Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-10-29

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DAMAGE ONLY NOMINAL-A
| LARGE CROWD ATTRACTED TO
| THE SCENE.
There was lively time in the Grand
| Opera House, for a few minutes, last
| evening, as a result of the small blaze
| in the Office of the Western Union Tele-
| graph Company, on the first floor Of
+, the theater building.
! The Opera House was crowded to the
| doors with an audience attracted by
| the Irene Meyers repertoire company in
| 1.-THE Shadow Detective" and the play
had proceeded smoothly until twenty
five minutes after nine, when there was
| a commotion in the street, cries of fire,
| and box No. %, at Twelfth and Market
streets, was pulled, calling the entire
| department ii the Grand Opera House
corner. The audience at once COM
menced to show signs of excitement,
which was added to when a man sitting
by one Of the windows on the Twelfth
street side cried 'tFire!" thereby start
| ing panic which might easily have re-
suited in disaster. Fortunately the
Opera House staff, aided by level head
ed citizens, allayed the excitement be-
fore any one was hurt, although a
couple of ladies tainted
The fire was caused by strong cur
rent of electricity entering the West
ern Union Office over tse north clock
wire, coming presumably from a
current ran along the clock wire to
the rear of the main operating room,
where the district wires are punched,
and run down the wall near the west
side of the door leading into the Asso-
ciated Press operating room. At this
point large wooden closet stands in
the main operating room, in which are
kept old messages, ENVELOPES and such
material, and the heavy current caused
the wires to spark starting a fire
alongside of and in this cabinet,
creating large volume of smoke, and
attracting the attention Of not only
the employees but of numerous passers-
by. The alarm was sent in very
promptly, and while the chemical was
responding several gentlemen pulled
the cupboard out from the wall and
scattered the papers contained in it in
a search for the fire, until driven away
by the dense smoke. 1t is peculiar
thing that although the current was
strong enough to start a fire it did not
burn out the fuse in the wire.
Chief Cline was at the Chemical
house, only square away, at the time
the alarm was sounded, and aided in
hitching up and was thus very early on
the scene, while considerable force OF
police responded. The Chemical boys
had the fire out in jiffy, but could not
control the current, which kept the
wires hot until Expert Bob Hazlett
reached the scene and "cut out" the
wires which were the source of the
trouble. Meanwhile company after
company arrived at Twelfth and Mar
ket streets, and the crowd grew 10
large proportions. The police took
charge of matters on the outside, how
ever, and in few minutes the excite
ment was over, both on the sreet and
in the theatre, where the performance
was resumed with only the loss of a
few minutes time. The loss to the
Western Union is purely nominal,
while no damage at all was done to the
building The operators at the desks
kept right on with their work during
the trouble, and business was conse-
quently not interrupted to any appre-
cable extent.
When the fire started a man
rushed into the opera house
and took out his wife and
child, and a moment later boy stand
ing along the south wall looked out
the window and saw the smoke. Fire,
he cried. In an instant nearly every
body in the theatre arose, but Manager
Feinler and several attaches of the
house walked out upon the stage and
assured the audience that the fire was
extinguished. The orchestra continued
playing and a lady member of the COM
pany, with a very incomplete makeup,
executed a song and dance speciality.
The confusion in the theatre was only
momentary, but it lasted long enough
for two women to faint. A great deal
of the singing of the young lady was
lost, but when she concluded order had
been restored, a panic had been averted
and the performance continued without
further interruption.
The cry Of fire" which was raised
was very injudicious and uncalled-for.
but there is always some individual Of
poor judgment who may be depended
upon to do the wrong thing. The au-
dience under the circumstances was
well behaved.
The Wheeling Business College is en-
joying a season of remarkable prosper
r1la on