The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-27

go down in history as the fire dis
aster of Washington square entered
upon its aftermath today with eighty
two of nearly $50 victims identified.
The official death list has been les
sened rather than increased.
Revised count shows 141 dead to-
night, with twelve women and girls
at deaths door in the hospitals. All
told, $50 will perhaps conservatively
cover the casualties when those
whose horrible hurts and burns seem
fatal shall have Joined their fellow
workers now in pine coffins in the
morgue.
Broadly speaking, the victims were
Hebrews and Italians, living either
on the east side or in a small Italian
quarter near the scene Of the fire.
With all the dead removed from
the building, the coroner began an
investigation into the disaster-one
of several inquiries which could be
conducted by city departments-aided
by agents from the district attorneys
office.
An inquest will be held and its re-
suit will be placed before the grand
jury. Many grand jurymen visited
the scene and District Attorney Whit
man announced that those responsible
for the loss of life would be vigor
ously prosecuted.
A steam pump emptied the cellar
OF water during the morning and the
firemen believed when they rested at
the dinner hour that they would uno
no more dead.
Tonight, however, they carried out
another body, making three recover
ed today. The overcount last night
was probably due to checking off
charred parts of body for corpse.
The work of the day shed no light
upon the cause of the blaze.
This probably will never be known.
A spark from the motor driving the
sewing machines shooting through
the lint charged air of the operating
room, to a four-inch carpet of scraps
on the floor, could easily have started
a fire, but Chief Croker was unwilling
to say tonight that in his opinion it
originated this way.
All day there rumbled a steady
stream Of dead wagons along the ap-
proach to the pier, taking away those
that had been claimed
The air went. stale with an odor Of
burnt flesh. For time the pier was
cleared. During the brief recess,
heavy-eyed attendants rearranged the
baskets Of personal effects belonging
to the victims.
There was more than $4,000 in cash
in the pockets and purses of the
dead. One woman had $500 in her
stocking.
Hospital doors were stormed by
hundreds during the day and night. A
cutter whose sister worked a few feet
away from him inquired of her every
half hour in st. Vincent hospital. She
died between his visits and he be-
came so violent that the police had
to restrain him. He and she hau
planned to welcome their aged par.
ents from Russia to the newworld
this week. The parents are on the
sea now.
The coroner and the grand jurymen
began their investigation today before
the embers died in the burning build
ing. They touched shoulders with the
district attorneys men, building de
partment agents, with Fire CHIEF
Croker, Fire Commissioner Waldo
and their helpers. There will be 6
thorough probing and fixing of the
blame, If blame there be and 1t car
be fixed.
District Attorney Whitman said:
'If what Chief Croker tells me il
correct, then someone is criminal!
liable and whoever he is, whethe
it be one or a dozen, shall be prose
cuted. I never saw anything so hor
rible in my life"