The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-06-21

New Yor, June 16.-With u~nceasing
effort search is going on for the bodies
of those who persisted yesterday on
the General Slocum. What the list
of victims will total scarcely one
dares to venture a guess. but what
ever the number may be, there is
hardly a parallel in the history of
disasters where death came to SO
many in so brief Il period of time.
Police and health department Off
Gals have placed the number at a
figure as high as one thousand and
more, but tonight it would seem that
the maximum fatality will not largely
exceed seven hundred.
At dusk there had been recovered
$50 bodies, for the great 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. SsiE
Up to dusk, 499 bodies had passed
through the morgue, and of these
more than three hundred were iden-
tilted. The east side has it's human
sympathies aroused to the fullest eX-
Vent, n down by the river, where
the boats unloaded their dead, nous
ands gathered throughout the day.
. Streets leading to the morgue were
Unlocked, and only with difficulty
could the police keep clear the pas
sages leading TO the long rows of
collins. for those who came to search
for the missing.
Up the sound, where the hulk of
the Genera Slocum lies submerged,
showing only a paddle-box. scores of
small craft aided the tugs in Crap
ping 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 div
er re-appeared after his plunge, with
the b0dy of a woman or a child. Two
OF them coming to the surface togeth-
er OF one occasion had in their arms
two little Observation-Disclosures in
each others embrace. and their moth
er, it was thought, with her LEI
hand tightly clinching the skirt of II
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 te 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 away the last trace
of the W~reckage.
At this point the water is deep and
the currents are swift. and beyond
a doubt many may 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 it is
believed that many now reported miss
ing are safe, and eventually will be
heard from by the officials who have
|. the rescue work in hand. Indeed to-
night a surprising number of persons
reported to these officials that they
had been saved, thus cutting the list
0Nf missing down considerably, as well
Vas the probable mortality list.
Many persons were injured in the
panic that followed the breaking out
of flames on the General Siocum, and
at least 200. persons were taken to
the hospitals. Not a death has oc-
CURED so far among these, and many
have already been discharged.
Perhaps the most remarkable case
In the many appalling experiences of
hose who were on the Slocum was
that of Miss Hartman, who was picked
up for dead, towed behind a boat for
several miles, wrapped in a tarpolin
and tagged as dead, and then recov-
cred consciousness, at the Alexander
avenue police station. It is now be-
Iieved n will recover.
Although many of the bodies TAX
en to the morgue were very badly
mutilated, and the clothing in many
cases almost entirely urned OFF,
v~aluables have been taken from them
and are in the keeping Of the city off,
Gals, to the extent of $4,000 or
more. Several of the men n wo-
men had the savings of a lifetime on
them when they persisted. Much
jewelry, it is reported to the police,
has been lost, but an explanation may
be found in the fact that it was de-
stroyed in the fire rather than stolen
by ghouls.
Mayor Mcclellan today, after re-
ceiving messages of coincidence from
many sources, visited North Brother
Island, and later visited the morgue.
He issued a proclamation to the citi-
Zens of New York and appointed a
relief committee of prominent men,
and relief will be sadly needed in that
Iittle east side territory. which the
Vast majority of those that persisted
were accustomed to call home.
The c%oroner's investigation to fix
the responsibility of the disaster, will
begin on Monday next. The Federal