Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-06-17
'SLOCUM WRECK DEAD
He'll Gate Disaster Grows In
Horror as Victims Appear.
DEATH LIST PUT At SEVEN HUNDRED
Boat Londs of Bodies Brought In.
HeartrendinG Scenes mt MOrgue,
where Men, Women and Little
Children Are Identified.


Where Men, Women and Little
Children Are Identified.
NEW YORK, June 1.-THE horror of
the Slocum disaster grows with each
hour. Instead of overestimating the
loss, as is, often the ease in such times
of great excitement, the extent of the
catastrophe was generally underesti-
mated. Even d1ow !. is impossible to
say what the number of the dead is.
With unccasing effort search is 60
ing on for the bodies of those who
persisted in the disaster. What the list
of victims will total scarce one dares
venture Il guess, but whatever the
number may be there is hardly a paral-
lei in the history of fires where death
came to so many in so brief Il period
of time.
Police and health department officials
have placed the number at n figure as
high as a thousand and more, but it
would seem that the maximum fatality
will not largely exceed 700.
There have been recovered 534 bod
les, for the great part women and chill
dren-mothers who weeks ago had
| planned that fatal outing for their
children; little ones who had longed
for the coming of that fair day.
Up to dusk 400 bodies had passed
through the morgue, and of these more
than 800 were identified. The east side
has its human sympathies. and down
| by the river, where the boats unloaded
their dead. thousands gathered
throughout the day. Streets leading
to the morgue We're blocked, and only
clear the passages leading to the long
rows of collins for those that came to
| search for the missing.
Up the sound, where the hull of the
| General Slocum lies submerged, show
ing only a paddle box, 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 they declared there
| were no more bodies in the wreck. a
| score of times a 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 in their arms two little girls-sis-
ters-clasped in each others embrace
| and their mother, it was thought,
whose dead hand tightly clutched 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
hull is raised or the waters of the
| sound wash away the last trace of the
| w~reckage.
Perhaps the most remarkable case
in the many appalling experiences of
those who were on the Slocum was
that of Miss Clara Hartman. who was
picked up for dead, lowed behind Il
boat for several miles, wrapped in a
tarpaulin and tagged as dead and then
recovered consciousness at the Alex
ander avenue police station. 1t is now
| believed she will recover.
Mayor Mcclellan has issued a proc
lamation to the citizens of New York
and appointed Il relief committee of
| prominent men, and relief will be sad
ly needed in that little east side ter
rltory which the vast majority of those
that persisted We're accustomed to call
home.
Mayor Mcclellan has received a ca
BILE from Sir Thomas Upton expressing
his sorrow and asking permission to
contribute $1,000. The mayor replied.
thanking Sir Thomas and assuring him
that New York will amply provide for
the afflicted.
The council Of Glasgow, Scotland,
sent a message of sympathy, as also
did the mayors of many other cities,
both in this country and in Europe.
Captain Van Schaick has stated that
his idea in running for North Brother
island was to get to shallow water,
where the people could wade ashore.
If they had waited, as did Van Schaick
| and his pilots, hundreds that lost
| their lives by jumping into the river
could have been saved 10y reaching the
beach. Van Schaick and Van Wart
and Weaver, the two pilots, landed i'll
| three feet of wntpr