St. Albans Weekly Messenger from Saint Albans, Vermont • 10

10 THE MESSENGER, "THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1917' ikit. nieces of men's, women's, and POLICE WOMEN 1,000 MAY BE TOLL. JUIief Rushed to Stricken City of Halifax. Halifax, Dec 7. Fires were Btlll I burning in the sections of Halifax were practically beyond recognition "The most awful catastrope which has befallen any city in the world.

Such Is the opuinlon of officers and men who have returned from the front, and who have been in the thick of the fighting since Canadians went into There may come a time when our women niii Lave to do police duty, and it is said that they Lot done noble work in this line in a few cities of ths United States. A woman, however, must be pejC feet physically, and strong, to take over man'i duty" The housework for the mother Or the housekeeper at home is often beyond her strength. It mmt lightened in some way or other. Very often ft worries and cares are much greater than the acnijj physical labor, but the feeling, that thig or that cleaning, sewing, must le done, fatigues mind more than, the physical labor actually tirg the body. No wonder the tendency of our tin, is for the young women 'to prefer work in office factory rather than doing house drudgory.

If woman of the family is run down with the distress. 1,1 sterdam had larked In Halifax some days ago but in the absence of word of he oieaHhg that port, officials of the, Una had (feared for the safety of the' 350 tnenjbers of the Ship's crew and her 200 passengers. The ship atoo carried a cargo of 10,000 tons of grain for the relief of Belgium. Iss than 10 of the passengers are Americans, according to officials the steamship company. The boiler of the Imo, the Belgian relief ship, which collided with the Mont Blanc, did not explode, according to word received at the offices of Norton, Lilly here to-day.

The 34 members of her crew were picked up by iwBritish battleship, this message stated. jAfter the collision, the Imo succeeded in backing away and before the explosion occurred. Boston, Dec. 7. The commander ot United States transport which was in Halifax harbor at the time of th explosion has been instructed by the navy department to obtain complete details of the disaster and make an 'immediate report by wireless.

Official announcement of this was made at the navy yard here to-day. Boston, (Bulletin). Dec 7. A spe-. cial train carrying a Red Cross unit, consisting of 15 physicians and 30 nurses and a quantity of medical and other will start for Halifax this afternoon in charge of S.

Huntington Wolcott. Arrangements for the dispatch of the relief train were made by James Jackson, manager of the local division of the Red Cross, after a conference by telephone with officials of the organization at Washington. New York, Dec. 7. The Red Cross relief train leaving this city Is consigned to Foster Rockwell, a Red Cross worker in Halifax.

The train Is made up of five cars loaded with food, clothing, and medical supplies. Officials of the Atlantic division of the Red Cross said here to-day that other relief trains will be dispatched ing complaints peculiar to woman, she should gi instant care to those organs which arc so important for womanly health. Dr. Pierce, the specialist jj woman's diseases and founder of the Invalids' Eo. perished.

Before him on the roadway was the mangled remains of his little two-year-old child, who had met death while playing on the roadside. Many of the men composing the crews of ships In the harbor were killed and Injured. The damage along the waterfront Is very serious. On one steamer, the it la reported that 38 of the crew of 42 have been killed. Many bodies of seamen have been picked up in the harbor and rescue parties are working among the ruins of buildings, removing bodies of the dead.

The collision was a terrific one, the munition boat being pierced on the port side practically to the engine room. The relief vessel, which was practically uninjured kept' going ahead, shaving the damaged craft ahead. When fire was seen to break aboard the Mont Blanc, the other ship backed away and the crew started to abandon her. The Mont Blanch drifted off, a burning wreck, while the relief boat was beached near Tuft's cove on the Dartmouth side of the harbor. Twenty-five minutes after the collision the explosion occurred.

