The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-31
none of the children was found.

none of the children was found.
Mr. Stewart said the handkerchief of
Hoyt Fox, u years old, had been found
in the pockets of a suit upon the body
of a boy at Rolston's morgue. There
is no doubt that it is the boy, although
the features can not be identified.
There was a pathetic scene at RoIs-
toms morgue when the body of John
Vaningen, Is years old, of Kenosha,
Wis, was identified. Friends of the
Vaningen family had spent many
hours searching at the request of Mr..
and Mrs. Vaningen, who were injured.
Today four of the Vaningen children.
who are believed to have perished in
the fire, had not been accounted for.
They are Grace. 2 years Old; Ditty, 5
years old; Mary, 13 years, and Edward,
20 years old.
Sad Scene at Thompson's.
One OF the saddest of the MANY
scenes enacted in Thompson's restau-
rant, near the theater. where manv of
the dead and wounded were taken i'm
mediately after the fire, was the search
by a party of priests and nuns, headed
by the Rev, ]. L. Ho1linger, of Onto
nagon, Mich, for Edith Horton and her
sister, two young girls who in COM
pany with one of the convent sisters
had attended the performance. The
body of Edith Horton was found in
the restaurant, many Of the nuns
breaking down and weeping at the
sight. The other Horton girl and the
sister who accompanied them were not
found
Charles Dexter. of the Boston base
ball club, and Frank Houseman, the
old Chic3 second a ToiT
families occupied a box.
Both claimed that but for the pres
ence of mind of Eddie Foy the death
roll would have been doubled
When the panic began Dexter and
Houseman each made for and manned
door leading into the alley on the
north side of the theater. The peoOle
from the balconies had already COM
menced jumping to the ground floor
when Houseman and Dexter forced
open their doors and they were COM
PEELED to lift away the MANNED and
the dead in order to permit of exits
from the ground floor. Houseman hav-
ing escorted his party out, took a po-
| sttion at his door and kept it from
choking up by assisting people through.
Finally forced away by the flames,
Houseman got into the alley just in
time to hear the aGOnized voice of a
woman from the window in an upper
gallery Shrek Catch mel" AS the
woman screamed she jumped and
HouSeman catching her to the best of
his ability broke her fall to the fround
and she walked away uniniured.
Lost Entire Family.
Clinton G. Meeker, a clerk in the reg
istery division of the postoffice, living
in the suburb of Irving Park has prob
ably lost in the fire his entire family,
consisting of his wife, two daughters
and two sons
friend called Mr. Meeker up on the
4 fe1anhnna OF 4 ~ il,
and asked him if any of his family had
gone to the theater. He answered that
so far as he knew none of them had
left home. When he reached the house,
however, he found only his mother-in-
law there.
! Where are Mabel and the children %
he asked.
They have gone to the Iroquois the
! ater." was the reply.
! Il dropped right down on my knees, -
said Mr. Meeker, ''and prayed that God
might spare them.''
Today Mr.. Meeker had partially
| identified the bodies of his wife and
two daughters. He failed to find any
trace of his two sons.
| Among many of the theatrical men
employed in the other Chicago the
aters the responsibility for the fire was
ascribed today to the careless placing
| of electric arc light apparatus too close
to one of the hanging borders of the
!
! Chicago theater expressed great sur
prise on hearing that this was consid-
cred a possible cause of the fire.
! There never would have been any
fire. he said. ''if proper care had been
exercised in handling the lights The
/ electric plant of the theater was in
stalled, as I happen to know from per-
sonal observation, in accordance with
every modern requirement for safety.
The plant was not to blame. If the
facts 1 have been given are correct, the
whole blame rests on the person who
placed or was operating light SO
/ closely to the curtain"
Blamed on the Curtain.
The failure of the expected fire pro-
lection is attributed by insurance men
/ to trouble with the asbestos curtain.
| The stage always is recognized as the
! danger point in a theater and the de-
sire is to have it cut off from the au-
/ ditorium as thoroughly as possible
I The insurance men declare that the
curtain at the Iroquois never had work
| ed perfectly and that the mechanism
/ had not been repaired
| E r. Wetmore, of the insurance firm
! which placed the insurance on the
Iroquois theater, declared today that
! the loss would not exceed $4,000 He
| also asserted that the spread of the