The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-12-28


the audience but remained seated.
Nine bodies were taken to the morgue,
all Of them dead from suffocation- or
those taken to the City Hospital, fifteen are
dead. Two more will probably die before
morning, and ten are desperately hurt
The confusion at both places is indescriba-
bic. and up to midnight only
thirteen Of the dead had been identified.
AS has been stated. all the dead and in
jured are Polish Hebrews and few of them
have friends or relatives who are able to
speak the English language sufficiently well
to make themselves understook, or enough
knowledge of the ways of this country to
know where to go to look for their lost
ones. The dead are of all ages, from mere
infants to gray-haired men and women
All were killed or injured in the terrific
crush on the fatal landing. not casualty
having happened inside the house, al
though the crush there was tremendous
SCENES AT THE MORGUE.
The scenes at both the morgue and the
City Hospital were full Of horror and
pathos. The dead. ranging in age from
infancy to decrepitude, lay in rows at the
morgue, and great crowds of grief-stricken
men and women, whose friends or relatives
were missing, passed in sad array along
the line, looking into the bruised and bloat-
ed faces OF the dead. hoping, yet fearing,
to find in them the features of husband.
wife, brother, sister, or perhaps an only
child At the hospital the accident ward
was quickly filled with the injured AS the
last gasp came they were carried one by
one. to the dead room below, where the
scene at the morgue was re-enacted. Here
there were but four identifications. Morris
MALICIOUS a tailor, was named by his two
brothers, with whom he had attended the
performance that proved fatal to him. The
grief Of the poor fellows when they saw
his bruised face and crushed frame was
piteous. Moaning and weeping they
fell into each others arms and
wept as if their hearts would
break Then they knelt, and, joining hands,
prayed in their unfamiliar language. to the
jehovah of their people. Jacob Rosenthai
a ten-year-old boy, was identified by his
parents. who had last seen their first born
when he left home in the evening to go, as
they supposed, to visit friends. They had no
idea that he was at the theater and knew
nothing of the fate he had encountered
until told by a neighbor's child that their
son had been with him to hear the Jewish
singers.
Louis Amoski was father to thirteen chill
dren, all, or most of whom accompanied
their stricken mother in search of father
and husband. They went first to the nos
pital, but ere they reached 1t all the I'M
identified bodies had been taken to the
morgue. Thther they repaired, and almost
the first face their eyes fell on was that
of him who had been the breadwinner for
the little brood. Then ensued scene of
genuine grief that would defy the readiest
pen. And so it went. all through the night
and far into the morning. Wives found
husbands, husbands found wives, par
ents found children and children parents.
lying stiff, cold and disfgured
among the dead. Fears of the worst char
acter became dread certainty. Hope fed
and left despair behind. Death came where
life and joy had reigned. Homes had been
made desolate with a suddenness that
sickens and appalls. But the end is not yet.
Eleven stark and discolored figures still lie
in the morgue without name The scenes
of tonight will be gone over again on
the morrow and days may pass before the
names are known Of all the victims of a
faring gas jet and, some mans careless
ness. se r1i.s /
A TUMBLE-DowN AFFAIR.
The Front-street Theater is an old, tum-
street. between Gay and Low. 1t has not
been used for theatrical purposes for sew
eral years, but has recently been the scene
of many glove contests under the auspices
of the Eureka Athletic Club. The means
of egress were confined entirely to the two
narrow doorways opening on the stairways
leading down to the narrow landing upon
which to-night's tragedy occurred, and the
house has long been considered too unsafe
to be put to public use.
The theater was first opened to the pub
lie in 1929, but nine years later was burned,
and the present structure took its
place. Jennie Lind, Macready, Charlotte
Cushman and many other notables
performed there, and in 1864 1t was the
scene of the Republican national conven-
tion which renominated Abraham Lincoln
for the presidency and Andrew Johnson for
second place on the ticket. The convention
at which the Democrats nominated Ste
phen A. Douglass, after adjourning from
Charleston, s. c., in 1860, was also held in
the old building, and, during its session. a
panic was started by the giving way of the
flooring which had been laid over the pit
Luckily, however, no one was seriously in
jured. Soon after this portion of the del
egates withdrew from the Front-street The
ater, and, going to the Maryland Institute
nominated John G. Breckenridge and Jo-
seph Lane for President and Vice President
OF the United States.