, 1884-12-21
DELvlNG IN DEBRIS.
New Horrors From the Brook
Ign Orphan Asylum.
Charred Human Bodies
So Far Recovered.
The Same Number of Children
Still Missing.
The BROOKLYN Horror.

NEW YORK, December 20.-Like the
Brooklyn Theater fire, the Brooklyn
Catholic Orphan Asylum fire grows in
horrors with the hours. Up till half-past
O'Clock to-day seven more bodies of
missing children had been digged from
the ruins, also the body of a man. Con
tractor Mcdonald, with a force of twelve
men, commenced work at G O'Clock and
their picks and crowbars made no unnec-
essary disturbance Of the piled up mass
of warped iron, charred timber and frozen
mud that lay on the floor. At 9 O'Clock
the workmen, who had cleared off the top
of the debris, noticed a section of a thigh
bone protruding from behind the gnarled
and twisted pieces of iron. It was olsen
gagged from its holding in a frozen mass
that surrounded it, and a trunk and YER
tabrae of a full grown adult followed.
The less ieshy parts of the body were
burned to the bones and the intestines
and spine were charred. The left arm
was deep in the frozen mass and investi-
CATION showed that it still retained in all
its distortion a bent form. 1t clasped
what had been the neck of a child. The
latter body, from being smaller and not SO
well clad, was burned to a cinder. The
little trunk dropped from its resting place
and rolled until a boulder stopped its
progress. These two bodies were com
pletely recovered, at least as completely as
the flames left them. These two rem
nants of humanity were doubtless all that
remained of a devoted father who persisted
in a vain effort to save the life of his sick,
and maybe crippled, and, therefore, help
son. The workmen proceeded. Now
they took a heap of burnt ashes and sifted
it carefully, only to discover part of a
shoe or some other article Of wearing
apparel that had been more fortunate
than its owner. The half square of space
that interviewed between the boiler and the
wall Of the basement of the in
Urinary, had been sifted at IL O'Clock,
and the workmen proceeded in their task
and quickly came upon two little bodies
lying together against the iron stanchions.
The workmen now labored on, and
by l o'clock had unearthed
two more bodies and at half past | had
exposed two more bodies-eight thus far
to-day and eighteen all told up to the
time stated. The bodies recovered to-day
are in better condition than the ten dis
covered yesterday. The flesh of the lat
ter had been completely burned of, leav-
ing nothing but the cracked splinters OF
the larger bones. The bodies to-day, al
though burned beyond Identification, are
not cremated beyond recognition as the
remains of human beings. The trunks,
with the tendons and muscles torn and
burned, were placed in baking pans which
had contained the daily bread of the
orphans. A heap of bread, baked beyond
any use, lay in a corner. The quarters in
st. Mary's Hospital, now being used for
the houseless children, was built originally
for a stable. The missing children are
still being picked up in the streets. The
books show there were 724 inmates and
of this number G63 are accounted for,
which leaves sixty-one persons missing,
forty-six of which are children.
At . O'Clock tonight the delivers in the
debris continued their labors and secured
two more bodies, making an aggregate of