Year: 1876




RIVER BY POLICE NEGLIGENCE TO BE A


SPECTACLE FOR cALLoUs IDLEas.


About yesterday the following letter. dated the
same day, reached the HERALD office:-


Yesterday noon the body OF a woman was discovered
floating In the slip alongside pier l5 East River II Is
alter eleven O'Clock nearly twenty iour hours
since FIRST found and the body still floats the
ued by cord TO post the bulkhead The usual crowd
OF idle curious ones has lined the dock, aud am told
that since last evening the husband Of the uniortu-
nate woman has kept watch and ward the
mains OF his wife, awaiting the pleasure Of the Coroner
have ascer:aned that the Coroners' Office duly
notified OF the discovery, but delay OF tour hours IN
sending such notice appears to me unreasonable.


Is there no way OF punishing public officer allow
ing body TO remain the best part of day unattended
tor Shame upon such neglect How much longer the
body Will noat and the husband watch | cannot pre-
diet, but as yet there are no signs OF any official
A reporter at despatched to the pier at
which the body was reported to be moored. Arriving
there, 1t discovered that the remains of the
drowned woman had been removed to the Morgue by
the Commissioners Of Charities and Correction, at
twenty minutes before noon. or just twenty.three
hours and forty minutes after the body found and
tied to the bulkhead From the records at the New
street station house, and the statement OF
Sergeant Smith, 1t appears that the body which
was subsequently recognized by Edward Young watch
at Prentice's stores Brooklyn that of his wife
Rose, was picked up in the East River by Roundsman
Curtain and OF patrol boat OF the Harbor Po-
lice. At quarter past two OF the handed
following despatch to Sergeant Smith, which was sent





within fifteen minutes


We have drowned woman pier Is. East River


Roundsman CURTAIN.
This despatch was countersgned by Sergeant Smith.
The next official knowledge Smith had of the
at forty minutes past four when he requested to
send the following


x 4aG To Central l Once Notify Coroner We h9ys dead


Captain Twenty y-fourth precinct.
The above notification reached the Coroners Office
at nifty four minutes past four after Coroner EckhoG
and his associates had gone. Mr.. John Toal at
telegraphed the Commissioners OF Charities and Cor
rection the following ORDER


Morgue. For Coroner j. 5 TOAL
II will be that the blank is left in the despatch
to be hled with the words ''man," "woman," or
'chd." The Charity Commission require this
description, SO that they may know what kind of a
collin 10 send in the dead wagon. Captain Irving
having dropped the word woman the telegraph oper-
ator was compelled TO delay notifying the ComInis-
soncrs of Charities until he teegraphed to the First
precinct:-


:. ohsPM.
ASswER-Woman. w. j. l..
1t seems from the records that delay OF one hour
and three minutes occurred between the receipt OF Mr.
Toals despatch and this The operator reports
that he then called the opcr OF the Charity Com
mission and found that he had left the office corner
OF Eleventh street and Third avenue consequently the
order to remove the hody not until iorty-
seven minutes past eight yesterday morning. Another
record on the Police Central ONCE blotter
shows that an order for dead wagon
to be sent to the Sixteenth precinct received by





eight minutes past six r. NJ. This clearly shows that
the Central Office operator If he had promptly tcle-
graphed to the FIRST precinct for the the corpse
could have had all answer at quarter past five T. M
and notified the operator in Eleventh street within
three minutes To send dead wagon to the pier The
body could have been removed within two hours the
Morgue
Mr. Crowley, Superintendent OF the Police Teie
graph is making an Investigation as TO The respons
bility OF his subordInates the premises lie yester
day called the reporters attention TO the following
notice he has posted as Instructions for his
HI mi tpet hoa
received from the Department of Charities and Corrcc
tom


Charities and Correction Office open from haPast eight
Any for sick dead wagon received after office has


JAMES CROWLEY, Superintendent Telegraph
1t that the operator obeyed this order in this
particular case ana hence the responsibility for this
latest outrage is divided between two departments of
tae city government The Charity Commissioners arc
mainly responsible. Under this order, II body is
found at twenty live minutes to T. NJ on Saturday
night, the police telegraph cannot officially notiIy
their employees TO remove 1t until half past eight ON
Monday morning In the meantime the body must
remain wherever found, except cases where the
remains are identified by friend and the city secured
by that friend for a coroner or his deputy TO give a
permit Tor the removal oil the body Ii does not ap
pear that the Charity Commission are culpablc In
this case. While there is no particular rule the
subject Superintendent Wa!ling states was clearly
the duty OF Roundsman Curtain to request Sergeant
Smith TO notify the Coroner, and 1t the duty Of
smith, after he had official knowledge OF body being
at pier In his precinct, TO do so. Captain Irving
too. in dropping the word woman in his despatch TO
the Coroner has laid himself open to charges for neg
lect OF duty.


The corpse which was left so long pier Is as has
already been stated, Is that OF Mrs Rose Young aged
thirty, wife OF Edward Young residing at No II Fur
man street, Brooklyn. IL seems that her husband on
Monday gave her $l2 to come TO this city and make
some purchases She visited a Mr. Keoun's family at
No. l33 Mott street. and at hafpast got on car
bound Tor the Wall street ferry. That was the last
seen OF her alive IL is believed that in the binding
snowstorm OF Monday night Mrs. Young mistook pier
10 Tor the Wall street ferry house and walked over the
bulkhead into the water. Learning Tuesday that
Mo hn1 ham md eha htal.n
visited the pier and Identified the remains those of
his wife Ignorant OF the fact that all the station
houses The addresses OF the four Coroners and their
deputies. any OF whom would have granted q per.
init or the removal OF the body, the husband stood
guard the all night forty minutes
past eleven A. N Yesterday when the era Of red tape
ended and the corpse taken to the Morgue Tor
Coroner Croker TO hold an inquest.


CHESS