Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-31
APPALLING DISASTERS
Chicago Theater e Holocaust
Among the ! Worst.
VIENNA'S RING B FIRST
NEARLY THREE HUNDRED KILL
ED IN BROOKLYN.
Americas Earliest Theater Fire-Lon-
don's Historic Disaster
Paris Bazaar.
VIENNA'S RING FIRST

destruction Of places of public entertain
ment, fires in theaters and opera houses
hold most unenviable pre-eminence. None
of them compares in point of loss of human
life with the horror in which the audience
of the Iroquios Theater in Chicago was
overwhelmed.
After each of the worst disasters there
has followed a great wave Of public sentf-
ment demanding the enactment of new
laws designed to make such calamities i'm
possible in the future.
Closest approaching the Chicago horror,
among similar disasters which have hap
pened In this country, was the Brooklyn
Theater fire of December 3, 1876, when 294
persons lost their lives. The play was
THE Two Orphans" given under the man
agement of Shook & Palmer, by company
of New York players, Kate Claxton being
the STAR The fire began, 1t was believed.
from perforated BORDER catching fire
from one OF the border lights. 1t burned
Tor several minutes. and the audience, see
ing the flames thrC ugh the openings In the
scenery. had become uneasy.
Miss Claxton was about to attempt to as
sure them. when burning brand fell upon
the matched roof of the boat house, which
was the central object Of the stage setting
Instantly a huge pillar of flame rose from
the nimsy material. The curtain was low
cred. bulged out over She heads of the
terrified throng, and 6urst into flames,
which ran over the ceiling and the panic
was at Its height among the one thousand
persons who composed the audience
Scores Thrown and Trampled.
Scores We're thrown down and trampIed.
but most of those in the parouet escaned
but for those in the gallery there was no
hope Most of these were young men and
boys. They crowded into a staircase. and
at the turn became wedged tightly and
there they stood screaming till the stairs
Tell, CARRYING them down to death below
Inc fremen helped people from the win
COWS TO the roof of Dieters Hotel next
door. Others were taken out alive from
the cellar through sidewalk opening 9th
ers appeared at the windows and fell back
INTO the flames in the sight of the horri-
fed crowd. Many of those penned in the
gallery threw themselves over the rail for
moments respite from the heat, and were
killed by the fall. 47 100
The theater stood in Washington street.
not far from the present ahridge terminus
ana mad been erected as a ffrst-class house
and was considered safe, as American the
alters went. but investigation showed that
the hre-fghting apparatus was sadly de-
hcient. and the employees We're wholly un-
trained for such emergency Among the
actors who were killed weret H. s. Murdoch
and Claude Burroughs, who. We're fayortes
of the time.
Kate Claxtou's Escape.
Miss Claxton escaped through the auditors
ium, gaining the street oyer the heads of
the audience. A few months afterward she
was caught in a hotel fire In st. Louis, in
which score or more were killed. OF the
dead in the Brooklyn Theater fire only 217
were identified. the rest being buried in a
common circular grave in Greenwood ceme-
terry by the city. where a monument was
raised to mark their resting place. AS a
consequence of the fire. when a false alarm
was raised In st. Francis Xavier's Church.
In New York. several weeks later, the con-
gregaton fed promptly. and seven lives
were crushed out in the struggle to reach
the outer air.
The Brooklyn Theater fire led to the pas
sage of many laws in many states de-
signed to make places of popular assem-
blage safer.
The Ring Theater Disaster.
Another catastrophe which shocked the
world was the burning of the Ring Thea
ter in Vienna, December 8, 1881 The thea
ter had been known the Comic Opera
House, and most of the great European
artists played there. Shortly before the fire
Sarah Bernhardt had filed long engage
ment there. q
The fire started at 645 o'clock 1t was
the closing of the Feast of the Immacu-
late Conception, and many of the poorer
people had fiocked there to celebrate the
end of that feast. The piece which was
to be produced was Les Contes d'Hoff-
man" The house was tolerably full when
the fire was first seen. The building was
one Of the hsndsomest in Europe, having
been built in 1873 It's interior was elab-
orately decorated with PAPER mache and
light wood, which fed the fire when it
had gained Roadway. The cause of the
fire was never fully known. One explana-
ton was that a careless workman behind
the scenes had dropped an oil lamp; the
other that the blaze had started In some
fhn oil nf VII n1
Early in the Investigations of the cause
OF the fire 1t was shown that the fourth
gallery must have fallen into the Dit
1t was long time after the fire
in the auditorium became aware of
their danger. 1t was only when the flames
burst through the curtain that the audience
began to raise the cry of "Fire," and
audience began to rush from the building
something went wrong with the electrical
apparatus and the lights went out The
audience was thus left to struggle In the
darkness for fully ten minutes for the
exits.
No one whose duty it was to notify the
fire department had the presence Of mind
to do so.
When at last the fremen arrived thew
spread nets and blankets below the win
dows, and as many as ten or twelve at
time jumped into them. Unfortunately,
there were no windows opening out upon
the street about the top gallery, and the
persons up there were left either to perish
IN the galleries or to jump into the burn
ing pit below. There followed an explo-
sion, which fastened the destruction of the
building and cut off the escape of many
Americas Earliest Theater Horror.
First of American sstheater fire horrors
was that at Richmond on December 49,
1911. 1t was gala performance and the
house was crowded, there being not less
than 900 persons in the audience, among
them the governor of the state, George
William Smith, his staff, and represent
atives of many of the most prominent farm
lilies of the old dominion. The theater was
burned to the ground and seventy-f1ve per-
ished, Gov. Smith himself being among the
dead. srst7 ~,
Carlsruhe's Trial, by Fire.
Europe had another awful theater fire in
the last century, when the Grand Ducal
Theater at >Carlsruhe was burned during q
performance about 1s43. with the loss of
about 100 lives. The house had been newly
decorated. and the blaze was started In
plain view of the audience by the drapery