The evening world. Newspaper, June 16, 1904, Page 1

WRATHER—Showern to-night; Friday clowly. " (BASEBAL Gi \ Us ar PRICE ONE CENT. CROWD AT MORGUE oH AIG THAT MORE POLICE ARE CALLED f Relatives, Recognizing the Features of Their Dead Loved Ones, Shriek, Moan and Swoon and Become Temporarily Insane from Grief. The crowd of people visiting the Morgue in East Twenty-sixth streeet In search of bodies of relatives and friends lost in the Gen. Slocum dis- aster grew to such proportions late this afternoon that the reserves were sent for from several stations. Without an interruption from early morning until late this afternoon the great stream of sorrowing men and women passed up and down the lines of dead at the pier of the Charity Department, looking for those who left them for a day of merry-making yesterday and have not yet returned. The scenes which have marked the finding . of. their dead by} fathers and mothers, sisters and. brothers, have been such as to shake the nerye of the strongest of the men who are duty at the piér and most of whom are calloused to such things by years of experience: KEEP Ix. THE LONG LINE. | Sat Many do not find those they seek, but they do not go away; they join the end of the long, continuous line and await their turns again, hop- ing that in the interim the bodies of those they seek will arrive. With all its heartrending record of sorrowful scenes, the New York morgue has never before in its history been the theatre of ‘such per- formances as were to be seen there to-day. i With its limited space it could not begin to accommodate the silent forms which came knocking at its doors, and long before midnight it had extended its jurisdiction to the long pier of the Charities Department, at! the foot of East Twenty-sixth street, along which are now two long lines of plain plank coffins with an aisle between, down and up which the sob- bing fathers, mothers and children walk in their ghastly search for their dead. BODIES OF MCT‘MERS WITH DEAD BABES. . In those roughly made coffins are forms, the very sight of which would move’a heart of stone. Mothers with their infants so tightly clasped to their breasts that they could hardly be taken. away if any one willed such a sacrilege; little girls, their holiday finery bedraggled by the cruel waters of the river and scorched by the flames, some still holding to thelr breasts ‘hei: poor-little dolls, and one especially, a curly-headed little boy, whose dead hands still firmly hold’a little tin horse, the leash string of which now dangles pathetically over the edge of the box which holds him and will hold him until a heart-broken mother or father comes to take him away. SHAMELESS UNDERTAKERS’ SQUABBLE. Amid such scenes it is hard to believe that a mercenary spirit could! develop, and yet among the black-garbed undertakers who have haunted {he pler and the contiguous streets there has teen a shameless rivalry for business, which eyen the police have been unable to curb. Like “shyster” lawyers, the undertakers had their runners and ambulance chasers ou! and there were actual squabbles at times over the dad. The horror that a night of vigil uafolded for some. is best illustrated by the case of Charlés Ottinger, cf No. 91 East Seventh street, and his two grown daughters, Lillian and Kates © | | For hours and hours they stood in the line waiting their turn at the coffins, for the wife of the man and the mother of these girls, with Charles and Emma Ottinger, twins, aged sixteen years, and Andrew and Arthur Ot- tinger, also twins, aged seven years, went away on the Gen. Slocum and didn’t come -back. They found them in the boxes on the piers, all five of them, and all the solace they got out of the find was that their dear ones were not disfigured. Henry Hardiacamp found his little sister Mary among the dead. To- day a score of this child's friends were to have gathered at her home to celebrate her eleventh birthday and the child had talked all the week of the unusual happiness of two days of pleasure: a picnic one day, a birth- day party the next. Henry Hardincamp found the child in her little pine box and he just! threw himself across her body and refused to leave it. He didn’t cry, few men at the pier had tears at their control to help them out, but he flercely| sages of condolence, fought the men who tried to tear him away. He was removed at last, how-| John Weaver, of Philadelphia. It is as fullows: évef, and his sister was sent after him. Some of these things threw strong men into temporary insanity. Albert| School-children on the Gen. Slocum, Our most sincere sympathy Is ex- Troell, of No. 405 Fifth street, went through the ‘line with his wife Anna,| tended to the parents and friends, and we are most anxious to do some- looking for Bert, their thirteen-year-old boy. (Continued on Second Page.) it do not turetena a want the trouble of Houses to Let” ‘Wort { RACING @ SPORTS || _[“cireaation Boots Open tai” | | estimated that there will be at least two hundred whose remains will be so charretl by the fire that any positive identification of them will be im- , They found him at last and while the mother fell fainting on the floor | ®™¥' the “Pur. | afflicted. BINAL NEW YORK, 'THU . 