The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-31
PITIFUL SCENES At THE
MORGUES List NIGHT

CHICAGO, Dec. 3O.-All night long grief
stricken friends and relatives of missing
persons besieged the morgues, where the
dead had been carried awaiting identifca-
ton. Hundreds of men and women waited
in long lines for hours to finally lose their
patience and demand admittance. For
every single person who was allowed to
enter the death rooms a score of persons
were ordered away
After waiting for several hours in front
of Jordan & Co.'S Undertaking establish
ment, in Madison street, the crowd of
rnourners. consisting of over 1000 persons,
became impatient and IL took the united
efforts of twenty policemen, who were
guarding the place, TO quiet the dissatis-
fled ones. The aisleS between the piles OF
dead in the place were already filled with
persons and it was impossible for those
outside to enter until those already inside
charge Of the line of waiting persons,
which extended west in Madison street for
several blocks, tried to explain the siena-
ton, but the excited fathers and husbands
and mothers who were anxious about their
relatives and friends refused to be paci-
fed
Finally, about midnight a little woman
dressed in black broke from the lines, after
having waited all evening for a chance to
enter the morgue. She rushed TO the door
of the undertaking establishment, and as
she was pushed back Dy the pOlcennen eA-
claimed: My boy is in there. You have
no right to keep me from him. must nave
him, and will not 60 home without seeing
him"
Then the woman rushed toward the door
again, not knowing what she was doing,
but before she could reach it fell fainting
into the arms of a big policeman.
At ROlStOn's mOrgue, Y Adams street,
where nearly $50 bodies lay awaiting identi-
fication, the scenes were unusually dra-
matte. There were thousands OF people IN
the crowd in front of the place, and it was
with the greatest difficulty that the police
were able to control the situation, anX-
cus were the grief-stricken people TO gain
admittance to ascertain if their loved ones
had fallen victims to the awful disaster.
At dozens of other places in the city
where the dead had been carried the same
scenes were enacted.
Never was there buster night in Chicago
than this one. All night long hundreds of
ton and the hospitals and the morgue, first
TO one then to the other, then back again,
seeking news of missing friends and rela-
tives, and trying to identify the dead. AT
the central police station, within one and
one-half squares from the theater, dozen
policemen were kept busy all night taking
names and descriptions of missing people.
In the squadron of the station the lists
of injured received from hospitals and from
police stations were read to the crowd. The
throngs were silent while the names were
read except for an occasional outbreak of
sobbing as some one recognized in the de-
ScriptiOn of severe INJURY or death the
name of a friend or relative. The hospitals
were all night long beseged by callers and
eager questioners over the telephone. In
spite of all this the work of identification
went on but slowly, and at O'Clock this
morning approximately one-fifth of the
dertakers had been recognized by their