Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (June 17, 1903)
it VOL. XLIII. IsT0. 13,265. PORTLAND, OREGON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1903. PRICE FIVE CENTS. THE OLDEST AMERICAN WHISKEY There is nothing better and ROTHCHILD BROTHERS pJSSSWf- The Premo Film Camera, price $4.00 Uses The Film Pack, price And Insures Perfect Film Photography - $4.70 IiET US EXPIiAIX BLUMAUER-FRANK DRUG CO. EVERYTHING PHOTOGRAPHIC 142 FOURTH STREET. - A" "STRONGEST IN SAMUEL, Manager, 30G Oregonlan DR. EAT AKES "There Life and Strength In Every Drop" A BEVERAGE OR A MEDICINE Tar by All Dnuctlfta. BlUMAUER & HOCH, Sole Distributers, Wholesale Liquor and Cigar Dealers fXHi MBTSCSLAJty Pras. Mm m mimm streets, mnm, memi cxjMcm or xakjlgxosrv European Plan: . . $1.00, $1.50, $2.00 per Df COPYRIGHT .a'Kimji "FOR MEN WHO SMOKE" El Sidelo ALLEN & LEWIS, Main line of the Northern Pacific Railway. Hound trip fare from Port land, only JS.20. Do you appreciate Its advantages? Tho most curative waters known. Change to an entirely different climate. Perfection of service, with a large corps of skilled attendants all under direct medical supervision. We cure more than SO per cent of all our cases. For Information address Dr. J. S. Kloeber, Green River Hot Springs, Wash., or Inquire of A. D. Charlton, Northern Pacific Railway Ticket Office, Portland. Some of Our .Specialties Vc manufacture Bifocal Glasses that are better in a great many ways than the ordinary. We also manufacture thin lenses for people who have to use those strong, thick, near sighted glasses. We make a specialty of filling oculists prescriptions. Halff. Jewelers and Optician. it has few if any equals. - IT TO YOU. Jili h THE WORLD if Bnlldlngr - - - - PORTLAND, OR. FOWLER'S and M ALT USCLE C W. SKOWIJM, XK REAL COMFORT at Home can be taken when the rooms are cov ered with handsome Carpets and Rugs EXCLUSIVE CARPET HOUSE .QJack&Co. SG-SS THIRD STREET Opposlto Chamber of Commerce DISTRIBUTERS THE KLOEBER" GREEN RIVER HOT SPRINGS WASHINGTON The Health Resort of tha Wesi Cor. Third and Wuklsctea Sts. CITY DEATH Grim Days of Sorrow in Heppner. DEATH ROLL IS 200 Over 130 Victims Now Repose in Graves, DREAD WATERS MISS FEW Families Sundered, and Hun dreds Bereaved. POLICE WORK DONE VIGOROUSLY Stores Turned Into Free Supply De potsMany Thousand Visitors Thrilling: Stories of Escape and Tragedy. DEATH LIST IS 200. HEPPNER, Or.. June 10. Special.) The excitement is gradually wearing away here. First death reports were exaggerated. Not more than 200 per sons lost their lives, perhaps not that many. About 130 bodies have been re covered. Testerday 115 were brought In. and today 15. About 100 dwellings were destroyed. , BY LESLIE il. SCOTT. HEPPNER, Or., Juno 16, via Lexington, Or., June 16. (Staff N correspondence.) yerrible WlllowCrakJias.shrurik t$e the size of all Innocent brooks. Awful tales of destrucUon to Ufa and property are graven In its banks. Perhaps 300 people of Heppner have perished. Nearly 125 bodies have been recovered. Over 100 have been burled. About $500,00) worth of property Is erased from the wealth of Morrow County In Heppner along Willow Creek. Scenes at Heppner are Indescribable In their grewsomeness, their anguish, their awful desolation. No pen can exaggerate the horrors they pre sent. Every heap of debris may contain a human form in decomposition. Many do reveal such spectacles when uncovered, and meantime Willow Creek, as If to mock the-dead, hae returned to a purling brook let, and the Courthouse clock at every hour peals forth its dolorous note Into the ears of the bereaved. A grim-visaged aspect has Heppner. No loafers may tarry in its precincts. A rigid emergency government impresses able bodied men Into the work of saving the town from plague-breeding disease. The dead are dead, but the. living must live. The community Is ruled by a strong hand akin to marUal law. Several thousand persons have arrived from inside places. But they may not Indulge In lazy curi osity. Government In extremity Is force, and when Marshals and Deputy Sheriffs pass up and down with butt ends of pis tols protruding from their pockets, gov ernment has Its true exemplification. Three Hundred Bodies Found. An army of men and horses Is sifting great wastes of debris. Three hundred bodies have been found and there are men who say the work Is only half begun. An army of women take charge of the bodies as