The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-12-10
A VIENNA BAKERY.
Further Particulars of the Vienna
Theater Fire.
Removing Countless Burned and
charred Remains Of the Victims.

That Vienna Horror.
New York, Dec. 9.-Yesterday was
fete day in Vienna, in celebration of
the feast of the ImmaculateC Conception,
but died with public calamity, unpar-
aIleled in the history Of Vienna A
few minutes before seven, and before
the commencement of the second per-
formanceinYienna Of Offenbach's 3 latest
work. "Les Centes d'Hoffmann,n the
Ring theater, formerly known as the
Opera Conique. on the Schotten ring,
the second finest theater In the city,
opened in 1878. was discovered to be in
flames. The fire quickly spread, and in
ten minutes all the city for miles around
the theater was in livid glow
Those who were among the audience
say that suddenly the curtain was
raised and the fire discovered raging on
the stage, and that the usual strife for
life by those in the upper galleries com
menced. Many sprang from the upper
most gallery and were killed, while Of
those who remained, 1t is impossible to
say how many lost their lives. Death
appears to have been due to suffocation.
Hundreds of sanitary litters were car
ried toward the theater by swift footed
men who then bore away their burden
OF dead.
At one o'clock it was discovered that
the death roll of the Ring theater catas-
trophe was much larger than at first
rumored. An American physician who
had just returned from visit to Ale
gemine Krankenhaus. told me that be
seen 88 men and A women laid out in
that institution alone. Their faces were
black and tongues protruding, with
froth issuing from their mouths, all the
symptoms of suffocation. When he
left the Krankenhaus at midnight, they
were still carrying tho dead away. He
described the scene as horrible in the
extreme. Friends were striving to
identity friends, and relatives their rel
atives, women were rushing about al
most crazy from fruitless search.
By two O'Clock 240 bodies had been
taken out of the theater, and it was
thought that q hundred more are still
among the ruins. These reports up. to
two O'Clock were Of the dead from the
gallery, when 90 corpses were found in
one mass, and the fourth gallery had
not been searched.
1t appears that the men who had
charge Of the iron. screen which should
be let down in case Of FIRE, thus divid-
ing the stage from the aditorium de-
serted their posts when the fire broke
out.
1t is probable that the death list will
be fully four hundred. The latest re-
ports say that the crowds in the gal
leries pressed in their despair toward
the doors and crushing each other, pre-
vented most of the number from escap-
ing. The smoke and flames completed
the work of death within five minutes
after the first alarm had been given.
The fireman are still at work with
torches searching the lowest parts Of
the house. At present it is considered
unsafe to enter the uppermost gallery
where the dead lie in great masses.
Half Of Vienna will be In mourning
to-day for their friends and relatives.
1t is believed that no Americans are
among the dead, though it is possible
that some Of the medical students who
frequent the cheaper places in the
Vienna theaters inay be among them.
Later-Two hundred and ten bodies
have been recovered from the ruins Of
the ring theater. The fourth gallery
has not yet been explored, and it is be-
lieved that not single person escaped
from that gallery. and that very few es-
capped from the third gallery. The
corpses last recovered are q little more
than charred fragments.
Gross neglect is. charged against the
management Of the theater. The law
prescribes tba use Of oil lamps in the
corridors of theaters so that exits shall
be discernible in the event Of the fail
ure of gas, but this precaution was ut
terly neglected.
The person in charge Of the iron cur
tain between the stage and the auditor
cum appears to have fled at the first