The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1895-12-28
TWENTY THREE KILLED


and finally had to turn several streams o
water on the crowd to get 1t sufficient!
dispersed to enable them to bring out TIN
| injured and the dead. As each body wa
brought outth Gro wd W Ould push up around
| 1T and almost tear it away from the polio
! and fircincn in the effort to see IL 1t wa
| q person known to those about.
Fourteen of those taken out dead were re
! moved to the City Hospital, the PATHOLOGY
cal room of which was made the temporary
| resting place of the bodies. Upon the
stained oaken floor they were laid, side b,
| side, and subsequently groups OF anXiou.
! relatives of missing persons were escorted
along the line with a view of identifying
| the victims.
An elderly woman entered first. Eager
ly she scanned the faces, and, with u SHREK
which penetrated into every room OF the
hospital, she recognized her son. She was
gently led from the room. wailing as if heI
heart would break. Then came otft-S
couples and groups with strained aud anx
iOus faces. The distressing scenes cOntin
ued until after midnight, when the bodies
were removed to the rnorgue.
Eight bodies were taken direct from the
theater to the mOrgue, and the same har'
rowing scenes had been enacted there.
Hundreds of men and women entered the
gloomy building to make hopeless search
for dear Ones-hopeless because q visit to
the morgue meant that hope was worse
than dead.
CAUSE OF THE DISASTER.
The cause of the fearful disaster was the
unwarranted cry OF fire Just S the orchestra
had finished the overture, at a few miuutes
past O'Clock. For some time the Odor OF
the gas had been noticed in the building,
andthcempoyes had been sent over the entir
place trying to locate il. Hidden by the
plastcring on the wall which separated the
column of private boxes from the galleries
is pipe which supplies gas to Il number of
Jets in the upper part of the building.
This pipe had u loose connections, and the
gas was escaping from il and had collected
against the ceiling OF the gallery.
When a man in the gallery held u light up
toward the ceiling il ignited the gas that
had collected there. There was a puff. and
a sheet OF flame ran along the ceiling for q
little distance, but the gas had such abun-
dnnt means of escape that there was not
much of an explosion. A thin stream Of
flame, however. continued TO issue from
the wall at the point where the gas was es-
Gaping from the pipe. 1t would have ia ken
n long time for this TO have caused any
serious trouble. The flame rcsemblcd that
made by n lighted gas jet without n tip.
The puff which followed the igniting
OF the escaped gas which had collected
against the ceiling created some consterna-
ton. Before those who had seen IL had
recovered from their surprise some one
noticed the stream OF flame issuing from
the leaky pipe in the wall. and, not knowing
its cause, supposed the building Ia be on
fire. He shouted Fret Firei Fire" Then
came the panic.
This morning twenty-one bodies have
been identified. There are still two dead
children ut the morgue awaiting identi-
fication-a girl about sixteen years OF age
and u boy OF about eight years.
and n hoy of about eight years.
Sarah SiegeI was taken from the theater
directly to her home last night and died
en- route.
At the City Hospital there are ten Sc
riously injured victims, three of whom are
in n critical condition. There are pos
sibly a hundred Others suffering from
bruises and broken bones who were removed
10 their homes and OF whom little ornotllng
is known by the police.