Morning journal and courier., 1881-12-10
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. THE VIENNA HOLOCAUST. A Constantly Growing List
 of Victims. OVER ELEVEN HUNDRED MISSING. Horrible Discoveries Made Among the Ruins. DEATH OF COLONEL. FORNEY. The End of a Brilliant Ca
 reer.
 
 
THE OLD WORLD.
Austria.

 The Vienna Holocaust-TerrIbIe Scenes
 in the Burning Theatre-An Awful
 Struggle for Life i'm the Darkness
 Four Hundred Bodies Recovered from
 the Ruins.
 VIENNA, Dec. 9.-The burning of the Ring Theatre last night, with the terrible loss of life that resulted therefrom, has cast gloom over the city. This was the opera house where Sarah Bernhardt played on her recent visit here. The fire was caused by the fall of lamp on the stage. The house was full, one account estimating that fully 2,0O0 per- sons were present. The scene was terrible, the flames shooting up through the roof and gutting the entire building. The chief cause of the catastrophe was that in the confusion the iron partition separating the stage from the auditorium was not lowered. An explo- sion of gas followed the appearance of fire, and the audience were p1ungl d in darkness. Thousands of people assembled in the neigh boring streets where they could hear the cries of agony of the people at the windows, praying to be saved. The rapidity of the flames prevented the audience from taking advantage of the ordinary exits, Among the missing are Herr Fife, court musical director, and Herr Hellmers-Pergers Most of the bodies identified last night are those of tradesmen and minor officials. On the spreading of the news. of the disaster the performances at the other theatres were stopped. The latest reports say that the crowds in the galleries pressed in their de- spair to the doors, and crushing each other prevented most of the number from escap- ing. The smoke and fumes completed the work of death within five minutes after the first alarm had been given. The firemen are still at work with torches searching the lower aav-tc aff Ina ica cred unsafe to go to the uppermost gallery, where the dead lie in great masses. Half of Vienna is in mourning for their friends and relatives. It is believed that no Americans are among the dead, though it is possible that some of the medical students who fre- quent the cheaper places in the Vienna thea tres may be among them.
 At noon to-day four hundred bodies had been dragged from the ruins. A great num- Der of charred corpses can still be seen lying among the yet burning debris. A subscrip- ton for the benefit of the families of the dead and injured has been started.
 The List of Dead Growing Larger. VIENNA, Dec. 1o-The latest estimate of Ring Theatre is 72O. Many of the bodies are so horribly burned as to be beyond iden- tity, and they will be buried en masse on Sunday. The attitudes of death are of the strangest character. Some men were found grasping each other by the throat, the nails of their fingers being imbedded in the flesh. Some show self inflicted mortal wounds, while children were found in pile that had been flung from the galleries from the moth CTS. Ten carloads of corpses have been ta- ken to the hospitals, and the hospital gar dens are filed with weeping relatives seeking for their missing friends. Four hundred and eighty bodies have been gotten out up to midnight, and many are yet seen in the burning interior. Among the missing are three professors and a number of stu dents, Count Siegmund Fostitxes and Herr Pengafsky, member of the Reichsrath, and his wife. It is now ascertained that the, fire was caused by workmen setting fire to the wing with spirit lamp. All of the performers were saved ex- cept three girls who belonged to the chorus. The Emperor and Empress have subscribed 10000 forins for the relief of the distressed. The lower house of the Reichsrath adjourned to-day immediately after an expression of sympathy for the distressed families. There have been number of suicides caused by griet at the loss of relatives and friends in the fire The number reported by the police as miss ing amounts to 1,136. The fourth gallery has not yet been explored, as it has beer found impossible owing to the fire whicI still rages, but it is seen to be crowded witt bodies.