Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-31
0 We R 500 DEAD
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last night. This was one instance OF many
illustrating the thoroughness and impair
tiality of the physicians
One hundred injured were taken to the
recitation room of the Professional School
of the Northwestern University. in the old
fremont Hotel. and laid upon the floor.
where medical students and physicians at
tended them.
Crowds pushed their way into the corri-
doris of the building in search for missing
relatives and friends and the old hotel
echoed their shrieks and screams.
woman entered crying Historically for
her child She was richly dressed. with dia-
anonds at her throat and on her hands.
Where is my little GIRL my baby?' she
cried.
Passed From Corpse to Corpse.
She searched among the wounded and
passed from corpse to corpse. In corner
living upon the floor lay a little girl with
golden curls spreading about her shout
ders and her blue eyes glazed In death. 1t
was her child and she fell fainting across
the body.
In Marshall Fields big department store
nearby thirty injured were taken care of
wont to take refuge from the nervous strain
of business duties Hundreds of persons
who had lost their hats, wraps and purses.
whose clothes had been torn into tatters.
rushed into the store after the fire and
asked for credit that they might clothe
themselves decently for the journey home.
At the order of the millionaire proprietor
of the store every one was given credit
fer necessary articles even If he or she
was wholly unknown. All these unidenti-
fled debtors did was to give their names
and the street numbers at which they
lived.
Hysteria and Momentary Insanity.
The hysteria and momentary insanity
with which the scenes of death and de-
struction afflicted many received numerous
illustration From every business street
in the city men, whose wives and daugh-
tiers had gone to the matinee, streamed In
the theater with white faces and eyes
blinded with half-frozen tears, and standing
in the foyer screamed like madmen the
names of their dear ones into the smoking
black depths of the theater.
Louise" Mary Nellie. they would
call in the insanity of their grief and
stand expectantly if waiting for those
they called to answer or come to them out
of the smoking void.
A. the door of the theater lay the body
of a boy, probably eight or nine years old
The few shreds of his clothing left upon
his limbs showed him to have been richly
dressed.
Dog With Dead Master.
Beside the dead form. shivering upon his
launches sat a King Charles spaniel with
a pink ribbon about its neck. The little
dog stirred uneaslly times, whining and
Showing its nose against the face of its dead
master as if in an attempt to rouse him.
The body and the canine were taken
away together. The boy was identified later
and the faithful little brute was taken
home
Fifty girls of the chorus escaped from
the theater with only their fiimsy stage
costumes, tights and tinSel slippers. These
footlght fairies hurried through the snow
CoNered streets and ran into neighbOring
stores, where gallant men loaned them their
oyercoats.
Unable to Get Cabs.
AS the livery drivers are striking they
were unable to order cabs. The street cars
were blocked by the crowds at the fire.
and many of the young beauties tripped
home over the snow with their pink and
shapely limbs showing beneath the folds of
masculine overcoats.
At the Continental Hotel. where most of
the chorus girls are staying. the clerk held
roll call after the fire, and all responded
to their names. Several suffered from
nervous shock and took to their beds
Immediately after the IRE ghoulish thieves
reaped harvest. They succeeded In pass
Jug the fire lines by shamming grief. and
telling the police they wished to search
for dead bodies Of relatives.
strewn With Purses and Jewelry.
Inside the theater the floors were strewn
with purses watches and bits of jewelry
which the people either had lost or thrown
AWAY in the wild scramble for their lives.
The ghouls plundered the purses and
stuffed their pockets with the Jewels. They
snatched rings from charred fingers in
some instances breaking off the fingers.
They tore ear drops from the ears of
patrician women and filched the watches
from their pockets.
The police stopped one thief whose
pockets were bullying with loot and asked
lie was taking some things to place in
the care of the police authorities" and in
the excitement of the occasion when any
answer was sufficient, he was allowed to go.
Number of Arrests Made.
number Of arrests were made. When
the police learned Of the depredations they
.eearched the bodies themselves, gathered
Gp the scattered valuables and placed them
In the hands of the police authorities, to be
claimed later.
A number of actors and actresses in their
abbreviated stage clothes, painted and be-
dizzened. were burned. and carried into the
old fremont Hotel where they were
stretched upon the floor.
One young man IN clownish costume
was fatally burned about the legs to
which only tatters of his tights chung.
With his painted face contorted in agony
he pleaded with the doctors to kill him
and put him out of his agony
Girls of the footlights in tights and tar
letan skirts of the ballet writhed upon the
tesselated moor of the hotel corridor suf-
fering untold agony from burns. Several
died of their wounds as they lay beneath
the gaze of the crowds.
Work of Rescuing.
General Superintendent of Police O'Nein
was one of the first to begin the work OF
rescue. The theater still was filed with
smoke, which was pouring into the lobby
when, with two patrolmen the chief
Sought to enter the theater by the right
staircase. Their progress was barred not
only by binding smoke. but by a pile of
bodies. presenting barrfcade breast high
We tried to remove them" said Chief
oNeill. and thus make an entrance 1t
was impossible. Wedged together so tightly
that TO have exerted sufficient strength to