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Join us as we chronicle the lives of East Village red-tailed hawks, Christo, Dora, and Amelia, as well as other New York City wildlife.
"Thinking that the little girl would be perfectly safe with the preserver on, she lifted her and dropped her over the side. She waited for Elsie to come up. But the child never appeared. She had sunk as though a stone were tied to her."
". . . the Grand Republic was spotted coming up the river. She was loaded to the guards with passengers, her flags were flying gayly, and the strains of music from her band floated lightly over the waters.
The grapplers for bodies paused in their work, hardly believing that they saw and heard alright. It looked like the ghost of the Slocum coming over the same horror-strewn course."The Grand Republic's captain apparently ignored all orders from the police to stop, and kept on at full speed.
". . . just as the spot was being passed where the Slocum was beached, the excursionists waived their handkerchiefs and set up a cheer that echoed far out over the island and was heard on the New York shore, where a mournful knot of people, still hoping to hear something from missing ones, were gathered."A police inspector who was standing onshore, yelling at the pilot to slow his engines, said, "I thought I knew human nature, but people are more callous than even I thought them."
"From the hand of a ten-year-old girl was taken a ring with one pearl and four green stones, a second ring set with a blue stone, and a third ring set with a red stone. In addition there were taken from this body a pair of red stone earrings, a silver medal marked "first prize," and a neck chain with a heart attached."It's difficult for me to fathom to the loss. Not only were entire families wiped out, but the whole neighborhood was emotionally destroyed. This amazing photo shows a funeral procession on Avenue A and 6th Street for unidentified victims. I think the photographer is atop the buildings on the NE corner, looking SW at what is now Benny's Burritos.
"For a year from this day we have known what it means to be without our loved ones. They were taken from us by the greed of those who loved money more than lives. The innocents died horrible deaths to fill the purses of the greedy."Coroner William O'Gorman, Jr, also made some poignant remarks:
"This is the anniversary of the day of death - a beautiful day like this . . . The sky was as blue as it is to-day, and the hearts that have ceased to beat were filled with the hope of a happy day . . . the love of money caused the loss of life. The steward tried to swim ashore with his pockets filled with heavy coin. He was drowned."The crew of the Slocum never bothered to have a fire drill.
"It is the street of dreamers and the dreamless, of people who sing of love and those who travel on the wings of drugs, of the irreverent and the irrelevant, the elusive and the elliptical . . . St. Marks Place remains a multifaceted world unto itself, with its own subcultures and its own strangeness. When you have spent some time there, you know you have been someplace to remember."And...
"It was an odd day when, in March 1988, a Gap store opened up in space once occupied by the St. Marks Cinema. People on St. Marks Place laughed. What, they wondered, did the Gap have to say to the anarchistic spirit of St. Marks Place? What was next, Bloomingdale's?"The Gap is now gone, but things even more generic and bland have taken its place. You'll be hard-pressed to find anything unique and special along this stretch, which is why T&V - and Jimmy - are such treasures. They have survived the strip-mallification of the East Village and I hope they continue to rock on...
UPDATE: The swirls have returned!