Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1901-05-31
SEVEN DROWNED.
Merrymakers' Boat Went Over
a Sehuylhill River
Dam.
ONE OF THE PARTY SAVED.
Five Girls Didn't Rise to Surface.
One Boy Tried to Swim Ashore, but
Stakeholder Boy clune to Boat In
til Rescued.

Philadelphia, May 3l.-A row BOAT
containing a merry party of eight
young persons was swept over Flat
Rock dam, in the Sehuylkill river,
and seven of them, five girls and two
boys, were drowned. The victims, all
of whom were Philadelphians, were:
Maize Kennedy, Is.
Maud Rutter, 10.
Mamie Sullivan, Il.
Florence Bend, 81.
Bertram Osmond, 10.
Roy Kicker, is.
Florence Densmore, 10.
The young man saved Is john
Moore, aged II years. The party were
members of the Elm Social club, one
of the numerous associations in this
city organized for the promotion of
picnics and other social functions.
They were attending picnic at Rose
Glen, along the Sehuylkill river, on
the northern outskirts of the city.
They went rowing on the river.
Current Swifter Than Usual.
Heavy rains during the past week
had made the muddy stream quite
high, and the current was much
swifter than usual. However, the I'M
fortunate party Immediately struck
out Tor midstream. All the girls were
huddled in the stern, one OF the boys
was rowing and the other was sitting.
on the bow OF the boat. After getting
in the middle of the river and iinding
the current too swift for comfort the
boat was rowed In towards shore.
During this time it was carried slowly
down stream. The boy doing the
rowing decided to go through the
locks, and as he approached the dam
he was hailed by the lock keeper not
to approach any closer. The warning
was not needed, and the young oars
man kept on rowing until he found
that the lock was closed. He at
tempted to turn the boat, which was
then about so feet from the dam and
two feet from shore, but he turned the
wrong way. moment later and the
boat was in the swiftly moving cur
rent. Realizing then for the first time
that they were in danger, the girls
began screaming and the man at the
oars lost control of the boat. Swiftly
1T was carried toward the brink of
the falling waters, and Just as It
reached the breast of the dam, over
which about 80 inches of water was
PeSolhSo, tHC SnLiI z GlSuL SJOOu up ana
the boat went over stern first.
The drop to the rocks below is an.
proximately about IL feet. The boat
struck the water bottom up, and as it
disappeared the whole party was un-
der 1t. Nothing more was seen by
the few spectators who saw the ac-
cident for almost a minute, when the
boat reappeared with one boy cling
ing to its keel. Then the other young
man was seen to come to the surface
and make a frantic effort to reach
shore by swimming. The six girls
never rose to the surface.
Only One Was Saved.
The boy who was swimming, and
who proved to be Osmond. became ex-
hausted and sank before he could b.
rescued. Moore the other boy. who
was clinging to the boat, foated about
a half mile down the river and his
rescuers had an exciting time before
they landed him in another boat. He
was greatly exhausted and was slight
ly injured by the falling of the boat.
Every effort was made to rescue the
girls, but 1t was impossible to get
them alive in the rushing waters. I'D
to a late hour last night none of the
bodies of the victims had been recoy-
cred