The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-07-06
200 PERSONS PERISH
Hospitals in Three Cities Crowded
With Injured.
Four Grent ships Destroyed by Fire-One
of the Ships Carried 400 People and
Was Ready to Sail-Property
Loss SIO,OOO,OOO.

/
NEW YORK, June 3O.-Almost SIC, 000,-
900 worth of property was destroyed,
many lives were lost, many persons
were injured and at least 1900 lives
were imperiled by fire that started
among cotton bales under pier of the
North German Lloyd Steamship Com
pany in Hoboken at o'clock. In less
than IS minutes the flames covered an
area of quarter of a mile long, ex-
tending outward from the actual shore
line to the bulkheads, from 600 to ], 200
feet away, and had ignited four great
ocean liners and dozen or more smaller
harbor craft in its grasp.
Stories in regard TO the loss of life are
conflicting, the number being variously
estimated at from so to 200. Twenty
five bodies have been recovered, but
they are so badly burned that ldentifca-
tion is impossible.
While the fire was still burning the
work of relief was begun. Men came
to the Office of the North German Lloyd
line almost naked and with their cloth
ing ruined by the salt water. Men who
had been treated by doctors, but who
were not sufficiently injured as to be
taken to hospitals, also gathered at the
ofice. Every man was given money
and clothing and taken to a temporary
lodging house. The sailors from the
ships lost absolutely everything they
possessed. Fully so per cent. of the
sailors are Germans who have no home
and no relatives in this country. Most
them lived in Germany.
NEW YORK, July 1.-The losses sus-
tanned in the fire at the docks of the
North German Lloyd Steamship Com
pany at Hoboken yesterday are tonight
cOnservatively placed at $40, 900, 900.
The loss of life, while merely guess
work at even this late hour, will proba-
bly, reach as high as 200, and there are
more than 800 men in the hospitals in
this city, HOboken and Jersey City
badly burned.
The scene of the great fire today pre-
sented a spectacular but horrible sight.
Over in Hoboken, where two days ago
piers reached hundreds of feet out into
the river and rising in the air like great
hills, stood, alive with outgoing and in.
coming commerce, a great waste of
burning and smouldering beams, with
here and there a remnant of high brick
wall, all that remains of the thousands
of dollars worth of property. Four
large storehOuses of the Palmer Camp
bell Company were wrecked, and they,
with the piers, go to make up the ap.
palling mass of debris that lies smolc.
ing, Sizing and steaming across North
river. 1t covers over four city blocks
and reaches out into the river for more
than thousand feet.
Scenes That Were sickening.
The freboat Robert A. Van Wyck,
which arrived on the scene first among
the river fre-fghting craft, presented
picture of horror and ghastliness as
she lay at her dock in the East river
today. The docks were covered with
cotton, saturated with the blood of the
victims rescued by the brave men
aboard.
Pieces of human skin clung to the
the iremen of the day previous was
brought again to eyes and memories
which sought to forget the horrible
spectacle. Lieut.. McGinnis said:
81 should say there were passengers
aboard the Saale. They looked like
passengers and surely were not mem.
bers of the crew. They were locked
in 1f
securely as ever a convict was i'm.
prisoned in cell. There was no escape |
for them after the vessel began to take
water. We got thirty out of there
while we were allowed to work from !
the dock. 1t was then that we wit |
messed the awful sight of human agony. |
IA hundred arms with the flesh torn
from them and blackened with smoke, |
protruded from the small port holes, |
which were but a foot or less in dame
ter. If these port holes had been larger, |
sufficient to admit the passage of hu.
man body, the rescues would have been |
many more in number than they were. |
The thirty men we rescued were raving |
maniacs when we got them aboard |
They could not realize that they had |
escaped the horrible death that threat |
ened them but few minutes before. |
In their delirium they fought each
other after they were rescued.
The most agonizing sight L witnessed
was that of woman who was burned. |
We could see her face and arms as she
reached out and got handful of water,
with which she washed her face seek.
ing to cool it and gain relief from the
terrible heat. She never once uttered |
a scream. We passed her cup of water.
She grab bed it eagerly and drank it. She
could not speak English but murmured
in foreign tongue and in tone which
denoted that she was pray
ing. We spoke words of cheer to her.
The boat gave lurch, water filed the
which she was in, and she
sank from our sight and we saw her NO
more"