Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1915-08-04
500 MORE BURIED
TRUCKS AND WAGONS USED As
HEARSES IN THE EAST
LAND FUNERAL.
ALL CHICAGO IN MOURNING
= ?
Many Of the Bodies Are Placed In
Vaults Because the Men Cannot Dig
Graves Fast Enough-Bare Heads
to Rain.

Chicago. July 29.-Five hundred Of
the Eastland dead were buried yester-
day.
They went to the cemeteries on all
the citys streets-long lines of car.
riages and utomobiles-hearses and
trucks that were used for hearses.
They were SO thick on the roads to
the burying grounds that one process
sion frequently had to wait until an
other went by. Undertakers were un-
able to get as many hearses as they
needed. 1t was no uncommon sight to
see five boxes on a motor truck
draped In black and purple and white
big boxes and medium and small
ones.
The burying took all morning and all
afternoon. Many bodies were placed
in vaults-for there were not men
enough to dig graves for them.
The city wakened early at the toll
ing of bells. 1t was raining. and dark,
and cool. The undertakers arrived,
the carriages or automobiles pulled
up before the doors of the mourners,
and soon the professions were under
way to the churches, and then out to
Mount Carmel. Mount Olivet, Calvary.
Bohemian National, st. Adelbert and
Forest Home cemeteries. 49,.
Community services were held In
the Church of Mary Queen of Heaven.
Fifty-third avenue and West Twenty
fourth street, where 80 collins were
laid out In the form Of cross.
The crowd stood outside, heads
barred to the rain. The wet came IN
through the chinks in the uncompleted
roof; the singing of the choir girls and
the chanting Of the priests came out
to the crowd In undiminished volume.
Bishop Paul P. Rhode preached In
Polish, and his eyes were wet at times
and his hand shook with emotion. III
While he talked the listeners saw
great crowd surging Oh to the boat,
men and women, boys and girls. They
were laughing and talking, eager to be
or on their holiday. *
You could see the roisterers scram-
BILE unalarmed when the vessel began
to list. What did they know OF dan
ger? What did they know Of ballast
or overcrowding?
Then came the sudden cries, the
prayers, the calls for help and the
curses OF men gone mad. You saw the
struggling hundreds swept down as
the vessel carreened. spilled over the
side like water out Of q cup. and you
felt the agony Of those other hundreds
who found themselves rescued while
wife, husband, mother, father, chill
dren, brother, sister, friend and sweet
heart all went down.
You saw again the long rows OF
blanketed figures in the morgues, the
divers fastening ropes about arms and
legs OF bodies down In the hold OF the
vessel, the policemen in unbroken pro-
cessions, carrying bodies on their
stretchers.
Yet there was none Of these things
mentioned in the bishops talk-it was
felt only, by his auditors. g.
"The cause of this disaster" he
said, may be traced to avarice. to
the disregard Of public safety, to ma
terialism run riot, which seeks its ends
regardless of all considerations or the
toll which must be paid - =, =
The bishop closed. ...-,
Then came the final "Requiescant in
Pace" and the pallbearers caught the
handles Of the collins and bore from
the church to the waiting hearses the
bodies OF their friends. s~'gsS
q Girls there were, dressed In white,
who acted as pallbearers. and other
girls in white walked by the sides or at
the head of the caskets. w.. q.