Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-31

Dropped Alive on Scenery, Caused
 the Disaster--Fjre Spread Rapidly,
 and Panic Ensued, Filling the Pas
 Soon to Become a Charred Mass of
 Bodies.
 CHICAGO. Dec. 31.-Six hundred and thirty seven people by Coroner Trae- gers actual count were killed in ten minutes during the great fire and pam ic in the Iroquois theater, the newest, the largest and as far as human power could make 1t the safest theater in Chi cago.
 Chicago is stunned by this. the worst catastrophe in the history of the coun- try.
 Men, women and children met death by fire, smoke and panic during a matinee performance of ..Mr Blue beard" new play, here at the beauti- ful new IroQuois theater. Most of the dead are women and children.
 While it is difficult to get an exact re- port, it is known that more than BOO were injured by fire and in the wild stampede for safety.
 A few of these people were burned to death by fire, many were suffocated by gas. and scores were trampled to death in the panic that followed the mad plunge of the frightened audience for the exits.
 It will be many days before all of the bodies recovered from the ruins are identified There are bodies lying by the dozen in the undertaking rooms. in the police stations and in the hospitals from which nearly everything that could reveal their identity to those who knew them best Is gone. Their clothing is torn to rags or burned to cinders, and their faces have been trampled into an unrecognizable pulp by the crowd that trampled them down as they lied for safety
 The fire broke out during the second act of the play .Mr. Bluebeard, which was the first dramatic production pro duced in the theater since its erection. The company, which was very large, escaped to the street in safety, nearly all of them, however, being compelled to flee into snowy streets with no cloth ing but their stage costumes. A few members of the company sustained mil nor injuries, but none was seriously hurt. The dead and wounded were all in the audience.
 The accounts of the origin of the fre are conflicting and none of them cer- tain, but the best reason given is that an electric wire near the lower part of a piece of drop scenery suddenly broke and was grounded. Tbs fire spread rapidly toward the front of the stage, causing the members of the chorus who were then engaged in the performance to flee to the wings, with screams of terror.
 The fire in itself mp to this time was not serious and possibly could have been checked had not the asbestos cur tain failed to work. As soon as the fire was discovered Eddie Foy, the chief comedian of the company, shouted to lower the curtain, and this was imme- diately done. It descended about half way and then stuck.
 The fire was thus given practically 8 fue through which strong draft was setting, aided by the doors which had been thrown open in the front of the theater. With a roar and a bound the flames shot out through the open ing over the heads of the people on the first floor and. reaching clear up to those in the first balcony, caught them and burned them to death where they sat. Immediately following this rush of flames there came an explo- sion which lifted the entire roof of the theater from its walls, shattering the great skylight into fragments.
 AS soon as the first flames appeared beyond the curtain man in the rear of the hall shouted: Fire! Firew and the entire audience rose as one person and made for the doors. It is believed that the explosion was caused by the flames coming in contact with the gas reservoirs of the theater, causing them to burst.
 As near as can be estimated at the present time about 1900 people were in the thea*er. Three hundred of these were on the first floor, the balance be- ing in the two upper balconies and in the railways back of them.
 The theater is modelled after the ODGEd COlliuuS HI dilSs dho ilOIA lhu rear of each balcony there are three doors leading out to passageways to- ward the front Of the theater. Two of these doorways are at the end of the balcony and one being in the center The audience in its rush for the outer air seems to have for the greater part chosen to flee to the left entrance and to attempt to make it's way down tho eastern stairway leading into the lobby of the theater
 Outside of the people burned and suf- located by gas 1t was in these two doorways on the first and second bal comics that the greatest loss of life oc- cured. When the firemen entered the building the dead were found stretched in pile reaching from the head of the stairway at least eight feet from the ioor back to point about i've feet in