Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-07-25
2,OOO WOMEN AND
 CHILDREN DROWN
Continued from Page 1.)

hold of the vessel, they were barred by the steel ribs.
 Th sQntrsetur sZ 4 EsJtcraper, two blocks away, stopped his men, and the steel workmen began burning a great hole in the side of the ship with acetylene torches.
 Two or three holes had been cut dead and dying, when Captain Peter son objected.
 "To hell with the ship" shouted the police official in charge of the work ''We are saving lives"
 Providence Saves Baby.
 Before night nearly the whole side of the ship had been cut away. It was through these holes that the l. 300 bodies were brought out Several living persons were found. Two. sis ters, taken out and revived with pull motors, were t3hen to a hospital. tenn porarily insane. Eight hours after the tragedy, year-oId infant was found Its dress had canght 1n what was the side and became the roof of the stateroom. It's dress was not even wet.
 Hour after hour the dead piled up. Toe big grocery and commission houses along the river stopped busi- ness and opened their storerooms as temporary morgues. When darkness fell, 300 bodies were. laid out in rows in the warehouses of Reed, Murdock X. Co., alone. Hour after hour the police beat back the frantic relatives, letting them in one, at time, to at tempt to, identify the dead.
 The crowd remanied downtown late, weeping and walking from warehouse to warehouse, and from morgue to morgue. The families of practically all the dead were downtown, having come to go to the picnic on one of the five ships. Many families were wiped out. but in many case the young folks took one boat while the parents chose another, so that the disaster broke the families in pieces
 The majority of dead were women and children
 Death List May Grew.
 Chicago, July 24.-More than 5000 may have perished in the Eastland disaster, according to the statements of two men taken from the ship.
 Elmer c. Krofcholl and George Mock, Chicagoans, stated that there were fully 3,.00 passengers aboard They said more than 1000 crossed the gangplank before the inspectors be- gan counting.
 With about 300 known to be saved, in addition to the crew of 72, this would
 Officials of the ship and the Indiana Transportation company late tonight however, stuck to their statement that there were only 2,50O aboard.
 Demands Investigation.
 The Chicago Federation of Labor wired President Wilson at his sum- mer home, demanding a full investi- gation. Chief of Police Healy was re- called from his vacation and Mayor w. II. Thompson boarded the first train from San Francisco.
 Captain Charles M Westcott, of Detroit, federal supervising inspector of all lake vessels west of Lake Erie, will arrive early tomorrow morning. Local inspectors tonight began sum- moning witnesses and questioning them.
 
 The maximum penalty under the federal law for boat captains or own CTS found guilty of earelessness which results in the loss of life is ten years imprisonment or fine of S1.00G or both. The government officials are de- termincd that the blame and the pen alty shall be fixed on the guilty per son. There were reports that the ! ship was known to 0e top-heavy. Ex- perts will be called to explain the l structure of the ship, in the hope of showing how the vessel could break all the laws of probability by lying | down on her side in a quiet stream. like tired horse between the shafts, i and drowning practically everybody on board.
 Captain of Vessel Talks.
 Captain Harry Pedersen. 57 years old, of Benton Harbor, Mich. who was in command of the boat, said:
 T was on the bridge and was about ready to pull out when noticed the ,oat begin to list. I shouted ordars- ] o open tie gangways nearest the l.