and Spruce was the magnet that drew a funeral procession, radiating from every part of the South Side. First, the slabs were filled in the usual way, one body to a slab, and then two slabs were placed together and made the resting place for four bodies. Still the corpses came. They were dumped in like grist into a mill. The slabs were soon crowded and the ice boxes invuse. Ittook but a short time to fill'ithe boies and the doors were closed for a few minutes, while a general shifting of the mutilated forms was made. The next time the doors were opened from six to eight bodies were placed on a slab and the boxes were filled to the top, as a boy piles wood into the big box behind the kitchen stove. When all the receptacles provided for the use of the dead were full to overflowing, the tired morgue attaches laid.the. bodies op the floor, and those who came to search for loved ones were confronted by a spectacle well fit to stagger a grave digger. All night long St. Louis and East St. Louis were cities alone in their terrible desolation, almost entirely cut off from communication with the rest of the world, and without exception the streets of this city were dark tunnels, and her homes were the homes of fearful people. Dead and dying, death and injury, were the sole topic of conversation. To those who slept came dreams of pishing storms carrying the bloody victims of its fury in outstretched arms. To those who spent the night in work in the devastated district came a surfeit of,siekening experiences that will haunt them for months to come. And in all the horror of the black night and its. terrible developments reigned a feeling of dread for what might be disclosed by the day. When the first gray coloring in the eastern sky gave evidence of the coining of the light, the watchers gazed with mingled feelings of thankfulness and fear. . Objects became discernible dimly as the sun mounted higher on the course of his daily journey, emphasizing the ruin that was rather felt than seen in the gloom of the night. After the Storm.' The first reports of the great storm were considerably exaggerated, as is usually the case when such a calamity occurs.lt was ipipossible in the confusion and darkness to obtain definite information, and the stories of havoc and fatality were magnified by the exciting influences of the situation. .The pumber of’killed, which was hastily estimated at 1,000, is now known to be less than 500 for St. Louis and East St. Louis, while the destruction of property may be put at not to exceed $5,000,000. It is impossible to tell how many were wounded, but the list is likely to be several times as large as that of the dead; 1 and there are hundreds of houseless and destitute families, thankful in their distress that they escaped with their lives. The work of suceqring the needy is being carried on with all possible diligence and effectiveness. There was a quick response of public sympathy and charity to the demands of the occasion, and well organized efforts of relief give assurance that no suffering will

be neglected and no means spared to restore generalTOnftort and happiness. It r will take some time to repair the property damaged! but the undertaking is already in progress and will be pushed forward with characteristic American pluck and enterprise until the last vestige of the misfortune is removed. It will take at least two. years to repair the damage done by rite tornado. It is estimated that in St. Louis at least 7,500 houses were destroyed, although the officials of the building commissioners 1 office are inclined to place it at 10,000. The

number of buildings destroyed or damaged at East St Louis will not fall below 500, which means a loss from which the Illinois town will not recover in many years. The tornado was not a respecter of classes, and made no distinctions. It swept away the palaces of wealth as well as the hovels of the poor. It spared neither institutions of mercy nor the monuments of‘productive industry. While the money value of the damage is estimated in aggregate at not over $5,000,000, these figures do not convey an adequate idea of the tremendous losses sustained by the great catastrophe. The losses entailed by suspended business operations and the money that will be required to clear away the wrecked factories, blocks and dwellipgs will swell the total loss to an incredible figure. KILLED BY THE WIND. Nearly One Thousand Lives Blown Ont in the Last Sixty Days. Nearly 1,000 persons have been killed by tornadoes and windstorms' of lesser violence during the last sixty days. The figures at hand show the "number of dead to be 795, a total that will undoubtedly be swelled to much larger proportions when the full loss of life at St. Louis is ascertained. Illinois. ——- 2—Dead. Injured. Pern, May 16. . . ...... 1 Mercer County, May 16 1 Elgin, May 16 1 4 Rockford, May 16. ..'.., 3 14 Monroe, May 24 2 6 Leaf River, May 24 1 Cairo, May 25 14 . East St. Louis, May 27 150 800

New Baden, May 27.. 13 24 Blrkners, May 27 4 ... Boyd, May 27. ..ts-. 2 8 Irvington, May 27. 1 6 'Hoyleton, May 27 8 ... Mascoutah, May 27.... 1 ... Jefferson City, May 27 5 Fairfield, May 27 1 8 Total 208 384 Missouri. St. Louis, May 27............250 300 Audrain County, May 27 15 25 Total ._. 265 825 Michigan. Oakland County, May 25 113 83 Mount Clemens, May 25........ 12 Total ....113 45 lowa. North McGregor, May 24..... 15 ... Valeria, May 24 5 2 Bondurant, May 24 4 2 Mingo, May 24 4 Santiago, May 24. ; 8 ... Duraago, May 24.......1 5 ... New Hampton, May 24 1 Centerville, May 27, 3 8 Total 40 12 Kansas. Concordia, April 26. 8 12 Falls City, May 16 4 12 Sabetha. May 16...... 13 ... Oneida, May 16..... 6 .... Reserve, May 16..... 4 ... Emporia, May 20 1 ... Total 1...... 36 24 Indiana. Warsaw, May 27 2 5 ' » Texas. Denton and Grayson Counties and city of Sherman, May 15.100 200 Colorado. Denver, March 27 1 ... Kentucky. Elva, May 16 5 Oklahoma. Osage Reservation, May 20... 4 ... North Dakota. Epiphany, April 27 3 10

Virginia. Salem,. April 24.............. 2 ... Ohio. Sandusky, April 20.. 2 ... J Nebraska. Pawnee, May 17 10 ... Pennsylvania. Jarrettown, May 28 3 ... Columbia. May 28. 1 ... Total 4 ~ Grand total... 795 975 The most famous dog artist was Landseer. *

EAST. ST. LOUIS CITY HALL.

VIEW ON SIXTH STREET. ST. LOUIS—-TYPICAL SCENE IN THE SOUTHWESTERN PART OF THE CITY.

SCENE IN HICKORY STREET.

WRECKED STEAMERS ON THE EAST SHORE OF THE RIVER.

AT TENTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS.