The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-17 00:00:00

FUNERAL OF THE VICTIMS.

The Vienna Correspondent of the Daily Hem, writing
from Vienna on Monday night, gave a vivid description of
the funeral ceremony, in which he said :---

The funeral ceremony for the victims of the terrible
fire commenced to-day with a high mass and requiem
in St. Stephen's Church. As soon as day dawned
great numbers filled the gigantic edifice, which was
hung with black tapestry and lighted by hundreds
of candelabra, some with candles, some with gate
Two hundred policemen, in two rows, held the crowd
back from the centre aisle. In front of the altar
were reserved placce for four hundred spectators.
Over the choir, in whose dark recesses stood the
chief mourners, male and female singers were placed,
Whose touching tones moved the audience to tears.
The mourners entered with great composure ; but
when they beheld the funeral pomp around them,
the catafalque in the centre of the ehurch, with
its candles and flowers, and especially when the
soft tones of the sabred music reached their ears,
all their composure left them, and they were a
prey to terrible outbursts of grief. Strong men wept
like infants, and the heaving breast betrayed what the
tearless eye concealed. It was a beautiful spectacle
to see these unhappy persons honoured for their
grief. Poor wretches in tattered garments, with
scarcely a bit of crape to speak of for their mourning,
were led forward to the grand altar and seated in the
highest places of honour.
Precisely at nine o'clock the Crown Prince Rudolph,
the Archdukes Albert, William, Rainer, Charles,
Louis, the highest dignitaries of Court and State,
deputations from the Parliament, the magistrates, and
courts of justice, preceded by the Archbishop, Bishop,
and Priests of St. Stephen's, who had received them
at the so-called Giant Doorway, advanced to the high
altar, and the service commenced. It lasted one hour,
and then the Court and its suite followed by a long
file of persons of note, slowly left the church.
Long before the church service had begun the
people of Vienna thronged to the cemetery, situated
five miles outside the city. Long rows of spectators
lined the roads, and as one approached the spot the
crowd grew more and more dense, so that it
was impossible to estimate how large was the
number of visitors. Hundreds of tramway cars
were filled to overflowing, and long rows of car-
riages all moved in the same direction. Groups of depu-
tations with flags and wreaths had preceded the
carriages outside, the cemetery, which is enclosed by a
high wall, and is large enough to contain 60,000
graves. Seven hundred infantry troops and half a
squadron of Lancers kept order. Seven hundred more
infantry formed a large cross within the cemetery,
the centre of which was the scene of the religious
ceremony about to be performed. The public at
large was not admitted within the line of soldiers,
only the mourners, deputations, and specially favoured
persons. A row of arcades forms a semicircle, in the
centre of which stood a catafalque adorned with a
hundred wreaths, surrounded by lighted torches,
borne by official mourners. Just outside the arcades,
on the green sward, stood 160 coffins, also forming
a semi-circle. They were all of white metal, adorned
with brass feet and crosses, and on each side WAB axed
a number, and a wreath to lay on the to of each. It
was a most pathetic scene, the soldiers and policemen
doing duty on all sides, and the public awe-stricken in the
presence of those glistening coffins on which the rays
of the winter's sun played. But the most affecting
spectacle was to come. A long row of the clergy of all
confessions appeared, preceded by a silver cross—
Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Greek
priests for once peacefully assembled intent upon the
same object, that of blessing the remains of the dead
and consoling the sorrowing.
The first speech was made by the Mayor of Vienna.
In simple heartfelt words he promised that the com-
mon grave of the unknown who were buried there
should be adorned by a monument, and that the day
of their death should be commemorated every year.
Of the clergy, Herr Jellinek, the Jewish preacher,
succeeded in moving the people to heartrending sobs
and tears.

While the speeches were being made the relations
of the victims contained in the coffins approached
these .to take a last farewell. The scenes which
occurred here are beyond the power of description.
Into the peaceful atmosphere of the clear winter day
uprose cries and terrible sounds of anguish. The slid-
denneas with which this grief struck the people
must have unnerved them in an extraordinary manner.
Men called aloud for their dead as if they hoped for
an answer. Suddenly, when the singing of a Protestant
choir closed, a terrific scream of "Fire, fire ! " was
heard, followed by inarticulate sounds so dreadful that
the weaker among the audience covered their ears with
their hands. The cry of " fire " and the screams
lasted a quarter of an hour. They came from a
woman. There could no longer he a doubt she had
gone mad. She was borne away by eight policemen,
and her livid face, her eyes starting out of their
sockets, her wild gesticulations, and her horrible
screams, I shall never forget while I live.
The grave prepare 4 for these 162., buried at the
expense of the city, is sixty yards long and fifteen
wide, and the coffins were lowered into it by three
openings, the General Commanding in Vienna and the
Mayor throwing earth upon them, The ceremony

ended here, but the greater part o: the public re--
rnained in the cemetery until nightfall, to see all the
bodies buried.

