Bismarck daily tribune., 1903-12-31
THEATRE FIRE COSTS 700 LIVES
Worst Calamity in History Of Chicago in Destruc-
ton OF Iroquois Theatre BY Fire Wednesday
Afternoon.

following this rush a.
mes occurred the explosion which
ted the entire roof Of the theatre
pm It's walls. shattcring the great
q flames arst appeared beyond thN
riains tho audience yose as on~
pef -, made for the doors. :, w.
nri,..,a 'att jHn .'----."a was caus.
ed by the ,lam-p nips 81 -,..,.
with tho gas reservoirs of the tnca.
causing them 20 burst.
VIII J. Davis, manager Of the theat c
said after the catastrophe that II Z G
people had remained In their seq
and had not been excited by the " =
of fire not single life would has
been lost. This is, however. contr
olcted by the firemen. who found nus
bers OF people sitting in their seNt i.
their faces directed towards the stu,
on. dead
II was the opinion OF the firenn l
that the people had been suffocait
at once by the Aow OF gas which cas
from behind the curtain. As near =,
can be estimated 1900 people were Il
the theatre. Witnessing the perforS
ance OF Mr., Bluebeard
Mad Rush for Safety
In the mad rush for safety, the pie
pie occupying seats In the upper ht
comics literally threw themselves ut
on each other down the winding stat
by which the galleries and balconIt.
are reached Bodies were piled twelve
deep in this stairway and the sight
was horrlfying Women and helplcs
children We're crawling over corpsae,
In a vain efrort to gain safety only u
he overtalSen by people who wer,
stronger and their progress impedN
and they finally smothered in the
mad rush The street In front OF tis
theatre was roped on by the firemf
and the police. and corpses were pihs
three and four deep, as they weiv
brought from the burning building
Tho entire fire fighting force OF tine
city was pressed into service and h
midnight the fire had ceased and tls
work OF rescuing the bodies progress
sing as rapidly as possible.
The hre escape on the rear and ~
one side Of the building also led 10
narrow balconies which were thirty
feet from the street These wer,
crowded by the frantic women al,c
little ones, who were crazed with
fear large numtser hurled thera
selves 10 the street and alley below.
many Of them being killed by the fan
injured On the other side plants
were lashed together and were la 4
from the balconies OF the Gre escapt1
to tho adjoining building which wa
separated by twelve foot alley. Hun.
dreds were saved by passing ovlr
these improvised bridges to the otht'
building Were It not for this the lll.
ot the dead would be much largeS
/, was first thought that the dead
would not exceed 100 but when tho
winding staircase was found to TO
crowded with dead bodies, the frt-
men estimated that there could not ha
less than 500 At the last count there
were 1876 known TO be dead and 1t ia
not certain that all Of the bodies haye
been recovered The morgues were a |
fun and have refused TO accept any
more bodies. The work of identifica-
tion Is necessarily slow.
Death OF Miss Peterson.
Miss Tonette G. Peterson prircipA I
Of the grades in the Central school at
Fargo was among the victims Miss
Peterson had gone TO Chicago for ths
holidays and was visiting her sister
She had been a teacher in the city
schools al Fargo for eight years, ami
two years ago was appointed principal.