they are borne out of the wreckage by the straining arms of men. An arm, a leg, a toe, a finger, a lock of hair, a tuft of clothing these are harbingers of horror beneath the mud. Babies and lit tle children Helhere burled, with many a gash or bruise on their tender bodies. Forms of women frequently come to llgh't bereft of all clothing save where a corset shields them from the gaze of anxious searchers. Clothing of men Is less fre quently torn away. The bodies are borno to Roberts' Hall to be washed and dressed by women, to be shrouded In coarse white cloth, and to be laid in rough wood boxes. There Is no time for cere mony. It's the grim reality of death. And women who would faint at scenes one-thousandth part as awful obey the mandate of necessity without a flinch. The floor swims with the half-diluted mud that drips from the victims, but the living patter through It or sweep It out when It gets too deep. The rough boxes go to the cemeteries, not singly in hearses, but many at a time, piled high in wagons. Xo Class Distinction Xovr. Social lines are all erased In the dis aster. The aristocracy of the town delves In the mud with the lowly, .and with the same grime on its faces. All eat the same enervating food. Politics is forgot ten entirely. The city and county officials are supreme authority. One of them fired a man to work yesterday at the point of a pistol. Any person detected in loot ing must be shot on the spot. Medicines are not needed here, nor physicians, nor nurses. The town must be cleansed if It would -escape pestilence. It must have more men to help clean up and provisions to feed the men would be right welcome. Many families are entire ly destitute, alL their worldly possessions having been carried away. In many a family only a father or a mother or an orphan Is left. Help would tend to lighten the gloom of all such as these. Avrfal Scene, of Desolation. Houses crushed and telescoped beyond recognition, buildings twisted from their foundations, deposited In streets or on alien property, one-fourth, or one-half, or one mile away; household goods strewn In everj direction In reeking mud; trees two feet In diameter "uprooted and woven In Impeded drift into all kinds of awful fantastic shapes, bodies of men and horses and cattle and pigs all cast In In discriminate ruin such Is Heppner of to day. All persons say that tha crest of the flood was upon the town within three or four minutes after the danger was per ceived. Most of the people were In their houses. The day being Sunday, the hour being dinner time, and a heavy rain fall ing, all caused tticm to pen themselves within doors. Most of the dwellings were near the bank of the stream. Tho people were therefore caught like rats in a trap, and so sudden was the warning that comparatively few could reach places of safety. The whole row of houses next the creek was swept away. Spectators of the calamity describe the structures as falling like card houses. The dwellings were tossed about like bobbins, and most of them fell completely to pieces. The town had perhaps over 250 houses, nearly 300 of which were demolished. The whole business part of town would have been swept away had not the Palace Hotel, a heavy brick structure, diverted the cur rent. Houses on brick foundations fared better than others because the flood could not so easily wash under them. Identifi cation of tho dead has been easy. Most of the bodies show the effects of drowning rather than of vital injury, though all of them are mora or less bruised. Only a few of those who escaped the flood were severely Injured. Locked in Close Embrace. A. Abrahamalck, who was rescued, died today. The bodies of Dr. Vaughn, Post master, and his wlfo were found today locked In each other's embrace. A foot of each body was all that first camo to light. Mrs. Vaughn's dress was intact, and she still wore her Jewelry. At the railroad depot a live 2-year-old baby was found yesterday In a grain sack in a pile of drift. The mother was rescued a short distance further down stream. George Consers experience was probably as extraordinary as any. Mr. Conser was sitting in his house with his wife, Dr. McSword and John Ayers when tho flood picked up the house. The floor of tho front hall bulged upward, letting in tor rents of water. Conser and his wife fled upstairs. They do not know what became of McSword and Ayers, and believe tho two men must have tried to escape