The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-17
DEATHS WILL BE ABOUT 700
HORROR OF GENERAL SLOCUM
 DISASTER INCREASES.
Police and Health Departments Place Number of Lost at One Thousand but
 This is Probably Too High-Grap- bling for Victims in Hulk of the steamer-pivers at work.

bling for Victims in Hulk of the
 Steamer-Divers at Work.
 New York, June 16.-With unceasing effort. search is going on for the bodies of those who perished yesterday in the disaster to the General Slocum. What the list of victims will total scarcely one dares venture guess, but what ever the number may be, there is hard ly a parallel 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 1000 and more, but tonight it would seem that the maximum fatal ity will not largely exceed 700.
 All day long, from sunrise until dark ness shut off even the melancholy sat isfaction of watching for the dead, anxious seachers kept up their vigil- ance and at dusk there has been re- covered 517 bodies, for the great part women and children.
 Up to dusk 499 bodies had passed through the Inorgue, and of these more than three hundred were identified. The east side has it's human sympathies aroused to the fullest extent, and down by the river, where the boats unload- ed 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 collins for those that came to search for the missing.
 Up the Sound where the hulk of the General Slocum lies submerged, show ing only 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 bodeis in the wreck. A score of times 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-sisters, clasped in each others embrace-and their mother, it was thought, whose dead hand tightly clinched the skirt of one oe 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 grave un- der 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 doubt many have been borne along with the tides, 60 be given up at a later day at some distant point.
 There are number of places where the living may be landed, and it is be- lieved that many that are now report ed missing 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 of missing down considerably, as well as the probable mortality list
 Information was received at the dis trict attorneys office this afternoon that Engineer Conkling, who was said to have perished in the disaster is alive and in hiding. County detectives, un- der the direction of Assistant District Attorney Garvan, are now looking for him. It was expected that he had gone to his home in Catslill, N. Y.
 Two boys were arraigned in the chill dren's court to-day by detective de- tailed for duty among the crowd which daily and nightly fills the street in front of St. Marks church. The boys are Joseph Hornstein and Joseph Ko- lask. The detective testified that he saw Kolask with his hand. in the skirt pocket of woman who refused to come to court to prosecute the boy, as she had several small children on the i'll fated eneral Slocum, and who was afraid that if she left the church she might lose word of what had happened to her babies.
 The justice sent Kolask to the House of Refuge, .aftersaying that he was sor- ry that he could not send him to the states prison, and rernanded the other lad.
 When the tide turned and began to falr about 5:30 o'clock this afternoon, the current slackened so that addi- tions could be made safely to the searching party. Sixteen boats were about the sunken steamer at this time and the result was that in less than half an hour twelve more bodies were recovered off the beach and one from the wreck itself.
 The body from the wreck was that of a young woman. It was seen caught in one of the paddle boxes by the crew of the barge of the Lone Star Boat club which was passing the wreck. They re- moved it and laying it athwart the barge, carried it to the short of North Brother island, where it was turned over to the coroner.
 At the last low tide tonight twenty five bodies were recovered near the wreck of the Slocum. One of these bod ies was that of woman about forty years of age. Around her neck was what looked like life preserver cov- ering. Coroner O'Gornan says that he found quantity of pulverszed cork in- side the womans waist. He thinks she tried to save her life by donning the preserver and that it went to pieces. When Coroner O'Gorman discovered the cork he said:
 T may use this in fixing the blame for the death of this woman when the body is identified. She had been cool