WRECK AT ST, LOUIS. V-■ i 1*1 Missouri's Metropolis Swept bu : Gudone. THE LOSS OF LIFE IS IMMENSE. :i . :: r t ' - Tolly Five Hundred Said to Have 4 Perished. • - FIRE AIDS THE DESTRUCTION. < - ELECTRIC LIQHT AND CAS . . - WORKS - USELESS. 1 . — • < .• v I. ‘ : r’: ■' ' % "• Coorenttoa Hall Unroof«d—Storm N.w. } if ram Other Points la Miaeoart—Elfhl. School Children Reported Killed at fCOraha. 111., sad Fifty at tho Village ■fW auo . . Death and destruction reign supreme in St. Louis and vicinity as a result of the most terrible storm that ever visit ed that section. Buildings of every description are in ruins, and, as a re sult,; hundreds of people are reported dead and injured, but, until order is re- J stored, it will be impossible to make any definite statement. Reports are in circulation that seven steamers lying at wharf boats have been sunk, with all or. board. The city was left in darkness, as the elettrlc lights and trolley .wires were blown down. Tbp storm broke out about 6 o'clock Wednesday afternoon after a most op pressively hot day, and the rain began to fall. It soon developed into a fierce thunderstorm, with the wind from the cast. A little later the wind had gained a' velocity of eighty miles an hour, driving the rain before It and tearing loose signs, cornices, chimneys, and everything in its way. Many buildings of every description were de molished, and others set on fire by lightning and crossed wires. The streets were full of people going borne from work, and a panic ensued as soon r.s the storm broke. Men were buildings, horses and carriages were aent flying hciV and there, and faliing wires, full of deadly fluid, added to the horror of the scene. Suddenly the wind veered around to the west and completed the destruc tion. It is asserted by aome of thoso who have traversed the down-town part of the city that there are but few build ings' in St. Louis that have not suf races stopped his work long enough to remark: “There goes the grandstand.” Then his wire collapsed and nothing more was heard from him. In a few seconds the same message was re ported from Lexington, Ky., with the additional information that fully 150 people wero dead. This information was subsequently, corroborated by the operator of the Wabash road at Deca tur, who said that in his second mes sage received from East St. Louis it was declared that the grand stand at the races was down and that fully 150 people were buried in the ruins. At East St. Louis the destruction seemed greatest. H. C. Rice, Western t'nion manager at the relay depot, climbed across the demolished bridge and reported the National hotel, the Tremont House, the Martell House, the DeWolf cafe, the Hezel Milling com pany's mill, Horn’s cooper shop, and a great many dwellings east of there as far as Fifth street, gone and many peo ple killed. The Baltimore and Ohio and Vandaiia round-house, the Stand ard oil works, the East St. Louis and Crescent elevators, and twelve freight houses on the levee, are demolished. Dlunitar* on Water. The steamer J. J. Odell of the Illi nois River packet was blown from Its wharf at the foot of Morgan street, crashed Into the second pier of the Bads bridge, and sank. Her boilers blew up before she disappeared. She had a crew of 12, and three women passen gers, besides her captain, George Town send. an old rlverman, who had his home In St. Louis. Three of her crew, Jack Morrissey, Pat Milan, and a man named Moore, reached land safely. The two former Jumped before the explosion and caught driftwood. Moore was blown overboard by the explosion, and was cut about the head, but managed to swim ashore. Three others of the crew clung to the pier and made their way up to the bridge proper! There is no way of es timating the number of lives that were lost on the river craft. H«*U« of lit*ton House Lout. The tug Belle of Baton Rouge, which was anchored up the river, was carried far down the river, rolling over and over, and finally struck the raft of tile Wiggins Kerry Company at the front of Choteau avenue, where it sunk. As the first evidence of the approach ing storm began to appear every en gineer on the river got up full steam In order to be able to combat the ele ments. Had it been anything but a tor nado It Is probable this would have aided the crews of the jiteamers In sav ing their craft. But the onslaught was so violent that the crews found their efTorts only sufficed to aid them slight ly in directing the course of their boats. The steamer Pittsburg of the Dia mond Joe line, the steamer City of Vicksburg and the Prqvidence of the ST. LOUIS CITY HOSPITAL, v* c y v ■ ■* ^ i. filled with injured victims op the cyclone. ^-1-------- __ forcd In some way from* the storm. The wagon way of the Eads bridge cMLtlje JJast St. Louis side is a crumb ling ‘mass of mortar and atones, and jiarwofthe tower and pier No. 1 have ^illso' been torn away. Thousands of S dollars will not cover the damage to stile bridge. An outbound accomnso f rfdayan train on the Chicago and Alton k roaifiMwab wrecked by a broken rail f/whinotnlv waKaiIu tv.. ..