The record-union., 1897-10-16
Dome of a Theater COIIapses During
Progress of a Play.
Crashes Down Into the Parquet With a
Great Scattering of Tinhers.
Three People Killed, Five Danger
ousIy and Twenty-Six More or
Less Seriously Injured, While a
Large Number of Others Were
Slightly Hurt.

sons were killed and over thirty others
were more or less seriously injured by
the falling of the dome of Robinson's
Opera-house this evening.
At about $40 o'clock, soon after the
raising of the curtain for the per-
formance of Dangers of a Great City,"
the plastering began to fall from the
center of the dome ceiling, forty or
fifty feet above the heads of the peo-
pie seated in the parquet. The house
was fairly well filed, but not crowded.
The plastering fell in small particles
at Irst, but enough to alarm some of
the timid or cautious. who retired. A
little later the plastering began to
shower down in great chunks. There
was a rush from the gallery, which was
not very we'll filled. The balcony was
soon emptied. Those in the dress circle
retired as promptly as possible, and
panic. The crowding of these to the
door obstructed the passage of the peo-
pie to the parquet, which accounts in
a. measure for the number of casualties.
Nobody expected at the moment any
other danger than from the falling
pIasterlng. Suddenly, and with great
crash, the central truss of the ceiling,
eighty feet long and thirty feet wide,
came plunging down. The ends of it
struck on the two gallery wings and
doubled it up in the center, sending it
down into the parquet with a great
scattering of joists and timbers. Moth
ing on the stage was harmed. Of
course there were means from the in
jured, and as often happens, the loudest
from those least hurt.
The news spread rapidly and there
was a rush of patrol wagons and fire.
men to the scene. The salvage corps
with it's wagon was first on the ground,
and it was followed by all the police
patrol wagons, who carried the injured
to the Cincinnati Hospital. The list at
this hospital showed three dead, five
dangerously, if not fatally wounded,
and twenty-six more or less seriously
injured. In addition to these a large
number probably twenty-five or thirty,
were so slightly injured as to be able
to walk home.
Of the seriously injured at the hospi-
tai, several will require amputation of
limbs. yet everyone is refusing to sub
NIT 10 the operation. A score of sur
geons volunteered their assistance to
the hospital corps. A sufficient num-
Der was accepted.
The scene in front of the hospital
door was a sad one. Hundreds of peo-
pie gathered there clamoring for the
names of the injured: An attendant
stood at the doorway with a list of
those brought to the hospital, and
answered the anxious inquiries. Many
names We're inquired for that were not
in the hospital list.
At the opera-house ropes were
stretched across all approaching streets
and the police had all they could do to
keep the crowd of 1000 or 5000 people
from crushing through. All sorts Of
wild rumors were af1oat, and public
curiosity was on tip toe, all the more
ardent because of these runors. There
was a story afloat that one man was
missing. 1t was a wild story, for he
could nct be in the opera house. where
the debris was so scattered that it did
not form a piled up mass anywhere.
Anyone standing at the door of the
hospital, in front of that pltiful, sor-
rowful. anxiously inquisitive crowd,
could understand how not one man, but
that many men, women and children
were missed by friends at home
Following is a list of the dead and
injured:
The dead-An unknown man, Miss
Lucy Cohen, Mrs. George Kloman-
Dangerously injured-Mr. Goldman.
Mrs. Studder, Mary Studder, Mary
Haes. unknown woman.
Seriously or slightly injured-Pearl
Hail, Grace Conner, W. J. Weiss. Jacob
Weyle. Mary Hess, John White, Anne
lie Write, Mary Howe, Ella Norman,
Della Algeir and her three children,
Stanley, Joseph and John; Daisy Fair
head, 5. E. Long. J. E. Farland, T. 1.
Wiley. Fred jerks, William Molen, w.
J. McCabe, Clint Dean, Kate White.
Magsie studder. Samuel Rosenbaum.
Clint Steele
The damage to the theater building
was nothing at all. 10 the stage COM
paratively little. to the gallery almost
nothing. to the dress circle much less
than cne would think from the debris
scattered around through the parquet
where the main truss landed. The
truss rested in the parquet very much
IN the shape of a capital letter "
The wonder is that 50 few were hurt,
and Of the few hurt that so many es-
capped with slight injuries.
To-n1ght's disaster recalls forcfbly a
more fearful one which took place in
the same building in February, 1876
Tonight there was real cause for