Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-26
A THEATER DOOMED.
The Brooklyn Theater to be Torn Down-said
to Abound with SpOoks SIncs the Fatal
Night Of the Two Orphans"
Special to the Gazette.

SpeclaI 70 the Gazette.
NEW YORK, April 25.-A house is TO be
| demolished in Brooklyn because it Is be-
lieyed to be haunted. 1t is a large and
handsome theater, but its reputation for
ghosts is such that no profit can be made
out of it for amusement purposes. So
| the owners have decided to tear IL down
An auction sale of its interior fittings
will be held next week. Immediately
afterward the walls will be rased
and during the summer a COM
mercial building will be erected
on the site. This is a delayed and curl
Gus consequence of memorable disaster.
About fifteen years ago the Brooklyn
theater was burned, with loss of over
500 lives. That event can hardly have
faded from the minds of American news
paper readers anywhere, but to Brooklyn
people, so many of whom were bereaved
by the loss of relatives, and all of whom
were Mortified by the catastrophe, it re-
mains vivid recollection. A fire started
on the stage while 1.-THE Two Orphans
was being performed, and the flames
spread almost instantaneOusly through
the scenery to the infiammable ceiling OF
the auditorium. The people in the par
quSb oSCdpSu 6dSllJ DuI lOI LuOSS III lLo
two galleries the exits were so quickly
closed by fire that comparatively few got
out. The building was utterly burned.
and out of the debris was taken, amidst
the most shocking scenes, the charred
remains of the dead. Only a small num-
Der of the bodies could be identified, and
the remainder were buried together in
Greenwood cemetery, where monument
is inscribed to their sad memory.
The theater had been owned by q
stock company, composed of half
dozen Brooklyn politicians and office
holders, and strangely enough they de-
oided to build another play house on
the same ground. Against this course
they were advised by those who believed
that under the awful circumstances the
site was not any longer suitable for a
theater, and that on business as well
as sentimental grounds, the enterprise
was Ill advised. The dominant man in
the company was the late Judge McCue,
a rich and vigorous man, who would not
be convinced of any improperly in re-
building the theatsr. So il was done.
Although the second structure was en-
tirely different in looks from its prede-
cessor, and had its entrance on another
street, it occupied the same space. 1t
was q very handsome house at first,
luxuriously fitted up, and valued alto
gether at $500 200. At that time its
only rival in Brooklyn was the shabby
and Anticipated theater long identified
with the late Conways. most famous in
American thestricals and psrsonages of
considerable Consequence in Brooklyn.
There was no reason-other than the hOl-
ooaust-why the new Brooklyn thesrer
should not gain fashionable and pros
porous vogue. But it did not.
Every effort to sustain it as an elegant
resort failed. The finest performances
did not draw paying audiences. People
disliked to go for diversion TO the place
where the great tragedy had occurred.
Next the house was devoted to a some
what lower grade of theatricals, and the
management endeayored to populaTiZe
it; but here the same difficulty was en-
countered, and besides stories of ghosts
got afiOat. 1t was told that the spirits
of the burned 500 haunted the premises,
and these tales were sufficient to keep
folks away. Two years ago, as last
and desperate recourse, the theater was
turned into ten-tO-ifty house. That
is, its prices were cheapsned to the low
est extent and it catered to the cheap
multitude. The failure has been as de-
cisive as before, and now a demolition
as described, has been decided upon by
the owners.
All through the unfortunate career of
the rebuilt theater the ghost stories con-
corning it have increased in number and
pOsitiveness. At first they indefinitely
narrated that spooks frsquented the audi
forum at night after the performances
were over, and there were folks who de-
clared that they saw phOsphOresoent
lights through the windows. A little
later janitor gave up his job because,
as he avered, he had encountered sew
eral of the dead members Of the COM
pany which had performed there on the
night of the fire. On one occasion, so he
SAID, he entered the house after the de-
parture OF the audience, and saw the
stage occupied by these ghostly actors,
who were going through with a scene OF
''The Two Orphans. - The man was q
drunkard, however, and a liar even
when sober, so his acquaintance at
tributed his yarns jointly to alcohol and
invention. But they got into ciroula-
ton, nevertheless, and are now part
and parcel of Brooklyn tradition. But the
crushing and final ruinous belief engen-
dered by superstitious dread arose dur
ing the past winter. It was declared,
nobody knows by whom, at first, but by
q great many later on that every gallery
seat was nightly occupied by the ghost OF
the person whose life had been lost there
in the fire. These dis embodied spirits,
according to this conoeit, were usually
alike to sight and touch, and
did not hinder the living purchaser OF
the seat from sitting in it, but the ten
centers were not less senitIve than the
dollar and-a-hslf folks had been, and
they found that they really could not
enjoy themselves seated in a chair COM
positely with ghost. Thus Ii came that
the dime parts of the house so much de- q
pended upon in cheap priced theatres,
had been very sparsely occupied. That
dealt the final blow to the Brooklyn
theater and will cause its destruction.