„.. r «ut fdH^nately nobody among the pas JBcrgrrs were , hurt. The tanks the Waters-Plerce Oil company on of ratio! street blew up, spreading j> •doayjnciion on every hand. Three Ki wtorl^n of the Coe Manufacturing eom pany’S- building, Ninth and Gratiot, f~' and nearly half of the Wainwrighi p brewery were blown down. The Sum S'.i.mer' high school, at Eleventh and .Spruce; McDermot's saloon, Eleventh j ' and Cbeenut; the central emigrant sta S: tion on the opposite corner, and Joro li > .Shofcan's livery stable. Eleventh and were unrooted.' Walt Tf>/ roor of tne republican convention . .fcalt was blown oft. F^' The scene in the river was appalling. ,,4; Steamboats moored at their landings i,. were torn away, turned over and sunk, 4. .drowning all on board. Many people , j were seen clinging to floating wreck . j, -age. and piteously appealing lor help, j J* At present it is impossible to estimate ' the lives lost. The hospitals are full of Injured, and the morgue contains many ; ■dcad. while numbers of slain lie every M wherd among the ruins of the demol lifted.buildings. Many of the dead will ? never be identifled. i-- The Plant flour mills, the St. Louis M Iron and steel works are demolished. f « -and the immense Cupples block is par tiaily destroyed. l| A terrible feature of' the storm was , the blowing down Of Old City hospital. iFJ The entire north wing of the rjptahack |V’/ le old structure was blow,it away. Two . patients were killed and a number se li rlously injured. How many of the tin fortunates of the city resting in the V , hospital walls at the time the storm struck will die as a result of the expo sure to the elements cahnot bo conjec tured. Returns from the St. Louis races are received at the track at Lakeside, Ind. and a few minutes’after 8 o'clock the operator sending'the report of the Cw'.V *#12;*.w Columbian Exposition Company, the Captain Monroe of the Anchor line, and many of the smaller craft were pitched and tossed about until the ilnal blast rent them from their anchorage. The storm swept diagonally across the river and struck the Illinois bank with increased fury. The loss of life In the water On the east side seems to have been light, as everybody was cautioned not to Jump and everybody was carried safely to land. The Belle of Calhoun and the Llbbie Condor, which were moored near Oho teau avenue, were almost totally broken up. The Ellen.G. Smith, the harbor boat, was blown away down the river, and was wrecked near Arsenal island. It Is thought no lives were lost on this boat. The steamer Ed Harvester of the Missouri Valley Transportation Com pany. was also torn from its dock and carried down the fiver. Many Heroic Act* Performed. Many heroic acta were performed in the saving of lives as a result of the atorm. When the City of Monroe had listed away from the Anchor line wharf there were about 40 passengers on board and a fall crew, as. the boat was Just making ready tor the trip to New Orleans. When the moorings finally gave way the boat lurched over on Its side and nearly capslsed. The move ment threw nearly all the freight to the starboard Bide and served to hold the boat in Its perilous position. Capt. Viegler made a reassuring speech to the passengers, which slightly quieted the extreme excitement. He said they were all safe. When the boat struck the Illi nois banh the captain was not to be found. -i,' The crew of the tug Dolphin No. 2 bad a marvelous escape from drowning when the boat was blown from its moor ings at he foot of Washington avenue. On board were three men and two women, the latter Jennie Mitchell, a cook, and Emma Nolan, chambermaid. When the storm broke the men were on deck and the women below. The mate saw that the storm was to be a hard one, and began to ring the alarm bell. Then the steamer Dragon, which ■ left Its moorings, was blown out into the stream. At tlie same moment the Dolphin's ropes parted, and the tug began to ship water. The wind blew her against the bridge. While this was going on the women and the other men on the boat climbed to the upper decks. When the boat struck the bridge those on board had to dodge to escape the iron work of the structure. The mate saw there was no hope if they stayed on board. Jennie Mitchell was the first to climb on the ironwork. She was assisted by two of the men, while the mate stayed on deck to help Emma Nolan. As she swung herself to the | wrecked part oi the bridge Is just east j of the big tower, near the Illinois shore, j and extends east for about 300 feet. The entire upper portion, traversed by street cars and carriages, is carried away, while the tracks beneath are buried in the debris, in some places eight feet deep. At midnight a report er penetrated the mud and debris to the burning St. Louis refrigerator ware house. Several injured firemen had been taken from the wreck, and three more were known to be in the ruins. Fir* Adds to the Horror. F*ire added much to the storm’s loss MAP OF ST. LOUIS AND EAST ST. LOUIS. SHOWING LOCATION OP THE PAIR GROUNDS AND EADS BRIDGE. beams the boat drifted away, and sank before the eyes of the horrified crew.' Slowly, with the wind blowing at a force that caused the big structure to rock like a cradle, the three brave men assisted the women on the laborious climb to the roadway. Several times they were nearly blown off. They llnal ly reached the railroad track on ihe bridge, where they lay down until the full force of the storm was passed. Then they crawled to the Washington avenue station. There were rumors Thursday that the excursion steamer Grand Republic, belonging to the Columbian Excursion Company, had gone to the bottom with 600 excursionists. Ail officer of the com pany promptly denied this. He said the boat left St. Louis at noon to go to Alton, where it was registered for an excursion at 8 o’clock that