AMERICAN HORRORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8289, 23 June 1890, Page 5

AMERICAN HORRORS.

I PALL OF A TRAIN INTO A CREEK. SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE. DISASTROUS WRECK. PANIC STRICKEN CHINESE DROWNED. FIRE AT AN ASYLUM. AN APPALLING SCENE. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] San Francisco, May 31. On* tho 30th instant a train on the Narrow Guagc ferry system to Oakland ran into an open draw bridge over Oakland Greek, and the engine, tender, and one ear, which was full of people, tumbled in a confused mass into the water. As far as known the engineer and fireman and thirteen persons were killed or drowned, the passengers in the first car being drowned like rats in a cage. The railroad company is blamed for tho accident, in not providing proper signals at the drawbridge. The ship Oneida, loaded with salmon cannery supplies for Alaska, struck a sunken rock on the 2(sth April near Danak island, and subsequently went ashore. She wont to pieces so fast that it was impossible to save even the papers. Tho vessel had on board 45 white men and 110 Chinese workmen, bound for the cannery. Tho Chinese became unmanageable and panic-stricken, ami 77 were drowned, though all could have been saved had tlioy kept their wits about, them. The Longuo Point Insane Asylum caught fire about about half-past eleven o'clock on the morning of May 0, and at two the same afternoon was reduced to ruins. A detachment of the Fire Brigade from .Montreal, near which city the Asylum was situated, did good service, but all to no purpose. The tire originated in tho middle wing of the structure. Terrible scenes followed its discovery. It is said that fully 120 patients perished in tho flames, with seven of the nuns who were in attendance on the insane. No power on earth could have checked the fire. At the windows were maniacs peering through the bars, grinning and jabbering, until, enveloped by tho (lames, they were compelled to release their holds, and drop back to an awful death. The grounds presented a scene never to be forgotten. There, upon the wet grass, huddled together, under cover of blankets, or wandering through the grounds with faces untouched by tho horror of the time, were those of the unfortunates who had been taken from the burning building. Some lay down with old quilts for pillows, or hummed airs which breathed the spirit of happiness. More than a thousand helpless creatures were gathered together within the enclosure guarded by only one man. One young girl, in the midst or the drizzling rain, sat at a piano in the grounds and played, sweet music while the flames were above her. The building cost 1,000,000 dollars, and was insured for 300,000 dollars.