Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-16

Torrance. People were walking up and
down looking for their places and the noise
Of the turning down of seats was heard on
all sides. The boxes were still empty, but
the balcony and galleries we're well filed On
the stage everything was in state of actv
ty and hustle, workingmen removing scenery
etc. OHenbach's comic opera Les Conte,
d'Hofmann' was to pc performed for the sec
ond time. Some of the singers and actors
had already taken their places on the stage in
costume, but large number of them, how
ever, were still in the dressing rooms in the
hands of the cOstumers and hair.dressers
The overture had not yet begun.
How the fire commenced cannot yet be
definitely stated, and probably it will never
be known. Fire! fire! The Ring
Theatre is on fire = was the cry that went
from mouth TO mouth on the Ringstrasse
The flames were already bursting through the
roof, and cries, such ~ Vienna never heard
before, filed the air. They seemed not like
the cries of human beings, but such woful
accents as can be heard only in the death
struggle. The scene was indescribable. All
those inside the fated building we're pushing
their way toward the street, which was dense
ly crowded at all points. The audience from
the theatre struggled aud crushed each other
in the peristyle and foyer, and confusion
reigned supreme. The balcony over the en-
trance was soon empted, and the cries of
those at the windows and of those from with
in the theatre were awful, and swelled louder
and louder.
"a few seconds after the commencement
Of the fire, Manager Jauner appeared at one
of the windows Of the first story leading to
the Ring. He shouted to the crowd, but
what he meant only few could understand.
He asked the crowd to keep quiet, not TO
press on. 'Only the curtain is burning
keep quiet; don't press on" human voice
cried, making itself heard above the scream
ing Of thousands and the misery of hundreds
The voice was heard for few minutes, then
it was sufocated by the laundering noises
produced by the fire and the human crowd
The fire had gained rapid Roadway inside
and had reached the gas fixtures. The lights
suddenly went out in all the corridors OF the
theatre, in the wardrobes and restaurants.
In the lobbies dark night reigned lurid
light was only seen in the auditorium, where
the devouring flames carried disaster, but
still showed to some few the road to safety.
But the staircases-those unhappy staircases!
in one moment they were filled up and OBJ
structed. The crowd pressed on, trampled,
fell down, and fresh masses of fugitives
went over the bodies of the unhappy ones
who had fallen. There was no escape
there could be none, as one pressed against
the other. Some few, who had jumped up
in the first moment, got through now and
then also strong man made his way out
On the Ring there were seen some faces,
blackened by the smoke and reeking with
blood. They had fought for their lives on
battlefield without glory.
Fifteen long minutes passed The most
bloody battle, which decides the fate Of king
or crown could scarcely have demanded so
many deaths as those fifteen minutes At
last the first engines arrived through the
Schotten Case over the Ring. The parquet
and the boxes had meanwhile been empIied
quickly enough. Climbing and jumping
over the seats, the crowd had found an exit.
| But in the galleries death reaped a fearful
harvest, especially on the left side and on the
third, where door caught fire. The fremen
| who came in saw the most dire spectacle.
In lines, in heaps dead men and women lay
at the doors and entrances in such thick
knots that they could hardly be disentangled.
More than once a couple of corpses were
brought out, man and wife, who had en-.
twined themselves in the cramp of death.
The smoke had had pity on them and had
executed the sentence of death before the
flames could do their devouring work. Per
| sons were found suffocated and crushed 10
death, but no marks of burning were on
them. Happy those who had reached the
corridors and other localities leading TO the
front.
There were no ladders at first One sin.
gle stepladder was to be found, and a few
long minutes passed before 1t was got into
order. Sheets had meanwhile been opened
and the persons standing up stairs were en-
couraged to jump down. Women were the
FIRST TO jump 1t was terrible to see how one
after the other made the leap through the air
| Then fOllOuad The,
An old gentleman insisted that two boys
should jump first. One of them refused to
go. He caught hold with his hands of the
window bar. His fingers were trodden on,
and he fell into the street. Fifty persons
we're in this way saved. In the thick crowd
strange forms appeared. Naked, half naked,
strangely dressed people They were artists.
One of them wore nothing but white under
jacket and powdered wig. A second one
did not even wear as much as that. The Ia
dy, dressed in a students costume of red
velvet, who had TO sing the part of the stu
dent Nicolas, was followed by another one in
an airy night robe. The cafes in the neigh
borhood were changed into dressing rooms
and warming chambers the police station in
to a hospital and death chamber
I'm quickstep the infantry approaches
from the Alexander Barracks, preceded by
their officers, sword in hand. In wide curves
the human crowd is repulsed. The words OF
command Of the officers are heard distinctly,
the sounding fanfares of the fremen. The
figures of the tiremen, who had climbed on
the roof Of the theatre, trying TO protect the
neighboring house, were shining from the
burning ground like silhouettes. The Apollo
on the facade appeared as in a halo of glory.
Like fiery drapery the flames envelop the
building and cut with their sharp lines
through the clouds of smoke. Without inter
ruption the music of the horn signals is
| aonndinR II WAC the danih music of the