The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-07

to stream a procession of firemen car
rying between them the charred re-
mains of those who little while pc
fore had been happy in the enjoy
ment of an afternoons pleasure, the
scene without changed as If by magic.
From every business street of the city
men whose wives and families had
gone to the matinee streamed with
white faces and eyes blinded with half
frozen tears over to the theater and
screamed like nadmen the names OF
those they were seeking. Many of
them found their loved ones, but still
half-crazed in the surrounding stores
and hotels others discovered them
among the dead by some particle Of
dress, half charred hair ribbon, shoe
or locket Others are still searching
and will continue to search before they
can finally assure themselves that the
happiness of their lives has gone for
ever.
CORPSES PILED IN STORES AND
STREET.
Soon from every hospital in the city
came ambulanees and nurses and ply
sicians. Priests and Sisters of Mercy
stood side by side with the surgeons,
and great bands of women from st.
Luke's, the Presbyterian and nearly
every other hospital in the city wait
ing patiently, like soldiers, till the mo-
mealt when they should be called on.
Down the beautiful staircases, gilt
tering again in rows of electric lights,
the current of which had been turned
on by the electricians. came a process
sion of men carrying the dead and
dying. In ten minutes dozen stores
had been converted into hospitals and
morgues. Two large restaurants, one
on Randolph and one on Dearborn
street, flung their tables and counters
on top of one another and laid out
great heaps of table linen to be used
for bandages for the wounded and Gov
erings for the dead. All the great
State-street stores threw their main
floors open and sent to the theater
great piles of blankets, rubber cloth
anything and everything that could be
utilized.
The ambulances We're REINFORCED by
dozens of wagons from these stores and
teaming establishments, and from ev-
erywhere willing helpers poured to do
or give what they could. In a little
while, with frantic thousands trying tn
batter through the strong lines Of po-
lice flung across the corners of Dear
born and State streets, the bodies of
the dead came faster and faster, till
it seemed as though there was no place
to lay them. The north sidewalk of
Randolph street for hundred yards
was covered with these remains, pack
ed side by side and covered with white
blankets and table cloths. Soon the
great entrance was choket1 with them,
and faster than the Morgue wagons
could take them away they were de-
posted on the sideWa ak and In every
building in the neighborhood.
Here and there men up in the gallery
entrances could hear underneath the
tangled masses a faint moan-the, de-
spairing signal Of some unfortunate for
succor. Then, tearing, struggling at
the blackened mass to penetrate it and
effect q rescue, they labored. Some
of the still living victims were rescued
and taken out in time to be saved
Others died before they could be lifted
from the heap of dead; others while
they were being carried down the
staircases.
Secure a home on Pacific Heights and