Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-06-24

is identified. She had been cool
enough to put on the life preserver,
and had it been IL good condition
she might have had chance for
life"
A searching inquiry will be made
by Secretary of the Department of
Commerce aud Labor Cortelyou and
ne says every responsibility will be
placed and absolutely none evaded.
Experts in admiralty jurisprudence
agree that if the life preservers were
rotten, the fire apparatus useless or
defective, then the negligence of the
company is proven and its liability
unquestioned for damages in any
sum jury may fix.
If Captain Van Schaik made a
mistake in not promptly beaching his
boat, he has lifetime in which to
be sorry for it. He says pathetically
in his bed in the hospital where he is
under arrest: 81 did all could. If
l was wrong [ cannot help it; but"
and here the aged, gray-haired officer
grasped the reporter by the arm to
emphasize his words, "l did what |
thought best under the circum-
stances"
Few there are in New York to-
night, even among those who blame
him, but admit that Captain Van
Schaik proved himself man among
men. With his chief pilot he clung
to the wheel until it smoked in both
their hands and the pilot house
around them was afire, and not until
his craft was beached did he Jump
into the water to save himself. He
says he did his best and he will be
believed by all fair-minded men
until the contrary is proven beyond
the shadow of doubt.
Revised figures, gathered from the
police and at the morgue, give the
following results:
Total number of dead bodies recovered 7s5
Total number identified 52I
Persons SILL missing ;iiJ
Hearses and carriages from all over
Greater New York we're collected in
the stricken district, and the supply
for funeral purposes fell far short.
Divers are still at work bringing
up missing bodies. Thirty were
found filling a deep hole in East
river by divers searching the harbor's
bed.
SOME AFFECTING SCENES.
Unlike the Iroquois theater and
other great catastrophes of recent
years, where the woe of the disaster
reached throughout the land, the
blow Of the Slocum's mortality falls
practically upon one little neighbor-
hood of a great city. ST. Marks
parish, which furnished nearly every
victim, lies within ten crowded blocks
of the middle East Side, aud therein
today there is hardly house that is
not one of mourning. The member
ship Of the little Lutheran church is
practically German or of German
descent and all of the comparatively
well-to-do class. In some instances
whole families are wiped out. Some
suicides have occurred and many
more have been attempted by grief
stricken relatives.
Most affecting was the identified
ton of Mrs. Mary Mallitor of Mount
Vernon, N. Y, her eight children,
one of them an infant, and Mrs.
Mallitor's four sisters. The bodies
were identified by the husband and
the only surviving sister. Mallitor
and his sister-in-law collapsed under
the strain of going from coffin to
coffin and finding one by one, the
members of the family. They were
carried from the pier in a fainting
condition.
Among the oharred remains of
those who met death in the flames
one Identification was made by means
of shoe which remained on the
bones of foot. About all that re-
mained of the body was the skeleton.
One leg was burned away. The
body was that of Mrs. Hines, of
Harlem, the shoemaker who had
made her shoes recognizing his mark
on the lining.
Mrs. L. Diamond, accompanied by
her husband, searched for her mother,
an aged woman whom she had per-
.suaded to 60 on the excursion. After
a failure to find her mothers BODY, |
Mrs. Diamond suddenly shrieked; |
"My God, | let my mother 60 on this
excursion and sent her to her DEATH"
Nm oh
and was in the act of jumping over
board, when w. II. Howard, a |
Bellevue nurse, seized her about the |
waist. She fought desperately to
free herself, striking Howard repeat
edly.
Two divers coming to the surface
together on one occasion had in their
arms two little girls-sisters-
clssped In each others embrace, and
their mother, it is 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 may have been borne
along with the tides, to be given up
on later day at some distant point.
The body of girl of eight years,
the little daughter of Henry Heinz,
of Front street, was washed up
ora u OH thn oido nf o. Ma. - L. 80