out the door. While the husband and wife were upstairs a partition fell in on them and held them down to their necks In water. They thought their last moment had come, and kissed, eac3i oth,er good-by; but a friendly current took the house shoreward. There the structure was all but demolished. When the waters abated Conser kicked out a window -and with his wife escaped. "Wo had given up the fight," said he, "when we wero saved. We lost all our household effects, and these clothes are all I own In the world." Emergency Organization Formed. Mr. Conser, in the absence of Mayor Gilliam, who returned from Portland last night, was made president of the emer gency organization of citizens Sunday night, after the flood had wrought Its ruin. He has been indefatigable In his present duUes, and Is nearly worn out with fatigue. The body of Dr. McSword was found yesterday 33 miles down stream. C. E. Redfleld returned In tho early darkness of this morning to And his home, his wife and his three children all swept away. As he stood by tho scene of deso lation he wept aloud In his anguish. His was one of the handsomest houses here, and not a vestige of it remains. All stores were ordered open today by the emergency organization, so that goods could be procured for relieving distress. Goods wero confiscated, especially Imple ments, though the credit of the city was assured for payment. "But I can't get in the door," pleaded a thrifty merchant. "Why?" "Because the key won't fit." "Wo can kick It in, then," declared Con ser, but at this emergency tho key fitted the door. "We must have all the teams we can get," proclaimed the dictator. All available teams were put to service. "We must have food for the men," he continued. "Go," addressing a lieutenant, "and get a beef wherever you can find one." Nine Perished Here. Hotel Heppner was completley demol ished and about nine Inmates perished. Ono of Its proprietors, Jones, was among the victims. The other proprietor, Ash baugb, escaped. About 40 persons were in the hotel. Only one who remained saved his life. Arthur Ducket stuck to his room, though nearly all of the structure broke away from him. The persons who lost their lives in the hotel besides Jones were his wife and three children, Andrew Pe terson, of Hlllsboro, who was -taking or ders for the Pacific Woolen Mills; a man named Fisher, from Haystack; another named Boyer, of Kansas; and Mrs. Haines, wife' of 'the cook. Ashbaugh was In a cottage adjoining the hotel with his wife and two children and a child of Jones. Ho snatched up the elder of his children and called to his wife to follow. She. In trying to save the two other ba bies, lost her own and saved that of Jones. Believing she was doomed, she sat down on the bed. The house fell asunder and she found herself wrestling with the tor rents. Bruised and cut by heavy timbers, she lost her baby. With the Jones baby In her arms she floated against the pick ets of the Methodist Church and was saved. His Family Was Safe. Dr. Hlggs saw the flood from his office window, and Immediately ran for his house. 200 yards distant But the dwelling was carried away before his eyes. He was beside himself, for he believed his wife and child to- be in the house. But they were safe In the church. Touching were the scenes when kinsfolk met after the catastrophe those whom (Csecluded ea Fourth Page.) IN Dread Scenes Along Willow Creek. HAVOC BY THE FLOOD Death and Disaster in Its Savage March. FARMS AND HOMES GONE Railroad Carried Bodily a Quarter of a Mile. MUTE STORY OF A BABY'S FATE Searchers Pursue the Sad Taslc of Rescue Farmers In Despair Talk of Seeking Xew Fields Dam age Not Calculable. HEPPNER REACHED BY WIRE Telegraphic communication with Heppner was opened with a patched wire last night. The lines had been In trouble all day, but by herculean labor on the part of tho "Western Union and the telephone company the damage was temporarily repaired, so that The Oregonlan is able again to present full news accounts of the events and scenes following the disaster. Superintendent O'Brien, of the O. R. & N. Co.. expects to run trains to Heppner by Sunday-. BT A. CROFTOJT. LEXINGTON. Or.," June 1C Staff Correspondence.) Greit tragedies are made up of many minor ones, and. if Heppner is indeed tonight a town of lamentations, a city of tho dead. It de tracts but little from the pathos, the Impresslveness and the wlerdness of the scenes which