Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-12-31


tors waited at the entrance to the thea
tire with stethoscopes in hand and as
soon as a body which looked as If 1t
might possess life was carried out, it
was at once examined and If dead,
placed on the pile lying on the side
walk.
The others We're at once placed in
ambulances and whirled away to hos
pitfalls or to offices of physicians in the
immediate neighborhood. One large
truck ordinarily used for conveying
freight to the depots, was so heavily
that the two horses attached to it were
unable to start and the police were
compelled to assist by Juggling at the
| wheels.
When the need for trucks to remove
the dead was more pressing, huge
electric delivery truck owned by
Montgomery Ward & Co. was hailed by
the police. The automobile headed for
the scene. but at State street encOun-
tered so great a press of people that it
could not get through. The chauffeur
changed his gong repeatedly, but the
crowd refused to part and the auto
mobile was finally turned away.
| w Tic pOllCe anu were
carrying out the dead and injured, Will
J. Davis, one of the proprietors of the
theatre, was indefitigable 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 a single life being lost. There were
over 40 exits to the theatre. The build
ing is fireproof and if somebody had
not screamed fire" 1 think that all, as
far as those killed in the panic are
concerned, could have reached the
street in safety. And of those who
were suffocated by the 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, al
though some sustained bruises and
other minor injuries.
The great loss Of life was in the first
: and second balconies. These combined
will seat about 900 persons. The sale
: of seats had been good, but was not up
to the capacity, and as far as 1 can
, estimate, the balconies between them
held between $50 and 800 people. The
top balcony where the cheapest seats
were located, was the most crowded
, and it is here that the crowd found
most difficulty in struggling toward the
, exits"
, 1t was declared, tonight, by the
. management of the theatre that the
t fire was not caused by the grounding
of an electric wire or to any defect in
the equipment of the theatre. 1t start
ed, they claim, by the bursting of a
) calcium light apparatus. The concus-
7 sion was so great that it blew out the
, skylights over the stage and audito-
rum.
l This statement of the theatre man.
agement is contradicted by many peo-
pie who were in the theatre and who
: declare that before the explosion &C.
Cured they saw flames in narrow
streak creeping along the wall near
the upper part of the drop-curtain.
: Among the hundreds of persons who
rushed to the rescue when the call OF
fire was heard on the streets was
Bishop Samuel Fellows, who happened
: to be passing the theatre. Without fear
or hesitation he made his way through
the darkness that was intensified by
the volumes of smoke that filled the
; auditorium to the top gallery and as
sisted in carrying out the victims.
God forbid that l ever again see
such heartrending sight," said the
bishop, tonight. Il have been in wars
. and upon the blood field of battle, but
!. in all my experience 1 have never seen
. anything half so grewsome as the sight
,, that met my eyes, when, with the aid
Ioc 10, 7 q n
, penetrate the inky darkness of that
balcony. There was a pile of twisted
and bleeding bodies 10 feet high, with
F blackened faces and remnants OF
charred clothing clinging to them
, Some were alive and moaning in their
. agony. Others, and by far the greater
number, were dead. l assisted in car
, rying many of the injured down and
ministered to them as best l could
1t was the presence of the children,
, hundreds of whom were in the audi
ence and efforts of their frantic moth
ers, impelled by their first thought to
seek the safety of their young, that
caused much of the pandemonium.
Alexander H. Revell. who had sent
his little daughter, Margaret, with a
little friend, in charge of maid, to
see the performance, five minutes after
) the fire started, heard of it in his store
and hastily calling carriage. drove
madly to the burning theatre. BY the
greatest good fortune one of the first
persons he encountered was the hyster-
ical maid, who informed him that the
two children had been saved without
injury. Mr.. Revell then fastened into
the theatre and participated in the
| rescue.
Sheriff Barrett and a score of depu-
ties from his Office assisted in carrying
out the injured people and keeping or
der among the mob of frantic relatives
who thronged the streets in front of
the burning building. vainly seeking
information that no one could give
them.
81 have never before witnessed such
a scene in all my life" said Sheriff
Barrett. I'VE carried out so many in
iured and dead that at last they grew
so numerous that we were unable to
keen count of them. Crazed men
fought to get within the corridors
thinking to find their loved ones among
the pile of corpses that filled every