The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-12-28

with wives or daughters. or sons or
sweethearts missed them. Some tried to
fight their way back into the building,
calling aloud the names of the missing
ones.
Others ran about the street peering
intothe faces of every one they .met,
and beseeching those whom they knew
to tell them something about those who
were lost. Women ran here and there,
calling the names of their children.
rending their garments and beating their
breasts and calling out that the curse
of God was upon them. The confusion
on the outside of the building was as
not SO terrible 1t was light on the out
side. several electric lights making the
place almost as bright as day Inside
there were dim lights burning, just suffi-
cient to show how hideous the whole
catastrophe had been.
An alarm of fire had been turned in.
The police and firemen worked with
difficulty. and finally had 10 turn several
streams of water on the crowd to get it
sufficiently dispersed to enablee them TO
bring out the injured and the dead As
each body was Brought out the crowd
would push up around it and. almost
tear it away from the police and firemen
in the effort to see if it were that of
any person known to those about.
Fourteen of those taken out dead
were removed to the City Hospital, the
pathological room of which was made
the temporary resting place of the bod
ies Upon the etained oaken floor they
were laid side by side and subsequently
groups of anxious relatives of missing
persons were escorted along the line
with view of identifying the victims.
An elderly woman entered first. Eager
ly she scanned the faces, and with a
Shrek which penetrated into every
room of the hospital, she recognized
her son. She was gently led from the
room, wafling as though her heart
would break. Then came other couples
and groups with strained and anxious
faces. The distressing scenes continued
until after midnight when the bodies
were removed to the morgue. Eight
bodies were taken direct from the thea
tre to the morgue, and the same har-
rowing scenes had been enacted there.
Hundreds of men and women entered
the gloomy building to make hopeless
visit to the morgue meant that hope
was worse than dead. The cause of
the fearful disaster was the unwarrant-
finished the overture at a few minutes
past 8 o'clock. For some time the odor
Of Of the bnr and had gen han otieed bee
sent over the entire place trying to To-
cate It,. Hidden by the plastering on
the wall which separated the. column of
pipe which supplies gas to a number of
Jets in the upper part of the building.
This pipe had a loose connection and the
rr11y oe<ra<,r1t 1tv,rr fr0v, Z aT,1 on1
lected against the ceiling of the gallery.
When man in the gallery held light
up toward the ceiling it ignited the gas
puff" and a sheet of flame ran along
the ceiling for a little distance, but the
gas had such abundant means of escape
A thin stream OF. flame, however, con
tinued to issue from the wall ait the
point where the gas was escaping from
the pipe. It wouqd have taken long
trouble The flame resembled that made
by a lighted gas Jet without q tip: p.,a4.
of the escaped. gas which had collected
against the ceiling created some conster-
nation. Before those who had seen it
had recovered from their surprise some
one noticed the stream of flame issuing
from the leaky pipe in the wall, and not
knowing it's cause, supposed the building
fire.
Then came the panic.
This morning twenty-one bodies have
been identified. There are still two dead
children at the morgue awaiting identifi-
caItion-a girl about 16 years of age, and
a boy of about 8 years. Sarah Siegel
was taken from the theatre directly to
her home last night and died en- route.
At the City Hospital there are ten Sc
riously injured victims, three of whom
are in a critical condition. There are
possibly hundred others suffering from
bruises and broken bones who were re-
moved to their homes, and of whom little
or nothing is known by the police.
The corrected list of the dead, up to
Louis Amolsky, aged AZ years, saloon
keeper; leaves widow and thirteen chill
dren.
Gabriel Bernstein and Teresa Bern
stein. the four and six year old children
of Leopold Bernstein, saloon keeper at
No. 800 East Fayette street.
Leo Cohen 6 years of age.
Ida Friedman, IA years.
Jennie Henckel % years.
Morris Levenson, grocer, 80 years.
Lena Lewis, ~.
Morris Margolies, tailor, p.
Sarah Rosen. 16.
Jacob Rosenthal, 25.
Moses Salzberg, 40.
Katie SalIberg. ] years.
Sarah Single, Z years
Annie Naronbinski, years.
Joseph Loberwitz. II years.
Wolf Horwitz, tailor. 80 years.
Sarah Pollock, 45 years.
Two young men named Grewesky.
The bodies of the twodead children
who remained unidentified at the morgue
today were subsequently, identified as
Samuel and Rebecca Cramer. brother and
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