New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-26
'TH0USAI is ATEP
ALL NIGHT VIGIL
TO CLAIM DEAD
Identification of EaStland
Victims Slow, ThrOngs
SO Vast.
CURIOUS BARRED
From MORGUE
Many Overcome by Gritf at
Still, Blanketed Forms Laid
Out in Rows.


Chicago, July 25.-The night was no
blaCker than the sorrow which spread
over the city with the Eastiand disas-
ter. beclouded a thousand homes and
watched with the silent hundreds wait
inc 10 reclaim their dead who Law in the
drill hall Of the ID Regiment Armory.
All through the night the silent line
outside the entrance to the armory
shufled it's way along or stood waiting
for admittance. All night scores wound
their way between the rows of dead
while silent hundreds waited outside.
And, as fast as those at the head Of
the line were admitted, others joined
the end several blocks away. Daylight
found them still waiting in a double
lire extending for two blocks. Dark
ness came and 0till there were more
outside.
For a few hours after the armory was
opened on Saturday night tears were
in every eye. Mothers and daughters.
wives and husbands, fathers and sons
collapsed beneath the strain Of the
tragedy. Coroner's deputies, nurses,
doctors and police officers. hardened to
the ordinary tragedies of everyday life,
broke down before this one overwnelm-
ing catastrophe.
Workers Injured TO Sorrow.
But as time wore on, the workers
seemed 70 become Injured to the kaleido-
doscope of sorrow passing before their
eyes; they were merely exhausted. The
fountain Of emotion had run dry. With
drawn faces and mechanical movements
they went about their tasks among the
dead-and among the living, too, for il
was no simple task 10 manage the thou
sands that thronged the hall.
At first the work of Identifying and
checking out the bodies to the different
undertaking establishments and homes
proceeded slowly. There were hundreds
Of bodies through which the seeker had
TO search, and the undertakers were not
organized sufficiently to care for the
identified bodies rapidly. During the
early morning bodies were being taken
from the armory at the rate of about
four an hour, while they were being
brought in on an average of two an
hour.
As time passed, thinning the number
to be identified and giving the under
takers an opportunity to systematic
their work, the bodies were removed
as rapidly as they could be checked off
by the deputy at the door, who took
every name and saw TO it that each
body had been properly identified by
relative or friend. About a minute was
consumed in passing upon each case
before the undertaken was permitted
to take the body from the hall
Bodies Rapidly Removed.
When the work Of removing the
bodies really began there were more
than five hundred corpses in the hall
In the three hours between l0:45 in
the morning and :45 nearly four hun
bred bodies were removed. Meanwhile
more than twenty-five bodies had been
brought in, and of the total of $50
about l25 remained unidentified. BY 6
o'clock the bodies remaining in the hall
were less than fifty.
All work in the armory was remark
ably we'll systematized. Crowds Of
the morbid were kept back block in
every direction from the entrance, and
patrolmen and mounted officers guard
ed the barbados TO prevent the on
lockers from breaking through and
crowding about the doors. Even per-
sons living within the lines drawn by
the police experienced considerable
difficulty in reaching their homes, and
as for the curious one, unless he got
in line and waited for hours he did
not have chance % set past the
police.
At the entrance another check was
maintained. OF course il was impossi-
bic 10 identify absolutely each one who
sought admittance, but the fact that
he or she had waited IN line for long
time was accepted as fairly ADEQUATE
evidence of sincerity
Even then, in the opinion of DeSuty
Police Superintendent Schucttler. only
one fourth Of those in the armory were
relatives Of victims. The other three
fOurths, he estimated, were merely curl
GUS persons, but among them he
thought were many who might identl-
fy some of the unknown Although
he did not remain at the armory
Schuettler made frequent trips to see
that everything was working smooth
". Despite the efforts Of the police
the hall gradually became so crowded
that at 4 o'clock Coroner Hoffman
called on those not relatives and
friends of the dead TO leave.
Many of the bodies bore no sign
Of struggle Calm and still their faces
lay upturned and uncovered to aid in
Identification. Here and there, how
ever, was one with distorted limbs, with
bruised head or torso. Perhaps the
most pitiful were the bodies of babies.
For several hours two of these little
ones lay with dimpled faces upturned
near where the emDalmers were busiest.
Finally the sight became too much for
the nerves Of even those most used TO
scenes of death, and the tiny forms
we're carried TO another part of the
hall.
In the Red Cross room there were
many scenes of sorrow so deep as to
bring tears TO the eyes Of those who
ministered to the afflicted. One woman