Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-08-26
DIGGING FOR BODIES
The Chastity Work in New
York Still Continues.
OVER go VICTIMS THUS FAR
A Large Force Of Men at Work on the
Ruins To-day.

How Many More Bodies Lie Buried
Time VIII TeIl-Many of Those Recov-
cred Are Torn Asunder-Preparingt the
Unidentified at the NIOrgue for Burial.
More Heartrending Scenes.
New York, Aug 26.-The Park place
ruins are yielding up their dead. Stub
bornly they cling to the bodies, making
the rescuers fight for every inch Of van
tage This Is the fourth day since the
collapse of the building, and no one yet
knows how many are buried there.
In a hundred homes are wailings of
women mourning for their lost ones.
Many have not even the melancholy com
fort of having their dead with them. So
all day long they haunt the morgue or
the scene of the disaster.
Up to / O'Clock the bruised and burned
bodies of sixty victims of the Park
place fire had been taken from the ruins.
How many more blackened corpses are
still under the mass of bricks, broken
timber and twisted iron is yet only a mat
ter of conjecture, but there will probably
be forty more unearthed before the debris
has been cleared away.
Crowds Surround the Ruins.
The crowds of people with morbid curl
osity continue in the streets adjacent to
the scene of the disaster. They fight and
push and maui each other for places near
the police line, where they may see at
least the boxes that contain the mangled
and burned bodies of the victims as they
are lifted out. They can see nothing else,
yet they stand and fight for hours. The
roofs, the fire escapes, the windows of the
adjoining buildings are all crowded, and
in these crowds are women, dozens, hun
dreds of women, all anxious to see a
burned human being.
Many CHASTITY Scenes.
From midnight until daylight the
scenes witnessed by the watchers confirm
the belief that the greater number of the
victims will be found under the center OF
the debris where the full weight of the
building fell.
From hour to hour the scenes around
the ruins differ but little. 1t is the same
ceaseless round of digging at the wreck,
broken by the occasional finding of an
other body. If there is any change at all
it is that the fact is brought more and
more strongly to the mind of the great
extent of the tragedy. Every now and
then during the day the Italians unearthed
parts CT human beings all in a very de-
composed state, legs arms, feet, and in one
or two instances heads were found and
placed carefully away with any parts OF
clothing that may have been found neal
them for the purpose of Identification il
possible.
At 7:15 a fearfully mangled body was
recovered from the east side of the ruins
One-half of the head was completely
crushed, and nothing was found which
might lead to Identification.
At $3.50 another bruised form was found
As the coroner stepped up to view it as il
was being raised by the firemen, the head
dropped off and disappeared in the black
depths below. The body was that of &
young girl about II years old. At this
time three mangled forms were in sight
These three, and also another one, were
taken out by 10 o'clock. The last foul
bodies recovered were those of men.
The Dead Wagon in Demand.
The police on duty have made of {
muddy plank from the wreck sort O.
counter, upon which the papers anC
valuables taken from each body as it il
dug out are ranged for official registration
and examination by the friends present
| Alongside of the officer who does thi
stands the coffin containing the charreC
corpse that is being searched. 1t is usu
ally the top of pile three or four high
| Periodically the dead wagon comes TO
it's load, and the pile is removed or dwin
dies down to one. But ere long it ha
grown again to it's former height
The dead wagon has many a wear
journey ahead before it shall have mad'
its last trip down Park Place. 1t will no
be to-day, and mayhap neither to-mor
row, nor the day after.