The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-07-27
RSs3ue WGrk BegUH.

Roats nut out, tugs rushed to the
scene, with shrieking whistles and
many men jumped into the river to aid
the drowning. WIFI thousands OF spec
tators ready to aid and the wharf with
| in grasp hundreds went to death de-
spite every effort at rescue. One
mother grasped her two children IN
her arms as she slipped from tie
steamer into the water. One child
was torn from her, but she and the
other we're saved. Fathers were
drowned after aiding their wives and
children to safety.
One man was seen to cling to
spike in tie side of the wharf while
two women and three children step
ped upon his body to safety. He fell
exhausted into the river as the last
one of the five reached the pier.
Instances Of neroism were almost
as numerous as tie number of persons
on the scene. Boats as soon as full
took rescued passengers to the wharf
or to the steamer Theodore Roosevelt,
which was tied up opposite the East
land.
To Save Bodies.
In an -FOUR the water was cleared
of excursionists. Those who had not
been taken to land. had sunk or were
swirling down the river toward the
drainage canal locks at Lockport, ILL.,,
many miles away. The locks were
raised to stop the current and arrange
ments were made to take bodies from
the river along its course through the
southwest part of Chicago.
Shortly after the water was cleared,
citv firemen and workmen were on the
exposed side of the Eastland's hull,
cutting through its steel plates with
gas flames. Divers were hurried into
underwater suits. A tug was moored
as a bridge between the pier and the
capsized ship.
As the divers gained entrance to the
hull, the scene of distress moved for
the time being from tie river to the ex-
temporized morgues. Warehouses OF
wholesale companies along the river
were thrown open and bodies were
placed in rows on the floors. Scores
of persons rescued from the water
were injured and these were taken to
the Iroquois fospital, built in memory
and the 600 women and children and
few men who were burned and crushed
TO death in the Iroquois tneater sew
eral years ago.
Efforts to resuscitate those take from
IT, e river were generally unsuccessful.
Only two or three we're thus saved. 1t
was also said i at many of the injured
would die.
CITY in CONSERVATION.
The whole city was in CONSERVATION
over the catastrophe Word of the ac-
cident spread rapidly and to tie thou
sands already at or near the wharf
other thousands added themselves.
The Clark street bridge near the wharf
" as crowded until it threatened to col
lapse. Streets ad to be cleared by the
no,ice to allow the passage Of ambu-
!ances.
Business men sent their automobiles
and motor trucks to nelp aid the in
iured and carry away the dead. One
warehouse soon was filed with bodies
and other dead were taken to the Sec
ond regiment armory, mile away.
Mayor William Hale Thompson was
in San Francisco and Chief of Police
|C. c. Healy was also out Of town, but
Acting Mayor Moorehouse sent out
request that the city display signs OF
mourning. F,ags on public buildings
were placed half mast and many
places were draped with mourning
Baseball games were postponed and
festivities largely ceased.
While those on la1d were d1sposing
of the dead, injured and rescued, tie
divers in the heart of the sunken yes
sci sent up an almost constant stream
OF corpses from the submerged decks.
Pathetic Burdens.
First, it was a gaily dressed girl in
her teens who had been caught be-
tween a pile of chairs and a cabin
wall. Next it was slight boy, gath
cred from the lifeless arms of a fond
father, who had clung to his offspring,
even in death. Then followed an old
woman, who had gone aboard the ship