Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-02-09
REMOVING THE DEAD
Taking the Bodies from the
 Hotel Royal Ruins.
SEVENTEEN so FAR RECOVERED.
Several Anxious Days Must Pass Ers the
 Full Number Gan Be Known.

Were Lost VViu Not Be Reached Before TO-uiRht-CuriOus Freak of the Flames
 Origin of the Fire in Dispute--One of
 the Hotel EmplOyes Thinks It May
 Have Been Started from the Furnace
 RumOrs of Incendiarism Discredited.
 NEW YORK, Feb 9.-The work of searching the ruins of the Hotel Royal still goes on. All last night the men worked under the glare of electric lights. The heaps of debris grow higher and higher as the work proceeds and body after body is removed. I
 The contractor having the work in charge says that he thinks it will be three days before all the debris can be examined, but that gangs of men will work every minute of the day and night, even if it takes ten days.
 If his estimate of the time re- qXired to complete the work is correct, several anxious days must pass before the number of lost can be definitely known.
 The cowds surrounding the scene seem to be held by some spell, so earnestly do they watch the progress of the work. They are generally very silent, except for the SnululnB OA LCoOD OuO every GA41c A blackened, shapeless mass, all that is left of what was once a man, proud in the consciousness of life and strength, or a woman, light-hearted and happy in the knowledge of her beauty, is brought out of the ruins, a shuddering, lon ng-drawn sigh passes through the throng.
 The terrible fascination of viewing grim death in most horrible form keeps A1. .INn 4I,A zfk fkn nf kknl l,Nrrsv Ha.f hotel, and all through the night there seems to be no diminishing of the num- Der who watch the men carrying their ghastly burdens, the feeble earthly tene ments of souls gone to face their Creator and to render their last account.
 Up to noon IF bodies had been recOv- cred The number of dead, as now esti- mated, is in the neighborhood of forty, but there is no way of giving an estimate with any degree of accuracy.
 Five bodies have been identified. It is not yet known what names twelve of the bodies bore in life. Twenty-three injured persons are in the hospitals of the city or are being cared for at other hotels or at the house of friends. Sixty-three are known to have been saved without in jury. Fifty-f1ve are missing and unac- counted for.
 The work of identification is very slow, l DIS IS que pdTGly UO G4e uOTEIpIe COuui- tion of the bodies recovered. But stronger reason, it is believed, is the fact that many persons do not wish to make public, through identification, the names of relatives and friends possibly among the dead in order to avoid scandal
 As indicated yesterday the extent of the disaster grows with every hours work of the forces engaged in removing the debris from the burned building
 3%Av crowd of workmen employed on the ruins and among the large crowd which had been hanging about the scene all day, when word was passed around that a cry had been heard from the vault or Sixth avenue.
 The Italians who were at work close to where the cry was said to have been heard say that the sound heard was the moving of a cat.
 It will be remembered that a somewhat similar incident occurred at the ruins of the Park place disaster, some time ago, when the searchers, after three days of digging and delving, found large, black. cat which had escaped unscathed both the collapse of the building and the fire which followed on that occasion.
 At the first break of dawn Contractor Galligan marched on the scene with 100 fresh men at his back. They were all
 
 mixed-Irish and Italian. They were armed with picks and shOvels, and they were halted before the ruins, the: contractor read them q little speech, and told them that dead bodies lay beneath; the ragged mass of ruins, and that they were expected to work with speed and at the same time exercise great care. The men went at their work with both dili- gence and caution.
 In ion one of the bodies, that of 8 woman, a curious freak was revealed. The woman had worn a light chemise st the time of her death, and while her body was burned almost to 8 crisp, q little rim of flesh and chemise around her breast es- capped the flames. Nesting in this little nook that the fire passed over was tiny purse containing a twenty and ten dollar note. The body has not been iden- tifed.
 Fire Chief Bonner took charge of pull ing down the walls and recovering the dead early in the morning. Assistant Chiefs McCabe and Gicquel worked with him and gave him invaluable aid. Trucks II and 12 under command of Foremen Sullivan and Shaw, had their crews at work on the ruins throughout the day.
 Chief Bonner said early in the day that all the work that had been done up to that time was purely preliminary, and that he did not expect to get to the point where the true extent of the loss of life would be shown before late tonight. This preliminary work consisted in tearing down the walls and clearing out the cellar. It yves carried on with rapid ity and precision. Chief Bonner said, pointing to heap of bricks in the center | of the ruins: That is where l expect to find most of the bodies of those lost in the fire. am afraid there are not less than fifteen to twenty bodies under that pile of debris. That is the bottom of the Stairway, and that is where most of the people perished. l have talked with the employees of the house as we'll a the guests who escaped, ahd they all egree thAt the greatest loss of life must have occurred on the stairway.
 s'WhOn the alarm wAs given noge 0l the oerupantu cg the illsfsted he1el aat. | ugailT rnh for the ssBtgs, All e tAe | eegyiaprs gnaaated thafp end the crush e