Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-04-18

First one and then another man rushed
from behind the curtain upon the stage,
moving his arms and speaking but they
might as well have shouted to storm, as
the cry of "Fire!'' rang through the house
and people tore toward the doors. Self,
self, self, seemed to be the only thought,
as men clambered into the upper gallery,
or dropped down into ours. Scores climb
ed down into the boxes; hundreds dashed
frantically along, trampling others
under foot, and even clambering over the
heads of the dense, wedged-in throng, try
ing to reach the doors but all hindering
one another.
1t would have been madman's act; but
wanted to run too, and be one of the surg
ing crowd-to be in action at time when
ones blood ran cold to hear the horrible
groans and shrieks of the frightened mob,
wedged into o mass, from whioh now and
then a horrid cry rose from poor wretch
beaten down and trampled under foot.
closed my eyes for moment, but could
see plainly enough the horrors that were
going on upon that staircase and yet l
had to fight hard against not only self,
but the mob that swayed backwards and
forward past me, some making for one
door, and some for the other, perhaps only
to return again shrieking with horror;
while more then one, in climbing over the
rails in front of the gallery, fell headlong
into the pit.
As soon as I had been able to collect my
self little, had caught hold of my child,
and laid her at full length beneath the
nearest seat; and there Sle lay, too terri
fed to move, while people leaped from
seat to seat, over and over her, and all
the time chung desperately to that pillar
where had stood all the evening. More
than once was nearly dragged away, but
it acted as break to the violence of the
onslaughts, and whichever way the crowd
came 1 sheltered myself behind it.
felt that it was madness to try and get
out; though, had been alone, should
have tried to reach the pit by climbing
from tier to tier; but with a child it was
impossible. My best plan seemed to be to
follow the example of a gray-haired old
man who was holding on by the ratings
in front of the gallery, and calmly, to all
appearance, watching the progress of the
fire; though I shuddered as I saw the
progress it was making; the curtain was
dropping in fiery fakes upon the stage;
scenery and woodwork were falling, crash
ing down; while from over the Chandelier
in the centre Of the ceiling a red glowing
light kept playing, towards which the
smoke from the stage hoated in wreaths.
Crash! crash crash! wings and flies
kept falling upon the stage, now from
back to front one blaze, from which the
sparks, like golden whirlwind, rushed up
amid the smoke, while the roar became
fercer and fercer as the currents Of air
rushed toward the body Of the fame, and
famed it into fresh fury. The glow now
fell upon my face, and turned to fly,
for there seemed greater danger in staying
than in attempting to escape; for the
gallery was now nearly empty, though the
cries, shouts and groans from the staircase
were still awful
had already leaped over two or three
benches, when I remembered the child, and
dashed back to drag out the little trembling
thing, pale and half stiaedwith theicrawling
smoke which spread through the place
The next moment L had her on my back,
and hurried to the rjght-hand door; but
here the struggling and turmoil was fear
full, and I turned and made my way to the
other, climbing over the broken-down bar
rier at the back of the gallery, beneath
which lay two women grooming.
[ looked back; there were the flames,
now crawling around the pillars on each
side of the stage, and licking and playing
among the curtains of the private boxes.
The audience had all gone from the other
pcoIIo VI UI1S uOuoC1 DItO A1ASh hOAC Nft1
out of the orchestra door, bringing with
them leads of anything valuable they could
reach from the flames.
In front Of the gallery still sat the old
man leaning over the ratings, and, with
half-dread upon me that something was
wrong, | hurried back and shook him
heavily, when started back in horror as
he fell across the benches, turning up the
most hideously distorted face ever saw, as
he lay evidently in fit from fright.
The flames were coming nearer and
nearer, and the smoke grew more and more
sitting. The anxiety to be out of this hor-
rible place was intense, but could not go
and leave fellow-creature helpless in such
place; SO once more making my way to
the open door, [ sat down the child close
by the women, leaped back from bench to
bench, and somehow contrived to bear the
old man and draw him to the top of the
staircase, where I staggered against the
wall, overcome with dread, for the child
was gone. "Had she been taken down the
stairs % I asked the women, and shook
tha1n r0uOhlU t0 cat an onSvyQr. h11t, tbar