The Washington herald., 1911-03-26
MASSES OF BODIES
0VBRIAX MORGUE
Scenes Parallel Those of the
SlOcum Disaster.
POLICE HOLD MODS AT BAY
Hardened Attendants Unnerved In
Grewsome Effort to Find Some Dis
tinEuishing Marks on Charred
Bodies as Crazed Relatives Seek
to Identify Victims of Holocaust.

! New York, March 3.-The scenes at the
morgue at the foot Of East Twenty-sixth
street paraIleled those at the time of the
Slocum disaster, seven years ago. The
thrush of bodies soon overcrowded the
limited accommodations of the morgue
and recourse was had to the long pier
+ which the departments of charities and
correction use
Ambulances, dead wagons, patrol wag-
ons, and private vehicles were impressed
for the moment into service, all swarm
ing around, followed by mobs, weeping.
screaming men and women. only to be
stopped by the double cordons OF police
across the thoroughfare.
Down into the long dark pier they
rumbled and then the charred, distorted,
often unrecoSnizable, were lifted out and
placed in a row. One, two, three, four,
five, steadily, monotonously, one after the
other until as the hour went by the men
at work counting had reached the num-
ber of 112, fourteen of whom were men
and the remainder women, young women
for the most part, mere girls. bread
winners for scores of little families, bare
ly eluding the clutch of starvation in the
tenenentS and Slums of the city.
Keep Relatives Out.
Under Inspector Walsh the police went
at the grewsome work in a clear-headed
matter OF fact manner. 1t was foregone
that to permit any of the hundreds of
men and women upon the streets to invade
the pier. would mean panic and de-
moralization. So. although mothers and
f,rh Ir nd thalr rfS Cio
ters and brothers were pleading and pray
ing, only to be allowed to find the body
of the loved one. the police were Obliged
to turn deaf ears and keep all at a dis
tance.
Men who have been hardened by years
of experience to the scenes OF suffering,
policemen and morgue attendants. were
selected to go down that long and grow
ing line of burned bodies to find distin-
gIIished marks or articles of idcntifica-
ton. The search of the body of an un-
recognizable form of young girl would
show a ring. perhaps a pOcketoook
clutched in a death grip, an unusual ar
ticle of dress, a peculiar shoe, or some
thing else. and this would be carefully
noted
ray envelopes
In almost every hand OF the women
could be found a pay envelope or the
remnant of a pay envelope, and in many
of the cases keen eyes could discover
through the smudge and black name,
half a name, a first name Behind the
searchers came other morgue attendants
carrying huge bundles of white shrouds,
which mercifuIly would spread over the
blackened and dead forms.
All results were taken to central bu-
rcau. where they were carefully tabu-
lated and then policemen walked up to
the waiting crowds at First avenue. The
scene reScnbled that in a plaEne-Strick-
en- city, where men go about crying,
Bring out your dead" AT the corners
men went about crying aloud, Who
seeks girl with a ring with the initials
C So" Shrek above the roar of
the crowd would be heard, and woman
would stagger from il. or a man perhaps.
Another man would cry: Who seeks a
girl with a pay roll with name haplin?
An old woman and her husband crept
forward and. hearing the name repeated,
the woman turned without a word,
swayed a little. and fell on her face
Searcher Loses His Mind.
One man and woman, with the frenzy
of grief, dashed through the policemen.
fighting tearing. screaming. The police
men. themselves almost overwrought. let
them go, and they rushed into the pier.
their eyes crazed with grief. They were
Mrs. Josephine Panno and her son-in-
law They were seeking her daughter,
Mrs Jane Bucalo, eighteen years Old.
whom they knew had been seen alive for
the last time in the struggling crowd
Mrs Panno. unheedinG the kindly re-
straining hands that there held forth
to her, walked down the long line of the
dead and turned with the light of hope
in her eyes. Another wagon arrived, and
men drew forth another body. She gazed
and then turned again. There was still
hope But the strain had been too much
for her son-in-law, for suddenly he
shrieked aloud and began tearing his
hair. Another moment. he turned, reeled
and fell face forward, a maniac.
The wagons still rolled in, the list OF
dead still swelled. The mob struggled
despite the efforts of several hundred
policemen to hold them back.
Charities Commissioner Michael Drum
mond and his deputy, Frank J. Good
win. arrived shortly after o'clock and
co-operated with the other authorities
and Dr. Phillip O'Hanlon, of the coro-
ner's office, and Immediately began an