The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1812-01-11

jdicssl Seltlcinen osdissiuction. In shor., whe,
me mail came away. SO great was the con.
Fusion owing to the above dreadful calamity
that scarce half the business was conducted
ny the merchants in person. Eight OF nine
houses were likewise burnt down by the said
Ihre-15th Ndsy 1772.
nus man is cut Off moment, in the
midst OF amusement Yet these are no,
the only cases in which "the paths Of kiea-
sure have led to the grave
| The following are taken from the bfuc-
monica, "a small registerof memorable events
ljust published by L. Z. Cole at Baltimore.
Fire-Uorks, at the Partisan, exhibited
IN honour of TIE dauphin's marriage, the
passage being stopped up, accustomed such q
crowd, that the people, seized with panic
trampied upon one another till they lay in
heaps; scafold erected over the river al
SO broke down, and hundreds were drowned;
near 1000 persons lost their lives
"Thca;re at Cape d'Istria, in Italy. fell. &
crushed the performers and audience to
death, February 6. 1894"
| The Theatres and other places of amuse-
ment ia London have been the constant
prey OF fire-but comparat vely speaking.
very few lives have been lost.-Drury Lane
Playhouse was originally built in 1862 1t
was burnt down 10 years after pulled down
IN 1871, rebuilt in 1894; burnt down Is
years after. February Gath, 1909, and is
now again rising from its ashes
Covent Garden was built in 1888, enlarr-
lI8O8. ~ -o'''
The Opera-house was built in 1904. and
burnt down in 1889. M
The Pantheon, in Oxford-street, was O.
Pened IN l772. converted. to an Operation
in 1884, burnt in 1892.
Astley's Amphitheatre. burnt in 1894
! Royal Circus, Blackfriars, burnt in 1905.
| There were few lives lost on any of these
occasions-perhaps indeed, none of them
TOOK place during representation. But in all
these cases, of which we have seen a des
scrlption, We notice the same devourine We
locity offiame, which somuch astonished us in
our own CAGE. In the last fire at Drury
Lane, the flames spread with rapiditv
and violence not TO be described |; so that,
IN about half an hour, every part of this
building, extending near 400 feet in length.
was ON fire; and before (three quarters of
an hour,) the lofty roof and the figure of
Apollo az feet in height) which surmoupted
the whole, fell in with terrible crash. Tn
vain did number of surrounding engines
pour In Hood of water the vast BODY of
hire within the walls. Knocked all attempts
TO eXtlngush it, or even to lessen its force.
he furious flames assembled to heaven in a
Kind OF parymid, illuminating the METROPOLIS
and Its neighbourhood for many miles round
IN most uncommon degree, and resemb-
ling rather the eruption of a burning noun
tam, than the effect of common fire.
In less than quarter of of hour. (says
another account.) the fire spread into one
unbroken flame, over the whole of the i'm
mense pile, extending from Bridges
street to Drury-Lane so that the pillar 81
hire was not less than $50 feet in breadth.
They made an Intellectual attempt to get ont
the theatre engine, and play on it from thei,
reservoir; but i'll less than 10 or 10 minute.
1t ran up the front boxes and spread like
khdied fax." Precisely the same appear
ance was noticed in the Richmond theatre
|" This may be accounted for from the body
OF air which so large hollow afforded. and
the circumstance of the whole being wood.
en- case"
The same rapid transmission was obser
we'd Ill the combustion of the new theatre a,
Berlin, on the LIST of July, 1906. 9Th. ar.
ragged with SO much violence and rapidity
that in quarter of an hour, the roof wa:
wholly consumed and fell ill., 1t was fount
totally impossible to extinguish the fire; and
duced to ashes" This fire took place in the
afternoon, and there were no lives lost.
This consuming fury is, however, no az
sument against the Theatres or the Stage
The fatality, which has wrapped our own
city in mourning, has been traced by the
Committee of Investigation to the defects in
the construction of our theatre.
We cannot drop the pen without MOTTO
ing most illiberal inslnuaton made by a
Baltimore paper against the generosity
and gallantry of the gentlemen of Rich
mond.-Thc substance of the remark
is that if such fire had happened in
Baltimore. there would not have been
such disproportion in the number of
the males and females who have persisted
I'VE are not so much bgotted in favour
OF tue people of this city as to think that
in the midst of so tremendous scene so
apt to shake reason OIL her throne by the
contention of the passions, there might no,
have been some individuals who too readily
| listened to the laws of MISREPRESENTATION
| Yet may we say, ON the other hand, tina,
there were proofs of as gallant and heroic
devotion to the cause of woman and of virtue
as any city can boast Of The true causes
or this disproportion exiss partly in the pres
sure OF the crowd, which parted ladies from
their companions partly in the claims O
helpless children, the first objects of the So