Under the force or the explosion, houses crumpled, while the unfortunate residents met death in the debris. In the main portion of the city, where the buildings are more or less of stone or concrete, the damage was confined, to the blowing in of windows, and the injuries sustained by the citizens were in the main due to the cuts from flying glass. Proceeding south to the extreme end of the city, the same thing was observed. In the west and northwest end. the damage was more extensive, and the walls of houses were in places blown to atoms, and the plaster and laths strewn on the streets, making them more like a shelled section of Flanders than a Canadian town.

The main damage, however, was done in the north end of the city, known as Richmond, which- was opposite the point of the vessels' collision. Here the damage is so extensive as veloplng mantle over the city last night, the bright reflection of the burning district could be plainly seen. Military and police of all descriptions patrolled the streets, worked among the ruins, and loaded the dead or Injured Into the waiting vehicles. Of those who were fortunate enough to escape with their lives practically every second person In the city was injured. The merchants threw open their stores and put their wares at the dis tel, at Buffalo, N.

put tip his "Favorite Pre. 'scription" nearly 50 years ago, made entirely oj roots and herbs, without alcohol, that puU womanly health in proper condition. The catarrB is cured, and in consequence backache, dizziness, fainting spells art dispelled. Send 10c to Dr. Pierce's Invalids' Hotel, for trial package of tablets.

Tablets for sale by most druggists, at sixty cents. Many a woman is nervous and irritable, feels dragged down andirorj out for no reason that she can think of. In ninety-nine per cent of. these is the womanly organism that requires attention; tin weak hack, dizzy spells and black circles about the eyes are only synp, toms. Go to the source of trouble take Dr.

Pierce's Favorite Prescrip. children's clothing; 10.000 blankets; 20 cases containing 100 gallons of disinfecting fluid; iO.OOo pounds of bandages; 49C cots and a carload of food stuffs. Aiinmta. Dec. g.

Then thou sand heavy wool blankets, one thousand cot beds, and a corps of staff and medical officers) and assistants irom the Penobscot county committee on public safety, have left for Halifax. The train is expected to reach, there to-night. Boston. Dec. 8.

A completely-equipped 600-bed Red CroBS hospital unit, with medical staff and nurses, mobilized here at only a few hours' notice, left last night on a special train to Halifax. The unit is in charge of MaJ. H. Wolcott, for the state guard. It includes 30 physicians and surgeons, 70 women nurses, six male nurses, and several Red Cross officers.

With the $30,000 worth of equipment, carried in seven baggage cars, the unit will be able to establish a hospital In quick time and begin immediately its services to the sufferers by the explosion. HALIFAX CASUALTIES MOUNT. Four Thousand Dead the General Accepted Figure Blizzard it Feared Halifax, Dec. 10. Revised figures were issued here to-day regarding the casualties resulting from tho explosion of Rial Thursday.

Found dead, 1,200. Unaccounted for. 2.000. Dead which have been identified, 900. Wounded, 8,000.

Homeless, 25,000. Analyzing tho figures the military authorities declare that the total would be increased through failure to obtain word of the missing. It has been four days since the disaster. In that time, they said. It should have been possible to hear from most of the missing through information bureaus and other agencioH.

An estimate of 4,000 dead, regarded as too high by many officials Saturday night, was accepted more generally to-day as most nearly approaching the exact figures. It is believed that hundreds of persons lining the water front and watching the spectacle a big ship on fire without thought of an impend ing explosion were hurled into the bay-by the terrific upheaval and drowned. Their bodies may never be recovered. How many dead may be under the great area of debris was a mere guess to-day. Wheii the searchers went this morning into the ruined zone they tramped over snow piled high in every direction which delayed their work.

An hour of sunshine that had heartened them was followed at noon by a heavy fall of snow with rigns lit the sky that a lSizzard was near. There has been no accurate estimate as to the chances of the nix thousand wounded. Ueorts arc. howevor. that a large percentage of those in hospitals will recover.

American relief parties took an active part to-day in the general plan of co-ordinating the various forces now In the field. Burial of the dead was begun to-dtxy. "Men wanted immediately at the Fair View cemetery." This advertisement In the morning papers called attention to still another problem finding men to dig graves for the hundreds of victims of the disaster. Little groups of sorrowful people went silently to cemeteries adjacent to the Richmond district, utterly wlp-d out by flames, and laid away their dead without friends In attendance and' with the commitment rites omitted. There were not enough ministers to offleiute for all.

