The Brooklyn Citizen from Brooklyn, New York • 1

LAST L. JKiniJX WEATHER INDICATIONS Ikiaui Ikli iflwiMi at Imuikv, falx. ((Mm) (I IU CuM 1 N. I Ikl I U. Mil Ml i 4l A.

Nil I PRICK TWO VOL. A' XXV. NO. 1C7. BROOKLYN, TI I U1 LSI A JH.NH Ji, 11)01.

pjr ilL rr'C' li Ini a 9 Jj tLy ill JV Hu iy Vii Wi CARRYING THE SLOCUMS DEAD INTO BELLEVUE MORGUE Authorities Say that From 1,000 to 1,200 Perished on the Slocum. BROOKLYNS LIST OF DEAD, 28 500 Of' More Than 1,500 on the Boat Only Had Been Accounted for Up to a Late Hour This Afternoon. CHARRED BODIES ARE Relatives of the Lost Go Insane Life-Preservers Said to Have Been Rotten Captain Van Schaick Tells Story of Disaster. Up to 3 oclock this afternoon 539 bodies had been recovered from the wreck of the excursion steamer Slocum. The death list in Brooklyn numbers 28, according to the best reports.

Permits for the burial of 265 bodies have been granted, that number having been identified positively. Mayor McClellan has appointed a Relief Committee of ten. President Roosevelt has received from President Loubet, of the French Republic, a message of sympathy. Secretary Cortelyou has ordered an investigation. DEATH LIST IS ESTIMATED AT 1,000 THIS AFTERNOON This Is But One of the Pitiable'Scenes of This Morning in the Work of Recovering and Caring for the Bodies.

28 Whole Families Wiped, Out at Once, NAMES OF THE VICTIMS E. Greenpolnt and South Brooklyn Mother and 1 Children Gone -i2hr Brooklyn prbon ar tin rfH.li of the htirnlnj of th GfnfrilJ Mo mi. Vh'I Linulif in the EastrW tmpotnt and Fouth Brooklyi have Upon a out by the hornhl dia efcr. Wives and toother, with their children, unit doit ii death in the accident and io t-niuo ease their bodies are supposed to be Mill in the hold of the steamboat. The hnnde, Torniport and Kirchrj ftiinihes were almost entirely ohhteraj'J by the burning of the boat, the Lnt family, of the Katern Pwtrict, Having th-4 huMbnnd and a were drowned, and' Muiian Shneider lost nenrly ail hia fam-A aMiic only bin baby hoy.

The Peekhof family, from South Brook-4 lyn. nMinj of mother, three daughter! and a -n. met death in the wrek. Th bmt.ind and a son, a ho atayed at boraej are left of what was a happy houeeholrfc, yeterdar morning. The A-omplefe Iiet of Brooklyn dead, a far as reported today, la a follow: BOEOFR.

FLORENCE, year, of No fia Puw man avenue; tdentt fled by father, William, Alexander avenue station, BCHNI PB, ANNIE, IS year oM, wife of Harvey of No. 19S Guernsey street. SCHSfDE. GRACE, years old. d.iuthter of tCMNl'PB.

MILDRED. 9 jwl old, Hkrrr and Annl ShMido. TORNIPORT. MRS. FREDA, ti No 1M Guernwy TORNIPORT.

FRANCES, 4 yor oM, of Frfdt. TORNIPORT. CHARLOTTA. year old. duh ter of Froda.

ROBERTS. MRS. CLARA widow, 7 year old. of No. 1 Guernsey rWt, sUter of former Assemblyman Jotan H.

Douglass. ROBERTA. 12 year old. daughter of Clara KIRCHER. JOHN.

8R well-known GreenpoiMI wheelwright. 47 year old, of No. US Russell street. KIRCHER. EMMA, 40 yean old, wife I John, Sr.

KIRCHER, MRS. GEORGE, daughter-in-law John and Emma. KIRCHER. HAROLD, yean old, sob of Mra. George Klrcher.

KIRCHER. ELSIE, 1 year old, daughter Jdhn Klrcher, Jr. BCCH MILLER, ANNA. 27 year old. wife 4 John Buchmilier; lived at No.

71 Calyot street. BUCHMILLER. GEORGE, TEARS OLD, ogj of John and Anna. BUCHMILLER. ARTHUR, 4 year Old, aoa of John and Anna.

LUETJEN. KATE, wife of John Luetjen. of No, Clymer street. Luetjen bad chart 4 lunch for church. LUETJEN, AVGUST.