night. The storm might have blown the boat away, but in that case only the crew would have been imperiled, and these men could swim to safety. She is safe. Wild Rare with Death. While the storm was at its highest the passenger train on the Chicago & Alton railway pulled out on the bridge from the Missouri side. It was on its way east. Engineer Scott had only proceeded a short distance when he realized the awful danger which threat ened the train. The wind struck the coaches, at first causing them to careen. At that time he was about half way across. Overhead the poles were snap ping and tumbling into the river, while large stones were shifting loose from their foundations and plunging into account. Down wires, wild currents of electricity, crushed buildings, all contributed to this element of destruc tion. The alarm system was paralyzed. Approaches were blocked; a $200,000 conflagration on the St. Louis side was supplemented by a dozen lesser fires. In East St. Louis a mill was burned, and two other considerable losses were sustained. To the enormous total the fires added at least $500,000. The Catholic church of St. John of/ Nepomuk, at the corner of Twelfth and Soulard streets, was razed to the ground, except the front, which stands like a tower, ail the side and back walls being completely destroyed. It was a very large and handsome church. Now there only remains the arches and tur rets of the front and enough of the walls to show the beautiful style of its architecture. The debris lies in the street at the si dp and inside the build ing, the side walls Just projecting above It. There Is scarcely any debris In front, leaving the front view very natural ex cept for the ghastly vacancy shown through the windows. Dnrrlhtd by FrankvnfeM. H. W. Frankenfeld, the St. Louis weather officer, was a busy man during and after the storm. In an interview he said; “For the past week the weather in the vicinity of St. Loafs has been charac terized by low pressure, high tempera tures, excessive humidity, and prevail ing southerly winds. The pressure has also been low throughout the west. At EADS BRIDGE AT ST* LOUIS. r THE EAST END OP IT WAS CARRIED AWAY. the water. Realising that any moment his train might be blown into the water or else the bridge be blown away Scott, with rare presence of mind, put on a full head of steam in an effort to make the east side shore. The train had scarcely proceeded 200 feet and about the same distance from the shore when, an upper span of the bridge was blown away. Tons of huge granite blocks tumbled to the tracks where the train loaded with passengers had been but a moment before. At about the same instant the wind struck the train, up setting all the cars like playthings. Luckily no one was killed, but several were taken out severely injured. The •’ ,t*. ' the same time it is relatively high in the south, causing the warm, southerly winds laden with moisture, to blow from the gulf of Mexico. This mois ture has been held in suspense by the warm atmosphere, and the humidity consequently increased from day to day. The mean temperature averaged from 3 to- 13 degrees above the normal each day. while the humidity ranged from 7 to 20 per cent each mean, for this ; season of the year. “Wednesday morning, the weather map showed the low pressure still over lying the west with the center of de pression extending in irregular oval j from the Texas Pan-Handle through I west Kansas and Nebraska. Through I out tho state of Missouri high tempera ture and humidities prevailed with south winds. The day would be popu larly termed ‘warm, hazy, muggy.’ “Although reports are missing, owing to the widespread destruction, it is now evident the storm area moved slowly east during the day. The barometei commenced to fall at 9 o’clock and by noon it had fallen a thirteenth of an inch. About this time the sky becamf covered with dark, thickly-cumulated strata, which by 6 o’clock formed a mass of stratus cloud, which commenc ed to assume a light-green color in the northeast. “This green color slowly advanced from the northeast, spread more to the west and north. At the same time the temperature commenced to fall. “The normal cyclonic circulation thus brought winds of different tempera tures and humidities into an upper p03U tion, with the results that a decided instability was produced in the atmos phere and a violent secondary storm center was created. The barometer continued to fall rapidly and by 5 p. m. it had fallen .25 of an inch since noon. The wind was becoming variable, with a tendency toward a northerly direc tion until lightning and thunder had commenced, at 4:30 p. m. u.u* p. m. tne storm broke forth in all its fury; the wind changed sud denly to northwest, with rapidly in creasing velocity, and the rain fell in torrents. The green cloud still remain ed in the west and north, but the storm moved toward the southeast with large, angry detached masses of cumulus clouds crossing each other. At 4:15 p. m. the wind changed from the north, having the greatest velocity in the his tory of St. Louis. About 5 p. m. the wind had reached about 62 miles and later on it changed in its direction to the southeast. “From 5:04 p. m. to 6:04 p. m. 1.38 inches of rain fell. When the rain end ed at 9:05 p. m. 1.53 inches had fallen in all. The electrical storm was of un usual volume. The sky was almost one continuous blaze of light and the clouds extended far into the south.” list of the l>en