, 1881-12-17

Hundreds sr lives Lsaa -Te.r,sse Scesr..


Another Of those terrible cs;Amities
which always send a thrill Of horror
throughout the civilized world has again
occurred at Vienna, the capital OF the
Austrian empire The building was more
than usually crowded, ii being ehe ami
versary Of the religious festival. the I'm
maeulate Conception A writer on the
spot gives the following description
How the Ere commenced cannot yet be
definitely stated, and probably it viii
never be known According to one ver-
sion the SCENERY was ignitsd by spark
from the electric machinery According
sn,ther, q workman with an alcohol
lamp caused the disaster. The former
version Is the more likely one Director
HOlmesburger, who Was upon the stage,
was the FIRST TO notice the fire In q
moment sitter the flies were wrapped in
ames and the network Of wood, ropes
and canvass was burning like tinder.
People on the stage were stuPi6ed xith
fear at first, and then took flight in the
most terrible confusion towards the
ladies' dressing room on the left Of the
stage, where a small staircase Ted to the
Hohenlaufer strasser. In moment the
curtain few up and draft blew it hither
and thither, until like fiery tongue, it
darted back and forth from auditorium to
stage. The fire soon became master of
Ring theatre. Fire, fire. The Ring
hestre is on fire. was the cry that went
from mouth TO mouth. On Ring strasse
the flames were already bursting the roof,
and cries such as Vienna hsd'heve9heard
before filled It. They seemed not IKE the
cries of human beings, but such woeful ac-
cents as can be heard only in the death
struggle. The scene was Understandable.
II those inside the Inflated building,
were pressing their way toward the street,
which Was crowded at all points. The
audience struggled and crushed each other
and confusion reigned supreme. Suddenly
cries we're heard from windows of the rear
leading to the Ring The balcony over
he entrance was soon emptied and the
cries of those at the window and Of those
within the theatre were awful and swelled
louder and louder The mass If people
the street was growing denser constant
ly.
The morning papers publish long heart
.sndings account of the catastrophe. Most
of them place the dead at 800, with per-
sons who were in the fourth gallery yet to
be heard from. Even the police seem to
be reluctant to speak of the extent OF the
disaster in the upper gallery, and neither
firemen nor soldiers have as yet dared to
penetrate the dreadful scene. Fireman
who had been assisting in bringing out
bodies from the third gallery being asked,
"How many persons do you think are IN
the fourth galleryr answered, 1.-TWO hun
dred and possibly three hundred Who
can tell? They are there in thick masses.
We shall not know how many arc dead
until the people Of Vienna have sent IN
their list of missing ones to the police.
The origin of the fire is not yet estab-
lished to certainty, but of the cowardice
of firemen on the stage and attendants
who should have let down the iron screent
and of the general want of provision to
preyent such a catastrophe, there remains
no doubt. The theatre itself WAS yer
was concerned, and was apparently con-
structed with view to exaggerate snch
catastrophe as this. The stairs and pas
sage ways were laid out in a strangely
complicated manner, SO that it needed
good knowledge of the place for one to
find his way at all in and out of the thea,
tire. These peculiarities were noted on
the day of opening the theatre. the 10th
of january 1874, when 'n Barbera de Sc
vigls was performed. These stairways
and passages last night proved fatal to
many who had already escaped the horrors
Of sufToeation inside the auditorium.