JR-, If year old, oa August and Kate. LUETJEN, MARGARET, 17 year Old, daughter of August and Katf. SCHNEIDER, DORA. yean old, of No. 322 Stanhope street, wife of August Schneider, musUian aboard the boat.

SCHNEIDER. KATE, I year old. daughter 1 August and Dora. SCHNEIDER. AMELIA, 4 year old, daughter August and Dora.

DIECKHOF. ANNIE. If year old. daughter of Frederick Dieckhof. of No.

121 Fourth avenu EECKH' Annie a DIECKHOF. MART, 14 year -old, sister DIECKHOF, WILLIE, 4 year old, brother ef Mary and Annie. DIECKHOF. MR9. FREDERICK, of No.

Kf Fourth avenue, mother of Mary, Annie, Willie and Katie; supposed 'to In hold of steamer. DIECKHOF, KATIE, II year old. Sister of Mra Frederick Dieckhof and supposed to with her in the steamer hold. 1 MOURNING IN E. D.

HOMES MANY VICTIMS LIVED THERE There is mourning in many-homes in th. Eastern District, as tho result of the fata which befell the General Slocum. From all the data which was gathered to-day, mor than two dozen lives were lost of person living in that part of this borough. A well-known family in Greenpolnt hag been almost completely wiped out. Tin family consisted of Harry Sohnude.

teller in the Kountz Brothers banking establishment in the Equitable Life building, Manhattan; his wife, Annie, thirtw years old. and their children, Grscs and Mildred, four and two years old. The family tired at No. 196 Guernsey strrer. This family made np a party to attend th excijrsion.

In it, besides Mr. Schmids and the two children, were Mrs. Fred Torniport, twenty-seven years old, of No. 196 Guernsey street, and the latter's two Children, Frances and Charlotte, four and tno year old, respectively. There was also in the party, Mrs.

Clara A. Roberts, a widow, thirty-seven years old, tba sistc of former Assemblyman John H. Douglas, and her 12-year-old daughter, both of wkouif lived at No. 190 Guerssey street. In the same bouse, and also attending tbe excursion pith the party, wa Mr.

Kasselbaum, the mother of Mrs. ghnode, and Miss Nettie Kasselbaum. the twentv. eight-year-old daughter of Mrs. Ki--'-barnn.

The latter two re believed to hav, be-n the only one saved of the enure pirtv, the others being either dead os niinmg. Mira Kaelhnum vi a gOntinued on a BROUGHT UP BY DIVERS wooden boxes. "When a load was secured the tug would steam through the SouDd into the East River and down to the foot of East Twenty-sixth street, where the pier had been transformed into a temporary morgue. Out on the Sound about North Brother, South Brother and Riker's Islands there were numerous small boots, manned by police and volunteer watermen. They constantly were finding bodies, which were taken to North Brother Island and given in charge of the proper authorities.

ONLY 500 OUT OF 1,500 HAVE BEEN ACCOUNTED FOR. The number of dead, even now, only ean be estimated. Health Commissioner Darlington, who was at tbe scene all yesterday, and who has watched the horror in all its details, says the victims will number at least one thousand and probably exceed that figure. Five hundred bodies have been recovered up to 9:30 oclock this morning and every half hour was adding ten and more to the list. It is known that nearly fifteen hundred persons boarded the Slocum when she left her pier at the foot of East Third street yesterday morning.

Less than five hundred have been account for at the hospitals and at home. Tbe other are dead. Of the bodies recovered a hundred and a few odd had beea identified np to this morning. District Attorney Jerome has engaged Fire Marshal Free! to assist him in making an investigation into tbe causes of the accident. It is openly charged to-day that the life-preservers on board the General Slocum were worthless because ago hud rotted the cork until they lost their buoyancy.

The canvas coverings were tbin and in some cases could be torn snd ripped with the thumbnail. Many of these life-preservers were picked up in the Sound and have been secured by the District Attorney. Jacob Miller, who wps a survivor of the wreck, says that he tried six life-preservers before ha found one that did not actually fall apart when be tried to attach it around hie body. Most pf those found in the water were tom apart, exposing perforated cork which has much less buoyancy that solid cork. Miller said; When I saw that I must jump int the water I reached up and took down a life-preserver.

Aa I grasped it to lift it down it fell apart and the cork dust came down in a shower. I took another and while I was adjusting it. It fell apart I tried six before I found one that wa of any possible service. Even this one lost much of the cork after I had been in the water a short time. Many others tried the life-preservers with the same results I had.