All the Archdukes and the great families have sent
wreaths, which will be deposited upon the grave.
When it closes over all those dead, the brown earth
will be invisible nnder the palms, camelias, laurels,
and costly flowers of every kind.

All the theatres remain closed to-night, not only in
Vienna, but in the provinces. Both Houses of Parlia-
ment suspended their sittings to-day.

The Lord Mayor of London has telegraphed to the
Burgomaster of Vienna expressing, in the name of the
citizens of London, earnest sympathy with the rela-
tives of those lost in the sad calamity in the City of
Vienna. From all sides telegrams of condolence are
pouring in. The subscriptions, too, are swelling rapidly.
Their Majesties, on hearing of the calamity,at once sent
10,000 florins for the immediate relief of the sufferers;
the Crown Prince and Princess and all the Archdukes
have also sent various sums. The total amount re-
ceived by the Statthalter, including one from the
Union G6n4rale of Paris of 100,000 f., is already over
100,000 florins. Besides the larger contibutions made
by the wealthy classes and by the larger firms on the
Exchange, about 40,000 florins have been subscribed.
Both sides of the House, as well as all the newspapers, the
various associations, and corporate bodies have opened
subscription lists. The provinces are following the
example of the capital, BO that those who have lost
their relatives, and these belong mostly to the poorer
classes, may expect prompt relief.
A subscription for the Vienna victims has been
opened in Paris.

THE NUMBER OF THE "MISSING."

VrroN.A., Dec. 12.

The number of the " missing " has to-day been re-
duced to 805, various corrections having been made in
the previous list.
The real total still, however, remains doubtful. The
removal of the corpses from the ruins proceeded but
slowly to-day, as the work of propping up the walls
occupied a great deal of time. Some 27 bodies were
recovered, and a quantity of fragments of the human
frame, including a foot and a hand which appeared to
have totally escaped the ravages of the fire.

The Emperor has sanctioned the Bill passed by the
two Houses granting the sum of 50,000 florins in aid
of the survivors.

On Tuesday the various articles found in the Ring
Theatre were exposed for identification.—On removing
the debris fresh bodies were discovered, which were in
a good state of preservation.

Up to eleven o'clock on Tuesday morning further
information has been forthcoming, showing that 50 of
those who had been set down as missing are among
the survivors; on the other hand, however, it has
been proved that persons really missing, who were in
the theatre on the evening of the fire, had not yet
been put down in the list.

The Burgomaster of Vienna has received the follow-
ing despatch from London :—" The Prince of Wales
has requested me to express to your worship his pro-
found sorrow at the awful catastrophe which has
visited Vienna. The Prince aided that the remem-
brance of his recent most pleasant stay in Vienna
made him feel the calamity the more keenly.—
KAROLYI."

In a leader noticing the terrible fire, The Times
remarks :

"Calamities such as that at the Ring Theatre are frightful
enough when they occur to those who are fulfilling their
duty or pursuing their ordinary business. More terrible by
contrast are they when they arise out of our very amuse-
ments, and a mass of human beings in quest of recreation
meets, perhaps, the most painful foam of death. The
modern theatre has too often proved a charnel-house.
The most fatal of theatre fires, unless it should
turn out to be surpassed by the Vienna catastrophe, was the
burning of the Saragossa Theatre in 1778, when 600 persons
lost their lives. At the Carlsruhe Theatre, in 1847, 104
persons perished. The burning of the Opera-house at Nice
this year, in which 62 persons were burned or crushed to
death, is still fresh in the public memory. In these islands
many theatres have been burnt down, but some pro-
vidential chance has always intervened to limit the pro-
portions of the catastrophe. The fire had broken out in the
daytime, the performance had not begun or had ended,
or there were few spectators in the house. If, for
example, the Surrey Theatre, when it was burnt down
during the daytime in 1865, had contained an audience, few
would have escaped alive, so rapid was the action of the
flames. But of all the calamities which have ever in modern
times overtaken a crowd of human beings in a single building,
the burning of the church of La Campania, Santiago, in 1863,
has never been equalled or approached. In one short hour
2,000 people, nearly all ladies of youth, rank, and beauty,
were reduced to ashes. The flower of the capital of Chili
had gathered in the church, in a spirit of religious excite-
citement, to pay its devotions at the closing celebration of
the Immaculate Conception. Every seat was full. Nothing
that invention could suggest or wealth supply was omitted
in the adornments of the occasion. The interior of the church
was hung from roof to door with floating gauss and rich
drapery, and lighted with festoons of innumerable paraffin
lamps. An acolyte, in lighting the last lamp before the shrine,
raised a flame which spread instantaneously. A rush soon
choked the entrance wills a wall of dead and dying twelve
feet in height. The melting lead from the roof and the
blazing oil of the severed lamps poured down upon the
heads of 2,000 tender women, who could be seen from the
windows of neighbouring houses rushing wildly to and fro
without an outlet of escape. The falling of the roof put an
end to their agonies, and completed a catastrophe which
stands without a parallel,'