The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1911-03-27

N.Na.' oO huNE o"ciNs'
At one time DR.. Brown. who was assisting
the Coroners. timed the entrance Of the
visitors to the pier and found that In the
earlier hours people came at the rate OF
100 minute
The relatives or close friends who were
looking for their dead at the Morgue pier
began to arrive at the pier an hour or two
after the first body got there early on
night. and they were still In
line at dawn. Early yesterday morning
the line Of those waiting chance to look
at the victims Of the fire stretched from
the pier entrance back on Twenty-sixth
street a long block to First avenue and
then south on First avenue to Twenty
fourth street. With few exceptions those
who arrived from the late forenoon on
were curiosity seekers who knew no one
who worked in the burned building
There we're frock coated young men
canes. who laughed and chatted
with we'll dressed girls as the line jostled
slowly eastward toward the pier entrance
young couples who had read the morn
ing papers before starting for their SUM-
day stroll and who wished to see the dead
out Of curiosity. And there were many
OF these girls who entered the shedded
pier laughing who after a moment Of
looking at the horrors fell in faint to the
floor.
White capped nurses from Bellevue
and Allied Hospitals really had more
to do with the handling of the lines than
the police. 1t was common sight to see
nurse instead Of a policeman or Coroner's
assistant leading an aged woman or one
OF middle age along the line Of coffins.
On the south side OF the pier was white
enamelled table such as is used in operat-
ing rooms. Many times there would be
heard a shrek and a nurse would clasp
her arms around the woman who had
either begun to grow hysterical upon
recognizing her dead or who had tainted
from the horror that lay stretched all
about.
A policeman, or many OF them, and
white coated surgeons would run to the
spot then and help the nurse to lift the
woman on the table until stretcher
could be brought to the spot. Then the
woman. shrieking in a way that caused
some Of the curiosity seekers who were
entering the pier to hurry away. would be
carried to a room at the pier entrance to
be revived.
The Simply Curious Sent Away.
At dusk Deputy Commissioner Driscoll
came to the pier. and noting the numbers
of half grown boys and girls and older
persons who evidently had no business
there directed the police under Capt.
O'Connor of the East Fifty-frst street
station to 60 along the line and turn away
all those who could not give a good reason
for going on the pier.
One girl. Rosie Solomon Of 81 Chrystie
street. was turned back. but Rosie
pleaded that she wanted to sec whether
the body Of Joseph Wilson. who worked
in the shirtwaist factory. was among the
dead. Rosie and Joe were to be married
in June. she told the policemen. He was
to have called for her on Saturday night,
she said, to take her to q moving picture
| show.
.She walled for him until late Saturday
night. but he didn't come to see her. She
would know him, Rosie said. because she
had given him ring. which he always
wore. and a watch and chain. They let
her come on the pier, but before the police
man had taken her far he called for a nurse
and one Of the ambulance surgeons to
accompany Rosie.
On a blackened body Rosie found the
ring and the watch chain. She shrieked.
and in an instant had grabbed wildly at
the nurses hair standing beside her.
Before Rosie had been forced on a
stretcher she had torn strands of hair
from the nurses head
A pretty girl came to the pier toward
evening and said that Joe was her cousin
and that she wanted to see if his body
were there. DR.. Brown explained to the
girl. who gave her name "a Irene Zatuloa
Of 90 East 10th street. that the body OF
Joe had been identified by his sweetheart
and that it would be futile for her TO gC
out on the pier further to identify the
body. They did not tell her how it looked
) She too pleaded to he allowed to look
| if only for moment. at the remains
The doctor would not let her come To tn,
pier. hut later she got by policeman
and entered. When she sought out an
other policeman on the pier he took hel
to Joe's coffin. but nurse who was stand
ing by persuaded the girl to go away with
out looking at the charred body. She
told the policeman before she left thai
Joe came here from Philadelphia no
long ago, where he lived at 52s Greer
street She would bury the body. she
said
Most Of the IdentincatiOns Made BcfOrs
Noon.
There were seventy-six bodies identified
on the pier between the arrival Of the frs
coffin Saturday night and the bringing
in Of the last two yesterday Just befor,
noon. Mos. of the identifcations wer,
made during the forenoon. One coulc
understand while walking from coffil
to coffin last night with the policemen
who carried lanterns why SO many Of III,
bodies had not been covered; thai is
identified,
II was difficult 20 make oneself realiZ
that on the previous day they had beef
human beings. But there was one gir
lying there whose regular features wer
without a scratch or stain and who whel
she worked in the factory the day befor
mus, have looked very much as sh
looked as she lay in the pine box. Blu
until late hour no one among the thou
sands upon thousands who looked dow
, upon her had identified the girl. and s
her coffin lay uncovered.
One Old Womnn's sorrow.