SAWDUST LIFE PRESERVERS WOULD PASS INSPECTION. President F. A. Barnaby, of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company, owners of the General Slocum, this morning declared me o.ui.i..., tin. u.i.,u.u umirni year and I should say that 300 were put aboard the Henry Lundberg, a local assistant in spector of made an examination of the General Slocum on May 5.

lie found six metal life-boats in good condition and the life-preservers -ready for inspection. Lundberg said to-day: I found more than 3,000 life-preserTers and ail were in good condition. I did not reject one, knowing- that the boat was licensed to carry only 2.500 persons. They were, as tbe law requires, placed easy, of access overhead. Were they out of reach of children? Yes.

A child could not have reached them. When asked if he had tried the life-preservers for buoyancy Lundberg made the surprising statement: No, we never did that. That is done at the factory, where they were made. So far as the government inspection is concerned, the life-preserver could have been filled with sawdust and they would have never known it. Supervising Inspector Robert S.

Rodie, said this morning that within a few days an exhaustive inquiry into the disaster would be held. He said that his records showed that he boat was properly equipped. MOTHER GOES INSANE UPON DEATH OF HER CHILD. The day of disaster was followed by a night of horror and grief at the Morgue, where more than 400 bodies lay in rows awaiting identification. Earh hour brought more bodies from the waters in and about the wreck and the work of identification proceeded slowly.

The scenes at the Morgue were heartrending and defied de-acription. All night nnd to-day hundreds of men and children, with faces drawn in grief and blanched with horror, passed between the lines of dead looking for their loved and lost ones. Fifty policemen, under the direction of Inspector Brooks, assisted relatives and friends in their work of finding the dead. Now and then a little party of searchers halted before a corpse, believing that they had found their own, only to pass on again to look elsewhere. Many of the dead were burned and charred beyond recognition nnd sometimes an Identification was effected by a piece of clothing or a ring.

Many will be buried without identification because of their incinerated condition. AH through the night work went on. while uow hnd then, above the moans and cries, an agonizing shriek would tell ef enofr identification. The only licb' the Morgue and on the pier, whev of the bodies lay, were Iniltern and handles, and in the flickering flashes of ochre the searcher Early to-day 4 89 bodies of victim, of the disaster on the steamboat General Slocum had been recovered. Eight bodies in one group were picked up off North Brother Island.

Tbe divers at dawn resumed work In the sunken hull of the Slocum. They have added to the ghastly list. The horror grew during the The total number of dead, it now is estimated, will reach at least 800. Some estimates put it as high as 1,000. Grief-stricken crowds thronged the Morgue, the vicinity of St.

Marks Church and the shores near the wreck all night, looking for loved ones. One mother, who identified the burned body of her child at the Morgue this morning, tried to jump from the pier on which the body lay. She was restrained with difficulty and was led away by relatives and friends. The serious charge is made by survivors thst the steamboat was supplied with rotten life-preservers. The authorities are Investigating this charge.

About 250 feet from the New York shore, off Hunts Point, the upper part of a paddlebox, two smokestacks, scorched flagstaff and some twisted and bent ironwork, all sticking out of the water at an angle of 45 degrees, lie the remnants of the Slocum. It is a temporary and hideous monument at the scene where nearly 1,000 persons, the great bulk of whom were women and children, lost their lives in fire and water. To-day there are grave murmurings and charges that this terrible sacrifice of life was needless; that the officers of the boat, though their bravery is admitted, erred when they drove the burning vessel for half a mile before beaching her; that the life-belts were rotten and unservicable, and that the construction of the upper works of the boat was faulty, inasmuch as it was all of wood and gave a frha sweep to the flames. CHARRED BODIESARE BROUGHT UP BY DIVERS. This latter complaint is true of steamboats ail over the country.

There is no law providing that superstructure should he built of ateel, but with the Slocum horror, as a terrible lesson, it will not he surprising if such a steamboat regulation were adopted. Long Island Sound this morning yaa covered with a thick white mist thatt-tied around the wreck of the Slocun 'as if an endeavor to cover the horror with a hugo white mantle. All throngh tbe night tugs hovered about the wreck, but the work of taking out bodies, which bsd been suspended st midnight, wts not resumed until the sun was well up. On the shore during the night there always was a crowd, ever changing, of anxious fsces and other relative of the dead. Half a doren divers were at work to-day, led by John Rice, the hero of the Boonton catastrophe in which Diver Oleson lost his life.

