The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1915-07-30
MoRcuEs VISITED BY FRiENos
AND RELATIVES SEARCHING
FOR LOVED ONES.
LITTLE VIOLENT EMOTION
Some Few Broke Down Under STRAIN
and Were Cared For BY Corps
of Red Cross Nurses.

the city with the Eastland disaster
and engulfed thousand homes With
grief, found most poignant expression
in the presence of the silent forms
of the victims laid out in the drill
hall of the Second Regiment Annoy,
Chicago's temporary morgue.
Side by side lay the dead. Among
them walked anxious hundreds seek
ing to identify a loved one and hop
ing they might not succeed. Time
and again a group would pause beside
a pitiful bundle. There would be a
gasp, a low-vOiced exclamation, a fiog
of tears, and another would De taken
from the list of unidentified dead and
placed in the known columns.
There was little sign of violent
emotion though everywhere the tense
ness of repression was apparent. Men
and women, boys and girls, and even
little ones, bereft in many cases of all
their loved ones, though they shook
with sobs, made no cutlery as they be-
held their dead. Some few broke down
under the strain and were cared for
by corps of Red Cross nurses sta
toned in squad room near the en-
trance. But Of the thousands who
through the day and night visited the
armory, not more than a hundred
needed aid
All through the night load after load
OF bodies were received at the morgue
and through the morning at less and
less frequent intervals the procession
continued
While the victims were being identi.
he'd, 30 undertakers and 40 embalme,s
VINO had volunteered at the cali of Cor.
oner Peter NJ. Hoffman, worked rapid
ly in space at the north end Of the
nall, preparing the bodies for burial
Hearses Front tho Armory.
AS the morning wore along the Cur
tiss street front of the armorv became
crowded with hearses and the incom.
ing stream of bodies from the impro-
vlsed morgues and from the overturn-
ed vessel was passed by another line
OF bodies, identified, and in the keep
ing of an undertaken
Before body passed out the identi-
fication was recorded by deputy cor
Oner and the name of the nearest rela-
tive placed on file. So perfect had
been the preparatory work of the cor
oner, that from noon until l o'clock
more than 100 bodies were taken away
and few hours later less than 200
bodies remained in the temporary
morgue.
Approximately 5000 persons, most
OF them friends or relatives of the
victims, had gathered about the arm.
DRY before noon. Two and three
abreast the lines extended along two
sides Of the armOry square and
block east in Randolph street. Two
and three hundred at time they were
admitted and when all of one group
had passed out, another took it's place.
Many Of the bodies bore no signs OF
struggle. Calm and still, their face.
lay upturned, uncovered to aid in iden.
LITIGATION. Here and there, however
was one with distorted limbs, with q
bruised head or torso. Perhaps the
most pitiful of the many sad scenes
were the bodies Of the little ones. marc
babies who were caught in the crowd.
ed cabins Of the overturned boat. For
several hours two of these little ones
lay with smiling. upturned faces near
where the embalmers were busy. Fl.
nally the pitiful sight become tn,
much for the nerves of oven tbose
most used to scenes of death, and the
tiny forms were carried to q more "a.
mote part of the hall.
"All Cone" Woman Murmurs.
In the Red Cross room there were
many scenes of sorrow. One woman
well along in years kept repeating
"All gone! Husband, son, his wife and
their two children" Time after timo
she said this, but no tears fell and q,
last she slowly left the place. still
murmuring. "All gone"
In the outgoing stream was one nm
dertaker's litter containing husband
wife and child. Identification was
made by friend.
Several times through the dav tho
nurses were obliged to Quiet souo
who became hysterical. Several WON.
en- tainted, some few screamed md
one man. bowed with years. scra.r,oa
and struggled with those about b,n,
when he saw the bodies OF his n,;fo,
and children.
THE men are the hardest to contro,
when they do give way" said the nbv.
slcian IN charge Of the relief room
The scene was compared bv oo-o
ners men and police officials who wit,
messed both, to the identificat,or Of
the bodies OF the victims of the yro.
/ quois theater fire.
There is less hysteria. less v,o,o,.
expression of grief here" said IomoS