The examiner., 1881-12-17
AN APPALLING CALAMITY.
A Leading Vienna Theater Burned ana
 Hundreds of Lives Lost.

AN APP4LEkNH CALAMIEfs
 A Leading Vienna Theater Burned and Hundreds of Lives Lost.
 The destruction by fire of the Ring theatel in Vienna, one of the leading places of amuse
 ment in the Austrian capit al, is one Of the mosi heartrending calamities of modern times. The dispatches say: Researches show that the upper gallery must have fallen into the pit, where tile only remains found are small fragments of bone: Beyond doubt 800 gallery ti ckets had been isstied One hundred h olders of these are known to have jumped from windows. Competent judges fear that the loss of life will be found to be fully TOO. Under the circum-
 stances appalling as is the loss of life, it is al
 most to be wondered at that so many persons
 escaped. It is estimated that about 2,000 men, women and children were in the
 house when the fire broke out, and placing the loss of life at 700, which it is to be hoped is an e1travagant esti- mate, about 1,300 either managed to make their escape, in spite of the panic or the mis- erable arrangements of the house, and were
 rescued from the flames by the gallant fremen and soldiers. Of these, ,sabout150 are now lying aad suffering intensely. Some. of them are mangled so severely that they have lost all semblance of humanity. Many will probably die; others will recover, but they will be maimed and disfgured for life. The fire was started at about 6:45 while the curtain was still down. The house, fortunately, was not filled, many of the holders of boxes and the more desirable seats not having arrived. The audience continued to buzz and seat itself, and the lobby was thronged with ladies and gentlemen indulging in & final chat before taking their places in the boxes, wheh, suddenly, the flames attacked the drop curtain, and burst forth in one large sheet which swept away the canvas in an instant. The scene which followed can never be adequately described. A loud shriek of sFire'' went up from 2000 terrified men and women, and an imme- diate movement toward the narrow doors was
 begun from all quarters of the house. Women screamed and tainted, men yelled and pushed over the prostrate forms of the weaker,
 trampling them without mercy in their struggle to gain the passageways. In the midst of
 the confusion the noise of 6 terrific explosion was added to the shr1eks of the persons impris- oned in the building, which had now become furnace, and the lights in the house were in- stantly extinguished. The gas-tank had
 burst, and the narrow, complicated passages leading from the galleries were in total dark ness The doorways became jammed with the fighting throng, and soon it was impossi-
 ble to go forward or retreat. As the gas-tank exploded, the flames pierced the roof Of the theater, and the, Schotten Ring was ablaze with light. The interior of the building was now so hot that men and women dropped in their tracks, and lay where they fell until suffocation ended their misery. Despair and frenzy seem to have taken possession of the oc- cupants of the galleries Cut off from all re- treat by way of the narrow staircase, which was tyN windows from which to throw themselves, many of the maddened men and women cast themselves headlong from the fourth gallery to the pit below, where they were either in stantly killed by the fall or per1shed by suffo- cation. Others gave themselves up without struggle and calmly awaited certain death in the furnace, which was now at white heat.
 The alarm of the fire spread rapidly throughout the city, and in a very short time the neighborhood of the theater was packed with crowd of eager men, all anxious to ez- tend help to the dying prisoners, but wanting the means. A light snow was falling, and this added to the fearful character of the scene. Within ten minutes after the fire had gained possession of the auditorium the Turner's fire brigade was on the ground, and the work of endeavoring to rescue the sufferers began. The walls near the choked-up entrances were knocked away. and great numbers of people were thus set free. The flames from the burn ing building, however, soon became so fierce that the firemen were obliged to give up this scheme of deliverance. Then they held large blankets outstretched and into these the inn prisoned men jumped from the windows of the first floor above the pit. In this way fifty per sons were rescued without receiving scratch. Then the heat became so intense that 1t was impossible 10 stand near the burning theater, and the brave firemen were obliged to give up the work of rescue. All who remained within the walls of the theater at this time were doomed, and the shrieks of the victims as they slowly roas ted to death were agonizing to the
 
 the fire. By Il o'clock, in little more than four hours the flames had done their work, and nothing remained of the Ring theater but the four walls and the statutes ot the three muses and the gilded angel with his trumpet, which ornamented it's beautiful front. 1t was many hours more before it was possible to explore the ruins in search of the bodies
 Additional details from Vienna say that 5oo bodies had been recovered and that the num- Der of missing is 917. On the arrival of the
 fire brigade after the fire broke out 1t was found impossible to penetrate beyond the first tier of the theater, the rush of sufocat1ng smoke and air extinguishiug the lamps and torches The firemen retired under a mo- mentary impression, because their shouts were not answered, that there were no more people in the theater. Those who escaped cn the first alarm however. soon undeceived them. An other effort was then made to penetrate the parts of the theater which were not actually blazing. In the narrow passage between the second and third galleries mass of corpses was discovered, some so closely interlocked that it was hardly possible to part them. The first man discov- cred was got out alive, but all the rest were dead. These were persons who had lost thelr way in consequence of the turning off of the some irresponsible person with a view to pre- vent an explosion. Some men were found with their hands grasping each others throats. Sub- sequent investigations showed that in some cases persons finding escape hopeless had com mitted suicide. It is stated by survivors that women were seen to throw their children from the galleries into the pit. At the time of the allotted to ladies was full. Subscriptions were immediately opened for the relief of the fami- lies of the dead, the emperor heading the list with 25 900 horins