One general scrvico was for all. So great has been the rush of relief workers Into Halifax sinoe the first trains ploughed thrir way through the snow drifts Saturday niorningf that those arriving to-day found difficulty in finding just the spot where the most efficient work could be done. Tho local committee was swept off its feet by the multitude of willing workers who have arrived in the city and to-day it was realized that some plan must be worked out to prevent lost motion and delay, in placing new arrivals at points whera their ministrations are most needed. It appeared doubtful this morning whether accommodations would available for all the workers already here and on the way. It was the lack of accommodations that made necessary a proclamation by Mayor Martin requesting all nonresidents not here on relief missions or urgent business to leave the city at once and the later proclamation urging the same element not to start for Halifax under two weeks.

The morning train from Montreal came in with 15 loaded cars, but most of the passengers were doctors whose coming was expected. ANOTHER SHIP ON FIRE. Courageous Work Soldiers Prevents Second Disaster. Halifax, Dec. 10.

The deck cargo of the British steamer Picton laden with munitions caught fire last night and only "the quick and courageous work of a Halifax company of riflemen prevented another big explosion in the horbor. The men boarded the ship, threw the l.urnlng cargo overboard and checked the flames before they could spread Into the hold. The vessel was taken to sea to-day and sunk. It was said there was no danger of other explosions in the harbor. ARRESTING GERMANS.

Police Are Acting Under Order of the Military. Halifax. N. Dec. 10.

All German citizens of Halifax, of both sexes, ore being arrested. (AjcUn on orders from the military, the po-lce began the arrests to-day. and by six o'clock seven men and one woman had been locked up. The police are after others, who will k. Jailed an fast as they oan be found." BLAME THE MONT BLANC.

1 Crew of Belgian Steamer Imo Assert Their Own Innocence. Dec. 10. Numbers of the c.ew of the Belgian steamer Imo munition. emer Mont Blnnc i to blame for he collision which caused the terrt bin explosion last Thursday.

Fml plovees of Tickford Plsok agent. the Imo. who have besn proWdTn! the crew with clothe, forts, made public to-day. the le. told them tiy the mn.

action. Men from the trenches, men behind the trenches or In tile rear, and men who have been through the times of distress in London and on the southeast coast, when Zeppelins anc aeroplanes bombed the capital of the Empire and the coastal towns, all declare that they never saw such dire calamity as befell the city of Halifax. The lads at the front. In their everyday grim and arduous task of fighting Fritz, know the fearfulness of shell fire. They haw seen Belgian and French towns, filled with women and children, bombarded by the artillery of the pitiless Hun.

When their turn came to escape for a ten days' leave from the horrors of warfare, they have landed is London to be greeted by Fritz in the air, bouna on one of his inhuman air raids. Perhaps they. have been in the localities where the bombs fell and did their murderous work, and, to cap it all, returned to their comrade) and "gone over the top" in open warfare. And yet, despite all these hair-raising experiences, the returned soldiers in Halifax declares that experiences here were unequalled by any overseas. They had heard some awful explosions in France and Belgium, but when the munition ship blew up In the harbor, the returned men said: "This is the worst yet." All the churches in the city were damaged, the glass being blown out and the interiors wrecked.

There is not a whole pane of glass left in the newpaper offices. The presses are filled with broken glass, and the typesetting machines cannot be r.perated on account of the gas beinr cut off. One of the temporary morgue was situated in the basement of the Che-bucto road school, where at an early hour Thursday evening a steady stream of vehicles of ail sort were conveying the dead and depositing them I nthe basement in rows. Practically none of them wn recognizable in their blackened and, in many cases, burned condition. In the darkness which threw its en-of them.