Every now and then the people on shore would see man, in a- v-ird looking suit, slip over the side of the tug and sink to the bottom. When ha returned he would have a blackened, dripping figure in hia arms, victim of the disaster. Aa a diver brought a body to the surface a grappling booh was placed under it asd it was raised -i-l cut rr the corp-ea, i 1 i hu d-k of the tug. the bodies wore burned beyond a When aeveiat bodies were re i r.tr mg would alongside rrsneo r-ed. Then a The croud cbeerH and then assisted the reunited ones to thir homes near by.

In front of thc house of Edward Klein, of No. 81 Avenue A. a sympathetic crowd was gathered this morning. He had lost his eutire family. Crepe, some white, some black, hangs from many doors to-day, and the death emblems are constantly being added to.

Whispering groups about house so marked tell the tale of eath particular tragedy. Half crazed after his terrible experience. Captain William N. Van Schaick. of the Genera! Slocum, lies in Lebanon Hospital, a prisoner.

He wax removed to the hospital from the Alexander Avenue Police Station after he had collapsed. In reply to the charges that he might have saved scores of lives had he beached his vessel immediately after the fire waa discovered instead of runniug her up the river for nearly a mile to North Brother Inland. Captain Van Shaiek to-day said: 1 think there were about 1,400 passengers aboard tbe Slocum when we left the East Third street dock. I took the vessel up the river slowly and was bearing over toward Sunken Meadow when my blood turned cold at the eight of fire issuing from the companion ways. sounded the alarm for the fire drill and left the pilot house to direct the crew in fighting the flame.

I was met by a terrible ruh of panic-stricken people. The situation was beyond the control of any man. I stood poweilese to stop the panic among the passengers. The flames spread like lightning. I ran back to the pilot house nnd swung the boat OTer toward North Brother I.Mand.

Men, women and children were jumping overboard. My God. wbat a sight it was to me! I ran for the sand )it of the island and continually signalled the engine room to crowd on every pound of steam. CAPTAIN STUCK TO HIS POST TO THE END. 1 know that I could have saved some time by runnine into the docks on the west shore of the river, hut I did not do this beesuso I feared that tho burning ship might reuse one of the big gas tanks on the river front to explode.

If I did wrong in making tho longer run to North Brother Island I have a lifetime to regret it. I did what 1 thought at the time was hest. The flames sere licking the pilot house when we struck the teach north of the island. Followed by my pilots I ran over the rail and leaped into the river. I floundered about in the water for a long time and then some one pulled me up on the shore.

I do not think more than five minutes elapsed from the time the fire was discovered to the time we ran tho ship on the beach. To-day the bravery exhibited by Captain Van Schaick is admitted by survivors. There are many who think he erred in making the longer run to North Brother's Island, instead of putting into the New York shore, but they give him credit for sticking hy his ship to the last. The captain's hat was burned from his head and his clothing was on fire when he leaped into the water. He also had accomplished what he started out to do to beach his boat before he tried to save i seif.

The mvsterv as to tb rauo of the fire yCuPua jefi Coronors Physician Weston has charge of the uork of identification at the morgue and pier and he is being assisted by Super-intendput Kickard, of Bellevue Hospital. Health OotymMnoner Parhnjtton, who had been on North Brother Island most of the night, came down with a boatload of de.td to the morcue this morning. I am satisfied that fully 1.000 perMns lnt their lives in this disaster said Com-miioner Darlington. This estimate is made after carefully going over the entire accident. There 1.5O0 persons on the boat.

Only 200 of tbee were cared for at North Brother Island Hospital. Tbe ruins of the boat still are choked with bodieO Superintendent Rickard, of Bellevne Hospital, said this morning: fIt will take'day and days to identify oil the bodies. In all my eighteen years of hospital experience this is the most appalling accident I ever heard of. I believe that 1,200 people are LIGHTS BURN FOR THOSE WHO NEVER WILL RETURN. St.

Marks German Lutheran Church, the parishioners of which the General Slocum for a happy day. but which proved a day of death, is on East Sixth street, between tbe Bowery and Second avenue. In drew its attendants from the territory hounded by Ead Houston on the south, the Bowery on the west. East Fourteenth street on the north, and Avenue A on the The district is old fashioned, and its imputation has shown little change so far as nationality and character statistics go for many years. Thrifty Germans and their descendants have made it their home for fifty years.

It is one of the most orderly places in the city, and while none there have made great wealth, there Is little real poverty. No great general aorrow had reirhed it until now, but this Mow has been frightful. Although through the night lights shone in hundreds of windows, each light indicated a desolated home. Some hoped against hope that those who had happily departed in the morning might have been saved and would return, and these kept sad and anxious vigil. In lower floors passersby saw men and women kneeling in prayer.

