TRAGIC INCIDENTS.
Thompson retired to his room, on the third floor of the Washington Hotel, seemingly sane. Soon afterwards he began to moan, and soon became violent, rushing from one side of his room to the other and declaring his determination to commit suicide. Employes of the hotel did all they could to pacify the man, and during the night he became more rational and lay down. The person engaged to watch him was compelled to leave the room for a short time early in the morning, and when he returned he found that Thompson had wrenched the shutters off his window and leaped out upon an awning and thence to the street.
Thompson was seen to run toward the bay, and in all probability he threw himself overboard and was drowned, as he was not seen or heard of afterward.
Another case is that of a young woman who was caught in the rain, and, with two other women and about fifty men and boys, found refuge in an office. It was with the utmost difficulty she could restrain herself during the fearful storm, and she frequently became hysterical and cried out for her mother, sisters and her brother and his family. As the storm gradually subsided the young woman became more calm, and when morning broke she started for her home quite reassured. She found a wild waste of waters sweeping over the site of her home. Her dear ones were missing.
Among the first victims carried into the temporary morgue were the young woman’s mother, brother and two children. These were quickly followed by her brother’s wife and her two sisters. The shock overthrew the girl’s reason, and she became a nervous wreck, without a relative in the world.
Hundreds of such tragic incidents as these marked the week, and the number of men and women who lost their reason was very large.