The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-28
Twenty-four Are Killed in a
Baltimore Theater.
Panic Caused by Flaring Gas
and a Cry of Fire.
TEN FATALLY HURT.
Attendance at Jewish Opera
Ends Disastrously.
Men, Women and Children Suf-
located in the Rush.

BALTIMORE, Dec. 2S.-In senseless
panic caused by defective gas burner
and foolish cry of fire, at the old
Front Street theater last night, Lwen-
ty-four people were killed, two fatally
injured, and ten more seriously hurt.
Up to o'clock this morning, but four
of the dead had been identified.
Almost all of the victims are of
Polish nativity and Hebraic extrac-
ton, and many of the injured were
taken to their homes by friends, rem
dering it almost impossible to get a
complete list at this time.
The theater, which is probably the
oldest in the city, was filed from pit
to dome with people who had assem-
bled to listen to Hebrew opera, which
has been given in the old house twice
a week for the past month. The
ticket Office receipts show that over
2, 700 tickets had been sold when, at 8
o'clock, the sale of seats was stopped
because there were no more left
General admission tickets were sold,
however, after this, and it was sup
posed that there were at least 5000
people within the walls when the cur
tain went up on the first act. AS the
capacity of the house is less than
., 500, the density of the crowd may be
imagined.
Ten minutes after the curtain rose,
one of the attendants went up to the
second tier to light a gas jet which ap-
peared to have been extinguished: AS
he turned the cock and applied 4
match it was seen that there was no
tip to the burner. The jet was well
down toward the stage on the left
side of the house, IN plain view of the
greater part of the audience, but as
the glare from it showed against the
wall, some one in the gallery shouted
''Fire! Fire! FIRE.
In an instant there was a mad
scramble for the door, in which the
whole audience took part. The van
guard of the terror-stricken multitude
reached the entrance on Front street,
pushed on by the bowling, shrieking
mob behind them. There, those in
the foremost rank were compelled to
turn to the right and to the left to
reach the double entrance way, built
in the form of a storm door. Passing
through these doors, they reached a
flight of steps, leading from each door,
downward to a landing, from whence
broad stairway of moderate height
would have carried them into the
street and to safety.
As the crowds from the two doors,
one on the right, the other on the
left. reached the landing they met.
There was a brief struggle, and then
some one lost his or her footing and
fell In moment the crowd, pushed
with irresistible force from the rear,
crowded over the PROSTATE form, and
began, in turn, to stumble, reel, and
presently to fall prone upon the floor
under the myriads of feet coming like
herd of frightened buffalo from be-
hind
In less time than it takes to tell it,
| the landing was packed twenty or
! thirty deep with the panic-stricken
multitude, and the hundreds behind
them were struggling over them to
reach the street.
When the mass on the landing had
! been cleared, the frightened mob in
side were quisted down sufficiently to
enable the police to clear the theater.
! Then it was found that there had been
no danger and that not soul would
have been injured had the audience
but remained seated.
Nine bodies were taken TO the
morgne, all of them dead from suffoca-
ton. OF those taken to the city hos
will probably die and ten are desper-
ately hurt. The confusion at both
places is indescribab BILE, and up to mid
night only four of the dead had been
identified.
The dead are of all ages, from mere
infants to grayhaired men and wo-
men. All were killed or injured in the
terrific crush on the fatal landing, not
a casualty having happened inside the
house, although the crush there was
| tremendous