New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-31
To Be q FrlghtfuI
FLAMES ON STAGE START PANIC IN AUDIENCE

passa ageways toward the front Of the theatre.
Two Of these doorways are at the end Of the
balcony and one is in the centre The audi
ence in it's rush for the outer air seems to have.
for the greater part chosen to flee to the left
entrance. and to attempt to make it's way down
the eastern stairway leading into the lobby of
the theatre. Outside of the people burned and
suffocated by gas. it was in these two doorways
on the first and second balconies that the
greatest loss of life occurred. When the fremen
entered the building the dead were found
stretched in pile reaching from the head of
the stairway at least eight feet from the door
back to a point about five feet in the rear of the
door
This of dead bodies in the centre of the
doorway reached to within two feet of the top of
the passageway. All the corpses at this point
were women and children. The fight for life
which must have taken place at these two
points is something that is simply beyond hu-
man power adequately to describe Only faint
idea Of its horror could be derived from tha
aspect Of the bodies as they lay Women on top
of these masses of dead had been overtaken by
death as they were crawling on their hands and
knees over the bodies of those who had died be-
fore
Others lay with arms stretched out in the
direction toward which lay life and safety, hold
ing In their hands fragments of garments not
their own. They were evidently torn from the
clothing of others they had endeavored to pull
down and trample under foot as they fought for
their own lives. AS the police removed LAYER
after layer of dead in these doorways the sight
became too much even for police and hremen.
hardened as they are TO such scenes TO endure
The bodies were in such an inextricabIe mass.
and so tightly were they jammed between the
sides of the door ana the walls. that II was i'm,
possible TO lift then, one by ons and Gerry them
out The only possible thing to do was to seize
a limb or some other portion of the body and
pull with main strength
Men worked at the task with tears running
down their cheeks and the sobs of the rescuers
could be heard even in the hall below where this
awful scene was being enacted. number of
the men were compelled to abandon their task
and give it over TO others whose nerves had not
as yet been shaken by the awful experience.
BODIES IN FRIGHTFUL CONDITION.
AS one by one the bodies were dragged out Of
the water soaked. blackened mass of corpses,
the spectacle became more and more heart
rending. There were women whose clothing was
eteII-
waist whose bosoms had been trampled into a
pulp, and whose faces were marred beyond all
power of Identification. Bodies lay in the first
and second balconies in great numbers In some
places they were piled up in the aisIes three and
four deep. where had fallen and others
tripped over the PROSTATE forms. and all had
died where they lay, evidently sufrocated by
the gas. Others were bent over backs of seats.
where they had been thrown by the rush of peo-
pie for the doors and killed, with hardly
chance to rise from their seats One man was
found with his back bent nearly double. his
spinal column having been fractured as he was
thrown backward Is woman was found cut
nearly in halt by the back of the seat having
been forced over it face downward.
AISLES FILLED WITH DEAD.
In the aisles nearest the doors the scenes
narrowing in the extreme. Bodies lay In
every conceivable attitude half naked the look
on their faces revealing portion of the agony
which must have preceded their death There
were. scores and scores of people whose entire
faces had been trampled completely off by the
heels of those who rushed over them and in one
aisle the body of a man was found with not
a vestige of clothing, flesh bone remaining
above his waist. The entire upper portion of
his body had been cut into mincemeat and
carried away by the feet OF those who tranpled
him. search was carefully made with hone
Of finding his head. but at a late hour tonight
it had not been discovered. and all that will
tell his friends who he was are the color and
appearance of the clothing on the lower limbs
and this Is in such q condition as to be hardly
recognizable.
FIRE ESCAPE USELESS
The theatre had been constructed only short
time and all its equipment was not yet in place
This unfortunately the case with a fire
escape In the rear OF the building. The small
iron balconies to which the iron ladders were 10
be attached were up. but the ladders had not VET
been constructed. When the panic was at ITS
height a great number OF women ran for this
fire escape only to find, as they emerged fror,