The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1876-12-08
HORRORS OF THE HOLOCAUST
Ocer Three Hundred People S,rallotced
Up in Flame aud Smoke.

The Most ApfM and Heartrending ca
tastrophe of Olr History.
New York, Dec. THE dimensions
of the awful calamity which has be-
fallen the city of Brooklyn, and the
consequent loss of life, have not yet
been realized. Enough is known, how
ever, to make it certain that the catas-
trophe ranks among the most fatal of
the kind ever recorded.
According to the statements of all
parties who profess to know anything
as to the origin of the fire, it began on
the stage. a piece of canvass, out of
which trees, etc., are made, was broken
from its fastenings and hung from the
flies Immediately over one of the border
lights, near the center of the stage.
The canvass had begun to shoulder,
and the paint to crackle, and the car.
penter was directed to ascend to one of
the groves and remove the dangerous
object. He could barely reach it with
his hand, and he drew it hastily up.
The rapid motion through the air of
the hall ignited the highly inflammable
canvass and caused it to burst into
flames, which rapidly spread to adioin-
ing material equally susceptible. All
efforts to extinguish the flames were
abortive, and the carpenter had to
retire to save his own life.
The scene in the gallery after the
alarm was raised, is described as heart
rending and horrible. One witness
says: Il was seated next to the front
row, but seeing that something was
wrong on the stage, ] worked 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. l cannot describe the
scene as it was. They were climbing
over seats, gripping each other by the
clothes, and struggling frantically to
get ahead of one another. l saw one
man smack 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 decent looking boys got together
in the front row, and l saw them clam
bering over 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 es-
capped and did not wait to see what
happened"
sAnother man gave very vivid de-
scription of the scene. ''When the up
roar began,' he said, II was seated in
the aisle about the middle of the gallery,
and three or four seats from the front.
L never saw anything like it. All the
people in the gallery seemed to be
crowding one on top of another. There
were men who seemed perfectly frantic.
The yells and shrieks | shall never for
get to my dying day. The weak went
down one after another, and the strong
est rushed recklessly over them. l
could actually
HEAR BONES CRACKING
as men jumped upon the writhing,
struggling, helpless mass beneath them.
The cries that ascended, amid the up
roar, were heartrending. When l saw
it was to be life or death 1 made for
the door. All l have been telling took
place in a few seconds, but there is a
picture in my mind l could not paint.
When got out
WALKED OVER BODIES
three or four feet Deep
Philip Manser was among the very
last to get out of the gallery He gives
the following account of the calamity:
81 got in from the row near the stage.
| saw the fire from the very first. As /
looked up to the gallery the scene was
the most terrific one could conceive.
Men and boys were tearing away one
over another, and the shrieks and oaths
We're awful. One man clambered up
the heap and was
SPUN ROUND AND 'RoUND
on the heads of the tnrong, aud then
flung with crash which could be dis
tinctly heard, against the side of the
gallery. Every one was for himself,
and men seemed to become wild beasts.
They were thrusting and tearing one
another with their hands, and worse
than that, as / will tell you directly.
The seats were piled with prostrate
human beings, and as the successful
strugglers forced their way over the
gasping forms that lay all around,
others, who had been crushed to insen-
sibility, 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 protruded here and
there, which showed that life was still
in some of them. BY this time the
smoke was dense and the rush and
shouting from the lower part of the
house were terrible. and some Others
managed to get to the stairway, and we
went down in mass, how couldn't
tell. AL this 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 ALMOST TO THE BONE.
Up till noon to-day 315 bodies had
been removed. OF these so are identi-
fed, some by remnants of clothing re-
maing, others by watches, chains and
such articles, and but few by features.
The actors, Claude Burroughs and
Harry S. Murdock, are among the
identified. What are accepted as the
two bodies of the actors are simply
TWO BLACK CINDERs.
Around the trunk of one was a sooted
and scorched buckskin undershirt, and
haside the other WAS n niece of braid