Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-12-23
THREE HUNDRED DEAD.
burning of the Brooklyn Thenter--HarrOw
Ing Scenes and IReideBts--rhree Hundre'
Lives Lost.

Burning of the Brooklyn Thepter--HarrOw-
ing Scenes and IReideBts--rhree Hundred
Lives Lost.
The destruction of the BROOKLYN
Theater by fire presents story of hor-
ror. The full moon tempted nearly
1900 people from their homes and
lighted them to the brilliant entrance
of the theater. The famous play OF the
"Two Orphans" was the attraction,
and had renewed its fasciBatioDs over O
public long since familiar with its story.
The audience was charaSteristically q
Brooklyn gathering. Mary well known
citizens were there. The two orphans,
Louise and Henrietta, had passed through
the heartrending experience. which form
the thread of the story. louise WAS
resting on her pallet, the cripple was at
his wheel, Nine. FTOchaTd was scraping
carrot, aud Jacques was about to en-
phasize his brutality with threat, when
tiny tongue of fame thrust it's red
fork from the upper part of the proscen-
ium, and glared upon the auditors.
The sharp cry OF "Fire" stirred the
blood of every man and woman in the
house.
The actors were confused, the audi
ence were appalled,.
Two tragedies then began-one be-
hind the footlights, the other in front.
Stalwart in figure, melodramatic III
bearing, with o lace like Napoleon's,
and a leonine voice, Frochard Studley
stepped to the front and shouted to the
! frightened men BE quiet. There's
no danger" But occular demonstration
won the day, and red was the dominant
color. With fash and crash the
burning scenes fell to the stage. Oiled
and saturated like q funeral pile, the
mountings and fittings embraced the
leaping flames and lighted up the smoke
filed auditorium with the fierce gleam-
ing of thousand calciums.
Wanted, leader But no leader ap-
peared.
As Charles Thorne, the Chevalier of
the drama, reports himself: Z" My God
There is danger Let every one save
himselfl" So every one endeavored 20
do. The chief usher, Rockford, remem-
bering private door opening from the
rear Of the right hand proscenium box,
rushed to open it and before the
frightened occupants of the orchestra
section in that vicinity had time to think
what they were doing, they found them
selves thanking God for life, in Ford S
alley, in the rear of the theater. The
audience was divided into two classes
the high priced and the low priced. OF
the former none have been found dead ;
of the latter more than three hundred
sleep their last sleep, charred like Goals,
and disfgured beyond recognition. The
occupants Of the parqUette, orchestra
circle, and first OR dress circle were not
very numerous, and they had the side
door as well as two doors at the front
from which to escape. Men and women
fought like tigers. They packed the
aisles, tripped, stumbled, hurried, and
blocked their own desires. That none of
the people in that part Of the house
were lost seems incomprehensible, SO
much 40 that it can occasion no surprise
if further search discovers our present
error. All reports agree that absolute
terror reigned in the audience; that
screams and shrieks made Bedlam of the
place, while The lurid glare from the
stage and the sitting smoke more than
suggested q spot moro terrible even than
Bedlam. At the exit the struggle was
at it's zenith of excitement. Common
safety was not the desideratum of the
moment. Selfishness dominated every
feeling. Nothing but personal salvation
was thought of. Nothing else could
have prompted such Rn utter ignoring of
every manly duty. In the passage lead
ing to the corridor ON which the parQuet
circle doors open, the crush was ter
rible. So, too, in the corridor, while
the aisleg vera filled with fainting
women, terror. struck men, and cries
from wondering children, too young to
know their danger.
Occasionally dense clouds Of sulp hur,
Gus smoke rolled out from the great gulf
beneath the stage, hiding the whole
house in darkness so dense that only oc
casionRl CLEANS OF fame could penetrate
it. Then the house rung with screams,
mournful calls between separated
friends, means from women who were
being crushed in the choked up exits,
cries from frightened men who were
beating ahead those in front, who were
holding back in extreme fear of being
pushed over and trampled to death.
The chief usher, with an iron hook
which for six years hung by the doors
at the side, unattached them. threw them
wide open, and warned those to leave
that way who were with throbbina
hearts standing in fear Of taking part il
the excited rush at the front. 1t was 8
great relief. The doorways were rapid
ly filed, and in what the usher esti
mates as three minutes of time the audi
torium was clear. The actors had fled
from the stage, and the flames were roar
ing and swapping in a fiery tempest
over the fQotlights. There were few tc
see the hedkt quaking sights in the bal
cony and in the top gallery. The great
clouds of black smoke which were
belched out, hovered over the only van.
tage ground which the four hundred
boys and young men in the gallery had
the open space about the seats. They
were the last to be startled by the ex.
citement below them, and when the audi
ence below them were on the street, they
were just getting out of the narrow
aisles and over the backs of the high
seats. The officers were hurrying them
ahead, but the black smoke was swifte1
than they, and as it settled about them
and choked them, they became like
dumb animals, and hardly knew how tc
move ahead. They struggled and fell,
and being overcome by smoke, lay III
one mass on the first landing below the
gallery. The multitude of blackened
bodies taken from the ruins tells Of
their fate.
Those who pressed out of the audito.
rum met at the door those coming from
the dress circle, and, in the conflict be