Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1912-04-24
TITANIC SURVIVORS TELL
TALES OF AWFUL HORROR
Heroic Men Die With Band Playing.
Waving Farewell to Those Whom
Their Unselfishness Had Spared.

NV loAEs ApIu 10 i ne Cl0ar4
liner carpathia, ship of gloom and
succor, came into New York tonight
with the first news direct from the
great White Star liner Titanic, which
sank of the Grand banks of Newfounc-
land early Monday morning last.
The great liner went down with its
band playing. taking with it to death
all but 745 of its human cargo of 2,340
souls.
To this awful death list six persons
were added One died in the lifeboat
which was put off from the liners side
and five subsequently, suceumbed on
the rescue ship Carpathia.
SAYS 1,726 LOST LIVES.
The list of prominent men missing
stands as previously reported and the
total death list as brought to port by
the Carpathia is 1901 Charles F.
Hurd, a STAFF correspondent of the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, who was a pas
senger on the Carpathia and inter
viewed the survivors estimates the
number of dead at 1,,26.
Survivors in the lifeboats huddled
In the darkness at a safe distance
from the stricken ship and saw it go
down
AS to the scene on board when the
hrer struck, accounts disagree wide
ly. Some maintain that a compare
tive calm prevailed; others say that
wild disorder broke out and that there
was a maniacal struggle for the life
boats.
That the liner struck an iceberg as
reported by wireless was confirmed by
all.
REPORT CAPTAIN A SUICIDE.
Sensational rumors told by hysteri-
cal passengers who would not give
their names said that Captain Smith
had killed himself on the bridge, that
the chief engineer had taken his life
and that three Italians were shot in
the struggle for the boats. These ru-
mors could not be confirmed in the
early confusion attendant on the land
ing of the survivors.
Ripped from stem to engine-room by
the great mass of ice it struck amid
ships, the Titanic's side was laid open
as If by gigantic can opener. 1t
quickly listed to starboard and a show
er OF ice fell onto the forecastle deck.
Shortly before it sank it broke in
two abaft the engine-room and as it
disappeared beneath the water the ex-
pulsion of air caused two explosions
which were plainly heard by the sur
vivors adrift. A moment more and
the Titanic had gone to its doom, with
the fated hundreds grouped on the
afterdeck.
RECEIVED WITH WHISPERS.
The scene at the Cunard pier as the
Carpathia came up the harbor and
warped into its dock was one of per-
feet order and an awe-like air of wall
ing. The crowds had steadily aug
mented and along the shores of the
bay from the Battery on, where tens
of thousands were gathered to witness
the passing of the funeral ship, all
conversation was conducted in a whis-
per.
For twenty minutes there was an
agonized wait while the boat was be-
ingly slowly warped into its berth.
When the ship locked the gang plank
was quietly lowered and the doctors
and nurses went aboard. Then the
first survivors began to leave the
ship.
STORY OF SURVIVORS.
Tesl mony of half dozen of the
Titanic passengers given to a report
er Immediately after they left the
Carpathia goes to prove that the Tt
tanic struck an ice field that stretched
for fifty miles over the frozen sur
face of the ocean.
First stories of the survivors on the
Carpathia pieced together, though told
in disjointed, hysterical fashion. paint
q picture of the awful Titanic calam-
ity full of horror, fear, panic and con-
fusion Hundreds we're asleep in their
beds, scores were sitting at the tables
in the card roms, smoking rooms and
saloons when the Titanic hit the ice
berg with terrific shock that sent
them hurting across the cabins.
Stunned by the terrific impact. the
dazed passengers, many of them hall
clad, rushed from their staterooms in
to the main saloon amid the crash of
splintering steel, rending of plates and
SCATTERING of girders while the boom
of falling pinnacles of ice upon the
broken deck of the great vessel add
ed TO the horror
RUSH FOR THE BOATS.
In wild confusion men, women and
children rushed about the saloons and
cabins of the great steamship as
though driven out of their senses. No
one knew what had happened and