Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1915-07-30

Chicago, July 26-Fifteen hun
dred lives were lost Saturday morn
ing in the greatest ship calamity in
history.
The steamship Eastland turned on
its side at it's dock in the Chicago
river near Clark street at TAO in the
morning. Aboard were $500 holiday
makers, bent on the annual excursion
to Michigan City given by the West
ern Electric company to it's employees.
AS the boat capsized hundreds on
the upper deck were thrown in masses
into the water, where many were lost.
Most Of the other passengers, caught
below in the cabins or on the lower
decks, persisted without chance of es-
cape. They were swallowed up in
watery graves in the sight Of other
thousands who were crowding the
Clark street bridge, the wharves and
the adjoining streets on their way to
other boats, for five vessels had been
chartered for the excursion.
TERROR FOLLOWS GAYETY.
The disaster was matter of only
few minutes. Many were surging to
the gangplank, anxious to embark.
AS the gangplank was pulled in and
preparations we're made to cast off
the steamer listed to port, or toward
the river. The passengers were crowd
ing on that side to get the view. The
sway at first occasioned little alarm.
The joking and laughter continued,
but as the great hull continued to
swing over terror suddenly gripped the
passengers.
There was mad scramble, panic
in which the terrified passengers
fought for places of safety. Shrieks
and cries wrung the hearts of those
on shore. A minute or two more and
the ship was fiat on its side like
dead fish, and those caught beneath
and within were enJombed by the in
rushing water.
+ RIVER THICK WITH BODIES.
The surface of the river was thick
with struggling forms. Babies per-
ished in sight of those on the docks
and bridges. The witnesses say 1t
was all over in between four and six
minutes. One instant the boat was
filed with laughing picnickers in their
holiday finery. The next instant forms
of men and women in frenZied fight
for life churned the water, then sank.
On the side of the boat were numbers
who had clambered over the rail as
the boat settled on it's side. Some
escaped without even wetting their
feet.
The whistles of tugs and excursion
boats shrieked the alarm. Boats put
off to the rescue. Hundreds of per-
sons were dragged from the river to
safety. South Water street men tossed
barrels and crates and chicken boxes
into the river, where they were seized
by the drowning. Forty miles away
at Lockport the bear trap dam in the
drainage canal was closed to stop the
river current. Fire boats and tugs
spread out like fan around the
death ship and then began the work
of taking out the bodies.
MoRGUES IN WAREHOUSES.
The nearby streets and warehouses
were turned into morgues. Bodies
were piled in rows. Ambulances and
vans and delivery trucks were pressed
into service as death carts, while as
fast as the bodies were taken out hun
dreds of physicians strove to bring
back life.
At the south approach to the Clark
street bridge respiration machines
were operated on the sidewalk. Vic
Tins were worked over the moment
they reached shore. Emergency hos
pitfalls were established within few
feet of the disaster.
MoRGUE ON STEAMER.
The Theodore Roosevelt, one of the
five boats chartered for the excursion,
which was moored on the opposite side
of the Clark street bridge, was turned
into morgue and hospital.
AS soon as the calamity became
known, doctors and nurses by the
hundreds volunteered their services,
and for hours they strove in the work
of resuscitation. Few were revived,
however, as the bodies had been in
the water too long.
AS the gray day wore along and the
bodies came forth, stiff in the rigorA of
death, the respirators were retired.
The physicians administered injec-
ttons of strychnine. and occasionally
when the powerful drug seemed to re-
kindle spark of life the lung motors
were called into requisition Doctor
Springer, coroner's physician, exam