The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-03-15
Disastrous CONGREGATIONS.

According to Folsch and Warden, who
have made extended special researches
every theater is doomed sooner or later
to be destroyed by fire, the average "1ife"
of such building being something under
twenty-three years Opera houses, by
reason OF the greater amount of superb
cial show which performances require,
are still more liable to destruction, and
it is worth noticing that in classical times
the rate of loss was quite as high, as is
instanced by the fact that the Circus
Maximus, in Rome, was destroyed by fire
thrice between the years q and a..
From 1777 to 1880 there were burned,
252 theaters, with loss of 1870 lives,
1899 other persons being seriously in
jured. Of these, five had not been
opened, while three had entered upon
their second century of existence. Thir-
ty-seven were burned twice, eight thrice,
four four times, and one-the National
Theater of Washington-fve times. On
an average nowadays thirteen theaters
are burned every year. The first quar-
ter of the year is naturally the most
fatal and the 8th, 18th and 22d
are the most unlucky days of the
month. As rule, fires at theaters
break out in the middle of the week. Of
the 252 cases just mentioned, in only
thirty-six did the flames break out dur
ing the performance. Sixty-one per cent.
of the theaters burned down are burned
down in the daytime. OF course fires
that begin at night are the most destrue-
tive of life; on the other hand, during
the performance, there are eyes to watch
for an outbreak, and hands to check it in
its earliest stages. Between 1910 and
1882, according to another set of sta
tisties, 523 theaters have fallen prey to
the flames. Of CONGREGATIONS in the Old
World, the most terrible were those at
Saragossa-1778-137 lives; according to
a second authority" 800, and, accord
ing to a third, 1000; at Capo d'Istria, in
1894, 1000; at st. Petersburg, in 1886,
800, or, according to the Russian papers,
5000; at Canton, in 1916, ], 200 and !, 200.
wounded; at Carlsruhe, in 1847, SO and
200 wounded; at Leghorn, in 1857, 100,
and 200 wounded The discrepancies
between the various statements show the
difficulty of obtaining anything like a
trustworthy body of statistics. In recent
years the two great catastrophes have
been those of Nice and Vienna. At
Nice, on the 23d of March, 1881, the
Italian Opera House was burned, sixty
one Lives being lost, and at. Vienna, on
the Sth of December, 1881, the Ring
Theater was destroyed, 384 people per-
ishing in, the flames. AT least partial
justice was done in this case by the con-
yiction of the manager and two en-
ployes of contributory negligence, their
sentence to brief terms of imprisonment
Cour and eight months). Compensation
to the survivors was provided for in the
sentence, but, as the machinists were PEN
niless, and the manager had loss all his
property, the order was Intellectual A
memorial chapel has been erected on the
site of the theater. OF the American
''horrors" one of the earliest and for
many years the most terrible, was the
burning.o of the theater at Richmond, Va,
December 26, 1871, when sixty-seven
persons were killed, including Governor
G. w. Smith, while many others were
seriously injured June IA, 1916; the
old Chateau St. Louis, at Quebec, which
had been converted into theater, was
set on fire by an exploding lamp, when
forty-six persons lost their lives But by
far the most fatal of all theater fires in
the New World was that of December 5,
1886, when by the destruction of the
Brooklyn Theater 295 lives were lost
NJ z World.