The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-02-17

Upon every recurring occasion oil great
FIRE where loss of life is witnessed, 1t is
common for the press to raise howl about
the criminal negligence of the owners, man
ayers or lessees Of the building, and insist
that some means should be adopted by
which the occupants of the higher stories or
audiences in public buildings could escape.
After the Ring Theater disaster at Vienna,
when hundreds of lives went out in an
hour, it seemed from the expressions OF
public opinion as if it would be next to i'm
possible for such an accident to again hap
pen, so determined were the various man
ayers of such structures and the municipal
authorities everywhere to set on
foot system of repairs, improve
ments and exits which would insure perfect
safety to any and all people who might be
in them in times of fire. Perhaps in few
instances some wise changes have been
made, and such as are calculated to prove
of Unavailable service in future emergencies,
and yet we doubt if at this present time the
frequenters and patrons of the theater and
opera in the large cities of this country and
Europe, with the one or two exceptions
noted, are particle more secure from loss
OF life in cases of panic or fire than they
were before attention was turned to the
subject by the Vienna horror. 1t is
disgusting to witness the feyerish impul-
siveness with which the average citizen ad-
yocates and then drops reform, and it
looks as if it were impossible to get public
officials, no matter in what department or
kind OF government they may be, to dis
play any vigor in the discharge of impera-
tive duties which ought to be done to-day,
when it is possible to put them off until to-
morrow. The press, adapting itself to the
ancies of its patrons, ceases to agitatc or
comment on matter the people have
grown tired Of and goes off in search OF
some new sensation. The consequence is,
the inghtful catastrophe perhaps by which
thousand lives were lost, and the much
talked ofmeans Of preventing q recurrence
OF such accident are speedily forgotten and
only recalled when some similar horror
again shocks the public. We are informed
by recent dispatches that the jury OF inquest
as to the deaths by fire in the old World
building in New York city few days since,
declare that POTTER, the owner, and EN-
ployes should be "censured" for neglect
ing to apply to the department of buildings
for permit for repairs and proceed to point
out what repairs should have been made.
What attention will be given to this
verdict by the general public and
owners of thousands of equally unsafe
buildings where human lives are constantly
in jeopardy? No more than is necessary
for its reading. If the jury had said, as they
could and ought truthfully have said that
&. b. Potter and his employes were directly
and crimnally responsible for the death OF
the victims and the authorities had held
them to answer for murder, practical SO.
luton Of this vcxed and oft recurring qucs,
ton might nave been reached. So long as
good round insurance is received by the
proprietors, and only the mild term oil
"censure" is applied, these fearful holo
causts may be periodically expected
The fire and police committees of every
city in the land ought to ran.
sack every public building, whether
factory, theater or whatnot, from turrct to
foundation stone, and satisfy themselves
that they were so constructed and provided
with exits as to be perfectly safe for either
permanent or temporary occupancy by any
number of individuals, and the press ought
not to cease its agitation of the subject ua-
! III This is done.