Practically every drug store was an open supply station, doing anything they could to aid. Medical man worked In an effort to ana wherever it was needed. The big building of the Acadia sugar refinery was razed to the ground, and the only tangihue sijrn that it ever existed is a pile of smouldering ruins. The dry dock and the buildings which surrounded if were all destroyed, while a rumor nys that at the Richmond school, wniivi housed hundreds of children, only three escaped alive. Sailor patrols marched through the streets and kept peopre.

vainly searching for news of their missing relatives, from congregating and thus hindering the work of relief. Outside the toll of life claimed on catastrophe at Halifax, if reports of the number of dead are borne out. is by far the greatest disaster many years. Numerous explosions ha.vc occurred in munitions plants in this country and Europe, the nmst disastrous of which on this side was at the Eddystone plant of the DuPont Powder Co. at Chester, In April last, in which 112 persons lost their lives.

The Halifax disaster is the most tragic explosion, in the number of lives wiped out, in the last quarter century. Indeed, few catastrophic of any nature exceed It in the number dead chiefly the Messina earthquake in 1908, when, approximately 200,000 lives were lost; the Mont Pe-lee volcanic eruption on the Island of Martinique In 1902. when 40.000 persons lost their lives, and an earthquake in the Interior of Italy In 1915. when 35,000 dead was tho toll. The Iroquois theater fire in Chicago In 1903 claimed 575 lives, while the sinking of the excursion steamship Oeneral Slocum in tho East river.

New York, In 1904. left a death list of about 1.400. In 190C the earthquake and fire in San Francisco took the lives of approximately 1,000 persons, while the loss of the steamship Titanic, in collision with an Iceberg in 1912, resulted in a toll of 1,503 dead. In 1914, the steamship Empress of Ireland went down in the St. Lawrence river near Father's point; with the loss of 1.027 lives.

Then followed the sinking of the I.usitania by a German torpedo, and the steamship Eastland in the Chicago river in 1915. with death lists respectively of 1.1!8 and 812. In October of tills year it was reported that 4.000 persons had lost their lives in a munitions explosion in Austria, but this report has never been confirmed. St. Johns, X.

B. Dec. 7. Eye witnesses of the Halifax explosion reaching here to-day told of the horrors through which they had passed. In the party were 14 young women students from Mount St Vincent academy.

Esmond P. Barry, St. John postal clerk, was at Richmond during the of the catastrophe. "It was terriWe" he said. People dying in our car like flies.

Some of them came to the place with noses shot ofr, eyes put out, facea slashed with flying glass, limbs torn and distorted. Men and women and children were lying In the streets and hundreds must be buried beneath wreckage. J. C. Gillespie, a train conductor, said that at Richmond fully 50 per cent of the buildings collapsed.

Babies were lying in the streets dead. Ernest Cameron, a Canadhin Pacific te-graph telegraph operator and his family were killed. Truro, N. Dec 7.A telegraph oper. ator sent Miere from Halifax by -the Western Union Telegraph said to-lay that he saw the bodies or several sailors of the United States navy who were killed by the explosion yesterday.

Washington. Dec. 7. Reports to the navy Indicate that there was no American ship In I the harbor of Halifax at the time of the explosion, and offlcals are inclined to think that if American sailors had i been caught In the blast it would I have been reported In the early die- patch from the naval commander who went to help after hearing the detona- tion 52 miles at ea. New York, Dec.

7. Word that the oassongers and crew of the Holland-American line steamer NIeuw Amsterdam are safe in Halifax was received it the local offices of the line to-day. It was known that the Nieuw Am disastrous munition ship explosion. A heavy snowstorm set in early this morning, seriously: impending the work of rescuing the injured and re-oovreing the bodies of the dead. The nowfaU.

however, comes as an aid to the firemen in quenching the flames In the ruins. Special trains, brining doctors, nurses, and medical supplies arrived here to-day from Moncton, Truro, and Windsor. Other Special trains have been sent with injured persons to Windsor ond other places where there are large hospitals. There Is wrec and ruin on every! side. Every building in the city is damaged glass broken, plaster down, windows and doors shattered.

