Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-01-03
= o1AMPEDED.
Awful Result Of a Panic in a Bal
timore Theater.
Twenty-Five People Trampled to Death
Under Feet of Frenzied Mob
Caused by Cry of Fire.

Baltimore, Md, Dec. 2s.-Not since
the awful Trivoli disaster in 1883 has
Baltimore been so Mortified as it was
Friday night when tragedy was en-
acted at Old Front Street theater,
which has resulted in the death Of %
men, women and children, while prob
ably 100 are more or less seriously In
jured. To some person unknown, and
be forever concealed, is due this dead
ly destruction of human life.
The venerable Thespian temple was
packed from dome to orchestra
rail. The occasion was n Hebrew OPP
cratic performance, and more than
$500 persons of the Hebrew faith, of
both sexes and all ages were present.
AS the orchestra finished the over
ture and the curtain was being run up
there rang through the theater loud
cry of fire" All eyes were transfixed
by tongue of flame which suddenly
burst forth from leaking gas pipe
in the second gallery near the boxes
on the left hand side.
For moment paralysis seemed to
seize every limb as the dreadful cry
of fire struck terror to every heart. The
next instant the scene was one of wild
excitement; everyone was on his or
her feet; men yelled, women tainted,
children screeched. Il was pandemo-
MUM let loose.
Two Fatal Mistakes.
The cry of fire was great mistake
= the turning off of the gas by the
stage director was greater. Instead
of allaying the excitement it added
vastly thereto. The frantic Russian
and Polish Jews, naturally of very
nervous and excitable temperament,
redoubled their efforts to leave the
building.
The occupants of the galleries
swarmed to the stairways. Here it
was that the most deadly effects of the
stampede manifested themselves. In
4 few minutes the hundreds who COM
posed this part of the audience were
damned together like sardines in the
lowermost stairway, struggling with
| the fury of wild animals to reach the
street. Men, women and children
| went down in the rush, and were al
most instantly crushed lifeless.
| Each of the staircases had but one
turn, and that is sharp angie. In
these angles many persons went down
| to their death. Children were torn
from their mothers arms and carried
for awhile OH the top of the surging
mob, brushed here and there when they
got in the way of the despairing crea
lures who were fighting to get away
from they knew not what, and finally
going down under foot never to see the
light again.
Mother Loses Her Child.
One woman fought her way down the
steps, carrying her child above her
head. A man behind grabbed her by
her extended arms and crowded her
aside, pushing her behind him. The
little one was torn from her grasp and
fell. She made an effort to recover it
but failed, and then turned with an
awful shrek to the man ahead of her
and fought like tiger to reach hin,
The child dropped in front of a woman
whose humanity had not all been
frightened out of her. She stopped to
pick up the little one, endeavor,ng to
push back the crowd to get it on its feet.
Her struggle held back the crowd but
an instant. 1t pressed on and she
went down before it. Her body and
that of the child she tried to save were
picked up at the bottom of the stair
case and were taken to the morgue to
| gether.
Another Heartrending Incident.
| Another woman stumbled and fell
on that awful staircase. Her escort
tried to save her, but was pressed down
by the overwhelming numbers behind
him. He struggled to his feet, holding
her by the arm, and by a mighty effort
pulled her to her feet. But the life
was well-nigh, if not entirely, out of
her, and she fell over limp as rag.
Down she went under the feet of the
mob again, and again the man tried to
save her. He begged the crowd to
| hold back but a moment, and, bracing
himself against the side of the stair
case, threw himself back upon the
crowd. He might as well have tried to
hold back a mountain torrent. Curses
and imprecations were heaped on him
for trying to block the passageway,
and he went down as the crowd passed
over him, leaving the lifeless body of
the girl whom he had tried to save and
his own body bleeding at the foot of
the stairs.
The man or woman or child whose
| footing was lost was doomed. But
few who stumbled came out of the
crush alive.
Frenzied People Search for Loved Ones.
The fresh air and the light of the
street restored to the people some part
of the reason they had lost. Out in the
air and safe they realized The ordeal
through which they had passed and
what their struggles had cost. 1t was
then that many who lad gone into the
building with wives and daughters
or sons, or sweethearts, missed them
Some tried to fight their way back into
the buillinu cuIlinr aloud tha nn,as