The Worthington advance., 1901-01-18
FALSE CRY OF FIRE.
It Creates a Panic in & Crowded
Hall in. Chicago. Il
In the Stampede and Crush which
Follows Five Persons Lose Their,
Lives ard Many are =
Injured. >>-a

injured.
Chicago, Jan. 14.-Five persons were
killed and scores injured in a panic fol-
lowing a cry of Fire" in the West
Twelfth Street Turner hall at 500
o'clock Saturday evening. A Yiddish
play was in progress and an audience
of 1000 persons, mostly women and
children, was present. There was a
wild rush for the exit, in which the
weakest were crushed. Some of the
injured may die, and the names Of
many who were only slightly hurt
were not reported to the police. The
dead are Regina. Mellen5ach, aged
five; Mrs. Anna soloman, aged 81;
Anna Goldberg, aged seven; Birdie
Zeidman, aged II; Beckie Libsky, aged
Is. A boy in the gallery uttered the
cry of fire which caused the panic and
fatal stampede.
Caused by a Puff of Smoke.
The last act was half through when
puff of smoke rose from the regis
ter in the back of the hall and curled
up past the gallery. The cry of 'fre"
came when the nerves of the women
and children were tried by the strain
OF the play, and the effect was i'm
mediate. Screams followed the cry
from all over the house, and in a
moment nearly every person in the
audience was struggling madly to es-
cape. The few men present tried to
check the panic-stricken women and
children without avail. Mrs. Fannie
Brown, the manager of the company,
and Jacob Frank, the comedian, who
were on the stage when the alarm
was raised, shouted to the audience
that there was no danger and i'm
plOred all to sit down, but their
voices were drowned in the uproar.
Women fought with each other in
the mad rush toward the exits. Chill
dren were trampled under foot. The
exits from the hall are inadequate in
time of panic or fire. Two doors
from the gallery and two from the
main hall all lead to one narrow STAIR
way to the street. and it was on this
stairway that the fatal crush oc-
Cured.
Stairs Led to Death.
The first rush of frenzied women
and children filled the stairway, but
others struggled madly, pushing
those in front and crowding the
stairway until one of the ratings gave
way, and men, women and children
were hurled from the stairway to the
floor of the entrance-way, IL feet be-
low. So wild was the rush to escape
that the space between the stairway
and the wall opposite was soon filled
with bodies, and those who followed
trampled on the living addition to the
stairway. II was from this mass of
tightly-wedged bodies that the police
later took those who died. Hundreds
of those who escaped did so over this
mass of humanity.
Stores Made Into Hospitals.
Stores near the hall were turned into
improvised' hospitals, and the only two
nearby drug stores, one at Halsted and
Twelfth streets. and the other at
Desplaines and Twelfth streets. were
filled with dead and injured. Hyster-
ical women and unconscious children
were carried by the policemen to the
nearby stores. Some died ON their way
to the drug store within block of the
hall, while others expired while being
conveyed to the hospitals. The base
ment of the hall was made tempo
rary hospital, and several of the in
jured were carried there by the police
and attended by physicians from the
neighborhood. A large crowd of curl
Gus persons filed the street in front
of the hall for two hours after the ac-
cident and the police were kept busy
keeping them back so that they would
not interfere with the doctors at work.
One by one the injured were taken
away in ambulances, and by 1880
o'clock all had been removed.
A Lack of Exits.
To the lack of proper exits from
the hall is due the fatal character of
the panic. The hall is large, capable
of seating about 1000 persons, but
the exits are all in the back of the
hall, the entrance to the stage exits
being closed. Two double doorways,
each about ten feet wide, furnish ex-
its from the rear of the hall, and there
are two similar exits from the gall
lery above, but all these exits lead to
a single stairway about II feet wide,
leading down to the street. This
stairway occupies only about half the
space of the exit, and heavy railing
protected it on both SIDES. 1t was the
left railing which gave way, precipi-
tating the people from the stairway to
the floor below.