The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-13
Women So Excited They Threw Their
Children from the Balcony to the
Main Floor of the Room.
MANY TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT
ONE WOMAN STUMBLED AND A
SCORE OF PEOPLE WENT DOWN.
All the Victims Hebrews Who Were
witnessing the Performance Of
Play I'm an IlI-Fated Hall.

CHICAGO, Jan. 12.-Seven persons were
crushed to death and twenty-five seriously
injured in panic which followed the cry
OF Fire." Lite this afternoon in West
Twelfth-street Turner Hall. The casualties
may reach thirty-seven. for at late hour
tonight seven persons were reported miss
ing.
The Dead
LISLEY, Rebecca.
GOLDBERG, Annie. aged seven.
MLLLENBACH, Regina, aged four.
SOLOMON, Annie. aged thirty-seven.
SHAFFER, George, aged nine.
MENDELSOHN, Mrs. Samuel.
XIDMAN, Birdie.
The Missing
FRANK, Mollie. aged fourteen.
HARRIS Harry.
LICHTENSTEIN, Annie.
MARQUOLESS, Fannie
MENDELSOHN, Samuel, and two children.
FRANK, Reuben.
injured
ADLER, Becky, aged sixteen. legs broken.
ADLER, Bella, legs injured.
BECKER, Joe, aged six, body bruised and
internal injuries: taken home
BECKER, Mamie, left arm badly bruised.
BLOOMGARDEN, Sarah, covered with con-
tusions from being stamped upon.
BLOOMGARDEN, Rebecca, ear lacerated.
COHEN, Mrs. Sarah, internal injuries.
FREEDMAN, Louisa, concussion OF the
brain.
GOLDBERG. Sarah. right cheek cut and
HIRSCHBERG. Mrs Netta. body bruised.
HOFFMAN. Minnie, injured internally.
may die.
JACOBS. Fannie, confused, eye cut.
TAGnnCON Mx-er m fnfQrnallV
legs badly bruised
ZIMMERMAN, Abraham, ankle crushed.
ZIMMERMAN, Rosie, internal injuries.
KOAL. Mrs. Sarah. internally injured.
MOLLE. Mollie. body bruised.
RICHTER, Mrs. Rebecca, legs broken.
RISSMAN, Annie. aged eight, injured in
FRESHMAN, Bessie, aged six. legs crushed.
FRESHMAN, Jacob, aged ten, left leg in,
jured-
RISSMAN, Mrs. Ida, badly bruised.
ALL WE'RE HEBREWS.
About eight hundred people were in the
place, gathered to witness the performance
of a play entitled 1.-The Greenhorn-' The
play was in Yiddish and the audience.
comprising for the most part women and
children, was all Hebrew The hall stands
I'm the center of a district densely popu-
when the cry which caused the panic was
raised and within five seconds after IT
rang through the hall the entire audience
was converted into a frantic mob, every
member of which was fighting for the safe
~ which lay beyond the doors of the build
ing.
The hall is frequently used for dances,
and when theatrical performance is given
-
as the wild rush toward the doors began
chairs were knocked down in every direc-
tion. the aisles disappeared and the excited
people ran, climbed and stumbled over the
chairs in their way toward the doors.
Around the upper part of the hall ex-
tends a balcony which is open only at one
end Here were seated $50 women and
children. and the women at the farther
end OF the balcony, away from the STAIR
way. seeing that the rush toward the exit
was blocked TO them and their children
began at once to throw the little ones over
the railing to the floor ten feet below. The
children fell into the mids: OF the mad
dened throng and were at once trampled
under foot. 1t is known that three of the
dead are children who were thrown from
the balcony and were trampled by the
crowd with not a chance for their lives.
WOMEN JUMPED.
Following the children many women
sprang from the balcony upon the crowd
below. and others. swinging over, hung by
their hands before they dropped. The rail-
ing Of the balcony was broken through in
half a dozen places by the pressure brought
against it by the n1addened crowd.
On the main floor the crush was much
worse than in the balcony The main exits
from the hall. and the only one known to
a majority of those who frequent the place,
are two doors In the south end of the main
auditorium, that open upon winding stairs,
which, eight steps down, unite into one
broader flight leading TO the main door at
the TwelIth-street front. Around these two
doors frantic mass OF screaming men,
women and children was packed. all strug-
Cling herceiy 90 force their way down the
stairs. At the landing where the two flights
of stairs winding down from the main
han unite woman stumbled and fell. In
an instant a score OF people were down, and
before the rush was over four lives had
been crushed out In a space four feet wide
by six feet long.
Within five minutes after the beginning
or the panic IL was all over and the
police ana hremen who came harrying TO
the scene OF the disaster were called on to
90 nothing beyond carry away the dead and
injured and keep back the thousands OF
people who tried TO force their way into
the building. AS soon as the news OF the
7aGic had spread throughout the district.
which seemed but a very few minutes. all
the Hebrews from that part OF the city
rushed to the place, bent upon learning the
names Of the dead and wounded. Men and
women fought desperately with the Of
ncers in their efforts TO enter the building
and learn II any Of their loved ones were
among the dead. The crowd was so great.
% excited and 50 unmanaseabIe that sew