1904, _|-RESULTS EDITION PRICE ONE CENT. (00 LATEST ESTIMATE OF. CROWDS OF GRIEF-STRICKEN MOURNERS AT ST. MARK’S CHURCH, IN SIXTH ST, TO-DAY. | seene In. Front F | 700 Chir Ch UNDENTFED eA Mayor. McClellan Favors Plans for a! Great Memorial Meeting and Erection! of Monument Over Graves of Un- recognized Victims of the Disaster. LATEST FIGURES ON THE SLOCUM DISASTER. Bodies Recovered as Reported by Bodies Recovered as Reported by Coroner.-- Bodies Identif 60 Missing (Estimated) . Number of Dead (Estimated).---- 700 In Hospitals..-.--+---+++----+ + Among the hundreds of dead from the disaster to the Gen, Slocum it is | RELIEF COMMITTEE IS APPOINTED BY MAYOR. pe Bs aE es To the Citizens of New York : The appalling disaster yesterday, by which more than five hundred men, women and chil- dren lost their lives by fire and drowning, has shocked and horriiied our city. keen sympathy of the people of the City of New York with their stricken fellows, | have appoint- ed a committee of citizens to receive contribu- tions toa fund to provide for the fit and proper burial of the dead and for such other relief as may be necessary. The following gentlemen have been asked to serve on the committee: —~ MORRIS K. JESUP, JACOB H. SCHIFF, HERMAN RIDDER. CHARLES D. DICKEY, R. A. VAN CO'RTLANDT. JOHN WEINACHT, ERSKINE HEWITT, H. B, SCHARMANN. 4 Until the committee has had an opportunity to organize, I shall be glad to receive contribu- tions at the Mayor’s oifice. As a sign of mourning I have ordered the flagson the City Hall to be put at half-mast. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Mayor. | nn et er Ne SIRS ta ese SE eT ernest t Si ei possible. It has been suggested to Mayor McClellan to-day from a dozen or more’ sources that the city -pay*what tribute it can to these. unknown dead by holding a great pudlic funeral for them. It has also been suggested to the Mayor that a great memorial meeting for all the' dead would be a fitting thing at a time when the entire city is) plunged in grief ,by the horror, and, that later a movement for the erection || of a monument over the graves of the unidentified would be a suitable thing. MAYOR ORDERS FLAGS HALF-MASTED. “T can scarcely beer to let my mind dwell on what has happened,” he said, “It is all'so Awful, so hcartreading, that talk seems superttuou: what I can gather, the city departments in handling the disaster w splendid accord and did everything that it was possible for human beings to do. I am pleased with what has been done for the living and the dead by the officials.” ' One of the first things that the Mayor did on his arrival was to order the flags on all public buildings half-masted, and this order was complied with at once, In all parts of the city, and especially on the east sie, the movement for a public funeral and a memorial meeting is growing, It is generally be- leved that there can be,no-better way for the city as a whole to register its grief over its fearful loss. MANY MESSAGES OF CONDOLENCE. From all over the country to-day Mayor McClellan was receiving mes- One of tie first messages to arrive was from Mayor { JOSEPH C. HENDRIX, THOMAS MULRY, GEORGE EHRET, JOHN FOX, “Philadelphia is horrified at the news of the fearful accident to iis thing to, help you in’ the great affliction, Will you let us know if there is | thing we can do to help?” Muyor MeClellan to-day received a cable from Sir Thomas Lipton, in London, expressing his sorrow and asking permission to contribute ,$1,0v0 if pecuniary aid were needed. The Mayor replied, thanking Sir Thomas for hfs condolence and assuring him that New York will amply provide for the ‘The Council of Glasgow, Scotland, sent a message of sympathy, as ~1s0 did the Mayors of many other cities, both {n this country and in Europe, _, ah Knowing the}! DEAD: ore Bodies Expected to Come to the Surface Off North © BrotherIsland—CoronerSays ~ Steamboat Company Has: Spirited Away Witnesses. M Of those who lost their lives in the destruction of the General Slocum the bodies of 546 have been recovered, a= cording to the report of Coroner O'Gorman. The po- lice report the number of bodies recovered at 572. Of these bodies 368 have been identified. In the list of miss+— ing there are 439 names, 4 With the proper discount that experience shows should - be made in the list of missing, because of those reported ™ missing who are safe, and assuming that in the missing list are included all of the unidentified dead, the total number of fatalities should foot up about 700. : According to expert divers employed by the Merritt- Chapman