The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-06-16

THE N
shore, and to prevent thieving, DR..
Watson stationed a number Of attend
ants to guard the dead. A big man
was seen to stoop down and try to un-
chain a gold watch from the waist Of
one of the dead women. A couple Of
| the attendants started for him and he
ran away without the booty. In the
excitement he managed to escape.
| Survivors Cared For.
/ The injured survivors were quickly
| cared for. AS soon as they were able
to be moved they We're put on board
the Massasoit or the Franklin Edison
and taken over to the pier at the foot
| of One Hundred and Thirty-eigh
street.
These boatloads Of people present
ed a pathetic spectacle. Nearly all Of
them were more or less scorched or
burned. They We're all dripping wet.
Little children bereft Of mothers
| fathers and all other relatives were
landed at the pier dazed and alone.
| These little ones were cared for by
the police. They were put in patrol
wagons, grocery wagons, ambulances
| and other vehicles and hurried over
| to the hospitals and station houses
| The spectacle of rows upon rows of
dead women and children lying on the
sand, in the grass and in the shade OF
terrific one. The great number Of
| dead children, some of them babies Of
i and 2 years, all dressed in holiday
Hnery, was most pathetic feature.
| Several ministers and priests came
over to the island as soon as they
learned Of the catastrophe, but there
was little they could do but comfort
the survivors who had lost relatives.
Practically every one Of the sur
v1vors had been bereft Of parents or
children or sisters or brothers. Their
cries Of distress added to the pathos
OF the scene. Mothers with scorched
faces, or cuts and wounds, their gar
ments ufsheveled, ran about screaming
requests that their children be found
Few Had Life Preservers. u
OF the great number Of victims of
the General Slocum that were brought
into North Brother Island, a most
i careful search disclosed but twelve
that had life preservers on them and
these were apparently of such a
worthless character that Assistant Dis.
tf1ct Attorney Garvin who went to the
island to make an investigations,
packed them away to be used in an
investigation, which will undoubtedly
4 be instituted.
The life preservers were apparently
OF the cheapest possible construction.
The better grades are made of solid
blocks of cork, fastened in separate
canvas compartments. The cheap
grade, with which the General Slocum
was provided, are simply number of
canvas sacks, sewed together and filled
with pulverized cork. They have very
little buoyancy, and when they be-
come waterlogged would hardly sup
port the weight Of a child. The ap-
planes that came ashore at North.
Brother island were attached to chill
dren.
!. Worked Thru the Night
All thru the night and to-day men
IN diving suits, others with graphing
hooks in their hands, stodo on the
decks of the tugs which lowered about
the sunken wreck Of the .Slocurn
Now and then a man in one of the
weird-looking suits would slip over
the side of tug and sink to the bot
tom. Then another diver would ap-
!, pear on the surface. Probably he
had come to the surface for rest and
air or perhaps he held the body Of a.
woman or of a child in his rubber
: coated arms. The chances were that
he had come up with the dead.
. AS a, diver would bring a body to-
the surface a graphing hook was
placed under it and it was raised to
the deck of a tug. Some of these
bodies were beyond recognition. When
.
tug from which divers were not work
Ing would pull alongside and transfer
the dead.
How many dead lie in that charred
and sunken hull cannot. ever be esti-
mated until every nook and corner Of
the shell has been gone over by the
divers.
At sunrise to-day two divers came
to the surface. In the arms of one
were two little girls clasped in each
Others the oo arms: t Their hair was the
alike, showing that they were sisters
i The other diver had in his arms the
body of young women which had
been found with those of the little
girls. In her dead hand was still
clasped the dress of one Of the chill
dren and the divers thought she was
their mother and had gone to death
with them.
:, Alive i'm Heaps of Dead.
: AS the procession of ambulances
and patrol wagons brought their dead
to the Alexander avenue station the
bodies were carried on stretchers into
; a rear room and placed in a long line
on the floor. Among the bodies was
: that of girl of about 20 years.
She had been hauled ashore by the
? police patrol boat on North Brother
island with scores Of others. There
: she was tagged as dead and marked
t for Identification.
$ A woman who was assisting the po-
/ lice in the work Of Identification
: started back as she reached the BODY
e Of the girl.
i why, this girl seems to be alive; !
J. just saw her hand move" she said
/ An ambulance surgeon made a
i hasty examination, and said that there
y was still faint spark of life The
t girl was hurried to the Lincoln hos
4 After mr.
: had worked over her there for half an
o hour she was restored to conscious
g ness. She had been slightly burned
h before she jumped overheard, but
= could remember nothing of the awful
d events Of the day. She said she was
II Clara Hartman.
!. INQUIRY rs ORnERE,D