dot! tho valley for twenty miles below the stricken city. The canyon of Willow Creek, if not the Valley of tho Shadow of Death, truly Is a vale of tears. And while the voice of Rachel weeping for her children Is heard In mourning at Heppner, It conveys to the observer perhaps a less pathetic evidence of the disaster than does the pitiful wreckage of happy homes strewn along tho path of the raging torrent which has destroyed nearly 300 lives. The bodies of many of the persons reported missing have undoubtedly been swept away In the racing waters to And a resting place, and perhaps a grave, many miles below Hepp ner. At a bend of the river 15 miles from the scene of the cloud burst, a passing horseman picked from a barbed wire fence the tiny undershirt of some drowned baby. As this body, In company un doubtedly with many others, had been borne towards tho Columbia by the re slstless flood, tho little garment had been combed from the Infant corpse by the tentacles of the fence, and, as the flood receded, had been left exposed to view. a mute evidence of the destination of one of the missing. At this point, though removed so far from the Initial point of the flood, the evidence of Its inconceivable force was more striking than at any other point seen In the valley. A section of railroad track measuring 1200 feet in length, had been lifted bodily from Its roadbed quarter of a mile above, and had been plied up, where the waters had made a sharp curve. In an Indescribable mass of wreckage. The heavy steel rails had been bent and twisted by the current into every possible geometrical figure. One section of rail, 200 feet long, on which the fish plates were still unbroken, was lapped around a bluff of mud so accurately that nowhere In its whole length was daylight to be perceived between that and the bank. Neither had the force of the waters burled It further In the soil than was necessary to hold It when the flood re ceded. Two other rails, 20 feet long. fastened at one end by a single tie, were driven like some gigantic carpet-tack up to the hilt through a point of land until the points protruded a few inches in their side. Queer Frcnlc of the Flood. Here also was observed the first Instance of a remarkable phenomenon. For a dis tance of 10 miles along tho valley great number of glass fruit jars, split from the wreckage of some doomed house, had been carried unbroken. Although the metal tops were screwed down tightly on the rubber bands the Jars, evidently empty when they started on their voyage. were found In every Instance to contain about half a pint of muddy water. How this water could possible have entered the sealed jars, and by what fortuitous circumstances the fragile glass escaped Injury In a watery tempest which tore trees from their roots, wrecked large real dences 'and snapped and bent steel bars like putty. Is not readily to be explained, It Is quite certain that a large per centage of bodies carried beyond Hepp ner will never be recovered.. Bodies May Sever Be Found. The flood has been kind In that It .burled many of its own dead.. Thousands of tons of gravel, silt, and loam torn from the hillsides and wheat lands of the upper valley, and carried in the bosom of the flood, have been deposited as an oozy 1 shroud, varying in depth from six inches to three feet, all over the country. The sinking water has left this deposit a dry and close-packed band of mud, and be neath jure undoubtedly hidden many of the missing dead. From a sanitary stand point this Immediate and unmarked burial may be In some degree desirable, but it Is calculated to prolong needlessly the labors of tho searching parties and the agonizing suspense of relatives. To search the 18 miles of valley over which the dead may reasonably be expected to be found will necessitate the labors of many men for many days and weeks. The piles of de bris, tangled brush, and twisted timber. on whoso Jagged points are spiked mat tresses and sofa pillows, chair backs and grill work, clothing, household utensils and all tho petty furnishings that go to make a home, are heaped In great mounds against every tree and fence post, basalt bluff and river point, over which the rag ing waters tore Its desolating path. To search the valley systematically for dead bodies. It would be necessary to pull out each separate stick and plank in ev.ery one of those numberless plies. To those who have not seen themselves the