Doctors hurried through the streets, to disappear in doorways. A few of the injured had been able to return home hut they were not the only ones in need of medical aid. Others had become sick and all but erased by the terrible suspense. In hundreds of homes sleep was unknown. An idea of the terrible strain nnder which the people labored may be obtained from incidents in the neighborhood.

Lata last night a crowd of tearful, frantic women, rushed toward a young woman who alighted, bandaged and burned, from a Second avenue surface car at Sixth street. She was hatles and her hair was streaming. A-man put hia arm about her and half carried her to the curb. One white-haired woman in the crowd rnshed to the girls aide and clutched at her shoulder. With painful effort the girl turned her head.

A glad cry escaped tbe old woman. CAPTAIN VAN SCHAICK TELLS STORY OF DISASTER. Thank Got he cried. yon are here. Tbe put ht'r a-bi about the womans 6ck fry 4 i tLs one word.

vinced the doctors that she had lost her reason, and she was taken to tbe insane pnvilion at Bellevue, where she waa plait'd in a strait-jaoket. The woman is raving mad and her condition is hopeless. WOriANTAKENTOTHEnORClUE RECOVERS CONSCIOUSNESS. Jacob Dfnesch, of No. 401 East Fifth afreet, found his daughter Lena in a dying condition at Lebanon Hospital.

He hunted all day for his ife and found her among a boat-load of victims at the morgue. He identified her by means of a ring. Crazed with grief he ran to the edge of the pier and wne about to throw himself when he was seized by morgue attendants. Let me go, he pleaded. Let me die.

I am left without those dearest to me in lift I must die with them." Denesch was overpowered by the' police and taken home by an officer. Hundreds were drawn to the morgue by morbid curiosity and not a few passed themselves off as relatives of the dead, in order to satisfy their perverted appetite for a sight of the dead. Whenever it was discovered that they were there for such gratification they were summarily hustled away by the police. Picked up, burned and apparently drowned. Miss Clara Hartman, a young woman of No.

308 East Tenth street, w.ia taken to the temporary morgue at the Alexander avenue station. She was found by a launch near the wreck, floating in the water nnd was towed to the Bronx shore. Her body was wrapped in a tarpaulin sheet nnd tnken to the station house. Fully three hours had elapsed before Miss Hartman was brought to the station house. While waiting to he removed to the morgue on the tug Massasoit.

an unknown woman, who had volunteered to assist the doctors in making the identification, lifted tbe sheet from Miss Hartmans form. Enlacing her corset, she began a search for identification marks. There waa something about the womans body that made her pause, and she thought she detected a sign of life. This woman is alive! tho woman cried. In an instant three doctors were at her side, working.

over the body of the supposed dead woman. Presently there was a long-drawn sigh and a catching of breath and then Quickly she was carried to Lincoln Hospital, here efforts were redoubled to resuscitate her and at last she regained consciousness. There were several burns on her body, BELLEVUE SUPERINTENDENT SAY5 1,200 PERI5HED. "I remember the fire, she said, "the panic and the people throwing themselves overboard, but I cannot tell the story. I fled from the flames with the rest and found' myself in the water.

I can't say how I was saved. 1 do not know bow I came here." Miss Ilsrtman sis found hy one of a fleet ef rescuing boats which already was blled with a cargo of dead. There was no room and Mis Hartman was fastened to a rope and towed to the shore. For more than an hour she lay on the pir before she waa taken to the station house. The health boat Franklin E4nu brought in more hodie from Notth Brother t-iend tb's morning two Of these worn, thro were chi! jag and las wets m.a -v I mi I 1 sought out tile missing.

Many fainted that if any loss of life was due to de- I when they discovered their lost ones snd fective apparatus, the Marne rests on the had to be carried out into tho street. On woman, Mrs. Leiia Rosski. of No. 337 East Fifth atreet, 'after an all-night aearoh among the dead, 1 found her teii-yeareold daughter'! body at the Morgue early this morning.

With A wild cry. she dashed for tho river and was about to throw her-if over into th- wat-rs when she was seized by the gulice. Then the woman drew a vial of carbolic acid from her pocket nnd I as about to d-nk it lien the bottle on K-y-ked from hr hinds. Uor -o as! aa-c-g q-txUy eon- government inspectors. Barnsby said that the boat waa turned over to them three weeka ago, after a thorough orerhauling, and the government inspectors reported at the time that everything had been done to make the boat seaworthy and safe.

Tie added; The condition ef the life-preserver is left to the inspector. They examine them and all they pronounce nnfit are thrown awav and new ones replace them. I boujiit tUmswidg ti lif fiieicrverg.