The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1904-06-21
THE CHASTITY
HORROR CROWS
The Loss of Life i'm the SlOCum
Disaster
Will Reach 7OO--MOre Than 500 COrpses
Up to Last Night.

A.
ing effort, search is going on for the
bodies OF those who perished on the
General Slocum- What the list of the
victims viii total scarce one dare
guess. but whatever the number may
be there is hardly n parallel in the
history of disasters where death came
to so many in so brief a period OF
time
The police and health department
officials have placed the number at a
figure as high as 900 and more. but
1t would seem that the maximum IA
tality viii not largely exceed 200.
All OF yesterday from sunrise until
darkness shut of even the melancholy
satisfaction Of watching for the dead.
anxious searchers kept up their
eternl vigilance. and at dusk there
had been recovered $50 bodies. for the
greater part women and children
mothers who weeks ago had planned
that fatal outing for their children;
little ones who had longed for the
coming of the happy day. Up to dusk
499 bodies had passed through the
morgue, and of these more than 300
were identified.
The East Side has its human SYM
pathies aroused to the fullest extent
and down by the river. where the
boats unloaded their dead, thousands
gathered throughout the day. Streets
leading to the morgue were blocked,
and only with difficulty could the po-
lice keep clear the passages leading
to the long rows of collins for those
who came to search for the missing.
Up the Sound where the hulk of the
General Slocum lies submerged, show
| ing only a paddlebox, scores of small
craft aided the tugs in graphing for
the victims. Divers went down time
and time again, and when their work
ended for the day declared there were
no more bodies in the wreck. A score
of times diver reappeared after his
plunge, with the body of a woman or
a child. Two of them coming to the
surface together on one occasion had
on their arms two little girls-sisters
l-clasped in each others embrace and
their mother, it was thought. whose
dead hand tightly clenched the skirt
of one of them.
AS far as it was within their power,
the divers searched the wreck from
stem to stern, but there were masses
of broken timbers through which it
was almost impossible to explore, and
it may be that some will find a grave
under those sunken timbers until the
hulk is raised or the waters of the
Sound wash away the last trace of the
wreckage.
At this point the water is deep and
the currents are swift, and beyond a
doubt many have been borne along
with the tides, to be given up on a
later day at some distant point
There are a number of places where
the living may have landed, and II Is
believed that many that are now re-
ported missing are safe, and eventu.
ally will be heard from by the officials
who have the rescue work in hand
Indeed, last night surprising mum
lber of persons reported to these Of
ficials that they had been saved, thus
cutting the list of missing down con.
siderably as well as the probable NOR.
tality list
Perhaps the most remarkable case
in the many appalling experiences o.
those who were on the Slocum was
THAT of Miss Clara Hartman, who wa:
picked up for dead, towed behind {
boat for several miles, wrapped in ;
ltarpaulin and tagged as dead, anC
then recovered consciousness at a po
lice station. It is now believed she viii
recover.
Although many of the bodies takeI
! to the morgue were badly mutilateC
and the clothing in many cases almos
J entirely burned OF, valuables hav'
been taken from them and are in tn
keeping of city officials, to the exten
! | of S2OO, 900 or more. Several men an
, women had the savings Of a lifetim
on them when they perished. Mucl
jewelry, it is said to the police, ha
been lost, but an explanation may b
found in that it was destroyed by fir
rather than stolen by ghouls.
II Mayor Mcclellan issued a procla
nation yesterday to the citizens @
, New York and appointed a relief com
mittee of prominent men to receiv
contributions to fund to provide 70
the proper burial of the dead
The coroner's investigation to fl
the responsibility for the disaster wi
begin on Monday next. The feders
authorities as well as the district al
torney also will hold an investigation
and the Society for the Prevention c
| Cruelty to Children has signified ii
| intention to push the inquiry to th
q utmost