The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1915-07-28
DAY OF REJOICING
|TURNED TO MOURNING
Big Passenger, Ship Sinks
|, Drowning Picnickers
CHICAGO DOCKS
I SCENE OF TRAGEDY

NVlhihci UOlilS OH ltOlluuy EXCUF.
sion. Cause Of Sinking Undetcrmin.
ed.
Chicago, July 24.-Approximately
1000 persons lost their lives in the
Chicago River today by the capsizing
or the excursion steamer Eastland
while warping from it's wharf with
more than 2,400 employees Of the Wes-
tern Electric Company and their rola-
tives and friends on board, bound for a
pleasure trip across Lake Michigan.
Aftcri working ceasolcssly all day
and far into the night the bodies Of
S42 victims Of the catastrophe most
OF them women and children, were col
lected in temporary morgues and talk
en- to the I'd regiment armory. When
these bodies had been tagged Coroner
Hoffman, taking into consideration es-
Inmates Of bodies thought to be in the
hold of the steamer, lying on its side
In the river and in the stream itself,
said he believed the total dead would
not exceed 900.
Steamer Declared TOpheayy.
The Eastland said by marine archi-
tects to have been top-heavy and bal
lasted in an uncertain manner turned
over inside of five minutes after it be-
gan to list. pouring its passengers into
the river or imprisoning them in its
submerged hull.
Every effort was made by thousands
OF persons OH the river wharf to res
cue the drow aing men, women and
7childrcn, but many went down almost
within grasp Of the river bank Moth
erS went to death, while their children
were snatchcd to safety. Other chill
drcn died in the arms Of their parents,
who finally were saved Hundreds OF
girls, freed for a day from their tasks
of making telephones and other cleo
trical apparatuses in the factory of tho
Western Electric Company dressed in
their smartcst white frocks, drowned
A pail of sorrow hung tonight over
the entire West Side Of Chicago where
the majority Of the victims lived.
Every Home in Mourning.
Kolin avenue, small street near the
factory Of the Western Electric Com
pany, was In universal mourning. Ev-
cry house lost from one to all its occu-
pants in the disaster, and many of the
residents Of this street tonight lay in
the morguc or beneath the steel hull
Of the Eastland, over which search
lights shot their binding glare, while
hundreds of men searched for more
bodies.
Efforts to discover the cause Of the
accident were begun long before the
work of rescue was over. Federal and
county grand juries were ordered, a
coroncr's jury was impancllcd and all
of the officers and crew of the Eastland
were arrested.
w. c. steele, secretary and treas
urer Of the st. Joseph Chicago Steam
ship Company, who owned the East
land, built on Lake Erie in 1903. and
remodelled later because top-hcavy, 1t
is said. was arrested tonight and
locked up at a police station. The
steamer was leased by the Indiana
TRANSPORTATION Company, whose Of
ficers said they were not responsible
for the licensing Of tho ship and did
not control the crew.
Under misty skies 1000 men, women
and children went to the Clark street
dock early today to fill five large lake
steamers with holiday mirth in a trip
to Michigan City. The steamer East
land was the first TO be loaded.
Rain began to fall as tho wharf sup
crintcndent lifted the gangplanks from
the Eastland, declaring that the Gov
ernment limit OF $500 passengers had
been reached.
EnstIan1 Fails to Move.
. The passengers swarmcd to The left
side Of the ship as the other steam
ers drew up the river towards the
wharf. A tug was hitched to the East
land, ropes were ordered cast off and
the steamers engines began to hum
The Eastland had not budged, how,
ever.
Instead the heavily laden ship wa
yered sideWise, leaning first towards
the river bank. The lurch was so