Connecticut western news., 1881-12-14
THE -Y1ENNAasDISASTERss
A Most Frightful Loss of Life.

E The loss.ofllife by the burning of the
 Ring Theatre at Vienna. on Thur sday
 night, is over 800. The corpses last
 recovered are little more than charred
 fragments. At the time the fire broke
 out the theatre waspretty well filled, with the exception of the boxes. which were
 then unoccupied, and part of the pit.
 Offenbach's comic operass' Les Cohtes
 d' Hoffman" was to be performed for
 the second time.. lien s r -Sone-of the singers atid actors had
 already taken their fplacess op tResstage
 in costume, but alarge number efIthem
 were still in the dressing rooms, in the
 hands Of the eostumers ind dhairdr dressers.
 The overture had not yet begun, How
 the -free originated scannot yet be
 definitely stated. Some of those who
 were on the stage at the, time, and, who
 escaped, say that the fire was caused by
 the dropping of an oil lamp among the scenery Others assert Lthats khe fire
 came pp from the engine room, and was generated by the engine below the Stage
 which was supplying the theatre W with electric light. Director Helmesberger, who stood upon the stage, was the first
 one to notice the fre.r In aImsme ent
 afterward the flies were wrapped in
 flames and the network of wood, ropes
 and canvas were burning like|tinder.
 The people on the Stage and ;in the
 dressing rooms, numbering 400 were stupefed with feaf at first md specially
 took flight in z the most terrible co on-
 fusion, stoward ' the slafliesis dressing rooms, where small ss iifcase, ,the only
 exit from the stage to the street. led to
 the Hohenstaufengs trssse. The flames
 were between the curtain7and this stair case, which fact preTeated any Of the actors from trying to escapeAinto the body ipf hfie shouse, ,I aaid isoo tho great audience hado nodone to, warn them of the terrible danger. Into the stage exit the actors and ballet girls plunged until the passage was literally plugged up with human beings, and it is believed that most of the number were burned to death ssHf8fB EEHEAse
 In the meantime the flames were riots ing among the finder on the stage.
 There was ap.iron curtain inithe theatre, which, when down., seSered the stage from the auditorium. This curtain was up when the fire broke out, and in the panic on the stage was forgotten or was cut off from lappfoaeh byo the flames. When the fire ibehindo the drop curtain became bright enough to be seen through the painted fabric by the Persons seated
 in auditorium and ins the galleries, they naturally supposed it the result of the stage experiments with the calciums to be used during the ballet, and paid no further attention to it. Tn moment, however, the flames attacked the drop curtain, and it seemed to instantly dis appear, revealing to the startled specta- tors the stage enveloped in flames. The draught blew the flames hither and thither from the stage to the auditorium, until in a- seconds time the whole fn- terior of the building was in the com plete grasp of the fire. "Fire! fire :! The Ring Theatre is on fire l. twas the cry that then rang through the Ring strasse.
 What followed is indesc scribable, All those inside the fated2bailding became terror stricken, and struggled and crushed each other in their. frantic efforts to gain ,the street. Some few got into the passages, but there all was dark, as both the gas and the electric ights-were cut off In the midst 1ofsall this terror the noise of a. terrible explo- sion showed that the gas tank had burst, and at this time thef flames burst through the roof and through most of the windows, and the entire space be- tween the walls of the large building was like vast furnace in white heat.
 A. dense mass of people were attracted to the Scene; some of the men tRohght- fully bringing with themropes, ladders, and axes, and cries such as Vienna never heard before filled the air. The Turn ers' Fire Brigade arrived soon after the alarm had sounded, and assumed charge of the life-saving apparatus. It vas ten minutes from the lima fhes Are had possession of the auditorium before single life was saved by outside assist ance, and during all this time the peo- pie within the theatre were either burn- ing up or tramPipg one another to death.] Men tshd iHIedmdnj. hopslesasI of destroyed themselves by leap ing from the front seats of the galleries into the flames below. ------
 Up to this time none had escaped ex- cept the fewwho had got from the stage, the fewer who managed to stumble out the darkened passage ways from the pit to the street, and the few who dropped from the windows of the first floor above the pit into. the street. The Turner's began at once knocking in the walls around the exits and dragging out the bodies piled thereby. In this way they managed to save several lives, but the flames soon drove them away. They then organizediia "a blanket service, and. invited those at the windows on the high first floor ito jump. Fifty persons answered these Invitations q and the Turner's caught every one of the fifty in outstretched blankets and saved them without injury. Thero were no windows in the street walls higher than the first floor and it is hardly a Dla after of dOuht