The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-07-08

Of the biggest show on earth" into
q charred mass of bodies.
BY actual count today, 1913 persons,
most of them children, remained
under treatment at hospitals, and
the condition Of % were regarded
as critical. Doctors, using plasma,
sulfa drugs and penicillin, worked
desperately to keep them alive.
While Kennedy refused to elabo-
rate on the new warrants, Alcorn,
after a conference with State Police
Commissioner Edward j. Hickey,
said that II the evidence already
in our possession Is substantiated,
prompt prosecution will follow
Alcorn said he had information
tending to indicate" that the tent
had been treated with paraffln,
thi1ned with gasoline, enough to
make 1t highly inflammable." He
added that all his information was
being checked carefully.
Flags on state buildings fiuttered
at half staff as bodies of the victims
still unclaimed were removed from
the improvised morgue in the state
armory to the refrigerated morgue
at the Hartford municipal hospital.
Persons with relatives still missing
were to view them later.
All day yesterday. grief-stricken
little professions Of fathers and
mothers shuffled through the ar
mory seeking their missing little
sons and daughters.
10 V.v.NVry ov.V,nHy 0nkc ~sockAd sVa mat
rows in the drill shed with their
bianketed burdens, some of which
were not hidden completely. The
arms of one small girl were crossed
before her face just as If she had
held them in an attempt to protect
herself from the flames as death
struck.
Parents, puffy-eyed with grief
would stoy at cot, and gingerly
lift a blanket. This might be the
one. But more than not, it was
disappointment.
Sometimes a doctor was able to
find some identifying mark but US
ually it was the dentist who was sue
cessfful, using two wooden spatulas
to force open the lips and examine
the teeth.
The professions of the mourning
parents often were interrupted by
white-coated attendants from pri-
vate or city mortuaries coming to
take claimed body. Hearses moved
singly and in caravans from hos
pital morgues and the armory to
Hartford homes, neighboring towns
and rural districts.
Mayor william H. Mortensen said
a mass funeral service probably
would be held for the victims who
had not been identified.
Services were to begin today for
the identified victims. In many
cases children will be buried with
one or both of their parents for en-
tire families were among those kill
ed. Some of the children will be
buried without their parents know
ledge, for at least one mother fight
ing for her life had not been told
that two of her four children she
took to the circus were killed.
The sad-faced clown ana other
circus artists still were stunned by
the disaster. They sat around in
little groups, talking little, as II In
disbelief that SO many OF the people
who came to laugh at them had died
in the flames which brought the
summer tour of Ringing Brothers,
Barnum and Bailey to at least a
temporary halt.
Circus officials made plans TO
move back to winter quarters At
Sarasota, Fla. possibly to refit and
return to the road, However, auth.
critics indicated no equipment could
be moved until the investigations
under way are completed-and that
may be weeks.