CICERO STREETS CROWDED WITH FUNERALS
, AUTO TRUCKS BEAR BODIES
This is Chicago's black day of
mourning when auto trucks in place
of hearses were pressed into service
to carry to their final resting places
the last victims of the Eastland dis-
aster, and grave-diggers were hard
f pressed to have each little plot dug
out and ready when the heart
crushed brought their dead to the
cemeteries.
The whole city mourns the dead,
, but it is in Cicero that the pall of grief
lies so heavy it is felt in the deserted
streets and carries as one passes this
house and that, sometimes side by
side, with the crepe on the door and
sometimes with two streamers of
crepe indicating that families on two
floors of one house were stricken.
There will be 500 funerals today.
There were 2Q0 yesterday and there
are not facilities to properly bury the
dead. Funerals over as many as 30
bodies will be held at one time in a
church. There are not enough
hearses and various vehicles will have
to be pressed into service, as they
"were yesterday coffins carried in
open automobiles and auto trucks,
a dozen carried in a hayrack to a
Polish cemetery.
In the vicinity of the Western Elec
tric Co. the traffic was blocked almost
all of yesterday and there will be 225
bodies buried today.
Grife has become apathy. Mothers
and fathers, sisters and brothers,
have reached the aftermath of tor
tured hearts when they look on in a
dull, dazed way, more heart-brdaking
than their violent grief. As they be
gan their procession to the cemeter
ies this morning through the rain,
they seemed almost to feel that it was
fitting it should rain and were indif
ferent. One old lady raised her open
palms to the sky as she walked
through the gate of the Resurrection
cemetery and said, without a shade
of emotion: "You cry, too."
.The majesty of tbefuneral services
held In some of the churches seems
more able to stir again the dull grief
into its first poingnancy than the
thud of dirt falling on coffins, and
frequently there mingles-with the sol
emn chants a moan that comes from
lips murmuring: "Dear Mary, mother
of God, have pity on us."
Requiem mass was held over 30
bodies at St Mary's church, corner
of W. 31st st and S. 49th av. at 10
o'clock this morning.
Business houses, every branch of
the Circuit, Superior and Municipal
courts, the County building and all
departments of the city hall, with the
exception of the police, fire, health
and electricity, are closed today in
compliance with the proclamation of
Mayor Thompson, issued yesterday
by Acting Mayor Moorhouse.
o o
DIRECTS STATE'S INQUIRY INTO
, , EASTLAND DISASTER
TW3JX HOTNE
State's Attorney Maclay Hoyne,
who is conducting grand jury inves
gatknjttto Eastland horrort