Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1900-07-04
Hundreds of Lives i'm Peril.
LOSS OF LIFE Is VERY GREAT.
- Most A gonizing Scenes Witnessed by Those
Who Could Not Rescue.

2 Most A gonizins Scenes Witnessed by Those
Who Could Not Rescue.
Men working in the holds of the
four steamships were shut in by walls
of fame and it was impossible to
reach them. 1t probably never will
be known how many men persisted in
tn eship, as the flames were so fierce
they would leave but few if any rem
nants of the human body. The great
est loss of life appears to have been
on the Saale. She carried $50 people
and was to have sailed for Boston Sat-
urday afternoon. When the police boat
captain went aboard of her with his
rescue party he saw bodies lying all
about the deck. The steamship Bre-
men carried a crew of 300 men, the
Main $50, and if as many lives were
lost on the Bremen and Main as on the
Saale the number of lives lost will be
very great. Then also many parished
on the piers, the canal boats and
lighters.
A member of the crew of the fire.
boat Van Wyck said: 1.-THE fire made
It impossible to get to the steerage of
the Saale. We tried next to get the
people out through the port holes.
There seemed to be forty orififty of
them. There were men, women and
children. One woman in particular
attracted our attention. She kept call.
ing to the others not to give up hope,
that we would save them. Her face
was torn and bruised where she had
been trying to get out of the small
port hole.
Finding it impossible to get the
poor people out we handed cups Of
water to some Of them, who cried for
a drink for Gods sake. Just before
the ship went down a tug drew along
side with a Roman Catholic priest
aboard. He called to the people, who
seemed to be mostly of his faith, and
with uplifted hands impaired absolu-
ton to them just as the ship sank and
the water, rushing in at the port holes
drowned them~like rats. The cries of
the people as the water poured in was
something indescribable."
Ruins Still Smoldering,
The ruins of the burned piers at Ho-
b0ken are still smoldering and the
debris is too hot to be handled. The
bulkheads are choked up with huge
masses of twisted iron and heavy TIM
bers. 1t will require several days to
remove this debris. At police head
quarters in Hoboken, up to 10 o'clock
Monday morning, inquiries had been
made for thirty-two persons missing.
At st. Mary's hospital, HOboken, it
was stated that all Of the forty-eight
fire patients. i'm that institution We're
doing well, with one exception, VIII
helm Rust, "a years old, sailor on
the Saale, who was terribly burned
all over the body and no hope is en-
tertained for his recovery.
The North German Lloyd steamship
company, notified Coroner HOFFMAN,
of Hoboken to see that all of the I'M
identified and unclaimed dead have
respectable burial at the expense of the
company. Accordingly, Coroner Hoff-
mann Is making arrangements to have
all the bodies In the New York morgue
taken to HobOken. Hekhas not yet
arranged the details for the burial Of
the remains. In many cases the vic
TINS bodies have been burned and
charred In such horrible manner as
to be beyond recognition. These will
be buried first. Those that may be
identified Will be kept a reasonable
time with the hope that the bodies
will be claimed by friends.