AWFUL HOLOCAUST -- HUNDREDS OF MILES OF PINE LANDS BURNED OVER, AND HUNDREDS OF HUMAN LIVES LOST.

BY THE DREADFUL FOREST FIRES RAGING IN DROUGHT STRICKEN MINNESOTA AND WISCONSIN.

HINCKLEY, MINN., AND OTHER TOWNS DESTROYED, AND THEIR INHABITANTS DRIVEN BEFORE THE FLAMES TO DEATH.

A Train Load of Refugees Saved from Death by the Heroism of an Engineer and His Equally Brave Fireman.

A Vast Expanse of Ash Strewn and Blackened Country Dotted All Over with Human Corpses Burned Beyond Recognition.

A Heated and Blackened Expanse Dotted with Unknown Dead.

St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 2. -- Only the horrors which accompanied the historic Chicago fire can be cited to compare with the terrible scenes and experiences in the flame-swept region of Pine, Kanabec and Carlton counties of Minnesota, and Burlett county, Wisconsin. At least 400 settlers, their families and others were burned to death or suffocated before the flames reached them, and the death list may reach another hundred or more. The people of Hinckley, which was a prosperous town in Pine county sixty-seven miles southwest of Duluth, are now dead or homeless and destitute. At a conservative estimate 250 men, women and children of this doomed town were unable to escepe from the merciless, swiftly-advancing sheets of flame. They fell on the railroad tracks or on the old territorial road either to be cremated or die the more merciful death from suffocation by the clouds of dense smoke and heat laden atmosphere.
The number of corpses already recovered from the blackened waste at and around what was Hinckley is 150, the majority being women and children who had not the strength to fight the destroyer or escape by fleeing to a place of safety. So far as can be learned at this time from the devastated district, the following towns have been destroyed and the following are dead in numbers:
Hinckley, Minn., 11,000 to 12,000 inhabitants; 250 to 300 dead, 500 to 600 homeless.
Pokegama, Minn., next station southwest of Hinckley, 500 inhabitants; 50 dead.
Mission Creek, next station south of Hinckley, on the St. Paul & Duluth railroad; 10 people dead.
Sandstone Junction, Minn., next station north of Hinckley, on the St. Paul and Duluth road; 26 dead.
Sandstone, second station north of Hinckley, on the Eastern Minnesota road; 50 dead.
Cromwell, Minn., near Hinckley, off railroad line; dead unknown.
Miller, Minn., near Hinckley, off railroad line; dead unknown.
Shell Lake, Baromette, Granite Lake, Cumberland, Pineville, Comstock and Forest City, lumber towns in Wisconsin, between Chippewa Falls and Superior.
Spooner, Wis., partly destroyed.
The number of dead in these Wisconsin towns and in other parts of the country, between Chippewa Falls and Superior, is estimated at 100 persons.
The Minnesota conflagration, which was attended by the shocking loss of life and agony of body and mind for hundreds of others who escaped with their lives only, swept everything and everybody in its path from Pine City as far west as Carlton, near Duluth.
The great valley between Kettle river and Cross lake, which a few days ago was in no danger of destruction by the forest fires raging in the lumber states, is now one vast area of ashes and cinders, with here and there an oasis in the desert of devastation in the form of a half-dried lake, a standing farm building or a clump of timber. The bodies of the known and unknown dead, which dot the heated and blackened expanse give the scene the appearance of a battlefield in which fire has played the conquering role.
As the survivors of the Johnstown flood escaped before the avalanche of water, and as the locomotive bore the warning approaching disaster at that time, so did hundreds of human beings seek a place of safty from the flames by riding behind the rushing locomotive which bore the "limited" train back towards Duluth after JIM ROOT, the brave engineer had taken his train into the midst of the flames. The escape of hundreds from what seemed certain death between walls of flame on each side of the railroad track and the evident saving of these human souls by the heroic acts and fidelity to duty of the engineer and fireman of the train will be handed down in the annals of calamities as masterpieces of heroism.
The retreat of the train, laden with human freight, would not have been accompanied with any loss of life had it not been for the two Chinaman who perished from being paralyzed with fright. They were rooted beneath their seats, and were consumed with the train at Skunk Lake. The wooden construction of every building in Hinckley except the Great Northern and the schoolhouse made it easy for the rushing tidal wave of flame to obliterate every trace of the town except the walls of those two structures.
One of the heaviest financial sufferers from the pine forest fire is the Cornell university. The trustees of this institution had invested over $1,000,000 in the burned pine lands. As is often the case in times of peril to a large number of people, many go to their deaths because others lead and the leaders do not follow the safe path. Survivors of the Hinckley holocaust say that over 200 of those who perished in flames or smoke might have saved their lives if they had kept away from the river. Scores of bodies were found on the roadside as well as on the railroad tracks. Smoke, fire or exhaustion had overtaken them in their race for life. And the half of the horrors caused by this calamity to a prosperous people has apparently not been told.
The sending of relief trains and provisions, besides other necessities of existence in a homeless community, and physicians supplied with things for the injured, was commenced with commendable promptness and on a liberal scale by the citizens of Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chippewa Falls, Superior, St. Cloud and other cities.

