The Washington herald., 1914-04-05
Vim. Schoneberger, Morgue-
master, Has Material for
Compilation Of Cha silly
Philosophy of Life in Death
Annals.
By ]. STUART PRICE.

Situated on the ledge OF the Potomac,
near to the wharves from which sail ex-
cursion steamers laden with pleasure
seekers-a swirIing maze of white-waist-
ed forms-is an institution in which have
been written countless stories of sorrow
and bitterness.
Thousands Of bits of driftwood bob up
and down the swift current of the silent
river. and pass by unnoticed, but 1t is
the debris of human wreckage that floats
through the streets of the city each day,
lodging finally in the place to which this
story has been, dedicated.
OF the many public houses in the Capital
City, there is just one that never come
to light except in a funereal sense. The
people hear nothing of it unless it be the
scene of an investigation.
This place is the District morgue. Since
its establishment, more than half a CEN
tury ago, thousands of these bits of
human driftwood' have hoated by; but
not unnoticed as that which bobs up and
down upon the waters of the river that
go ripping by.
One Thousand Yearly.
Could the bodies that have found their
way to the morgue speak, stories reeking
with horror, sorrow, and even pity would
be told in a manner far more gripping
than can the pens of fiction writers.
Washington with its $4,000 population
is looked upon the country over as not
only the most beautiful city in the West
ern world, but in its daily life the least
cursed of crime and tragedy. Yet in
Washington every year the dead bodies
Of more than ], 900 men. women, and chill
dren, nearly every one Of them the mute
tablet of a tragedy, are carried through
the narrow portals of the morgue. A
large percentage of these are babies or
children.
Washington is a city Of residences pre-
eminently There are no industries worth
mentioning. There are no periodic pay
rolls for toilers such as in other cities
provoke the unleashing Of passions and
the unpreTneditated commission of violent
crime. Yet Washington, the Capital of
the nation, somehow keeps stride with
her great sister cities in the laying up
year by year in official annals of a rec
ord of cruel and mysterious deaths.
Figures Tell Story.
Every bit of human driftwood enters
the morgue, on Water street, near the
foot of Seventh, attached either to mys-
terry or tragedy. In 1904 the morgue was
moved from New Jersey avenue, between
d and E streets, near the Sixth police
precinct.
But now some figures as to the great
amount of work and responsibility which
rests upon Coroner J. Ramsey hewitt. his
assistant. Morgue Master William Scho-
neberger, and his assistant. George K.
Rundel
From July /, 1911. to June 30. 1872, 1.eu7
bodies were taken there. From July !,
1872, to June 30, 1913, 1.4s5 bodies passed
through the morgue. When the present
fiscal year comes to a close, June 30, at
least Judging from the present rate, the
total will reach LOO.
In the morgue room proper where two
rows of refrigerator boxes form a grim
aisle, there are kept always on hand cof-
fms OF many sizes All Of them are built
of plain, cheap pine, stained a dark
brown, and in bulk they range from the
six-foot usual to the tiny one, whose
length over all measures but eighteen
inches. Sadly, and strange enough. the
smallest coffin is the one most used.
Little Cofhns Numerous.
Seldom q day passes when the black
covered wagon of the institution, driving
slowly away from the chapel-like build
ing in Water street does not bear as its
partial load one. two, or three, and some
times as many as six, Of these wee brown
boxes destined to the potter's field. From