The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-18


were allowed to enter at time and
as they thinned out. some with their
fears turned to terrible certainty as
they had come face to face with the
cold forms of their loved ones, and
others, reused to faint hopes by their
failure to find what they dreaded, they
were gently shown out into the street
and another party admitted to under
go the heart-rending ordeal.
At one time at least fifteen hun
dred people were in the long line
awaiting admittance, besides the hun
dreds of morbidly curious persons,
who lined the adjacent streets.
Despite the many curious ones the
crowd was a reverent one. Often as
the groups standing in 26th street
stood and talked in low tones of the
catastrophe, from the interior of the
pier shed would come a despairing
cry which told that some one else i'm
the silent rows of bodies had been
identified.
Brought Home by the Tide.
Another one" the crowd would
murmur, and there would be specula-
lions among the subdued groups as to
whether it was father or mother or
daughter or son.
This evening the body of a girl of
eight years which was declared by
neighbors to be that of the little
daughter of Henry Heinz, of Front
street, was washed up against the side
of pier at the foot of Clinton street
in the East River hardly a block
away from the girls home. The tide
by strange vagary had carried the
little body from the scene of the ca
lamity.. of North Brother Island down
through the narrow channels OF the
river to this point so near her home
The girls mother, Mrs. Annie Heinz, L.
among the dead.
Engineer i'm Hiding.
Information was received at the
District Attorneys office this afternoon
that Engineer Conklin, who was said
to have persisted in the disaster, is
alive and in hiding. County detectives
under the direction of Assistant Dis
trict Attorney Caravan, are now look
ing for him. 1t was thought that he
had gone to his home in Catskill.
Henry HeintZ, twelve-years-old, who
lost his mother, his aunt Hannah Lud-
ermann and his sister Louise, is dumb
because of the ordeal he went through.
He and his brother George were saved.
They stood in the middle deck until it
became too hot when they jumped in
to the water. Henry held on to the
paddle wheel and was rescued by men
in a tug. When he recovered from
the first great shock he could not
speak. George declares his mothers
and aunt's bodies were robbed of dia-
monds and jewelry. He said his moth
ed had q valuable diamond brooch
and his aunt two diamond rings all of
which We're missing after their bodies
were found.
Grim Harvest at Slack Tide.
When the tide turned and began to
fall about $3.50 O'Clock this afternoon,
the current slackened so that additions
could be made safely to the searching
party. Sixteen boats We're about the
sunken steamer at this time and the
result was that in less than half an
hour twelve more bodies were recov-
cred off the beach and one from the
wreck itself.
At the last low tide tonight twenty
five bodies were recovered near the
wreck of the Siocum. One of these
bodies was that of a woman about
forty years of age. Around her neck
was what looked like a life preserver
covering. Coroner O'Gorman says he
found a quantity of pulverized cork
inside the womanS waist. He thinks
she tried to save her life by donning
the DreServer and that it went to
pieces. When Coroner O'Gorman
discovered the cork, he said:
81 may use this in fixing the blame
for the death of this woman when her
body is identified. She had been cool
enugh to put on the life preserver, and
had it been nj good condition she
might have had a chance for life"
Fully 80 per cent of the victims of
the disaster were insured in the three
leading insurance companies handling
what is called industrial insurance.
SchaiclS on the Life Preservers.
Captain William H. Van Schaick. of
the SIocum, who is in Lebanon Hos
pital, told something of the disaster
to Samuel MARY. one of the inspectors
of the institution today. According to
Mr.. Marx, the'lif preServerS had been
regularly inspected by the proper au-
thorities in the spring of the present
wear, and only one had been con-
demned as bad. Van Schaick, Mr..
Marx said, told him that all the pre-
servers were on the hurricane deck.
Mr. Marx said that Van Schaick told
him that his idea in running to North
Brother Island was to get IN shallow
water, where the people could wade
ashore. If they had waited. as did
Van Schaick and his pilots, hundreds
that had lost their lives by jumping
into the river could have been saved
by reaching the beach. Captain van
Schaick and Pilots Van Wart and
Weaver landed in three feet of water.
But the Lips Were Dumb and Cold
Jacob Michsel, identified the body of
his daughter Carrie, twelve-years-old,
late in the afternoon.
He wa sslowly walking along the
line of collins when he suddenly halted
and with a moan, fell to his knees In
several inches of water, and reaching
into a coffin, raised the head of q child
and began to kiss the cold lips fer
vently.
Earlier in the DAY the man had been
to the morgue and identified the
charred body of his married daughter.
Mrs. Catherine Cohrs, and that of his
year-old grandson. The bodies of his
daughter and grandson had been
burned almost beyond recognition but
Michsel did not seem to be as much
affected by that awful sight as he was
,S.AF