Company, there are no more bodies in the wreck of the boat and search of it has been practically abandoned. The divers have begun work off North Brother Island at the spot where the Slocum was beached, It is said that — one of the decks slid into the water there, carrying 200 ot more with it and that bodies may be buried under this wreckage. aa In case-no bodies are recovered at this point it means that all the bodies of the victims save those who were— drowned and remain under water have been found. ; The inquest will be Leld on Monday, beginning at 10 o'clock in the mona- ing, at the Coroner's office, Oe Hundred and Seventy-seventh street ani Third avenue, Coroner Berry wil! presi ‘Two Life preservere from the Slocum re bronght to Coroner Berry t@ ~ day. One of them vas marked “Passed by United states Inspector of Vessel June 18, 1891f' Tnis was the year the boat was Jaunched and proves the ag sertion that there were life preservers on board as old as the boat. A DAY OF FUNERALS. * All of the Lutheran ministers in the city will meet at St. Mark’s to-~ morrow morning at 10 o'clock to arrange fcr a monster funeral of the 7 victims. It is thought that the funerais will begin to-morrow and continue uninterruptedly from morning to night until the last of the um fortunate excursionists has been Iald to rest. To show what may be expected in the way of recovering bodies of vids tims the police report picking up “he corpse of 9 little girl three years old at the foot of Jefferson street, East River, late this afternoon. She makes the 523d yictim accounted for. Her hody was taken to the Morgue by, the Fidelity, which was signalled from the pier as she steamed down the river — with a cargo of corpses from, North Brother Island. Mayor McClellan saw body No. 522 recovered. He was standing on the sea wall with Commissioner Darli: 1nd Inspector Albertson looking: to where the Slocum was beached when the police patrol boat steamed with grappling hooks out and brought up the body of a little girl, ‘Thit was tagged and carried aboard the Masssssoit, on which thirty-seven “ bodies had already been stored for removal to the Morgue at Twenty. . street. One body remain: in the North Brother Island Morgue—that of infant, crushed and burned beyond recognition. MOST OF THE BODIES RECOV ERED. While on the island Mayor McClellan received a report from Capt. Rise dort and Divers Blomberg and Hier, who had been searching through wreck of the Slocum. They told him that all the bodies in,the hulle been recovered, unless some were buried in the mud under the twisted of iron and wood. The Mayor said that he wished to express his appreciation of the nob¥ _ work done by members of all the city departments who had a hand in thi work following the disaster—the Departments of Police, Charities, Correc: tion, Fire, Docks and Health. He specially commended the consumptive patients and the nurses on North Brother Island who waded into water up to their chins and dragged out scores of wounded excursionists, It is feared that the system of tagging bodies adopted vy the Coroners. in handling the victims of the Slocum steambosr fire will result in the loss eat deal of jewelry and money vo the sarviving relatives, This is he undertakers to secure corpses and identifica- of a gr due to the eager haste of t tions. The enyelopes contal tagged with the same numbers placed on ning the valuables taken from the bodies were the corpses. Scores of tags have - Others have een pawed over by the undertakers until they are Undertakers have been seen to pull a tag off a body and ases this will result in long delays before’ the cd und claimed by” been lost. undecipherable. throw it away. In many ¢ money and valuables recovered can be properly identi the rightful owners. WITNESSES SPIRITED AWAY. Coroner Berry at his office in the Bronx to-day made the open charg? amboat Company were keeping cum and who have not yet been that the officers of the Knickerbocker the fifteeen men who were on the Gev seen by the authorities away from him. “There were twenty-three men on the Slocum,” said theCoroner, “Seven, arrested or detained and one was drowned. The other Atteen we can* not get at. I telephoned the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company yesterde> asking that they produce these men, as I ‘had issued subpoenas for them _ ‘Phey said that they would if they could get hold of them, but thet they, didn’t know where they were, I especially want to get hold of Engineer)” § Frank Conkling, and told the company €0, f “T have just learned positively that Conkling was at the Knickerbocker” Company's offices to-day, and that a nur ber of the other men were th too. I was not notified of thie by the company, but learned it from siders too late to serve the men. Conkling has now gone to his home Catskill, N. ¥., hear, and the ather mex ace not to be foupd.. it_ne i) ' é were _—