The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-12-14
DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOB LIFE.

DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOB LIFE.
Heartrending Scene in the City of Churches
Tales by Men Who Were Inside the
Burning Playhouse.
The description given by persons who
were N the gallery of the Brooklyn
Theater at the time of the disaster is
heartrending and horrible. Alfred A.
Jones gives the following account of the
scene [ was seated next to the front
row, but, seeing that something was
wrong on the stage, I moved up to the
entrance Of the tier. While my back
was turned shrieks were heard, and the
mass of people in the gallery arose in
wild confusion. cannot describe the
scene as it was. They were climbing
over seats, gripping each other by the
clothes, and struggling franically to get
ahead of one another. I saw one man
smash fellow in the face who would
not yield to him in the passage, and
big, powerful woman tore her way
through and came toward me with
scarcely any clothes on her back, and
with blood streaming from her nostrils.
Two deeent-looking boys got together
In the front row, and saw them clam
bering over the seats and squeezing their
bodies through the crowd. One ,of
them was thrown down, and the other
turned and called him wildly by name.
[ got down among the first that escaped,
and didn't wait to see what happened.
A tall, stout man, who said he was a
truckman, gave very vivid description
OF the scene. ''When the uproar be-
gan," he said, 81 was seated in the
aisle, about the middle of the gallery,
and three or four seats from the front.
I never saw anything like it. All the
people in the gallery seemed to be crowd
ing one on top of the other. There
were men there who seemed perfectly
frantic. The yells and shrieks / shall
never forget to my dying day. My
wife is down stairs I one man cried out,
let me get her out = 'We're all safe if
you'll only be orderly' another cried.
At the same time, however, he was MAX
ing the most strenuous exertions to get
through the throng. The weakest went
down one after another, and the strongest
rushed recklessly over them. I could
actually hear the bones cracking as the
men jumped on the writhing, struggling,
helpless mass beneath them. The cries
that assembled amid the uproar were
heartrending.
"'My God have mercy on me, one
voice repeated several times. One man
managed to crawl from heap of pros
trate bodies, but the struggling throng
rushed against him, and he spun round
towards me and fell almost at my feet.
I tried to lift him, but he groaned once
or twice and gave few gasps, and all
was over. When I saw it was to be life
or death, I made for the door. All I've
been telling took place in a few seconds,
but there is a picture in my mind /
could not paint. When I got out I
walked over bodies three or four deep"
Philip Wanser was among the very
last to get out of the gallery. He gives
the following account of the calamity
ST got in from the row near the stage.
I saw the fire from the very first. As I
cooked up to the gallery the scene was
the most terrific that one could imagine.
Men and boys were tearing one over
duOLnC13 h1A ULO 6lIIICh0 d@u OA5AlS
were awful. One man clambered up
the heap, was spun round and round on
the heads of the throng, and flung with
crash I could distinctly hear against
the back Of the gallery. Every one was
for himself, and men seemed to become
wild beasts. They were threatening and
tearing one another with their hands.
Seats were piled with PROSTATE human
beings, and, as successful strugglers
forced their way over the gasping forms
that lay all around, others who had been
crushed to insensibility fell as they lost
the support of the living. There was
nothing for it but for myself, and some
others who had waited, to walk over the
piles of bodies on the floor. They were
slippery with blood. Hands and feet
were protruded here and there, which
showed that life was still in some of
them. By this time the smoke was
dense, and the noise and shouting from
the lower part Of the house was terri
BILE. and some others managed to get
to the stairway, and we went down IN a
mass-how I couldn't tell yon. All this
I have been describing took place in less
than two minutes. One man who got
| out in the crowd just before me showed
me his arm, which had been bitten al
| most to the bone"