Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-12-14
A Sacrifice to Apollo.

The flames have claimed fearful holo-
tai of Austria. Within the walls of the
Ring theater in Vienna the audience was
gathering, Thursday evening, the Sth in
slant, to witness the performance of popu-
lar opera. Nearly two thousand people had
assembled a few minutes before seven
o'clock, the hour for the performance to be-
gin, when, by the careless upsetting of
lamp on the stage, as nearly as can be as
certained, the scenery and the stage trap
pings were suddenly ignited. An iron cur
tain, to separate the stage from the audito-
rum, had been provided for such an emer-
gency, but no one seems to have had the
presence of mind to lower it. The galleries
of the theater had become well filed, and
the parquet seat-owners were rapidly arriv-
ing. The entrances to the galleries are de-
scribed as having been so narrow that two
persons could hardly walk abreast in them.
Immediately after the alarm was given the
gas was turned off, and the struggling and
terrified audience were left cropping in total
darkness to find their way out. Oil lamps
are required by the laws to be kept burning
nightly in the passageways to guard against
the danger that would come in panic from
the extinguishment of the gas, but this re-
quirement had long been disregarded. The
flames soon burst into the auditorium, and
scene of unparalleled horror ensued.
Nearly two thousand people, frantic with
terror, were struggling through the darkness
and suffocating smoke to make their exit
from the theater. The doors from the gal
leries, designed to facilitate the emptying of
the theater in a time of special peril, opened
inward, and thus even those that could be un-
locked were rendered useless. The press of
the masses against them blocked the avenues
Of escape. Many made their way to the
windows, and, leaping thence, were caught
in the streets below on sheets or netting.
In the passageways the press became so
great that they were effectuslly blocked up
by the mass of humanity crushed and
wedged in their narrow labyrinths. The
fire department came tardily to the rescue,
and with insufficient means either for ex-
tinguishing fire or saving life. Every pre-
caution against fire or for protecting life
seems to have miscarried, and had trap
been designedly set to accomplish the death
OF two thousand people, more effective means
could hardly have been devised. 1t is esti
mated that more than one thousand human
beings have, in this disaster fallen victims
to the most culpable negligence of the man
ayers Of the theater, and the grossest disre-
gard of existing laws on the part of the mu
nicipal officials. In fifteen minutes a greater
mortality was effected than has occurred in
many notable battles. All Vienna is in
mourning On Sunday the victims who
have been recovered were given a public
burial with imposing ceremonies. The de-
tails Of mutilation in the press and by the
flames are too horrible to describe. 1t is re
lated that a New York merchant had at
tended matinee in this theater on the
afternoon of Thursday, and that on regain
ing the street at its close vowed that he
never again would take his family into such
a trap. Happily the mortality among
Americans, as far as learned, is confined u
a single case. AS there is large number
of American medical students in Vienna, il
was reasonably feared that the list OF casu.
alties might be long one.