The Washington herald., 1915-07-25

! blocks away stopped his men. and tht
steel workers began burning out grea
I holes in the side of the ship with acety.
lene torches.
Two or three holes had been cut and
| divers let down to bring up the dead and
/ dying when Capt. Peterson objected.
ITO - with the Ship shouted the
/ police official in charge of the work.
I'VE are saving lives
Before night nearly the whole side of
I the ship had been cut away. 1t was
through these holes that the 1900 bodies
We're brought out.
Severa! living persons We're found. Two
sisters, taken out and revived with pull
motors, were taken to a hospital, tenn
porarily insane.
Eight hours after the tragedy. a year
old infant was found. Its dress had
caught in what was the side and became
the roof Of a stateroOm Its dress was
not even wet.
Hour after hour the dead piled up. The
big grocery and commission houses along
the river stopped business and opened
their Storerooms as temporary morgues.
When darkness fell. eco bodies were laid
in rows, with aisles at the heads and
feet. in the warehouse of Reid. MUIR
dock and Company. Hour after hour the
police beat back tine frantic relatives
IN one at d llIfle 10 attempt
to identify the dead.
The crowd remained down town late
weeping and walking from warehouse
to warehouse and morgue to morgue. The
families of practically all the dead were
down town, having come to go to the
picnic on one of the five ships. Many
families were wiped out. but in many
cases the young folks boarded one boat
while the parents chose another
The majority of dead were women and
children.
saved and a broken family for every
one of the 200 dead.
One of the most remarkable expert
ences of a hundred heroes is the ex-
perience of Hubert Boettcher 10 years
old. who got out of the hold through
hatchway with three girls he did not,
know hanging, one to his neck, one
to his coat tail. and one to his foot. His
own sweetheart. he sobbed to the man
who picked him UP and the three in a
boat, was drowned in the hold
And the most pathetic scene. perhaps,
was the bringing up of the bodies of
two infants tied in their go-carts
During the night more than 800 bodies
were taken to the coliseum and the
Second Regiment Armory. AS soon as
possible after the bodies were brought
II oii III! river 10 tne warehouses and
again before they were taken to the
coliseum or armory, doctors injected nj
tro slycerine and strychnine in every
form. Where there was the least sign
OF life, pulmotors and hot towels were
applied. Only n handful were revived
Two women brought back to life were
found to be insane
All of the identified dead live in Chi
cago or the suburbs in and around the
Western Electric Company's plant at
Hawthorne.
States Attorney Hoyne tonight began
taking the affidavits of more than 100
persons held in custody as witnesses for
the coroner and the Federal grand Jury.
Early explanations of the disaster were
thrown aside and new conflicts of evil
dence arose.
To get at the cause Of the tragedy. the
statement OF w. J. Wood naval archi-
tect. who In 1908 was consulted by the
owners of the .Eastland in remodeling
the boat, was considered especially inn
portant. The ship was remodeled be-
cause she was top-heayy. The top, or
fourth deck, was cut on.
The Eastland was the crank of the
lakes" said Mr.. Wood. Even after she
was remodeled. great care had to be
taken In handling her. II was most i'm
portant that the water ballast compart-
ments be kept filled and that the pas
sengers should not crowd on one side Of
the upper deck. / assume. that the oper-
ators Of the boat while II was on Lake
Erie undsrstood these things. because
they never had an accident"
Tenight Capt Patterson told TIE state's
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