The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-08-03
HORRORS ACCUMULATE.
Another Appalling Calamity Add
ed to the Horrors of the
Year.
A Rotten Pier Gives Beneath the
Weight Of Two Hundred
Excursionists.
Over Seventy Known to Have Perished
-Heartrending Grief OF Parents
and Relatives.

tertng place resort on the Potapsco river,
ten miles from the city of Baltimore, Md,
by the giving way of q pier crowded with
several hundred people-excursionists from
the city-nearly all Of whom were precipi-
tated into the water, and between sixty and
seventy of whom were drowned, most of
them being women and children The par
ticulars of the horror are embraced in the
following dispatches CLEANED from the Chi
cago press:
In point of horror and fatality combined,
no catastrophe has ever been written in the
annals of Baltimore that will compare with
the awful loss or life in the night-covered
waters of the Patapsco at Tivol last even
ing. A crowd of pleasure-seekers, weary
after the sports of the day. were gathered
on the wharf as the barge that was to bear
them to their homes approached No
thought of danger was in their minds With
scarce a moments warning, the structure
gave way, and the immense mass of human
ity was plunged into the waters where the
darkness shut them out of sight.
In hundreds of homes last night
anxious wives, husbands and parents
were awaiting the arrival of the excursion
lists, and the anxiety became intense as the
small hours of the morning came on At
2:3O o'clock the barge reached Henderson's
wharf, bringing its awful tale of woe, and
Will tuO lOIIllS VI
drowned men, women, and children The
anxiety of the parents gave place TO horror
and grief, and the friends of the missing
grew wild with terror.
Almost half Of the excursionists passed
the night around the blazing fires on the
shore, where those who had been rescued
from the waves were seeking to dry their
dripping clothing. The scenes on the
grounds during the night were indescribable
and awful The noisy cries OF children and
the hoarse shouts of men and the
piercing notes of grief of the women were
as nothing to the terrible silence of the four
hours that preceded the dawn, when moth
ing was heard but an occasional dull moan
or the call of one of those who were watch
ing by the shore for the bodies of the dead
From what could be CLEANED from the re-
marks of individual witnesses of the terri
bic accident it appears that the disaster oc-
CURED a very few minutes after 1920
o'clock The wharf did not break; the piles
spread The crowd stood in bunch in the
center of the wharf which was but poorly
supported underneath by logs and conse-
quently the Earring of the barge when she
struck the wharf gave the shock which
caused the piles TO spread and let down the
center of the wharf with its crowd of living
beings into the water The planks were Of
course unable 10 support the heavy weight
md so snapped short off, thus giving rise to
the supposition that they had broken
The Rev. w. f. Sterr, pastor of Corpus
Christi Roman Catholic Church, was an eve
witness of the disaster, and gives a graphic
account OF it There is a long wharf at
Iivoli," Said he, running out from the
shore perhaps 1000 feet Near the shore
end there are large gates, which are gener-
ally closed upon the arrival of the boats
Last night number of persons, fatigued,
and desiring to obtain advantageous posi-
tions on the boat, strolled out upon the
wharf before the arrival of the barge, so
that at the time she came in sight there
were probably between 200 and $40 per-
sons on the wharf between the gates |,
myself, together with some few 9TH
ers, had gained the extreme end of the
wharf beyond the boat gate where the barge
made fast Meanwhile both gates had been
closed, and the keeper Of the one toward
myself and the boat-gate would not allow
any one to pass, evidently thinking, poor
fellow, they were safer on the outside The
people near the boat were Just walking over
the gang plank when heard a crash behiLd
me, and saw q dark hole in the wharf and a
mass OF human beings struggling in the
water beneath, while others on tue wharf
were pushing and jostling each other in
frantic endeavor to reach place of safety.
Men and women were shrieking and yelling
and children crying, while from the dark
abyss below the most heart-rending cries
were heard, only TO end in gurgling sounds
as the hel pless beings succumbed TO the cruel
waters Then ensued scene of in
describable confusion Stools, piles of
plank. everything available, were thrown
into the water in the midst of the struggling
mass, until it became evident that some
who might be saved from death by drowning
would become victims of the heedlessness
of those who, with the best intentions, but
very poor Judgment, were casting the heavy
articles into the water /, myself, stepped
on n parallel wharf, on which there is a small
track, and made my way back to the scene
of the disaster. / endeavored to calm the
tumult but as well might / have tried to
stop the earth from revolving on
its axis. Those who were safe had
suddenly conceived the idea that
the boat was unsafe, and refused to
go on board reasoned and per-
shaded, but only afew followed my advice.
j told them that The ir friends in the city, as
BOON as they learned of the accident would
mourn them as among the victims, but nv
efforts PROVED fruitless, and when we did
start for Baltimore, more than half were
LETT down there"
In meantime, efforts to rescue the drown
ing persons were being made by a few brave
young men, and quite number of ladies
and others, who were well nigh dead, had
wharf. When the Cockade City
arrived on her second trip, about
8 this morning, she brought with
her thirty-tive additional bodies, and the re-
mainder of the excursionists who had re-
manned over night at Tivoh searching for
their friends Mam were crying bitterly, |
while the haggard tear begrimed faces of |
the others showed the intense suffering |
they had undergone. All had lost friends |
or relatives many of them more than one |
There were parents leading children, sob |
bling as If their hearts would break As |
soon as the barge arrived, at . o'clock, the |
bodies were hurried into an empty building |
on Henderson wharf, and laid out |
on the floor, awaiting identification, |
which was not long coming, as none |
of the bodies had been in the water |
long enough to suffer any dishgura- |
ton, and were consequently easily recogniza-
bic. The news of the accident had brought I
to the scene nearly every one who had |
friends on the excursion. Every few min
utes, as the crowd pas sed slowly I'm and out |
or the room viewing the bodice a piercing
Shrek and ejaculation of "Oh, my Godlb |
would announce that some unfortunate one
had been recognized Young girls and |
strong men sobbed and cried like children
May men and women were hurrying from
one person to another, asking If such and
such person had been found
The bodies already brought to this city
number sixty six Ii is now thought that
the loss may reach 100
The phnic grounds where the terrible ca
lamity occurred il on small bay about two
miles from North Point lighthouse 1t was
formerly known as Holly Grove was first
fitted up about fifteen years ago, and was
the most popular re- ort at that time and for
several years afterward
The Coroner he1d nm ipounct And ne <Na I