Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-08-17

1t Is long since this country has had
to face the shock of disaster SO ap-
palling in the loss of life and so de
structive of property as the great fire
at the Hoboken docks of the North
German Lloyd Steamship Company
Hundreds of lives lost by fire or water.
the hospitals crowded with other hun
dreds of injured, great docks and three
big Atlantic steamers burned to the
waters edge and many millions of dol
lars worth of property destroyed by
the fiames make a catalogue of horror
grlevous to record. In it's grewSomely
spectacular quality the disaster is
without II parallel. On the west bank
OF the North river, just opposite the
most crowded part of lower New York,
the great fire burned the lives out of
helpless men and women by the score
In full view of thousands of spectators
who were powerless to aid them. AL
ways there seems peculiar irony in
the destruction of ship and the loss OF
life of its crew and passengers by fire.
The first thought is that the very prox-
unity of Il limitleSs supply of water
ought to act in some way as saving
element, and yet even here, where ev-
cry means of protection was at hand,
with all the tireboats of New York at
prompt command and the supposedly
perfect appliances for fighting fire on
the docks and the steamers themselves.
where fire drills are practiced with reg
ularity, the flames had their own way
virtually unchecked. With scores of
ferries, tugbOats and other harboT
craft lowering about the burning docks.
little could be done to save life Three
steamers Main, the Saale and the
Bremen-wcre burned. The splendid
new Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse, sec
ond of I'LL steamers on the Atlantic,
narrowly escaped destruction, suffer
ing considerable damage. Great docks
ana warehouses, valuable cargOcS and
freight in storage or ready for ship
mcnt, went up In flames. Lighters and
hargcS by the dozen We're destroyed
and are hardly enumerated, so hidden
Is that smaller loss in the greater. The
North German Lloyd Steamship Com.
pany has endured II blow which might
disable Il weaker corporation. Yet ali
these things are overShadowcd by the
tales of suffering and death. The Main.
burning ut the pier and Smothcring i'm
prisonrd men who We're helpless even
Ia fight for life, seventeen of them
saved after hours of torture in the low.
est coal bunker, where they baked as in
II furnace. the Saalc. drifting down
with the current To he bcachcd on
'ommuntpaw flats, where the tide rose
and poured through the lower port
hole, drowning the helpless men and
women who had their faces turned to.
ward the sky and liberty. So CLOSE IL
the men who sought To rescue them
that they could he given water tc
drink. Yet pemned in by the stubborn
steel plates that formed the side of the
ship; the Bremen, towed M the river
and left a hulk so hot that no ont
could examine IL 10 see how many
bodies it would yield. and the host OF
men and women driven from the YES.
sells 10y the flames who found refuge
and death In the strcam--these are but
part of the horrors There is one
bright spot in the painful story. We
are told of instances of courage among
the dying and of persistent effort to
save life, Always brave men appear
in such dreadful scenes to call atten.
tion more emphatlcally to the sad
waste of valuable lives In e hopeless sit.
! uation.