50 Report of the Forest Commission. 



few who took such a refuge and survived. Mr. Dubois was a little way from 

 his home. His family were absent. He heard in the south a great roaring, 

 and thought a tornado was coming. The blackness of the sky added to the 

 belief. There was a well a few feet away, into which he jumped. It was 

 about 12 feet deep, and was dry. Above he could see the rolling cloud of 

 flames high in the air, and then down close to the ground. The well grew 

 stifling, and the air seemed to be so exhausted that he could breathe only bj> 

 digging a hole in the damp earth and pressing his face to the side. When one 

 place became stifling he would try another spot. The well filled with smoke 

 and gas, and after a time which seemed endless, but which was probably about 

 half an hour, he managed to climb out so weak he could hardly walk. 



" Then I started to town," he said. " It began to grow lighter, so I could 

 see the street. I stood in the center of Sandstone and called. Not a sound 

 came in answer. I called again and again, but the place I had been in only 

 two hours before was as still as the grave. I walked toward the river shiver- 

 ing with fear. On the way I counted bodies, bodies — more than 50 of them. 

 I climbed down the river bank, and there, crouched in the water, I found the 

 people. During the passage of the fire, women had held their screaming chil- 

 dren in the water, and had stood mouth-deep in it themselves." 



The Bodies Recovered Number 450. 



Pine City, Minn., Sept. 4. — The General Executive Committee in charge of 

 the relief work in this section has made a report of the dead bodies recovered 

 thus far, as follows: Hinckley, 271; Sandstone, 77; Miller (often called Sand- 

 stone Junction), 15; between Skunk Lake and Miller, 12; Pokegama, 26; in 

 lumber camps, 50; total, 450. 



Sixty-two bodies have been buried thus far in Sandstone, not counting the 

 numbers which have been found in the outlying country, and buried where 

 found. Ghouls are at work in that neighborhood. To-day a party from Duluth, 

 under the direction of James Bailey, came down to help bury the dead, and 

 while searching around at noon, came upon a gang who had broken open and 

 rifled some safes. When Bailey and party met them the scoundrels had just 

 found a cistern from which they had hauled 15 dead bodies, which they had 

 robbed of rings, trinkets, etc. Bailey's party were unarmed, and the ghouls 

 made their escape. 



The fire was seen by the Sandstone people four hours before it struck the 

 town, and every thing was packed up in readiness to move to Kettle 

 river, east of the village. Before any one was aware of the real danger, the 

 fire came upon the town from the north, east and west, setting the whole town 

 ablaze inside of five minutes, Many were unable to reach the river, and died 

 in the streets. A blacksmith was burned to a crisp in his shop, where he wag 

 shoeing a horse, so sudden was the fire. Not a thing was saved, and in 30 min- 

 utes the whole town was swept off the earth. Those who reached the river re- 

 mained there the most of the night. The survivors are entirely destitute. 

 President Hill, of the Eastern Minnesota branch of the Great Northern, came 

 up from Hinckley this morning. He had to walk nine miles in order to reach 

 Sandstone. " The scene of death and ruin along the road is a terrible one," 

 says Mr. Hill, "not a sign of life is any where to be seen. All is a blackened, 



