Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1915-08-04

able point from which the life and
death struggle could be viewed.
The Clark street bridge became so
overweighted with humanity that it
began to crack and the police were
disaster. Blocks down the river small
boats began to dart about and drag
bodies from the water. Occasionally a
form was found with spark of life
apparent and the victim would be hur-
ried to the nearest dock. There scores
of volunteer physicians aided the city
ambulance doctors in the work of re-
suscitation
Fathers and mothers fought to leap
upon the overturned steamer in the
hope that their children were still in
the cabin. Whenever body was taken
from the water there was rush Of
shrieking men, women and children to
look upon it. The same stampede &C.
Cured when the living were brought
ashore.
Five Hundred Are Stranqied.
Many of the mothers with large
broods and numerous lunch baskets
and wraps to stow away arrived early
and went below to settle themselves
in the cabin or staterooms, and it was
among these that the mortality was
greatest. They had no chance, Per
haps 400 or 500 of the victims were
strangled to death thus, without an op-
portunity to take advantage Of the
many means of rescue that were pro-
vided for those who had been plunged
into the stream.
Some of the trapped persons were
knocked senseless or killed outright
by furniture and fittings which tum-
bled upon them when the big ship
rolled over.
The rescuers realized the awful sit
uation of the hundreds who were
slowly drowning In the cabins and
hold and made desperate efforts to
reach them. Firemen and policemen,
urged on by maniacal shrieks from
shore, took their heaviest tools and
hacked like madmen at the steel plates
of the Eastland's upfacing side.
Drag Scores From Water.
Captain Garland and the United
States life saving crew arrived In a
launch from the station at the mouth
of the river a few minutes after the
alarm was sounded by every craft that
had a whistle and dragged scores Of
dead and living from the water.
The crews OF the tug Kenosha and
the fireboat Graeme Stewart acted
heroically. Realizing the necessity of
speed, they ran the noses of their
crafts against the hull of the Eastland
and then leaped into the water, grab
bling women and children and passing
them up to safety, and then swimming
after others.
By the time the work of rescue was
in full swing there was little to do ex-
cept take out the dead. Those still in
the water at that time were dead. "a
warehouses along both sides of the
river, in South Water street stores and
In many hospitals, particularly the IroS
ouois Memorial, physicians and nurses
we're working to revive victims who
seemed to have chance.
Anguish Spreads Over City.
Meantime the anguish of children
orphaned, parents left childless and
husbands and wives separated by
death spread itself from the spot of
tragedy throughout the city. Wild
hunts were made In morgues and tenn
porary repositories of the dead for rel
atives whose fate was not positively
known.
Zeal of first-aid volunteers delayed
Identification of many of the dead. As
a body was taken from the water
physicians took charge of it, always on
the assumption that life remained in
it. Quickly the clothing would be
removed to make the efforts of resus-
citation more effective. In many in
stances the clothing was mislaid or
mixed with the apparel of other vic
tins, so that marks that might have
helped to identify them were lost.