The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-31
OVER FIVE HUNDRED DIE
IN THEATER FIRE.
Continued from First Page.l

calamity of to-day. 1t is, next to
the Chicago fire, the greatest cata-
g.rophe that has ever occurred here,
and the speed with which it came and
went seemed for a brief period to
appall the business section of the city.
The news spread with great rapidity,
and in a short time hundreds of men.
women and children were rushing to-
ward the theater. The building in
which the calamity occurred, stands
midway between State and Dearborn
streets. on the north side of Randolph
street. Although every available po-
liceman within call of the department
was Immediately hurried to the spot
and the men placed in lines at the end
of the block. allowing nobody to en-
born or State, it was found for a
time almst impossible to hold back the
frenzied crowd that pressed forward
many of them having friends or rela-
tives in the theater, and anxious to
learn something of them.
The conduct of the police was beyond
all praise. The officers held their
ground firmly. and gently pushed back
all those who sought to gain an en-
trance to the theater, although in some
instances frantic men. anxious to look
for their loved ones. actually beat the
officers with their fists in their rage at
being prevented.
In spite of the effort of the police,
however, a large number of people
succeeded in breaking through their
line and entering the theater and in
many cases did heroic work in res
cuing the injured and carrying out
the dead. Among those were former
Alderman William H. Thompson, who,
unaided, carried to the street the bod
les of eight women. The first news
paper man upon the ground also car
ried out many of the dead and in
jured.
The building was so full of smoke
when the firemen first arrived that
the full extent of the catastrophe was
not Immediately grasped until fire.
man and a newspaper man crawled
up the stairway leading to the bal
cony, holding handkerchiefs over their
mouths to avoid suffocation. AS they
reached the doorway the fireman,
whose vision was better trained in
such emergencies, seized his compan-
ion by the arm, exclaiming, Good
God, man, don't walk on their faces!"
The two men tried vainly to get
through the door, which was damned
with dead women piled higher than
either of their heads.
How Rescue Work Began.
All the lights in the theater were
necessarily out, and the only illumina-
ton came from the cloud of smoke
that hung between the interior of the
theater and the street. The two men
Immediately hurried to the floor below
and informed Chief Musham of the
fire department that the dead bodies
were piled high in the balcony and
prompt assistance must be rendered il
any of them were to be saved.
The chief at once called upon all of
his men in the vicinity to abandon
work on the fire and come at once to
the rescue. The building was so dark
and the smoke SO thick that it was
found impossible accomplish anything
until lights had been secured. Word
was at once sent to the Orr and Lock-
EFT Hardware Company, two doors east
of the theater and that firm placed its
entire stock of lanterns at the service
of the department. Over 200 lights
were quickly carried into the building,
and the work of rescue commenced.
So rapidly were the bodies brought
down that for over an hour there were
two streams of men passing in and
out of the doorway, the one carrying
ing bodies, the other composed of men
returning to get more.
They were carried into Thompson's
restaurant, which adjoins the theater
on the East, where all the available
space was given by the proprietor. The
dead and wounded were placed upon
chairs, tables and counters, one woman
even being placed for lack of better
spot on top of cigar case.
Because of the tremendous throng
which surrounded the block in which
the theater building stood, it was not
possible for the police to carry the
dead and wounded any distance, and
they were compelled to await for am
balances at the theater. Although all