The San Francisco call., 1896-04-03
A Curious Mob Turn the Lugu-
brious Occasion Into a
Holiday.
THREE LITTLE WHITE coFF1Ns.
The Victims of the Recent Dreadful
Tragedy Will Be Cremated
Next Week.

There was but one actual mourner yes-
terday afternoon at the funeral of Mrs.
Olga Deuss and her three asphyxiated
babies.
There were nearly ten thousand people
in attendance at and about the Suhr un-
dertaking establishment and half that
number about the public receiving vault
in Odd Fellows Cemetery, where the four
victims of the late tragedy were received
to await the crematory process next week,
but they were not mOurners in the sad,
sentimental sense.
II. o. Deuss, the husband and father,
who, returning home last Tuesday morn.
ing few hours after kissing his wife and
babies fond good-by, found them all in
the cold embrace of death, was alone,
broken down In his sorrow and aged a
score of years since his sad bereavement.
All the other people, or at least the great
majority OF those crowded about the dead
ones, were there out of absolute morbid
curiosity. Women predominated. They
arrived as early as $50 in the morning,
before the mother and children We're
placed in their coffins. Some came with
their lunches tucked under their wraps
aho Slucliy hePt edcii OdUlcS
in the house of the dead, in the heavy
sultry air. laden with the sickiy perfume
of flowers and the fetid smell of an over
crowded apartment until the corpses were
removed to the hearses, and everything
being over, there was nothing more to see.
Sergeant Conboy, who had been de-
tailed by Chief Crowley to take charge of
the crowd, had Policemen Burke, H. IT.
Murphy, John O'Connor and Owen Cor
man to assist him. He and his men, when
it was all over, declared that never before
had they encountered such an unreason-
able mass of people. Well dressed and
apparently respectable women pushed and
showed, fought, scratched, pulled hair and
even swore in their efforts to crowd thou
sands into two rooms which, at best, could
accommodate but one hundred living peo-
pie and the four dead.
The funeral had been advertised for Q
o'clock in the afternoon. AT noontime
there were 1000 people fighting their way
into the establishment. An hour later the
housetops all along Mission street between
Eighth and Ninth were black with hui
manity. Windows in the different houses
and room on the stairways leading to the
street we're at premium. The sidewalks
no longer could be discerned and the
seething mass, jocular here and quarrel
some there, filled the street and impeded
the progress of the electric cars.
1t was a grand holiday for this crowd of
people, but inside, where his four loved
ones rested in their coffins, one mans
heart was racking with pain.
III II n ~.
father, was the only mourner, and it is a
sad commentary on the crowds of people
who suffered simple inconvenience through
their own massing that they could not
wait until the real picnic season for their
outing.
Mrs. Olga Deuss occupied black casket
in the center of the main parlor. At her
feet was the tiny white coffin of little Carl,
her 30-months-old boy. Gretchen, the
child whose eighth birthday would have
been yesterday, reposed in another white
coffin to the right Of her mother, while
her sister, little Fredda, only 5H years
old, was TO the left.
Flowersa They were everywhere. Large
set pieces sent by various and numerous
fraternai lodges in which the heart-b broken
Mr.. Deuss is interested. There were small
pieces and cut flowers in profuion.
A few nom ents before O'Clock the
police drove back the crowd on the side
walk in front OF the undertaking estab.
lishment. The people did not take we'll
to this, and many harsh and unseemly
words were cast back at the officers. But
they had to do it. Mr.. Deuss, the only
representative OF his family, had been
driven up in carriage and a passageway
had to be made for him to his darlings.
He was accompanied by his friends.
Frederick Hauser, w. Gerichten and H.
F. Fricke, who supported him physically
as we'll as morally in his aff1iction.
1t was found necessary to drive out some
of the curiously inclined to make room for
the new arrival and to furnish space in
which the simple funeral ceremony was
to be held.
President Gustav Liebold Of the German
Independent Congregation made a brief
address in German prior to the caskets
being carried to the hearses. He opened
by deprecating the poorness of language
that makes it impossible to wordpaint the
magnitude OF sorrow caused by an occur
renee such as had happened to darken the
life of his friend H. O. Deuss.
1.-THE unhappy husband and father"
continued the speaker went along
through life and tasted the joys of a happy
home to be found in a good wife and
lovely babies. Suddenly. like the awaken
ing from a pleasant dream to the hard
realities of life, he was called upon to
stand the most dreadful calamity that
has befallen any man in many years. Let
us hope that he will meet and bear with it
in fortitude."
The closing OF the address was quite
touching, causing nearly all the women in
the room to break out in tears, while the
unfortunate father sobbed out aloud. The
speaker compared the Deuss family to
beautiful rosebush with a full-blown rose
and three little buds. While in the heiaht
Of their beauty and fragrance terrific
storm swept down upon them, blighting
their lives and only leaving behind the old
stalk to mourn alone for its ones that
were lost.
At the close of the address the coffins
were carried to the two hearses. Mrs.
Deuss and Gretchen were placed in black