The Detroit times., 1914-06-02
EMPRESS WRECK
INVESTIGATION
BEGINS JUNE 8
CONTINUED Prom rage one.J

tableauX that shall go 10 complete the
awful tragedy OF that once beautiful
ship, The Empress OF Ireland.
II seems the final ironic touch OF
some master dramatist-this turning
OF French Quebec. the city OF the
gay. into Quebec, the worlds capital
OF tears; but perhaps IL is only the
great playwrights consistent climax
for a plot which began with the doom
OF great ship at the hands OF only
a silly little craft that happened casu-
ally 10 run amuck In a 1O-minute yisi.
tation OF transient fog bank
For full seven days. from Sunday
TO Sunday, this city Is destined To be
o city OF death instead OF a city OF
life. And for full seven days loads
OF nameless dead are TO be carried
from government tenders constantly
ploughlng the scene OF disaster. into
great temporary morgue erected on
the outer bTeakwater on the very pier,
indeed. from which some hours be
fore the lost vessel sailed 10 the way
ings OF handkerchiefs and TO the
strains OF music
For fun seven days fathers, moth
ers, wives, husbands. sweethearts are
TO stalk gaunt.faced up and down vast
aisles OF dead, searching for faces
that mean more 90 them than pen OF
man may ever learn to write.
For full seven days guards will
school themselves TO try TO seem TO
bear the sight OF the most hopeless
grief in all the world. The grief that
follows the always sudden. the always
stark realization hv the living that
the dead are dead
And then. perhaps. the same awful
drama for full seven days more. Only
the most hopeful in Quebec believe
more than half of those who were
sucked TO graves with the mighty
Empress will be yielded up within a
week, or even two.
Constant are predictions that only
dynamite will release those countless
bodies nuddled i'm staterooms when
that volume OF brine poured through
the awful rent.
Quebec's seyen-day reign OF tears
began with the arrival there al dawn
Sunday OF the Lady Grey, the first OF
the tenders TO bring her freight OF
nameless dead 10 wharf No. %
All night many had paced those
high ramparts OF Quebec, gazing into
the dark east for the first little craft
whose decks had been stacked with
facades OF collins at Rimouski and
hours before she landed the long pier
was covered by weeping relatives,
young and old, poor and rich, all
OF an equal grief.
The full ghastliness OF the drama
that is TO hold Quebec in its thrall
for days upon days 10 come, settled
with a rush OF realization With the
tying up of the pioneer funeral ship,
Just little craft as crafts CO. but
laden with-Oh--such a cargo OF
With each fresh ar
rival, the same tale is to be cried
out on this wharf that Is already liter
ally drenched with tears.
Inside the newly-built shed all day
long up and down the aisles go the
great throngs OF people. Grand
danes in new rich crepe rub elbows
with French. charwomen in
the homespun OF Normandy, all bent
on one tragic womans mission-look-
ing for the hfeless body OF the best
man in all the world.
And when the new.made widow in
elegant weeds finds her husband, Il
she is fortunate enough, she com
presses her lips and an expectant
guard catches her in his arms; and
when the other woman, who has not
yet learned TO control her emotions.
discovers her man, she is as like as
not TO spring upon the great counters
on which the hundreds of caskets lie
to grasp the lifeless form in ner life
ful arms and command him TO speak
to her only once more. Again and
again this duet OF differences occurs
for many were the husbands lost on
the Empress OF Ireland.
And it is women's grief, wife's
grief, that overshadows all the other
kinds in Quebec today for men do
not come TO know so quickly as WON
en- do that death makes love only
stronger
Sometimes, between identihcations,
whole hour may elapse. while hun.
dreds of people file along, never max
ing a sound Then 1t is that the air
is tensest OF all. Every vapor OF
grief, indeed. seems TO rise from the
hundreds OF silent bereaved-do ubly
bereaved because they have not even
the comfort of finding their lead
Rimouski. the harbor OF the dead,
whence the tenders bring the uniden.
titled bodies to Quebec, is q remote
little Canadian town, where few dol
lars ever seeped. In Rimouslu, there
fore the collins are not impervious TO
moth and dust They are as acces-
sible to the powers that corrupt as
the body OF man itself; and so II is
that all the recovered dead Of the
Empress OF ireland that lie in Quebec
today are housed in the cheapest OF
pne coffins--cofEins that shine with
cracking varnish and glisten with
tinny trimmings. Or, as in many In
stances, they are not housed in even
such poor caskets, but lie only la
rough boxes--since Rimouski could
not know that one or the greatest
tragedies in all the worlds history
was to bring within her gates city
OF dead greater than her city or living
But Rimouski OF what II did have
gave valiantly. About each bruised
hurt. distorted body there IL wound a
clean winding sheet. and every one
OF the great. pathetic regiment OF be
reayed will find the head OF the be
loved one resting on pillow things
put there by the kind women OF the
tiny town that no one ever heard of
before but which no one will ever for
get again
But terrible as IL all is" said