Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1915-07-30
Sweeping Investigation Is Started by Federal State and City A
thOties to Fix the Blame for the DisaSter-Error or
Oversight Is Believed to Be Responsible.

ined each body as it came ashore. He
said that many of them had died from
surocation. There was no water in
their lungs, he said. They had foated
on top of the water in the recesses of
the boat until the air had become ex-
hausted.
occasionally passenger was found
alive in pocket of air. In mid-after-
noon, when, with an acetylene torch,
a hole had been made in the steel
plates forward, two women were TAX
en- out raving. A few minutes later
one OF the divers, his brain turned by
the horrors, came up and rushed
about the hull shrieking until the po-
lice got him under control.
! And last night, with spot lights and
electric arcs turning the stream into
a CHASTITY river of death, the work of
taking the bodies from the hull con-
tinued.
The spectacles were narrowing. Po-
| licemen wept as the bodies of women
were taken out, with their babies still
clutched to their bosoms in the grasp
| of death.
GREATER THAN IROQUOIS.
Chicago is still counting it's dead
The mortuary lists are still growing
A despair has settled over the city
akin to that following the IroQuois
disaster. It's roster of victims Is
greater. It is the worst excursion
| hoot horrov IN raoo~d a. Aroox{oo II
claimed more victims than the wreck
Of the fire-scourged General Slocum,
eleven years ago, off He'll Gate in New
| York harbor.
1t is the worst ship disaster in his
tory-greater than the Titanic and the
Lusitania catastrophes in its appalling
roster of the dead.
All day long and all night great
crowds thronged the waters edge and
choked the streets leading to the
scene of the disaster. On the side of
the boat, which protruded several feet
! above the water, groups of men gath
cred around the portfolios and with
ropes dragged up the dead bodies as
fast as the divers would get them.
Many are still in the boat, while the
river still holds bodies, and it will be
days before the final number of dead
| Is established.
AUTHORITIES PROMPT TO ACT.
Within an hour or two of the disas-
ter the authorities had started the
task of fixing the responsibility.
States Attorney Hoyne took the mat
ter in charge and sent out grand jury
subpoenas for witnesses.
WAS the Eastland crowded be-
You'd capacity?" This is the gravest
question into which inquiry will be
made. Eyewitnesses assert that the
boat was carrying from five hundred
to one thousand more persons than
the $500 for which she was licensed.
Some of the holiday-makers, who got
as far as the gangplank and then de-
cided to take another boat, fearing
the crowds on the Eastland, say that
between 1900 and $500 persons were
aboard, and that the ticket-takers
kept admitting excursionists up to
within a few minutes of the capsiz-
ing.
This is denied by the government
inspectors. Robert H. McCreary,
chief of the marine bureau, says an
exact check of the passengers was
taken, and that as soon as $500 had
gone aboard no more were allowed ad-
mission
OTHERS CRY ovERcRoWDiNG.
On the other hand, Emil G.. eros
choll and George Mock, employees of
the Western Electric company, who
aided in arranging the outing, esti-
mate that 300 persons were aboard
the boat.
One thing on which the bewildered
survivors and the eye witnesses in
general appear to agree is that even
after the boat started to list neither
the captain nor the crew gave warn
ings to the passengers. The orches-
ira kept on playing until the chairs
of the musicians slid across the deck
and the vessel had attained a perilous
angle before the laughter and joking
were turned to shrieks and cries.
Before the waters had claimed
victim, company officials on shore saw
the danger and began to prepare for
the work of rescue. w. X. Greene
baum, general manager of the Indiana
Transportation company, which had
chartered the Eastland for the day
from the st. Joseph Chicago Steam
ship company, when called before
States Attorney Hoyne, said:
"Ahnuf 7.2A q. m. / was standing at