The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-31

Although our salvation was the death of so many people in front"
 Rarely, in the history of Chicago, have l it's people been so stirred. It is next to the Chicago fire, the greatest catas- trophe that has ever occurred here, and the speed with which it came and went seemed for a brief period to appal the business section of the city. The news spread with great rapidity, and in a short time hundreds of men, women and children were rushing toward the thea ter.
 The building in which the calamity occurred stands midway between State and Dearborn streets, on the north side of Randolph street. Although every available policeman within call was i'm mediately hurried to the scene, the men placed in lines at the end of the block allowed nobody to enter Randolph street from either Dearborn or State, it was l found for a time almost impossible to hold back the frenzied crowd that press ed forward many of them having friends or relatives in the theater, and anxious to learn something of them.
 coDUcT OF POLICE
 BEYOND ALL PRAISE
 The conduct of the police was beyond all praise. The officers held their ground firmly, and gently pushed back all those who sought to gain an entrance to the theater, although in some instances frantic men anxious to look for their loved ones, actually beat the officers with their fists in their rage at being refused. In spite of the efforts of the police, however, a large number of peo- pie succeeded in breaking through the lines and In entering the theater, and in many cases did heroic work in res cuing the injured and carrying out the dead. Among these were Alderman Thompson, who unaided carried to the street the bodies of eight women. The first newspaper man on the ground also carried out many of the dead and in- ] jured. The building was so full of smoke when the firemen first arrived that the full extent of the catastrophe was not | immediately grasped, until a fireman and a newspaper man crawled up the stair way leading to the balcony, holding | handkerchiefs over their mouths to avoid suffocation. As they reached the doorway, the fireman, whose vision was better trained in such emergencies, seized his companion by the arm, ex- claiming, Good God, man, don't walk on their faces"
 The two men tried vainly to get through the dead which was damned and piled higher than either of their heads. All of the lights in the theater were necessarily out. and the only illu imitation came through the cloud of smoke that hung over the interior of the l theater.
 EVERYBODY WENT
 ITO THE RESCUE The two men immediately hurried to the floor below and informed Chief Mushan of the fire department that the dead bodies were piled high In the bal cony, and prompt assistance must be rendered if any of them were to be saved. The chief, at once called upon all of his men in the vicinity to aban- don work on the fire and come at once to the rescue Over 800 lights were quickly carried into the building from nearby hardware house, and the work of rescue commenced. So rapidly were the bodies brought down, that for over an hour there were two streams more passing in and out of the theater en- trance, one carrying bodies, the other composed of men returning to get more. They were carried into Thompson's res taurant, which adjoins the theater on the east side, where all available space was given by the proprietor. The dead and wounded were placed upon chairs, tables and counters, one woman even being placed, for lack of better spot, on top of a cigar case.
 Although all the patrol wagons and every available ambulance owned by the city were pressed into service, they were utterly inadequate to carry away the dead, and in short time there was a line of corpses fifty feet long piled two and three high on the sidewalk in front of the theater
 It was found necessary, in order to con- vey the bodies rapidly to the morgue and to the various undertaking estab- lishments, to impress trucks into ser vice, and, in these, upon costly biankents furnished by the drygoods stores in the vicinity. and covered with the same ma terial, the dead were hauled away like so much cordwood
 MERCHANTS SEND
 BLANKETS FOR DEAD
 The merchants in the vicinity of the theatre rose to the emergency in splen- did fashion. Marshal Field & Co.,. Mandei brothers, Schlessinger & Meyer Carson Pircie, Scott & Co., and other large dry goods stores sent wagonload after wagon load of blankets. rolls of linen, etc. The drugstores furnished their, stock to any, hody that asked for it in the name of the people hurt in the fire. Doctors and trained nurses were on the ground by the score within half an hour after the extent of the calamity was known. and every