Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-12-17

'
ilhouettes.
The Apollo on the facade appeared as
in halo Of glory. Like fierce drapo-
ry the flames enveloped the building
and cut with their sharp lines through
tho clouds Of smoke. Without inter
ruption the music Of the horn Signals IL
sounding. It was tho death music Of
tho Ring Theatrg, its funeral march.
The poet whose lifs-story was to have
been performed that night on the boards
Of tho Ring Theatre has written no more
lnrid and fantAstical story than tho his
tory and the end Of the beautiful struc-
ture--a child of speculative, money
wasting times, lying to-day in. ashes,
after having buried hundreds Of lives
under its debris. Yhe poet never mount
cd anything 80 terrible as the reality
through which We have lived to-day.
In the excitement the w0rkiuginen
hsd overlooked the most important
method of safety. They did not lower.
THE IRON FIRE CURTAIN,
and M tho curtain, as stated before, got
lifted ny little BY the air current, q
free passage to tho auditorium was
opened to the flames. Had the iron
curtain been lowered, II would have
been impossible for the auditorium to b
caught by tho flames, and the fire would
have been limited to the stage and the
backward part of tho root. An the iron
curtain gives the greatest possible pro-
tectsn, the flames might have ragged for
two hours without reaching the audito-
rium, but from tho present disaster tt
appears that ali precautions are useless
il, at the decisive moment, the work
men omit the very first and most press
ing precautions. We are sorry to say
that we cannot hold the management
entirely blameleps. According to trust
worthy information it appears that the
oil lamps were not lighted. They ought
to have burned, according to tho latest
police ordinances, in all the staircase.
and Railways of the theatre to enable
the public to find the exits if thu. gas
lights should 90 ont. How much mis-
fortune might have been thus prevented
to-day l. And, to make the matter worse.
It had been forgotten to put in motion
the fire telegraph on the stage. Thus II
happened that it was quite q quarter
past 9-more than Is minutes after the
beginning of the fire-before tho fire.
men, who had been appriEed by private
people of the occurrence, appeared on
the spot, AS they had not been told
that the fire was 10 very violent, they
came partially without any apparatus
for life saving, and then tho work was
much retarded and the excitement and
confusion largely increased. 1t was 1880
before the fremen from the other dis
tricts appeared.
Mr.. Brown, OF the firm of Brown Bros.
IL Co., of New York, who, with his wife
and entire family, visited the Ring
Theatre ON Thursday afternoon, at the
matinee concert, and, therefore left the
theatre about an hour before tho catas-
trophe, says the stairwsys we're narrow
and winding, leading from the lobby to
the parquette. The seats were scarcely
wide enough for two persons TO pass,
and he had vowed, after arriving in the
open air, never to take his family in
such death-trap again. The difficulty
Of escaping, even after leaving the audi
forum, may BIO gathered from the mar
rstive of o young man who had o scot in
one Of the galleries. lie says that the
galleries were quite tilled.
Tho American medical students, of
whom there arc $50 in Vienna, and who
usually frequent the moderate priced
places, seem to have kept away alto
gethsr on the fatal night, for not one is
missing. although six German
and Hungarian students are
Among the decd. Al eyewitness said
that a. soon as the first burst through
the curtain into the auditorium
rKRK1sLE CRY WENT Ur
from the entire house. ITO spring up
and hasten to the exit WAS the work Of .
IN tho corridors tho deepest
prevailed. With many Others
l tried to make my way in the dark, and
caught hold OF tho coat Of q person be-
fore me, and my own coat was held by
q string Of othess behind me. Thus we
CROPPED our way to the stairs, where,
also, it was pitch dark. All fell on one
another, but finally we reached the grand
loggia. While We were escaping we
heard the piercing shrieks Of the unfor-
knnatA, Who ~.are nithor crusknd IN