The weekly soliphone. (Paragould, Greene County, Ark.) 1907-1918, 1915-07-30
WORDS CAN'T PAINT
EASTLAND TRAGEDY
f. J. SMITH.
Paragouldian, Back From Chicago,
Witnessed Distressing Scenes
of Great DISASTER.
(From Tuesdays Daily Press)

(FTom tuesdays Daily PreSS)
81 can't begin to give you any
idea of the awfulness of the river
tragedy in Chicago Saturday morn
ing when nearly fifteen hundren
men, women and children were
drowned with the overturning of
the big excursion steamer East
land" said f. j. Smith of Para
gould, who returned this morning
from a business trip to Chicago and
other cities.
81 had left Chicago the day be-
fore for a visit to Hammond, Ind,
and on Saturday afternoon, about
six hours after the tragedy, | was
returned to the city on a train
when | first learned of the disas-
ter. AS soon as l reached Chica-
go | went toward the river but
could not get within two blocks of
lit on account of throngs. Later
| went to another point down the
river and paid a man to take me
in a motor boat to the scene of the
tragedy. What I saw was SO
shocking that it benumbed and al
most paralyzed the senses Divers
were busily engaged going down
under the overturned vessel bring
ing up scores of bodies. Some
were covered with mud, others were
lascerated and their features
smeared with blood. AS soon as
the bodies were recovered they were
taken to temporary morgues and
washed and embalmed | did not
remain long at this g1uesome place,
so sickening were the scenes. The
Eastland was lying on it's side,
with the pilot house toward mid
stream. The hull of the boat was
partly submerged, but enough of it
protruded to give one a good idea
of it's size. Apparently it was one
hundred and fifty feet long, and
the hull was about twenty-five feet
deep.
'The streets were a solid mass Of
SOTTOWIuS humanity. IooplC WCAC
crying and moaning and pleading
to knowif bodies of loved ones had
been found. Hundreds of police
men were engaged in keeping the
crowds back so as not to interfere
with the work of recovering the
bodies. Fifty telephones had been
installed along the dock to answer
inquiries. All were referred to the
armory that had been converted in
to a temporary morgue."
Mr. Smith says the result of the
Investigations made prior to the
time he left Chicago Sunday night
showed couclusively that the oper-
ators of the vessel were to blame
for the disaster. Anticipating
large crowd of excursionists the
captain had ordered the water bal
last pumped out so the boat would
hold the excess weight of human
freight. This fact, combined with
the faulty construction of the hull
is responsible for the boat careen-
ing. Just prior to the accident
two motor boats were observed run
ming a race up the river and near
ly everybody on board the East
land ran to the river side of the
vessel to see the race. The boat
was observed to rock perceptibly
and a warning was given but be-
fore the crowd could leave the side
of the boat it turned on it's side,
splitting more than two thousand
people into the water. The river
at that point is not more than one
hundred and fifty feet wide, said
Mr.. Smith, and it looks like hun
dreds of people could have escaped
death, but the suddenness of the
plunge and the excitement incident
to the disaster made it impossible
for many to use cool judgment.
The Chicago papers are full of
heroic deeds performed by men and
boys in rescuing seve, al score of
people.