Business is suspended and will be tor days. All schools and colleges have been closed until after New Tear's Ko new estimate of the dead and injured was available here this morning Bailors from an American warship in port are on patrol duty In all the streets. All the power plants are idle. It was established to-day that it was 25 minutes after the collision before the explosion occurred. At the first shock houses rocked, vessels broke from the moorings, bits of shells whistled through the air, buildings fell upon their occupants, cnrieks and moans ro9e for a socond above the awful din and In all parts of the city, men.

and children ran into the! streets, many of them Insufficiently clad. Then fire broke out in a hundred places. Orders were at first given that everybody should flee to the south of the city in a short time Harrington st. resembled a road of Bel-glum or Serbia, when the inhabitants fled before the Germans. Stores were deserted, houses forsaken, and the entrance to Point Pleasant park was soon black with human beings.

The wildest rumors were in circula-. Won. When later flying automobiles brought the good word that the danger was under control the crowds returned to find their homes a mass of wreckage or in asftos, and relatives dead or wounded. The reports that the military hospital at Rock Head, close to the narrows, had been destroyed, and all the patients killed proves untrue. Scratches and cuts from flying glass were the worst injuries suffered by the patients with two exceptions, although the building was virtually wrecked.

Up to noon to-day there had been no change 4n the police estimate of 2,000 dead from yesterday's disaster. About the same number are injured, two-thirds of whom are suffering from cuts from flying glass. The offices of the railway station, the arena rink, military gymnasium, sugar refinery and elevator collapsed, and injured scores of people. Following the collision the explosion occurred, and in an instant the whole city was shaken to its foundations. Thousands rushed for the and some of the children in the schools became panic-stricken.

On every street could he seen adults and children, with blood streaming from their wounds, rushing to the nearest doctors' offices. The work of rescue was greatly impeded by the piles of debris in the devastated area. A part of the town of Dartmouth is also In ruins. Nearly all the buildings in the dock yard are In ruins. Practically all the north end of the city his been laid, in waste.

The destruction extendi from North street railway station north as far as Ar-ricville to Bedford basin, and covers about two square fmlles. The buildings which were not destroyed by the! explosion were laid waste by the fire which followed. Thousands of people have been rendered homeless The Academy of Music and many other public buildings have been thrown open to house the homeless. Five hundred tents have been erected on the common, and these will bo occupied by the troops, who have given up their barracks to house the homeless women and children. Temporary hospitals and morgues have been opened -in the school houses In the western section of the city'.

The doctors and nurses worked heroically In rendering aid to the injured. Ot 9 o'clock In the morning the city was enjoying its usual period of calm, the streets were crowded with the usual number of people who were wending their way to worl. Then came an explosion. From on end of the city to the other glass fell and people were lifted from the sidewalks and thrown to the pavements In the down-town offices. Just beginning to hum with the usual day's activity, clerks and heads alike cowered under the showers of falling glass and plaster which fell about them.

A few minutes after the explosion occurred, the streets were filled with terror-stricken people trying to make thoir way as best they might to the outskirts. In order to get out of the range of what they thought to a Herman raid. "Women rushod terror-stricken through the streets. many of them with children clasped to their breasts. In their eyes was a look of terror as they struggled on, with blood-stained horror-stricken faces, endeavoring to get anywhere from ths falling mason-ry and crumbling walls.

By the littered roadsides as they passed, there could be seen the remains of what had once been human beings, now tomed and mangled beyond realization of what had occurred Here and there lay the cloth-wrapped rallies of chijdren. scarred and ti-iwtcd by the force of the horrible By the side of many of the burn-inT ru ns were women who watched the flanr-w an they consumed the houses which in many cases held the bodies of loved ones. With dry eyes, they watched their nomes devoured by the flames, and as others passed with inquiries as to whether they could render any aid. they shook their heads In a dazed manner, and turned their gaze once more to the funeral pyres. One particularly' sad case was that of a Canadian government employee named MacDonald, who on rushing to his home aft the explosion, found that all his family, consisting 9f his wif and four children, had lien! When that is correein tne Ac-cording to tjie account of the mm of.

tho Imo, tey were entirely unaware of, the nature of the carg-o on the Mont Elanc. Their version of the tracedy is. as follows: Tho Imo wan piweeding down the harbor toward the sea when the Mont Blanc was seen coming toward the lino apparently ettsanrlns 'for the basin. The Frelch n-essol was on the stnrtxiard line of the narrows. She blew two'blaste of the whistle, indicating that she was Koln to star-boarO.

