, 1901-01-14
SEVEN KILLED
PANIC IN A CROWDED HALL ON
THE WEST SIDE IN
CHICAGO.
false Alarm of Fire Caused Confusion
The Crowd Tried to Escape
Women and Children TrampIed
Under Foot-Many Were Injured
in Addition to Those Killed.

Chicago, Jan. 12.-Seven persons
were crushed to death and as many
more seriously injured in a panic
which followed a mans cry of fire"
late this afternoon in west Twelfth
street Turner hall.
About 800 people were in the place,
gathered to witness the performance
of a play entitled The Greenhorn.'
The following were killed:
The dead: Rebecca Lindsey, An
ME Goldberg, aged 7, Regina Mile
bach, aged 4, Annie Solomon, aged 81.
George Shaffer, aged 8, Mrs. Samuel
Mendelsohn. Birdie Xidmann,
The injured: Becky Adler, aged 1G,
legs broken.
Bella Adler, legs injured.
Joe Brecker, aged 6. body bruised
and internal injuries; taken home.
Mammie Becker, left arm bruised.
Sarah Bloomgarden, covered with
Commissions from being stamped upon.
Rebecca B%loomgarden, ear l%acerated.
Mrs. Sarah Cohen. internal injuries.
Louis A. Freedman, conclusion Of
the brain.
Sarah Goldberg, right cheek cut and
badly bruised.
Mrs. Nettie Hirchberg, body bruised.
Minnie Hoffman, injured internally;
may die.
Fannie Jacobs, confused, one eye
out.
Myer Jacobson, injured internally
and leg severely bruised.
Abraham Zimmerman. ankle crush
ed.
Rose Zimmerman, internal injuries.
Mrs. Sarah Keal. internal injuries.
Mollie Molli, badly bruised.
Rebecca Richter, legs crushed.
Annie Crossman, aged s, injured in
ternally.
Bessie Rissman, aged G, legs crush
ed.
Jacob Rissman. aged 10, left leg in
jured.
Mrs. Ida Rissman, badly bruised.
The missing: Mollie Frank, aged IA.
Harry Harris, Annie Lichtenstein, Fan
ME M%arqueiss, Samuel Mendelsohn
and two children, Reuben Frank.
The play was in Yiddish and the au-
dience, for the most part women and
children, were all Hebrews. The hall
stands in a densely populated district.
Fighting for Life.
When the cry was raised it was only
five seconds until the entire audience
was converted into a frantic mob. ev-
cry member of which was fighting for
the safety which lay beyond the doors
Of the building.
The hall is used for dances, and
when a performance is given chairs
are set for the spectators. AS DOR as
the wild rush toward the doors began
chairs were knocked down in every d.
r~ection, the aisles disappeared and the
excited people ran, climbed and scram-
bled we the chairs on the way to the
doors.
Around the upper part of the hall ex-
tends a balcony which is open at only
one end. Here were seated 100 wo-
men and children and two men at the
farther end Of the balcony. away from
the stairway, seeing that the rush to-
ward the exit was blocked to them, be-
gan at ono to throw the little mes
over the railing to the floor, ten feet
below. The children fell into the
midst of the maddened throng and
were at once trampled under foot.
Three of the dead were children who
were thrown from the balcony and
trampled by the crowd with not a
chance for their lives.
An Awful Crush.
Following the children many of the
women sprang from the balcony upon
the crowd below, and others, swinging
over, hung by their hands before they
dropped. The railing of the balcony
was broken through in half a dozen
places by the pressure brought against
1t by the maddened crowd.
On the main floor the crush was
much worse than in the balcony. The
main exits from the hall, and the only
ones known to the majority of those
who frequent the place, are two doors
in the south end of the main auditori-
UNI, that open upon winding stairs,
with eight steps down, unite into
broader flight leading to the main door
Of the Twelfth street front. Around
these two doors a frantic mass OF
screaming men. women and children