The Minneapolis journal., 1903-12-31
Now York Sun Special Service.

Now York Sun Special Service.
Chicago, Dec. 31.-Horrors some
may not be adequately described The
quality Of the English, or any other
language, does not suffice for all the
dreadful shadingS.
Such an awful happening was that
of yesterday afternoon, when the new
and beautiful Iroquois theater was de-
stroyed, and hundreds of joyous people
men. women and children-were
crushed to death or suffocated, or con-
sumed by fire.
There was a great matinee audience
at the theater. the newest and one of
the finest in Chicago. They were en-
joying themselves to the utmost when
death with .uneXampled horror came
upon them. ..
Death Follows Flash.
There flash at the stages
front scenery in flames, the failure
Of the falling to It's full extent or the
tireproof asbestOes curtain, a herce
leap of flame drawn across the face or
all the theater by the draft OF the SUD
denly opened exits, and other such
horrors as may not be all related.
For those in the front seats there
was no escape, and for those further
back the chances scarcely were better.
All from parquet to gallery were en
veloped in a mad rush toward the
exits and we're swept with 1t TO escape
or to death.
Tt was a wave backward Of human
beings, fighting for the blessing or lie.
What heroism was shown or man Tor
woman or of woman TOR chlldreh
will never be known, for the tragedy
was but of minutes.
There was the sweep, the crush, the
weak falling and the strong mounting,
the Inevitable desperate instinct which
accompanies the grim law of self-pres-
ervation; then the horror Of flaming
death behind and crushing force be-
fore; then the still outreaching flames,
and, finally, a mass Of piled-up hu-
rnanity, a few of the living above and
the dead far deep below.
The details Of the awful happenings
inside are told elsewhere. They nave
never exceeded in the awfulness or
sudden death in agony in the history
of modern times. ...
Fire Early Extinguished, But Too Late
From the balcony and galleries,
where there was no more safety from
the flame heat ascending than on the
floor below, people hurled themselves
downward in their terror. All, or
nearly all, of those in the rear met a
fearful death. Firemen, the fire prac-
tically extinguished, found they were
but pouring water on heaps OF human
bodies.
What scenes were found within the
heated vault which had been a theater
very few of the firemen or policemen
who first entered could find Intelligent
ly. Some Of them cried and some who
did not cry could not talk OF anything
well. They knew only that they had
found the passages to the theater
clogged in front, and upstairs and
down, by bodies. .s
There was no time for the conven-
tions. A big restaurant next door be-
came q morgue. The bodies were
placed on tables, and later on the floor.
At first they came one and one, then
by two and two, then by scores.
Horror reigned literally-among po-
licemen and f1remen-but square
was made about the place of death, the
work went on-merely the removing
Of the dead and wounded from one
building to another-but what dead
and wounded and what moving!
Dividing Living from Dead.
The physicians worked on those in
whom the breath of life possibly might
be preserved. 1t was a good thing for
those who survived that, just to the
north of them lay one of the greatest
thusiastic, earnest and reckless. They
themselves saved some Of those In
peril by the burning theater. They
saved the lives of others by their swift
ana strenuous attendance.
I stood by the doorway and I saw
them carried out. 1 had seen then
within before. l had noted the scene
inside after the bodies had been ar.
ranged.
They lay on the tables of the res
taurant, the long rows of the dead. al
covered decently and silent, but among
and around them was no silence. There
would be a lifting of the impromptl
shrouds. and then either groan OF
a shrek as seekers found their own
until the cries of agony seemed blend
ed. I have looked on many ghastly
scenes. ] was in the midst of the hor
rors of the greatest of railroad disas
ters-that at Chatsworth-and I wit
messed the burning of the Southern
hotel in ST. Louis, but + never had wit
messed such a scene as this.
Appalling Rows of Dead.
There was an orderliness to 1t, al
the more CHASTITY. 1t had all occurred
SO suddenly, in the season of the holi
days, in a great city. The happy ant
prosperous had gathered to EMO.
themselves and there, all at once, hat
gone out the call, Come, look upol
your dead. We have them laid il
rows here"
Not less appalling and in a NOR
dreadful, tho in more quiet way, wa
the scene when the scores Of dea,
were removed. some to their homes
but most Of them to the morgue fO
identification.
Policemen and firemen penetrate,
the gathered guards to carry ava
El1 GsEz m n