Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-07-24
CHARRED BODIES BEING RECOVERED Bremen and Police, Aided By Citizens, Digging in
 Fire Ruins.
FLAGS AT HALF MAST
stricken G:ty in Mourning for Her Dead.--RumOrs of In.
 cendiary Origin.

Binghampton, \. Y.. July 23.-From cruel, black pit on the banks of the Chenango river today fourteen char red bodies of the victims of the Bing- hamton clothing factory were listed. Into the horror of death which has bowed this town in misery has enter ed the horrible possibility that the fire was of incendiary origin. Bing- hamton shuddered when the rumor spread today and the authorities and the venerable owner of the mill, Reed B. Freeman, declare half-heartedly that such thing is beyond belief.
 At least fifty of the mill workers are dead. The final count may be more. There are yet twenty-five to be accounted for and the total may be swelled to seventyfive. Three sep arate investigations are uA1er way. Governor Sulzer has ordered William Rogers, acting state commissioner of labor, and E.. A. Bates, supervisor for the State Labor Department, to come here from Albany and make an inde- pendent probe. Deputy State Fire Marshal Roesch is on his way from Albany to make an inspection and the local authorities under the direction of Coroner Stillson and Secretary Mour are struggling as best they may to find out why this blight should have fallen on Binghamton.
 The terrible pity of the whole hor- ror the anguish that has entered ev- cry street of the town and the mar vicious scenes of humble grief have paused the hands of official Bingham ton and when the rumors of incend- iarism spread forth today, all the lower section of Broom county Hooked to the bank of the Chenango and an unpleasant snarl of rage mingled with the grief murmurs.
 The hand of death rested upon the factory but eighteen minutes. The eighteen minute fire had crumbled a supposedly sturdy building into a mass of black dust and twisted iron, and somewhere between fifty and sev- enty-five lives were snuffed out. That fire should dart suddenly from be- meath stairway and leap from joist to joist along the ceiling in less than five minutes and have the entire building in it's blighting grasp is more than the police and firemen can fathom. There is but one answer-in- cendiarism.
 But the thing is so horrible that the authorities refuse to accept the rumor.
 "It cannot be so! It can't be SOL" cried Mayor Irving. "But yet -" And like all the rest of Binghamton, he threw up his hands in mute de- spair iaSlowlY the list of the dead is being. compiled. At Dibbel's morgue there are now twenty charred bodies which defy in their formless way Identification.
 A public fund for the families of the dead has been started. Already $41,G05 has been contributed and Binghamton proudly, but with thanks, has declined the proffered offers of the National Red Cross So- ciety for aid.
 Tomorrow morning the coroner's inquest will begin and tonight in the soft rain fifty workmen are digging in the ruins for further evidence of the horror.
 A hollow square of rope holds back the crowds who come hoping and trusting that out of the black pit they may receive a message of consOla- tion. Over the town the flags are Tapping unhapily at half mast on ev. cry street corner and there is little group mumbling over the latest news Rain means nothing to these brothers and sisters.
 In this black hole where the work men are digging is one corner edgine on the river bank It was there that eight of the charred trunks were found today and it was there that the terrible crush happened when tht panic was at it's height.
 The building of the Binghamtor Clothing Company was built eighteen years ago, according to it's present