Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-06
Wall FOR FIRE DEAD
Woman Paraders Utter Cry
for New York Victims. =
MAReHERs TOTAL 100000
While They Walk in Rain, linden
titled Bodies Are Buried.
UNDERWRITERS MAKE REPORT
Say Workers, Were Doomed From
Start, Owing to Difficulty in
Reaching Exits.
UNDERWRITERS MAKE REPORT

/ NEW YORK, April 6.-While two great
and solemn professions, numbering more
| than luueO mourning men and women,
l were marching yesterday in the rain
through throngs of Notwithstanding
to meet each other in Washington Square,
near the scene OF the Asch building nre,
to demonstrate their respect and sorrow
for the no persons who persisted there
another procession started briskly from
tho morgue at the foot Of East 18th
street. -
It consisted Of eight black hearses,
drawn by black horses. and followed by.
few city officials in closed carriages
l. This was the funeral of the unidentified
| dead.
| while great, weird wall Of the over
| wrought woman marchers in the big
parades was rising from that throng
In Washington Square, at that moment
the eight black, collins were being de-
posfted with onlciA precision in the city
plot Of Evergreen cemetery, Brooklyn.
While 10000 Of the city's workers were
reforming their drenched, pathetic ranks
Tor their long march uptown, a few men
ana women en- stood weeping. with heads
Dared to the rain. beside the eight open
graves. These We're the relatives who
had lost their loved ones, but who could
not claim their dead.
Police Reserves on Hand.
AS early as o'clock yesterday morning
men, women and children began TO as
semble in Seward Park and Rutgers
Square. whence the downtown section of
the parade OF union workers was to start.
They kept coming in ever-increasing num-
bers throughout the morning, and by
noon trafhc was embarrassed.
The reserves Of every precinct in the
SShmittberger took, personal charge.
There was something ominous about the
gathering. IT was SO silent. And 1t was
TO march through section of the East
tricts-where emotions are poignant and
worried.
But when the procession began to move
lence and perfect ordes though very
slowly: AS It passed through East
Broadway, Clinton and Broome streets
and the Bowery hardly a sound marred
the solemnity of the tribute.
But when the procession, headed by a
great coach heaped with flowers and es-
corted by eight girls in mourning who
walked beside the horses, moved through
Grand, Mulberry and MacDougal streets,
the throngs that lined its course broke
into waiHng, and many, though not
among the marchers. became hysterical.
Nevertheless no use was found for the
ambulances which the police had sta
toned along the line Of march.
Give Vent to Grief.
It was not until the marchers reached
Washington Square and came in sight of
the Asch building. where their fellow
workers had perished. that the women
gave vent to their SORROW
The police at the last moment had for
hidden the procession to encircle the
building, and this was one cause Of the
demonstration. But 1T ended in one long
Cling of thousands Of voices. a sort of
human thunder in the elemental storm.
The downtown people had to wait for
nearly an hour before the uptown division
OF the parade. which had started from
4th avenue and I'd street. arrived at
Washington Square. through University
place. 1t was some time after that be-
fore the marchers could all be gotten
into line for the procession up 9Th avenue
to Madison square, where they disbanded.
Another mourning parade. in which
about 5000 persons participated, took
place in Brownsville. In this process
sion banners denouncing the conditions
which produce such disasters were car
ried. and after the march the crowds as
sembled I'm mass meetings Of protest.
1uS Oeau dt A4Os
The board Of fire underwriters has
just made public its report on the fire.
The number of dead Is put at las and
the number Of operatives who escaped
at $40. The report shows that, owing
to the arrangement Of the ninth floor of
the building. it's crowded and infiammable
condition, and the panic among the oper-
ators, packed back to back with tables
ranged against them, not more than half
Of those at work had a chance for their
lives. They were doomed from the start, |
1t is indicated. because of the difficulty
Of reaching the stair exits, the doors of
which opened inward. The underwriters
recommend:
A fire drill and private fire department |
in all factories; stairways in freproof |
shafts reached by outside balconies; in !
side stairs In masonry shafts with fire |
doors at every floor; automatic sprinklers |
in every building more than sixty feet |
high and wire, glass and metal frames |
for all outside windows.
cANA0A REcIIMEc nERATE