The Imo replied with two blasts. The Mont Blanc turned and the crew if the 1 mo thought that they coald pass but tho distance between them was-too short. St. John Sends 50 Nurses. St.

John, Deo. 10. Arrangements were made to-diy for the departure duriiie the day of 30 nurses from this city and other In Brunswick for volunteer relief work In Halifax. SUNK 500 MILES OFF SHORE. Every Elemert Worked Against Men on the Jacob Jones.

Washington. Lwc. 10. Further reports from Vice-Admiral Hims unfold live story of the torpedoing of! the destroyer Jnccb Jones, but di' not lesson the toll of lives lost with tho ship, only 44 of 110 or more officers and men aboard are known have survived, including one unidentified man picked up and carried off by the submarine that struck th blow. Every element workwwl against the men of the destroyer.

The report indicates that the craft stumbled Into the j.ath of the submarine hy unltickv chance and that the torpedo went home in such a vital spot that the vessel was as the flare of thp explosion died out. Niftht was at hand. There was no time to make provision against the cold and the sea as the crew leaped to the llfo rafts. Tlia commander made sur before he rocposed his craft that tiie destroyer had gone down, lie took no chances of ia, last shot from her Runs which might send him and his icsscl also to their reckoning-. Probably single man saved by the submarine was taken ahfxird because the jnil.ma; Jiio officer desired, information sis, to th; identity of the vessel ho had sunk.

The Jones J00 miles from buid when torpedoed, a fact which has caused much speculation In naval circles. Secretary Daniein. In announcing the sinking of the destroyer at that distance from land, offered the explanation that the ves. sel might have been sent on a special duty. Some experts here say that the duty might have been to locate German submarines which have left tho known submarine xaoe on their way to America or that the Jones was hunting It-boat which had extended their area or activity to distant points at sen.

whore they could not be xe easily attacked by destroyers. Much significance Is attached to the fact that'th. attack was far out of th siihrr-srine Jnn. otner symptoms qisappear. HAVE YOU SLACKER DOLLARS? Vanderlip's Say thoie that Bay Unnecessary Thing Help the Cincinnati.

Ohio. A hoard ed dollar spent an uniKcesnrj' ally of th! frank jl Vamlerlip, national tl.r tor of tbt war savings cami an be, Monday-night in cm- or' th addresses of a two w.k's swsaj tour of the middle 'AV; ar.d Soo-Jl He urged purchase of ar stamps and cetific-ttcs the doute purpose of directly assisting thspr." ernment to fiance the war and ecw. omizing on materials and er.erjr it. votei to product mjr nonpisntiaii "To hoard a dollar is to makeita idle dollar, an un-mpiyi said Mr. Vanderlip.

A dollar tint is not at work is almost as truly i drain upon an idle mat, and In the time of nisi whea the world r-i! every dollar, a hoarded dollar a slacker. 'There is somethir.s norse than i slacker though. A is negative riuanity. But a dollar spat for an nnnecessi-y thin to-day h-comfl an ally rf tl.e traeiey. It is a traitor dollar because ti labor men and worm-n is finp'ored teed, lessly to make things, vben the government neffli labw to make things tlyi are cfwruiai for oar soldiers In winning il- war so we mast see that the lV.hr wnt for unnecessary things is a ina to our country, a menr-e in this world fight for fof-d'jm.

