The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-07
WOMEN KILLED BY MADDENED MEN
They Were Stabbed Like Sheep by the Cowardy
Murdered Fight Safety-Crew Joined
the Emigrants in the Struggle Boats.

passengers allowed to get into them.
but as the steamer began to settle and
list to port the officers lost control of
the crew and a panic ensued. Pas
sengers and crew fought for the boats
and life RATS. The strong battered
down the weak, the women and children
being pushed far away from any hope
of rescue. Fists, oars and even knives
were used by some of the demons to
keep their places. The officers seemed
to have been powerless over their own
men, and only four were saved. The
fight for live on the decks of the steam
er did not last long, for in little more
than a half hour she gave a long lurch
to port and went down. AS she sank
beneath the surface the vortex of the
water sucked down everything on the
surface within a certain radius. When
the suction ceased those still alive saw
about 200 bodies come out of the water
with rush as if the sea were giving
up the dead after having swallowed the
ship.
But the struggle for life still con-
Nihutu dlbti lht snip went uONH.
dreds still fioated about, grasping for
RATS, boats and wreckage in frantic
endeavor to keep above water. Even
then many of those in the boats. IL the
stories told are to be believed, showed
their brutality by beating off those
who attempted to climb aboard.
BY this time the small boats of the
Cromartyshire had come up and the
work of rescue began. The crew IF
the ship worked heroically and saved
every one who had managed to keep
above water, but even then scores fell
away from the boats, RATS and
wreckage, exhausted and were
drowned.
1t was all over in an hour, although
for some time after great pieces of
wreckage came shooting up from the
bottom, marking the spot where the
great liner had gone down. But little
attempt was made to recover the bod
les of any of the ill-fated passengers
and crew. and the battered hulk at
the bottom of the ocean will probably
be their tomb
In the afternoon the steamer Gre
clan was sighted coming from the
westward. and a few hours afterward
the Cromartyshire was In tow and ar
rived here this morning.
Only One Woman Saved.
Strangely enough, Mr.. Lacasse is the
only man of the saloon and cabin pas
sengers who survived, while his wife is
the only woman of 200, not only of the
first saloon cabin. but of the whole ship,
who escaped. Mrs. Lacasse was reused
from her berth by her husband, who
was on deck at the time of the col
lision. When she reached the deck of
the listing steamship she saw the cap
tain of the steamer on the bridge and
some of the officers at other points en-
deavoring to direct the efforts of the
crew to launch the boats. There was
little response to the orders of the Off
GERS. The crew seemed paralyzed. Mat
ters were quiet. and there was no panic
at first, though the decks were becom-
ing more and more crowded with
frightened people. The steamer was
listing and settling. and then a wild
fear seized on the throng, and the peo-
pie lost their reason.
Mrs. Lacasse was separated from
her husband in the scramble and the
steamer listed so badly that she slid
down the declivity ana into the water.
She had taken the precaution at her
a nn q %
belt before leaving her state room, and
shortly after being thrown into the sea
she was seized by the arm and drawn
onto the life raft. Her savior was her
husband. A moment later the ill-fated
steamer disappeared and a whirlpool
craft had been. Everybody around
the vortex was drawn into it. The
water rushed around, faster and fast
er, and the unfortunates disappeared
with despairing cries.
Mrs. Lacasse had been on the edge
ing her threw her outside the whirl-
pool. and the next she knew she was
on the life raft. A boat containing 40
women was capsized and all went down
in the whirlpool There was not one
man in this boat and it was left fast
10 the davits. Some of the women
were trying to cut the ropes when the
steamer careened and capsized the
boat.
Mrs. Lacasse says that a moment
after the steamer WAS engulfed men
women and children rose on every side