The Monticellonian., 1915-07-29
MANY HOMES IN
 GRIP 0F SORROW
MoRGUES VISITED BY FRIENDS AND RELATIVES SEARCHING
 FOR LOVED ONES.
LITTLE VIOLENT EMOTION
Some Few Broke Down Under Strain and Were Cared For By Corps
 of Red Cross Nurses.

Chicago.-Sorrow which spread over the city with the Eastland disaster and engulfed thousand homes with grief, found most poignant expression in the presence of the silent forms of the victims laid out ill the drill hall of the Second Regiment Armory, Chicago's temporary morgue.
 Side by side lay the dead Among them walked anxious hundreds seek Ing to identify a loved one and hop ing they might not succeed. Time and again group would pause beside pitiful bundle. There would be a gasp. a low-voieed exclamation. a flow of tears, and another would be taken from the list of unidentified dead and placed in the known columns.
 There was little sign of violent emotion though everywhere the tense- ness of repression was apparent Men and women, boys and girls, and even httie ones, bereft in many cases of all their loved ones though they shook With sebs. made no outcry as they be. held their dead. Some few broke down under the strain and were cared for by a corps of Red Cross nurses sta- toned in squad room near the en- trance. But of the thousands who through the day and night visited the armory, not more than hundred needed aid
 All through the night load after load Of bodies were received at the morgue and through the morning at less and less frequent intervals the procession continued
 While the victims were being identi. lied. 50 undertakers and 40 embalmefs who had volunteered at the call of Cor. oner Peter NJ. Hoffman, worked rapid iy Tn space at the north end Of the hall, preparing the bodies for burial.
 Hearses Front the Armory.
 As the morning wore along the Cur tlss street front of the armory became crowded with hearses and the incom- ing stream of bodies from the impro-
 
 ed vessel was passed by another line of bodies, identified, and in the keep ing of an undertaken
 Before body passed out the identi- fication was recorded by a deputy cor. oner and the name of the nearest rela. tive placed on file. So perfect had been the preparatory work of the cor. oner, that from noon until l o'clock more than 100 bodies were taken away and a few hours later less than 200 bodies remained in the temporary morgue
 Approximately 5000 persons, most of them friends or relatives of the victims, had gathered about the arm. ory before noon. Two and three abreast, the lines extended along two sides of the armory square and block east in Randolph street Two and three hundred at time they were admitted and when all of one group had passed out, another took it's place Many of the bodies bore no signs of struggle. Calm and still. their faces lay upturned. uncovered to aid in iden tification. Here and there. however. was one with distorted limbs, with A bruised head or torso. Perhaps the most pitiful of the many sad scenes were the bodies of the little ones. mere babies who were caught in the crowd. ed cabins of the overturned boat. For several hours two Of these little ones lay with smiling, upturned faces near where the embalmers were busy Ff nally the pitiful sight become too much for the nerves of oven those most used to scenes of death, and the tiny forms were carried to a more ra. mote part of the hall
 "AI Gone.9 Woman Murmurs.
 In the Red Cross room there were many scenes of sorrow. One woman well along in years kept repeating "All gonei Husband, son, his wife and their two children" Time after time she said this. but no tears fell and at last she slowly left the place, still murmuring, All gone"
 In the outgoing stream was one un- dertaker's litter containing husband. wife and child Identification was made by friend.
 Several times through the day the nurses were obliged to quiet some who became hysterical. Several wonl- en fainted. some few screamed and one man. bowed with years, screamed and struggled with those about hlm when he saw the bodies of his wife and children.
 The men are the hardest to control when they do give way" said the phy- s1cian in charge of the relief room.
 The scene was compared by coro- ners men and police officials who wit messed both. to the identification of the bodies of the victims of the Iro. quois theater fire.
 There is less hysteria. less violent expression of grief here" said James Markham, SC cretary of the Detective Bureau. "I think it is because the dead here seem more peaceful: they are not disfigured as were those others"