The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-01-15
FRIGHTFUL PANIC IN CHICAGO
THEATER.
FIERCE FIGHT FOR SAFETY
Six Persons Killed Many Injured
Through False Alarm
Of Fire.

Chicago, Jan. l2-Six persons were
crushed to death and as many more
seriously injured in a panic which
followed a mans cry of ''fre'' late
this afternoon in West Twelfth street
Turner hall.
About 800 persons were in the
place gathered to witness performance
of the play entitled The Greenhorn.'
The play was in Yiddish and the au
dience, comprising for the most part
women and children, was all Hebrews.
The hall stands in the center of a dis
trict densely populated by Jews.
The play was nearly over 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 safety which lay beyond the doors
Of the building.
The hall is frequently used for
dances and when a theatrical per-
formaance is given chairs are set for
the spectators. AS soon as the wild
rush toward the door began, chairs
were knocked down in every direc-
ton. the aisles disappeared and the
excited people ran, climbed and Stun
bled over the chairs in their way
towards the doors.
Around the upper part OF the hall
extends a balcony which is open only
at one end. Here were seated l5o
women and children and the women
at the farther end of the balcony away
from the stairway, seeing that the
rush toward the exit was blocked to
them and their children, began at once
to throw their little ones over the
railing to the floor, 10 feet below.
The children fell into the midst OF
the maddeued throng and were at once
trampled under foot. 1t is known
that three of the dead were children
who were thrown from the balcony
and we're trampled by the crowd With
not a chance for their lives.
Following the children many OF the
women sprang from the balcony upon
the crowd below and others swinging
e hung by their hands before they
dropped. The railing OF the balcony
was broken through in half a dozer
places by the pressure brought against
it by the maddened crowd.
On the main floor the crush wal
much worse than in the balcony. Ihf
main exits from the hall and the only
ones known to a majority Of those VIII
frequent the place, are two doors II
the south end of the main auditorium
that open upon q winding stairs
which. eigh steps down, unite into on
broader fight leading to the mail
door at the Twelfth street front
Around these two doors Il frantic mas
of screaming men, women and Chi
dren was packed, all struggling fierce
ly to force their way down stairs
At the landing where the two flight
of stairs winding down from the mai
hall unite, a woman stumbled and Eel
In an instant a score OF people wer
down and before the rush was ovel
four lives had been crushed out in
space four feet wide by six feet long.
Within five minutes after the b'
ginning of the panic it was all owe
and the police and fireman who can
hurrying to the scene OF the dlsast'
were called upon to do nothing beyor
carrying away the dead and injure
and keeping back the thousands
people who tried to force their WE
into the building.
AS soon as the news of the pan
had spread throughout the distric
which seemed but a very few minute
all the Hebrews from that part Of Il
city rushed to the place, bent up
learning the names of the dead al
wounded. Men and women foug
desperately with officers i'll the
efforts to enter the building and lea
if any of their loved ones were amo
the dead. The crowd was SO gres
SO excited and so unmanageable tn
several calls were sent for addition
officers and firemen before it could
restrained.
The alarm of fire was false, the
having been no blaze at any tin
The furnace in the building is son
what defective and at times allo
sparks to pass up through the reg
tiers. 1t was the sight of these spa,
rising into the room that frighten
the man who raised the cry of fire.
DATE IT WILL APPEAR.
Lincoln, Jan. NV. j. Bryan {
unurcad tonight that the first issue