Appalling Disaster

Victoria, B. C, May 28.- The Ellice bridge was the soene oí a frightful accident shortly before 2 o'clock Tuesday. An electric car loaded with people was precipitated iuto the water through the breaking of the bridge. Another car also heavily laden passed the span but a moment before the collapse. Carriages and other vehicles crowded the driveway. Severa! fell into the Btream. It is supposed there wero upward of 125 people on the car, but it is known that a mimber of íhem eseaped. Ia Captain Qrant'a garden about sixty-one bodies are lying upon the lawn and are for the most part being worked over by willing hands. It is expected that more bodies will be reeovered. Were Going; to a Shnm Fight. A sham fight and review was to take place at Macanlay Point, near Esquiinault, Tuesday afternoon and crowds were making their way there by every roiite. All the tram cars were packed. Two cars left Government street with more than 100 people. ïho first got over Point Ellice bridge, whish crosses Victoria arm, safely, but when the other was about half way over the middlespan of tho bridge, 150 feet in length, gave way and the car plunged into the water, some hundred feet below. While many Victorians were on the fatal car the majority were visitors and the work of identiflcation is consequently difficult. Fifty-seven bodies have thus far been identified. There are others whose llames canno' be ascertained and still more undoubtedly whose bodies have not yet been recovi red from the water. H :l.rtrenliiiL Scene-i. Thousands of sorrowing friends and relatives crowCed around the appvoaches to the bridge eogorly scanning each body as ir was bronght to land. Mothers, crazed by the loss of h'jsbands or children, attempted to juinp in the water in their eagerness to reseiia their loved one3. As body after body was brought to the shora, crowds rushed forward tpsearch each niangled face, yet dreadlug the possibility that it might be that of some one whom they hoped had escaped from the deathtrap Twenty persous known to have been on the bridge at 'the time of the accident are missing and it is supposed that they have perished. On the surface of Victoria arm struggling people fought to gain the shore. Strong men and frail women battled for their Uves. Husbands emerged from the wreckage only to flnd that their wives had gone down to death. Waters Iyed Red with Blood. Children wei-e earried down by those who were stronger and fathers who liad struggled from beneath the debris of the bridge and earriages returned to their doom in vain endéavors to resoue their babies. The waters of the Arm for yards around were dyed red with blood and floating out to sea went corpse after corpse borne on by the tide. The shrieks of men, the screams of women and children fllled. the air and nervod the crowds of rescuers on to eiïorts that endangered life and limb. The number of carriages lost and the passengers earried down in the wreek cannot be learned. It is is claimed by many that fully two hundred people went down with the span and that more than half of them perished. The rescue of some of the victims was, under the circumstanccs, almost miraeulous. Reseñe of Mrs. Foster. Among those saved were Mr. and Mrs. Foster of tíeattle. Mr. Fdster was on the outside of the electric car and his wife was seated within. "When the car went down he jumped and dived. Coming up and catching a bridge timber he saw his wife's cloak appear upon the water. He called to a man to save her and not in vain, for tho man swam to Mrs. Foster's rescue and boro her to the land. Supt. Wilson of the Canadian Pacific Railway telegraph was driving a carriage containing his wife and live children behind the ill-fated car. His vehicle was swept down; in a moment the entire family was struggling in the water. With rare presence of mimi Mr. Wilson succeeded in saving his wife and four of the children. The flfth child, a little boy, was wedged beneath some wreckage and drowned.