Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-03-04
BRAlNaRp,s HALL OE rIREi
The Hall Takes Fire while the ExhibI-
ttOn Of the "HtbernieOn'' Is in Pro-
gress-Immense Audience Present.
Rush for the streets-Incidents, DC.

I
lion Of the "HfbernieOn'' is in Pro.
gress-Immense Audience Present.
Rush for the Streets-Incidents, DC.
About half past nine O'Clock last night,
while an immense crowd Of spectators, one
of the largest ever gathered in the Hall,
was enjoying the panorama Gf Ireland,
tongues of fire were seen to leap up and
lick through the sugur-holes of the stage,
just Underneath the screen of the painted
canvas. Smoke also issued from these
vents, and alarmed Mr.. John Heron who,
as "BarHey the Guide" was singing an
Irish song, and who immediately stopped,
notified the gentleman accompanying him
on the,pisno, ofthe danger and left the stage,
The audience took the alarm, and rose en-
aGsse, and threw themselves like an ava
lanche towards the doors, choking up the
narrow passage, and grinding each other
like masses Of ice in a choked river. This
mass of men, women and children surged
against each other, and pushed and crowded
with frantic desperation and sll but mortal
fright, for full thirty minutes before the
Hall was cleared.
The alarm of fire was instantly struck
outside, and the steamers were promptly on
hand, but on account of the solid mass Of
human beings pressing like glacier down
two fightA of stairs, through the narrow
gorge, the only exit, of the Hall, hose could
not be run up into the building, and it was
full twenty minutes before stream Of wat
er hissed on the flames. A loss of five min
utes more wsuld have resulted in the de-
struction of the building.
We were not present at the time, but from
several persons who were, and who kept
cool enough to take observations, we lesrn
few incidents. A number of persons, in
their fright and hurry to reach the door,
jumped from the gallery into the psrquette.
One woman had raised a window, and was
on the point of leaping from the second
story upon the pavement, but was caught
male had somehow got her scarf twisted
around her neck so tightly that, with face
black as ink, she was on the point of
strangling, when a young man cut the
band with his knife. A number Of persons
tainted, with fright, and were borne down
stairs in the arms of friends. One of the
young ladies connected with the panorama
was carried down, gracefully, romsntic-
ally and heroically, by Mr.. Heron. The
Hall was a perfect wreck: chairs were
overset and broken, muffs, hats, bonnets,
shawls, &C., were left in the terror of the
moment, and many females, in the tre-
mSndous press and friction of bodies, had
their dresses, crinoline, etc., torn off and
trampled upon. Men lost their hats and
coat-tails, and by the time the
crowd got out they were a. set
of Sansculottes, faces pale as death or
smeared with blood, and eyes in dreadful
frenzy rolling. We heard of but enc per-
son only, an old lady, who was badly hurt.
The fire caught in some inexplicsble
way under the stage. The platform was
not burned very considerably, but was
chopped to pieces by the fremen. The
amount of damage is not now known, but it
cannot be heavy, unless, perhaps, the floods
of water fltering through the floors may
work great injury to the goods in the music
and shoe stores of Brainard and Ranney,
below, and the photograph rooms of W. C.
North.
The ventilation of the Hall is SO sbomin-
ably bad that the impossibility of getting
through it current of vital air may, per-
haps, have been the prOVidential means of
sitting the fire, or staying its progress till
the crowd was out.
1t is truth that there is not Hall in
this city that it is safe for large body of
people 10 assemble in. There is only one
passage by which they can escape in case
Of fire, whereas there should be half dog
en- in every public building. We think
that, with this example before their eyes,
our citizens will be very 10th to enter any
Of our present Hslls, no matter how attrac-
live the performance may be.