The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-31

/ that his theater was on fire should
spread in the audience.
When the intermission between acts
came he ordered the doors closed and
refused to allow any one to pass in or
out as he was determined that no
knowledge of the fire should reach the
audience.
now being presented at the Garrick,
stepped before the curtain and enter
| tanned the audience for over five min
utes with a witty speech which kept his
| hearers in continual laughter. The or
chestra contributed its part toward d.
verting the audience and the curtain
rose for the next act without anybody
other than the theater employees know
ing that hundreds of lives were being
sacrificed almost next door to the Gar
rick.
When the people filed out of the Car
rick they were greeted at the door by
who anxiously scanned their faces to see
! if any of their friends were among
them. They were looking for members
of their families and acquaintances who
| had gone down town simply to attend a
matinee without stating to what theater
they had intended to go. There were
many scenes of joyful recognition and
astonished members of the Garrick
audience were hugged and kissed in
frantic delight by their relatives who
up to that time had believed It possible
that they were in the pit Of death lying
within the doors of the Iroquois theater
Bishop Absolves the Dead.
When the Pew o'RAien of the Holy
! Name cathedral learned of the fire and
heard that so many were dying he
which is converted into the Northwest
ern university law school, into which
many victims had been taken, to ad-
minister the last sacrament to members
/ Of tha Co4 to OBJ
lowed an instant later by Bishop Null
doom, the highest Catholic priest next
to Archbishop Quigley in the diocese of
| Chicago Finding that they were un-
brought in Bishop Muldoon announced
that he would give a general absolution
to all the Catholics among the victims
During the brief moment that the
| two priests with uplifted hands be-
sought God to pardon all the frailties
of his dying servants, the poor, man
gled men and women who lay in dozens
on the floor, seemed to realize that
they were face to face with the last
scene in their lives. Many though
craZed with pain, ceased to moan and
fastened their fast dimming eyes on
the two priests. After the absolution
was given many of them, barely able
to move, feebly stretched out their
one hand clasp and one word of SYM
pathy before they passed away. Both
,clergymen administered abSolution re-
manning until the dead were removed
to the morgue and the injured to var
ious hospitals.
Vain Effort to Restore Life.
Over one girl in Thompson's restaur-
ant the doctors labored one hour Thev
loosened her dress and two of them
waved her arms over her head and
slowly brought them down again in an
attempt to induce artificial respiration
Every movement or two one of them
listened with his stethoscope for her
heart beats. There was no sign of a
burn on her. She could not have been
more than 16 years old and when thew
forced her eyelids apart, her brown
eyes were yet bright.
''She is too perfect creature to give
up said the doctor. Stimulant after
stimulant was tried and last of all
nitro glycerine was injected. 1t all
seemed useless. The efforts to induce
artificial respiration continued cease
lessly but in the end the doctor gave it
up. He stood erect. There is nothing
more to be done,' he said THE child
is dead; it is horrible
Not far away nurse and two doc
tors labored over boy. After 10 min
utes he opened his eyes.
watcher doin' to me?" he ques-
toned.
Taking care of you," said the doc
tor. Tell US your name"
II amt goin' to have any one tellin'
my mother about this of me. I'm all
right
I'm all right, I am. 1t was a fire
that's what it was
A woman who assisted in caring for
the wounded in Thompson's restaurant
spoke of a young girl on a table near
the quick-witted boy mentioned. The
doctor discovered in her face a spark
of life.
s.Strychnine quick" he said to a
nurse. II ran to get it," relates the
nurse. "On my way back 1 stumbled
over something soft. The horror of it
will be with me always. l had STUN
bled over a dead man.
The girls hands were cold-as cold
as snow"
: '-Chafe them" said the doctor and l
did so. Already they were stiffening.
Upon one slender finger was a pretty
solitaire pearl ring. 1t was all of nc
use and soon her delicate body was
laid with pile of dead.
Nobody in Basement
AS soon as possible today an addition
al detail of policemen went through the
burned theater from top to bottom
There were fears that in the basement
beneath the feet of muddy water. would
be found more victims of the smoke and
i flames. Big fire engines that before had