The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-31

the ground by the score within half
an hour after the extent of the calam-
ltV was known, and every wounded
person who was carried from the build
ing received prompt medical aid. A
number of doctors waited at the en-
trance to the theater with stethoscopes
IN hand, and as soon as a body which
looked as though it might possess life
was carried out. it was at once ex-
amined' and, if dead, placed on the
pile lying on the sidewalk The others
We're at once placed in ambulances and
whirled away to hospitals or to the
offices of physicians in the immedi-
ate neighborhood
Cry of Fire" Caused 1t.
While the police and firemen were
carrying out the dead and injured,
win j. Davis, one of the proprietors
of the theater, was indefatigable in his
efforts to alleviate all suffering and to
assist in caring for the dead. He said:
There was no need so far as 1 know
of single life being lost. There were
over forty exits to the theater. The
building is fire proof and if somebody
had not screamed fire" I think that
as far as those killed in the panic are
concerned, all could have reached the
street in safety. And of those who
We're suffocated by gas, nearly all
would have been out by the time the
explosion occurred if order had been
preserved in making their exits. AS
far as we have learned, everybody on
the first floor, except three escaped,
although some sustained bruises and
other minor injuries. The great loss of
life was in the first and second bal
conias."
1t was declared tonight by the man
| agement of the theater that the fire
was not caused by the grounding of
an electric wire or to any defect in
the equipment Of the theater. 1t start
! ed, they claim, by the bursting of
calcium light apparatus. The concus-
sion was so great that it blew out
| the Skylights over the stage and audi
forum.
This statement of the theater man
agement is contradicted by many peo-
pie who were in the theater, and who
declare that before the explosion oc-
Cured, they saw flames in a narrow
streak creeping along the wall near
the upper part of the drop curtain.
House Fireman's story.
William C. Sellers, the house fire.
man, who was severely burned in try
ing to lower the asbestos curtain. de-
scribes the scene upon the stage and
the cause of the fire as follows:
Il was standing in the wings when I
heard the explosion, and then immedi-
ately afterward a cry of fire from the
stage and all over the theater. Looking
UP l saw that the curtain was ablaze,
and at once I ran for the fire curtain.
We got it half way down when the
-, he eli
lights, bellied it so that it caught and
we could not bulge it. With the stage
hands I climbed to where it was sus-
pended, and together we tried to push
it down. Our efforts were futile, and
seeing that no human power could
move that fire curtain and that the
stage was a mass of flames, turned
my attention to warning the actors and
trying to save those who were in trou-
ble"
Walters and cooks from Thompson's
restaurants, which adjoins the theater
on the east, rescued fifteen people by
raising a ladder from the roof of
shed to a window in the rear of the
building. around which a mass of
screaming women and children were
congregated. c. Little. the head cook,
mounted TO the top of the ladder and
told them to jump into mis- arms. Fiji
teen women and children did this and
were passed by Little down to other
men on the ladder below them. One
woman attempted to jump into his
arms before he was ready to take hold
of her and she fell to the alley, frac-
turing her skull. dying instantly
Theater Party's Experience.
One of the marvellous escapes was
that made by the members of a thea
ter party given by Miss Charlotte
Plamondon of Chicago. The party was
made up of a number Of prominent
society people of this city. Miss Elsie
Elmore of Astoria, Ore; Miss Mary
Peters of Columbus, o., and Miss Jo-
sephine Eddy of Evanston. Ill. Miss
Plamondon was the first of her party
to notice the fire, which crept along
the top of the drop curtain. She call
ed the attention of other members OF