Trying To Reach The Scene Of The Holocaust.
St. Cloud, Minn., Sept. 2. -- The first report of the terrible loss of life at Hinckley was received here early this morning from Pineville, and a message to the Great Northern officials here said that Hinckley had been burned, the Northern roundhouse being the only building left, and that thirty lives had been lost. At noon a second telegram placed the number a nearly 800, and word was also received to be prepared to render assistance.
The Great Northern is doing all in its power to reach the fire stricken town. Even since yesterday afternoon work trains have been engaged in rebuilding burned bridges, and all the men that can be used are being rushed to the front. But three large bridges are down.
At 6 o'clock the road is clear to a point four miles west of Morand, withing about fifteen miles of Hinckley, but officials do not expect to get into Hinckley until tomorrow. It is thought here that the town will be reached quicker from Pine City. The scenes at the front, where the work trains are engaged, are frightful. One crew of men reported that they saw the flames sweeping down on a house close to the track. The place was enveloped in fire before the people could escape. The workmen were powerless to render any assistance, although they were so close that they could hear the people screaming as they were being cremated. Newspaper men are trying to reach Hinckley over the Great Northern from here, but it is not thought that they will get there before tomorrow; besides, all telegraphic communication is shut off.
The eastern Minnesota train which came here from Princeton last evening is still in the Great Northern yards, the company keeping the passengers at the local hotel here, and they will not get away before tomorrow.
A messenger from Hinckley who reached Mora says that 148 people were found dead, and that the new town of Pokegama is wiped out.

A Graphic Description Of The Wild Rush For Life.
Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 2. -- The first train over the St. Paul & Duluth road direct from the scene of the great fire reached Minneapolis at 12:45 this afternoon. There were about a dozen persons on board, including MRS. LAWRENCE, the only one of the passengers on the "limited" which started Saturday afternoon, from this end of the line, and finding that they could go no farther, they stopped at Pine City and returned to Minneapolis on the first train coming this way.
MRS. LAWRENCE says the first evidence of the fire was noticeable about ten miles the other side of Hinckley, when the air became almost suffocating. One mile the other side of Hinckley a number of persons -- according to the story of MRS. LAWRENCE there were about fifty -- rushed toward the train screaming frantically. The engineer, seeing the danger they were in if they remained, stopped the train to let them aboard. The heat became intense, and the whole volcano of fire seemed to burst out in a mighty effort to wipe the train and its occupants off the face of the earth. MRS. LAWRENCE describes the scene in a graphic manner. She said:
"At the first rush of the flames toward the cars, the window panes went out with a crash, and the train began slowly to return toward Skunk lake. People screamed, men jumped through the car windows -- the wild scramble was horrible -- there was no humanity in it. Every person was for himself, and they did not care how they got out of the swirling, rushing mass of flames. My dress caught fire, but I extinguished the flames."
"I saw two Chinamen. I can remember the scene as well as can be. They were paralyzed by fright and made no effort to get away, but simply hid their heads under the seats and were burned to death. I stood it as long as I could and then I rushed out of the car, jumping over one or two persons who were lying on the ground injured. Some of the people jumped into Skunk lake, but I simply ran along the ties. The fire burned away and after keeping it up until my strength gave out, I fell down between the rails. I expected every minute that my dress would burn away from my body. I put out the flames half a dozen times, and I had to hold my hands over the baby's face in order to keep it from suffocating."
Sunday morning MRS. LAWRENCE was picked up in the middle of the track about two miles the other side of Hinckley by a relief party out from Duluth that had made the trip on a hand car.
"The site of Hinckley," says MRS. LAWRENCE, "is nothing but a blackened waste, with bodies of dead and injured persons lying everywhere. There were fully 125 persons aboard the "limited," but only two persons were burned outright. These were the Chinamen, who made no effort to get away. About a dozen persons, according to her story, were injured in the melee which ensued when the people tried to leave the car. Some jumped through car windows. Others rushed to the platform and jumped off while the train was moving, while others fought their way through the mass of passengers in an effort to get away from the crowd. The result was that many persons suffered severe injuries, such as broken bones and limbs.
Mayor Eustis received a telegram from a citizens' committee from Rich City, Minn., this afternoon stating that 150 lives had been lost at Hinckley. A car-load of provisions were procured but no engine could be secured to take it to the sufferers. It will go in the morning, however, and tomorrow meetings of the business men of Minneapolis will be held to provide relief.
A story gained ground during the afternoon that J. M. ROOT, the engineer on the ill-fated "limited" had died from his wounds. This story was denied by the officials in authority, and it was reported that ROOT would recover. The report reached the city at a late hour during the afternoon that SULLIVAN, the conductor of the "limited," of which ROOT was the engineer, had reached Duluth. He resided in this city. It was reported that he had gone crazy from the effects of the intense heat, and it is somewhat doubtful whether or not he will ever recover.

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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!