The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-16

fSSAASA tO tA4Clt lOkQltl60 tO OC dN0AAdDtCy and stories are told of frantic efforts by strong men to cut them loese; but even if they could have been torn down they were too high up for the children to reach them.
 It is also alleged that no attempt was made to get the fire apparatus at the first cry of ''fire.'' though Captain Van Schaick says that he immediately rang the bells for getting out the apparatus. According to several statements, no att tempt was made to lower boats or life rafts.
 The race to North Brother Island was horribly dramatic. It was while the flames, which had now been famed in- to fury, by the strong head wind, were consuming hundreds, both old and young. The scene was one of frightful panic, with men, women and children jumping overheard, and being lashed by the whirlpools of the channel against the vessels sides. Women and lchildren were crowded together on the hurricane deck, which soon burned away and fell, and it is believed that most of those on this deck were burned l The after rail gave way and the pas sengers who had crowded against it lwere pushed into the river Mothers and children were separated and fran tically sought each other, while in sev- eral eases fathers and mothers gather | ed their children together and jumped with them into the water Little chil- dren holding each other by the hand l jumped together and were afterwards found clasped In each others arms It | is alleged that men fought with women | to escape, resulting in the tranpling under foot of scores of children. | During her flame enveloped run to North Brother Island the General Slo- cum's whistles kept blowing for as- | sistance but before the whistles began to blow several large tugs, the cap tains of which saw the outbreak of the fire, started after the vessel, joined by a yacht, while rowboats put out from the shore.
 The number of these craft constantly grew, and not the least dramatic in cidents of the catastrophe were the ef- forts of the people on these boats to rescue these who had Jumped over board from the General Slocum Men crowded to the rails of the tugs and caught up the drowning persons as they were borne by the current. There were many thrilling rescues by this means.
 North Brother Island, where the ves- sel was beached contains scarlet fe- yer ward. The patients, who witnessed the disaster, were ordered indoors, and the doctors hastened to the rescue of those who had been washed ashore, but some scores of persons died while they, were being attended to. Captain I Van Schaick and two pilots, Edward 1 Van Wart and E. M. Weaver, have been arwrested :. | Pastor Haas was completely pros- trated tonight. He was unconscious most of the time and under constant
 care of physician. MT. Haas lost his
 wife and daughter Gertrude. His son
 did not go on the excursion. He also
 lost his mother-in-law, Mrs. Carl Han sen, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. William Tetimore Mrs. Tetimore's daughter Edith, two years old, is also lost l Acting under orders from Police Com missioner McAdoo, photographers are tonight at work photographing the l bodies of the dead as a means of iden- tification. The bodies are placed in
 collins and are stood in an upright po- sition in groups of four, and fiashlight
 pictures are then taken The work of
 photographing began at North Brother
 Island and was later taken up at the
 morgue.
 After questioning all the witnesses,
 including Captain Schaick and five of his crew, who appeared before him in the Alexander avenue station, Coroner
 Joseph T. Berry made the following statement late tonight:
 From all the evidence which has
 been produced before me I am of the
 opinion that the fire started in the
 storage room on the starboard side of the boat, forward There were stored
 in the room oils, paints, old rope, camp stools, lumber and other dunnage of a
 highly inflammable nature. This ma terial was such as any ship is compel | led to carry, and so far as it's presence lis concerned, I do not know that the lship's owners are guilty of neglect.n