Connecticut western news., 1896-01-09
KILLED IN A THEATER
TWENTY-FoUR PEOPLE SUPPORTED
 AND CRUSHED TO DEATH.

The Historic old Front Street Theeter Tn
 Baltimore the Scene of . Frightful Dis
 aster-A False Alarm of Fire Caused .
 Wild and Fatal Stampede.
 BALTIMORE. Dec. .28.-Twenty-four per sons were killed and about as many more seriously injured during panic at the old Front Street theater in this city.
 Almost all the victims are of Polish na- tivity and Hebraic extraction.
 The theater, which Is probably the old est in the oity, was filled from pit to dome with people who had assembled 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 9, TOO tickets had been sold when, at o'clock, the sale of seats was stopped because there were no more left General admission tickets were sold, how ever, after this, and it js supposed that there were at least 5000 people within the walls when the curtain wont up on the first act. AS the capacity of the house is less than 9, 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 gas jet which appeared to have been extinguished. AS he turned the cock and applied match the light fared up, and it was seen that there was no tip to the burner. The jet was we'll 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 nl < Sr,A ho gallery shouted: Fire! Fire! Firer' In an instant thero was a mad scramble for the door, in which the whole audience took part. The vanguard of the terror stricken multitude reached the entrance on Front street. pushed on by the howl ing, shrieking mob behind them. 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 storm doors Passing through these doors, they reached flight of steps leading from each door downward to a landing. from whence a broad stairway of moderate height would have carried them into the street and to safety.
 The steps leading from the doorways are but about feet high. but the land ing at their base is narrow. Down these the frightened people hurled themselves in the frightful struggle to reach the open air and to escape the certain death they thought was behind them.
 Like Herd of Frightened Bunaloes.
 As the crowds from the two doors-ons on the right and 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 upon the prostrate form and began In turn to stumble. reel and presently to fall prone upon the floor under the myriads of feet coming like a herd of frightened buffaloes from behind. In less time than it takes to tell 1t the landing was packed 20 or 30 deep with the panic stricken multitude, and the hundreds behind them were struggling over them to reach the street.
 The tumult attracted an immense crowd from the outside many of whom tried to gain entrance to the theater, thus adding to the confusion. A dozen policemen, also attracted by the shrieks of the fright ened crowd, hurried to the scene, and using their clubs on those outside, pushed through the doorway to the writhing mass on the landing. Among the first to reach them was Officer E. J. Kelly, whose beat Is but a block away. Forcing his way through the main doorway. he gresped a pair of arms, and, pulling with all his might, dragged a woman from under the surging crowd. A glance at her face showed that she was past all human aid dead from suffocation. Again he reached into tho mass of humanity and pulled out boy about years old. He, too, was dead, also from suffooation, with scarce a bruise on his body. The other officers, by All br,c <~f hafx fellows, dragged out the prostrate ones, passing them to those on the sidewalk. Ambulances carried the dead to the morgue and the wounded to the city hos. pital, wherever practicable, but in many cases the more slightly injured and in 2 few cases those who were badly hurt were taken to their homes by friends. When the mass on the landing had been cleared away, the frightened mob inside was quieted down sufficiently to enable the police to clear the theater. Then 1t was found that there had been no danger, and that not a soul would have been injured had the audience but remained seated. Moreue Filled With Dead Bodies. Nine bodies were taken to the morgue all of them dead from suffocation. O those taken to the city hospital 15 art dead. Two moro will undoubtedly die | and ten are seriously hurt. All the deat l and wounded are Polish Hebrews, ant | few of them have friends or relatives wht are able to speak the English language | sufficiently well to make themselves un | derstood or enough knowledge of the way of this country to know where to go tt | look for their lost ones. The dead are o ! all ages-from mere infants to gray haired | men and women. All were killed or in | jured in the terrific crush on the fata
 landing, not casualty having happened
 inside the house, although the crush ther | was tremendous
 | The Front Street theater is an old. tum i ble down affair, on the west side of Fron
 street between Gay and Low streets
 has not been used for theatrical purpose for several years, but has recently beel ! the scene of many glove contests unde the auspices of the Eureka Athletic club l The means of egress were confined entire | ly to the two narrow doorways openin upon the stairways leading down to tn I narrow landing upon which last night
 tragedy occurred. and the house has lon
 been considered too unsafe to be put [
 public use. ...
 The theater was first opened to the put
 lio in 1899, but nine years later was burn
 cd. and the present structure took 1t
 place. Jenny Lind, Macready, Charlott
 Cushman and many other notables pei
 formed there, and in 1884 it was the seen
 of the Republican national conventio
 which nominated Abraham Lincoln fo
 the presidency and Andrew Johnson fc
 he second place on the ticket The COT
 Sention at which the Democrats nom
 :ated Stephen A. Doulass, after adjourn
 ng from Charleston, in 1860, was als
 .eld in the old building.
 Verdict of the Coroner's Jury. BALTIMORE, Dec. 30.-At the inquei ! ,ver the victims of the Front Street tn,
 tier disaster the ooroner's jury found ths
 no one was to blame except the people
 he audience, who lost their heads an
 brought on the panic.
 toy. But the rubies seemed especialE | tO caDtiyata her fancy