havoc that the waters wrought, the magnitude of such a task will be more evident when It Is 'said that for two days and two nights a thousand men have labored In cessantly In Heppner and its immediate vicinity at a similar work. And tonight' qsoJi ajaM. sjsijoj inqi 3upui?isqipur)ou to their task and urged to activity by the powerful goad of personal Interest, the working in the streets of Heppner appears to a newcomer as though it had never been touched. Searchers at Their Sad Task. From Lexington this morning small parties of searchers began to work towards Heppner; but, while it is possible that they should make a cursory examina tion of the river banks in their search for corpses. It would not bo possible for 50 men to progress a mile a day, were they to examine the debris thoroughly. And so it would seem that for many who last Sunday afternoon sat with their families within their homes at Heppner, a drab expanso of sand will be their only sepul chre, and tho murmur of a dying flood their only dirge. Hard to Estimate Damage. To estimate the total damage done would at this time be presumptuous. The value of the residences destroyed, both In Heppner and the valley, cannot be ac curately computed within 24 hours. The ruin- spread through 30 miles of fertile land and growing crops Is a hard matter to guage, while the losses of cattle, hogs and horsas are not even approximately known in any instances by the owners themselves. This numbing instance of the powerlessness of man before such a cataclysm of nature ao has visited Its unresisted wrath upon Morrow County, and the evidence that th'o Httle Valley of Willow Creek is not Immune from these disasters, has already had a marked de preciating effect upon property -values. Many ranchers have expressed a very real and unwarranted alarm about the situation. Many of them, apparently for getful that never before has any similar catastrophe been recorded in the annals of this district, have publicly announced a desire to seek another and less tu multuous locality. in Justification of their fears they quote the legends of the aboriginal Indian tribes, whose degenerate and unsweet descendants say that In years gone by the water has filled the valley from one hilltop to another. It Is prob able, however, that as the present tense excitement passes the residents along (Concluded on Fourth Page.) CONTESTS OP TODAY'S PAPER. The Heppner Tragedy. Loss of life will not be over 200. Page 1. Burial of the dead Is hastened. Page 1. Scenes of sadness In the stricken town. Page 1. All Oregon towns offer aid. Page 1. Great devastation along Willow Creek. Page 1. Incidents of the disaster. Page 1. Railroad communication will bo restored by Sunday. Page 1. Portland sends 10O men to Heppner to bury the dead. Page 1. Portland relief fund now reaches $8687.25. Page 1. General. Secretary Hitchcock is not alarmed over de mand of stockmen that ho be ousted. Page 2. Kentucky feudists arrested for firing the home of a witness in murder trial are set free. Page 3. President Roosevelt praises Explorers Lewis and Clark in address before University of Virginia. Page 2. Foreign. New King of Servia, is shorn of all' power. Page 2. "" Social Democrats carry the Reichstag elec tion. Page 3. China Is doing Russia's bidding in Manchuria. Page 3. Pacific Coast. R. B. Bryan, of Aberdeen, tells of Indignities put uponsteamer passengers at Guayamas. Page 11. W. H. Demster, of Madison, S. D., Is chosen the president of Drain Normal School. Page 11. W. P. Peacock Is found guilty of the murder of A. S. Kerr, at Dallas. Page 11. Wallowa County, finishes road from Wallowa to Imnaha mines. Page il. Assistant In geology at the University o Ore gon is J. II. Hyde, of Stanford. Page 11. Commercial and Marine. Oregon weekly crop report. Page 13. Wheat closes steady at Chicago. Page 13. Wide fluctuations la stocks at New York. Page 13. t San Francisco produce quotations. Page 13. Steamer Sequoia puts Into Astoria disabled. Page 12. River will come to a stand today. Page 12. Sports. Boxing exhibition may be given to aid Heppner sufferers. Page 8. Injunction policy of Manager -Dngdale may be followed by other managers. Page 10. Scores of Pacific National league: Helena 14, Portland 7; San Francisco 9. Spokane 0; Tacoma S. Butte 4. Page 10. Portland and Vicinity. Pioneers gather for annual reunion today. Page 14. Oregon volunteer monument committee favors Tilden design. Page 