"It is for evry to no? sts consider, before each dol-lar into pan nf tho sca! tlur 111 throw it. Wi'l t'-'7 aawese sary things and tli- ok on that side the s-j fo our defeat or will stall from tho unneo-ssnrv jurchissitS put the dc dollars in har.di of nent enabiir.z to 2 governme things the weigh; which real help tow ards w( one picture tha' s- ale in front them, when they ar- -p-n liiv? "American amount of equipment I'- is Ml slble to produce all fi eiuisr a great army will war.t in the sdMV-est possible time smir the fon ment Is amply with Wt. "When you a nian proiua for you an uunK-NUi' amclft are competing witl ti for the man u' you are helpini: and more dart-p- porerrJBflS -ust so nrctfl ineffertm work tl American sol-lier has do. loam paying to mak- that toe cient." OHIO PEOPLE ARE UNEASY. Will Lose Confidence in Govern" Unless Coj1 Is Sent.

Coluhus. per. AVUli the W-tow zero wcaihtr th" cai as si acute in TJerniay IW Governor Cox. telegraphed Dr. II i fiarfleld.

feJera! administrate Washington, that unless hio pM get immediate relief they will confidence in the government. Driving a lwse machine witi P1 made from peat is one of the df-ments of the coal a.iJ oil shortisi11 Denmark. to the stricken city ust as soon asv they are found necessary- Bangor, Dec. 7. The special relief train sent to Halifax by Gov ernor McCalt and the Massachusetts public safety committee passed through here early to-day.

It was due to cross into New Brunswick at Vanceboro at 9 o'clock this morning, and should reach Halifax early tonight. It was held up for an hour at Wat- erville by a freight wreck. The 'supplies ere collected and placed on board the train In almost unprecedented time, under the supervision of John Mage, director of military relief for the Atlantio division of fhe Red Cross. It is understood that an army officer experienced In emergency relief work will accompany the train. The special train leaving to-day- is the first to depart from this city with relief for the Halifax sufferers.

Aboard Massachusetts Relief Train, via St. Jehns, N. Dec 7. Exact conditions In stricken Halifax arte more appalling than was Indicated by last night's reports. This Is a' message that was dispatched to.

Governor McCall this morning by A. C. Ratschesky, manager ot. the Massachusetts special relief trnln. a night passed in gathering pits of Information from trainmen ahd others met Willi as the train sped eastward.

The dead are everywhere, say these reports. Trier is Immediate need of a great staff of surgeons and scores of i By 9 o'clock to-night thn Massachusetts unit should be In Halifax. In -improvised morgues the dead are piled high and unidentified. Scores of these bodies will norer be claimed. For hours to-day the relief train ran through a country buried a foot deep In snow, that was whirled over the fields by a cutting north wind.

Railroad men said it was cold and raw at Halifax and that the suffering was Intense. The special has the right of way and made a record run on Its mission of mercy. MONTPELIER FAMILY ANXI0U8. William Hrsey Thought to Have Been with Troops in Halifax. MontpelioT 8.

The family of William Hersey, of Montpelicr, awaits with anxiety information as to hethor he has been injured or killed in the explosion at Halifax. He is in a Canadian regiment and had written his family here that he was at Halifax and that he expected to leave there in a few days. PROVIDENCE SENDS TRAIN. Doctors, Nurses, and Supplies Sent to Halifax from Rhode Island. Providence, R.

Dec'. 8. A special train bearing 37 physicana and 50 nurses and a carload of surgical supplies left here this morning for Halifax. The unit was made up entirely of volunteers and was sent by the Providence chapter of the American Red Cross. New York', Dec.

8. Several special trains furnished by the New York Central railroad were speeding from here for Halifax last-night with every facility for supplying aid to the stricken city. They carried 600 men. together with $13,000 worth of tools, $150,000 orth of lumber, 1,000 portable houses, and 25 motor trucks. The party includes a special salvage corps under 20 expert engineers who will restore whatever houses) can be saved and direct the construction of temporary shelter as rapidly as possible.

