Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-06-17
SLOCUM WRECK DEAD
He'll Gate Disaster Grows Tn Horror as Victims Appear.
DEATH LIST PUT AT SEVEN HUNDRED
Boat Loads of Bodies Brought Tn. Heartrending Scenes nt MorEue, Where Men, Women and Little
 Children Are Identified.

Where Men, Women and A1ttAG
 Children Are Identified.
 NEW YORK, June 17.-The horror of the Slocum disaster grows with each hour. Instead of overestimating the loss, as is often the case in such times of great excitement, the extent of the catastrophe was generally underesti- mated. Even now it is~impossible to say what the number of the dead is.
 With unceasing effort search is go- ing on for the bodies of those who perished in the disaster. What the list of victims will total scarce one dares venture a guess, but whatever the number may be there is hardly paral- Tel in the history of fires where death came to so many in so brief period of time.
 Police and health department officials have placed the number at figure as high as a thousand and more, but 1t would seem that the ma1Amum fatality will not largely exceed TOO.
 There have been recovered 534 bod ies, for the great part women and chil- dren-mothers who weeks ago had planned that fatal outing for their CQllOTAuI IlIIlc OuS6 WAO hdu AOh61o for the coming of that fair 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 sympathies, 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 police keep clear the passages leading to the long rows of coff1ns 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 grappling 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 wreckage.
 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 1 picked up for dead, lowed behind a boat for several miles, wrapped in a tarpauhn and tagged as dead and then recovered consciousness at the Alex ander avenue police station. It is now believed she will recover.
 Mayor Mcclellan has issued a proc lamation to the citizens of New York and appointed relief committee of l prominent men, and relief will be sad ! ly needed in that little east side ter ritory which the vast majority of those LAdE pGrlSuSu were ACCuSlO0GO lO CuAi home
 Mayor Mcclellan has received ca. ble from Sir Thomas Lipton expressing his sorrow and asking permission tc contribute S1 ,000. The mayor replied thanking Sir Thomas and assuring him that New York will amply provide fol the afflicted
 The council of Glasgow, Scotland sent message of sympathy, as alst did the mayors of many other cities both in this country and in Europe.
 Captain Van Scbaick has stated thai 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 Schaicl and his pilots, hundreds that los their lives by jumping into the river could have been saved by reaching thu beach. Van Schaick and Van War and Weaver. the two pilots, landed 1T three feet of water.