12. Attorneys for M. V. Xasi& seek to prevent hfs wife from testifying. Page 12. Citizens of St. Johns demand report from their School Clerk. Page 8. State Board of Health prepares for vigorous campaign against disease. Page 12. Indian War Veterans elect officers and discuss peasiofis. Page 14. HELP ON THE 1! One Hundred Men Are Sent to Heppner TO BURY THE DEAD Appeal for Workers Is Promptly Answered. QUICK CANVASS IS MADE Portland Citizens Give $8687 to Aid the Needy, SUPPLIES OF FOOD SO TODAY Central Committee Organize the Relief Work With Dispatch, and. Meets With Generous Response in. Every Hand WHAT IS BEIXG DOXE FOR, THE HEPPNER, SUFFERERS. The cash relief fund now amounts to ?SCS7.23. A gang 'of 102 worklngmen was sent 10 Heppner last evening.- Before noon the work of clearing away the debris and burying the dead will have begun. A quantity of provisions will be sent to Heppner this morning. Business men aro responding liberally to the call for help. By proclamation of Mayor Williams all funds collected are to be sent to the treasurer of the relief committee, R. I Sabln, Front and Vine streets. One hundred and two able-bodied men equipped with tools and provisions for ten days, left last night for Heppner. Their work will be to clear away tho debris which covers the dead and to bury the bodies when they are found. R. T. Cox and J. N. Teal went as representa tives of the relief committee of Port land. The men are in charge of J. X. Davis, whose foremen will be F. S. Washburn and C. O'Donnell. They will reach Lex ington on a special train by daylight this morning and will Immediately proceed to tho stricken city. The absolute need of active workers was realized when a message was- re ceived by the relief committee from J. P. O'Brien yesterday morning as follows: "Lexington, Or., Juno 16, 1903. Mr. Conser says he does not requiro anything; but men and tools to bury the dead. Send 75 to 100 able-bodied men with axes, hooks, shovels and rope to work in tho debris and dig out the dead. They havo sufficient funds and food to feed thoso hero now, but men coming should havo supplies to feed them three or four days. "J. P. O'BRIEN." In response to this urgent call from, ono on the field, a meeting of the Mer chants' Protective Association was hold at 1:30 yesterday afternoon. The other commercial bodies of the city havo united: with the association in the relief work, and all money collected has been placed at the disposal of the relief commltteo designated by Mayor Williams. Situation Is Appalling'. Mr. O'Brien's message was later con firmed by a dispatch from George w. Conser, the cashier of the First National Bank of Heppner, as follows: HEPPXER, Or., June 10, 1003. The situation is appalling-. Scores o orphan children and hundreds oS homeless people. Need provision and men with tools Tvho -will vrorlc for pay. GEORGE W. COXSER. This message was received so lato la the day that no quantity of provisions could be dispatched, but the working; gang carries with It supplies for ten days and orders were given that if necessary they should share a part of tho pro visions with the destitute people of Heppner. A larger quantity will be sent by the first train this morning. Over 5SOOO in Cash in Fund. The business portion of the city is be ing thoroughly canvassed by tho sub scription sub-committees appointed by- tha general relief committee. Money Is pour ing Into the office of the treasurer, R. li. Sabln, and last evening $8456.25 In cash: had been received. Several hundred dollars have been subscribed but not paid Into the treasurer. Never In tha history of Portland has so much sym pathy been aroused, and never have thou sands of dollars been given within an equal time in Oregon. "Volunteers have come forward and of fered their services without hesitation. N. J. Davis,, who left last evening in charge of the working gang, was among the first, to volunteer. A number of nurses front St. Vincents' Hospital have volunteered, to care for the sick and Injured. If the relief committee representatives tele graph the necessity of trained nurses, these white-capped girls from St, "Vin cent's will hasten to aid the suffering. The Oregon Railroad & Navteatlon Company has carried all men on relief work, together with provisions, free of charge. The telephone company gives free switching to Heppner and the flooded district to tho relief committee. The (Concluded on Paga fi.)