The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-12-10


moment the curtain few up and the draft
blew it hither and thither until like fiery
tongue it darted back and forth from
the auditorium and stage, and fire be-
came the master. Tho Ring Theatre is
on fire, was the cry that went up. On
Ring strasse the flames were already burst
ing through the roof, and cries, such as
VIENNA NEVER HEARD BEFORE,
filed the street. They seemed not like the
cries of human beings, but such woeful
struggle. The scene was indescribable.
All inside were pushing their way toward
the street, which was literally a moving
mass. People struggled and crushed each
other in the peristyle and foyer, and con-
fusion reigned supreme. Suddenly cries
were heard from the windows in the front
balcony over the entrance. The cries
swelled louder and more awful while the
mass of people in the street was constantly
growing denser.
The morning papers place the number
dead at $50, but with the fourth gallery,
yet to be cleaned, the number will be
swelled to 500 at least Even the police
seemed reluctant to speak of the extent Of
the disaster in the upper gallery and
neither firemen nor soldiers have yet
dared to penetrate to the .s
DREADFUL SCENE.
A fireman who had assisted in throwing
out bodies from the third gallery being
| asked how many be thought were in the
fourth gallery answered 1.-TWO hundred,
| and possibly five hundred-who can tell?
| They are in thick masses; we shalt not
know how many are dead until the people
of Vienna have sent in list of the mis-
sing The origin of the fire is not yet
determined to certainty but cowardice
is established of the iremen on the
stage and the attendants, who should
have let down the iron screen
provided in the event of such catastro-
phe. The theatre was very handsome
edifice, as far as the interior was concern
ed it was apparently constructed with a
view to exaggerate such catastrophe.
The stairs and passage ways were laid out
in a strangely complicated manner, so that
one needed good knowledge of the place
to find his way. Inspector Netzoe. who
escaped from his dwelling in the upper
story, saws of the scene in the auditorium:
The people lay in heaps and many in the
strangest postures. Some had their hands
| oUTsTREreHED IMPLoRINGLY;
Others with their nails driven into the flesh
in anguish and despair. A lady who was
| in the third row of the parguet says: Il
was just about to take out my opera glass
when suddenly I saw the curtain was
driven forward violently. A sheet
of flames then poured out over the seats.
1 grasped my friend by the arm and hur-
ried toward the central entrance, but
the next moment we were in complete
darkness. Only by keeping hold of the
railing were we enabled to find the way.
Suddenly / foend my friend no longer
clinging to me. / screamed out her name
and she answered and caught hold of me
and we were crushed out through dark
ness with the living mass and saved. The
official report states that of 157 bodies Ia
ken out SO were men, Al women and 20 SO
burned that the sex was indistinguishable.
It appears the fire water taps above the
stage, which might have been of material
use in checking the outbreak, were not
used ON account of the panic.
Four hundred corpses have been recov-
| cred from the theatre.
A research shows that the upper gallery
must have fallen into the pit, where the
only remains found are small fragments of
| bones