Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-10-14
Louisville Theatre Burned Down.
Jewish Synagogue and School
Nearly Destroyed.
Loss over Eighty Thousand Dollars.
ON The Louisville Courier Of Yesterday

From the Louisville Courier Of yesterday.l
About u o'clock last night, only some
fifteen minutes after the play ended, fire
broke out in the Scene Room of the Louis
vile Theatre. -Four or five men were in
the Green Room and other parts Of the
building at the time, ard though but small
blaze when first seen, these persons had
barely gone cut of the theatre to give the
alarm when the inhammable material of
scenery and properties were on fire, and the
flames were bursting through the rear win
dows. Some difficulty was met with in
finding the key of the nearest alarm box,
and before the alarm could be sounded the
building was on fire in every part, and be-
fore the engines could get water on it was
manifestly past extinction. Long columns
of red flame shot from all the windows and
from the roof.
Just before the flame burst through the
roof dense black smoke poured from every
part, seeming to make its way through the
thick walls, but as the fiery columns sprang
up through the roof these dense and grimy
clouds went whirling up, mingled with
tongues of fame andshot, full of millions of
starry jets.
The drinking saloon and Winter Garden
were soon consumed, and the Jewish Syna-
gogue was on fire all over the roof, and small
tres were beginning to appear over the
roof of the schoolhouse in the rear Of the
Synagogue.
The engine from Portland reached the
scene in twenty-eight minutes from the
sounding of the second alarm, and in two
minutes more was in action.
The Synagogue would have been saved
but for strange accident. Soon after the
engine No. had taken position at the els
tern on Third street, between Green and
Walnut, most excellent position from
which to operate, flames burst from the
mouth of the cistern, driving away the fire.
men and by-standers. 1t was like looking
into the crater of 4 volcano. To fill the els
tern with water from the nearest hydrant
and override the gas, required an hours
work. ~, f-tf~nn
No exact estimate of the losses can at this
hour be made. The Theatre was worth
some eighty thousand dollars. There was
an insurance of twenty-five thousand, which
expired few days age. The property of
Colonel MUNDY was insured for ten thousand
The private wardrobes are probably total
loss, and one which will fall heavily on the
members of the company.
The enrgetic and gentIemanly manager,
Mr.. KELLER, who is the sole support of a
widowed mother and her family, loses the
entire earnings of twenty years. The COM
munity will sympathize with him in his UNI
deserved misfortune.
The WEBB sisters lost their entire ward
robe. The jewelry alone of Miss ADA WEBB
was worth three thousand dollars; and the
loss cannot be at once repaired.
The Synagogue was worth about twenty
thousand dollars. 1t was insured for four
thousand in the Kentucky Mutual and four
thousand in the London and Liverpool. The
walls are not seriously injured. The roof of
the school house adjoining is badly damaged.
The scene of the confagrahon was very
amusing. Thousands of excited citizens
were dashing here and there, and in the inn
mediate vicinity the crowd swayed to and
fro like vast tide. Scores of women were
cut in their night clothes, with shawls
thrown hastily over their shoulders. When
the alarm was first given the frightened
dodgers in the United States Hotel dressed
and packed up with an expedition that would
have done no discredit to troop of cavalry.
During the progress of the fire there were
several explosions within the theatre, as
though the very fre-fends were having a
mimic battle on the stage. The fire origi-
mated beneath the stage, and is said to have
been occasioned by some shooting in the last
act of the play, -