Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-12-06
Burning Of Brooklyn Theatre
Terrible and HearS-Rezlding
Scenes.

riblc, and a number must be bodily
injured and some probably killed.
The thcater was owned by Kingsley,
Keeney and others, and was rented
to Shook 81 Palmer, of the Union
Square thcatcr, New York. Loss on
theatre $250,000. At one o'clock the
fire was still burning, but was under
control. The fire was caused by gas
setting fire to the woodwork in one
of the wings. The fire originated in
the flies which blazing fell on the
top of the scenery. One Of the ac-
tresses came to the front of the stage
and said small accident has occur
red, but don't be alarmed. Only q
piece of the file is on fire. On the
mention of fire, the audience rose to
their feet and made wild rush for
the doors. The smoke soon became
suffOcating and women fell fainting
in the aislcs, and were tramplcl over.
Numbers jumped out of the windows
and were severely injured. Three
were picked up aud sent TO the Long
Island College hospital and arc not
expected to live. "A young man who
jumped out of a window says another
man was with him and got to the
window, and while holding with his
hands and endcavoring to get OH:
became ovcrpowered with smoke,
and fell back and mnst have been
consumed in the flames. Dresses
were torn from ladies while lying in
4 the aisles and on the sidewalk out
side. A large pile OF dresses as torn
from their backs and picked mp by
| the police were in the police station
next door TO the theatre. All the
theatre company got out safely, ex-
ccpt the fly man, named Cumberson.
who was badly burned and threw
himself out of a window. He viii
die.
| New YORK, Dec. 6.-Thc fire in The
an appalling loss of life and it is
thought that not less than one hun
dred persons were Killed in the rush
to the doors or were burned to death,
being unable to escape.
The fire broke out during the per-
formancc of the last scene of the
'Two Orphans In five minutes
more the audience would have been
dismissed and there would have been
nothing more serious TO record than
the destruction of property. The
house was about two-thirds filed,
those below sitting well forward to-
wards the stage. For those in the
family circle, dress circle and CALLER
les, there WAS no way of escape en-
cept by Washington street. The PAN
ic stricken people rushed towards and
down the stairway. The main exit
became Immediately chokcd up and Il
scene of terror, confusion and distress
ensued which beggars description.
just above the landing place of the
stairway woman in the crush had
her foot pushed between the banis-
tiers and fell; the crowd behind fore
cd forward by the terrified people
still further behind, fell over her and
piled OH top ofeach other four or five
deep. The police from the station
house next door were promptly at tllo
scene, but owing TO the manner in
which the people were piled upon
top of each other and massed to@eth-
er they could extricate comparatively
few and these were all bruised, bleed
ing and MANNED. The fircmcn rot to
| work on the ruins and shortly after
daylight this morning they succeeded
! in getting as far as the hall of the
dress circle, where they found q
| great number of bodies aud inmedi-
ately began the work of removal
and up to eleven o'clock sixty
five bodies had been discovered.
What appears to be 90 or 30 more
were seen in the basement into which
they had been prccipitatcd by the fall
ling of the burning floors. At the
police station adjoining the burned
theatre the names of S6 persons miss
ing from their homes have been reg
istercd.
Kate Clayton, at the preliminary
inquiry held by the fire Marshal, said :
"At the beginning of the act, just as
the curtain went up, heard rum
bling noise on the stage and two
minutes after saw flames. The fire
seemed to be all on the stage. Mr.
Farrcr, myself, Mr.. Study and Mr..
Murdoch were on the stage Mt the
time. We four remained and endeay-
ored as best we could to quiet the
audience and prevent panic. | said
to the people, BE quiet. We are be-
tween you and the fire, the front
door is open and the passages are
clear Not one of the audience
jumped on the stage. The flames
were then coming down on us. l
ran out and jumped over several
people.
| Mr.. Murdoch, after cndcayoriug to
calm the fears of the panic stricken
people, went into his dressing room
to get his clothing and must have
beeu suhocated.
The work of identifying the dead
/ will prove difficult for most OF them
are burned beyond recognition.
Bodies are constantly being removed
from the ruins and taken to the
morgue rs fast as possible. The num-
Der of bodies recovered from the rn-
ms is about Is and il is believed that
as many more arc still in the ruins.
| FURTHER PARTICULARS.
| The actors and actresses escaped
from the stage into Johnson street.
J. w. Thorp, stage manager, states
that the fire occurred in this wise
A. drop-scene was ignited from u bor-
der-light by some means incxplica-
BILE, as il was guarded. He mediate
ly directed the stage carpenter, Wea-
yer, and two snperRumcrics to en-
dcavor to extingnish the flames, but
the difficulty was to reach the part on
fire. The carpenter, with othcrs,said
I A.