The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-12-31
MANY TRAMPLED AND
SUFFOCATED TO DEATH
Victims Clothing Burned Off and Faces
Ttampled Into Pulp- Terrible Scenes
in the Rescue Of Bodies.

focated BY gas, it was Ia 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 a 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 mass Of dead bodies In the center
Of the daorwBy reached to within two feet
Of the top oi the passageway. All Of the
cOrpses q this point were women and
children.
The fRht for life which must have ia en-
place at these two points, is something
thar Is simply beyond human power TO ad
! equately describe. 0nIy a faint idea Of
IT'S horror could b. derived from the as
peet Of the bodies as they lay. Women
on top Of these masses Of dead had bean
overtaken BY death as they we're crawling
on their hands aud knees over the bodies
~ chose " ho llad died before
Others lay with arms stretched ont in
the direction toward which lay life and
safety, holding ia their hands fragments
o. garments evidently torn from others
whom they had endeag0Ecd 70 pnll down
and trafaple uader feet IS they l0ught FOR
their own lives As the police removed
layer affers yer Of dead 10 these doer-
ways 5iae sidht became too much even for
the police aud 6remen hardened as they
ara 20 such scenes.
The bodies were in such an inextricable
mass and so tightly were they jammed
between the siies IF The door aud the
walls that It was Impossible to lift them
gtpn hx fs4n st44 IA ass4 IA an, fsl@
The oulY possible thing to do was to
seize limb oF some other portion Of the
body and pull with main strength.
Men worked al The task with tears run.
ming down GaalF cheeks and the s0bs7 Of
the rescuers c8nld be heard even in the
bail bel0w where this awful scene was be-
ing enacted
a number Of the men we're compelled to
abandon their task and give 1t over to
Others whose neyes had not as yet been
shaken.
As Que By one tha bodies we're dragged
out Of the water soaked blackened mass Of
corpses the spectacle became more aud
more heaItrending There were women
whose clothing Was torn completely from
their bodies above the waist whose hos.
oms had been trampled into pulp and
whose faces were marred beyond all power
of identification.
Bodies lay ii the first and second bal
comics ia great numbers. Ia some places
they were piled up in the aisles three and
four deep. where one had fallen aud Nth'
ers tripped over the prostrate forms, aud
an had died where they lay, evidently sui
located by the gas
Others were bent over backs of seats
where they had been thrown by the rush
Of the people Tor the doors aud killed
with hardly u chance t. rise from their
chairs,
ln the aisles nearest to the doors the
scenes were narrowing q the extreme.
Bodies iay Ia every eoueeivabls attitude.
half naked, the look ga their faces reveal.s
ing some Of the agony which must have
preceded their death.
There were scntes and scores Of people
whose faces had literally beea trampled
completely on by the heels of those whe=I
rushed over them and in one aisle this
body 81 a man was found with hardly
.Yesgige Of clothing or flesh abave the waist
line
The theatre had been constructed but
short time and eli its equipment was not
10 place
The small iron balconies TO which the
iron ladders Of the Ere escapes were to be
attached were up but the ladders had not
yet been constructed, When the panic was
at It's height great number Of women ran
for these fire escapes only to find as they
emerged from the doorway upon the little
iron platform that they we're 80 to 50 feet
frum the ground, a IRE behind them and
no method Of escape In front Many Of
them were crowded off and fell 70 the
granite pavement below. Others Ieaped
from the platform, fraeturing legs and
arms and two we're picked up at this
point with fractured skulls, having been
killed instantly
No ladder was available and the only
method OF assistance the Iescuers were
able to devise was to hurriedly lash some
planks together and throw them across