Dr. Thomas Darlington, former health commissioner of New Y'ork city, who also is on hi way to Halifax, has been placed in charge of the temporary housing- problems. He will cooperate with the health department of Halifax 4n maintaining sanitary conditions throughout the devastated distrirt. I cne Red Cross train which left here in charge of Ellis Itusse-11. were Captain A.

L. Boyce, who had ehnrge ef the forwarding of Christ -irtn gifts to soldiers In Franc; Captain Goodwin of the medical corps at Governor's Island. and M'ss- Jessie Forbes, a nurse who hed livd in Halifax and seea service on the European bittlesflelda. The trai is expected to at Halifax about o'clock Sunday morning. The folloo-in-T article, valn'd at more than 1200.000 wore carried by the trala: 4.M0 pairs- of sock and 3.034 pairs of ted socks; 10.00 sweaters; posal of the people who were in need to be totally beyond description.

Street after street is in ruins and flames swept over the district. In this section many of the larger buildings are smouldering heaps of ruins, and ordinary frame houses mere piles of shattered, flattened ruins. Automobiles scurrying here and there this section of the city, eacn bearing a blanket-clad burden, told of serious Injuries or, in many cases death The hospitals with admirable order were rendering aid, and In the military hospitals the soldiers injured while on guard duty were being hur ried to the wards for relief. Pilot Frank Mackie who was on the French munition ship, declares that the accident was due to a con fusion of wh'fitles, sounded by the Belgian relief steamer. In addition to her cargo of munitions, the Mont Blanc carried a deck- load of benzine, and this caught fire following the explosion.

The captain of the Mont Blanc or dered his crew to take to the boats The men hastily left the ship in two boats, and rowed for the Halifax side of the harbor, which they reached in safety The men ran for the woods, a3 they felt that an explosion was In evitable. Twenty-five minutes after wards the explosion occurred, and the men were hurled flat on the ground. The munition ship, after the crew left her In towards the Hall- fax side of the harbor, and the city received the full force of the explo sion. Tho rescuers who were early on the scene say that the sights In the pub lie schools at the north end of the city were pitable. They found the bodies of dozen of little children and scores of others with broken limbs and covered with blood.

The force of the explosion was fell i a miles from Halifax, glass being Broken in the Learmont hotel at Truro. After the explosion, the whole imputation was thrown into a state of excitement by rejorts that a second munition ship or the magazine at the dockyard might blow up. Automobiles rushed through the streets warning the people to rush to tne open spaces In the south end of the city. In leys than half an hour five thousand people, many lightly clad, had gathered on the common and hundreds of others sought refuge in the fields. The magazine was flooded and by noon all the danger had passed.

Scores of people are reported miss ing, and it Is not known whether they are dead or at the homes of friends. The concussion shattered the big gasemeter, and thousands of feet of gas escaped. AH the power plants In the city are out of business, and the newspaper offices have been so badly-wrecked that the publication of the papers is impossible. It was a day of suffering at the Victoria General hospital fufferln? for the unfortunate women, men. and children who had been so grievously injured, suffering for tne unhurt ones who waited within waiting news of the condition of their loved ones.

In many cases to hear later that they had passed away suffering for the doctors, nurses, and volunteer workers who so nobly administered aid to the wounded and dying. Every available nook and cranny or the spacious building was made ready for those who had been Injured. It was very shortly after the explosion occurred that the first case-s were brought In, and from then during the day and evening, in fact all night, the hospital workers were continually working their uttermot, showing the most devoted attention to all the serious cases which came at hours. The minor casualties. who suffered slight cuts from the falling glass In or out of the nouses and buildings.

received prompt fiid and sent to their homes. But there werr many very serious cases, among their some so frightfully gashed that HOTEL CUMBERLAND TEV YORK, Broadway at 54th Street Broadway cars from Grand Central Depot. 7th Avenue Cars from Pennsylvania Station. hilvt a jiiJ Ifitt; eiCst! 3 Modern and Fireproof Strictly First-Clasj. Rates Reasonable.

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