Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-31
TIE NUMBER OF THE DEAD NOT FULLY KNOWN
But Thought That Least 600 Are adThe Fire Was In ChcagC's Newest Theatre, The Iroquois An Unusually Large Audience Was Present To See The New Theatre.

4 the entire night hunting for Mrs F. H
 Fox of Winnetka, III, and her three
 children
 1 Mrs Fox is the daughter of W. NJ
 Hoyt. who was president of the W.
 NJ. Hoyt Grocery Go, one of the
 wealthiest concerns of the kind in the west. Mrs Fox was taken home but !. none of her children was found 1: NIr Stewart said the handkerchief !! of Hoyt Fox. 12 years old, has been
 found in the pockets of a suit upon the
 body of boy at Rolstons morgue.
 There is no doubt that it is the boy,
 although the features cannot be iden- : tified.
 1 There was pathetic scene at Rob-
 ton's morgue, when the body of John
 Van Ingen, IS years old. Of Kenosha,
 Wis, was identified. Friends of the
 Van Ingen family had spent many
 hours searching at the request of Mr
 and Mrs Van Ingen, who were injur
 ed To-day four of the Van Ingcn children who are believed to have per ished in the fire had not been account
 ed for. They are: Grace, 2 years old; Dotty, 5 years old. Mary, 13 years old, and Edward, 20 years old. One of the sad6est of many scenes enacted in Thompson's restaurant
 near the theater, where many of the dead and wounded were taken imme-
 liately after the fire was the search
 by q party of priests and nuns, head
 ed by the Rev J. l.. Holtinger of On tonagor, Mich. for Edith Horton and her sister, two young girls, who in company with one of the convent sis ters had attended the performance. The body of Edith Horton was found in the restaurant many of tho nuns breaking down and weeping bitterly at the sight.
 The other Horton girl and the sister who accompanied them were not found
 Charles Dexter of the Boston base ball club and Frank Houseman, the old Chicago second baseman, with their families. occupied a box. Both claimed that but for the presence of mind or Eddie Foy the death roll would have been doubled. When the panic began Dexter and Houseman each made for and manned a door leading into the alley on the north side of the theater. The people in the balconies had al- ready commenced to jump to the ground floor when Houseman and Dex- ter forced open their doors and they were compelled to lift away the maimed and the dead in order to per- init of exits from the ground floor.
 Houseman, having escorted his party out. took position at his door and kept it from choking up by assist ing people through. Finally forced away by the flames, Houseman got into the alley just in time to hear the agon- ized voice of woman from the win dow in an upper gallery shrieking Catch me- As the woman screamed she jumped and Houseman catching her to the best of his ability. broke her fall to the ground and she walked away uniniured.
 Clinton c. Meeker. a clerk in the reg fstry division of the postoffice, living in the suburb of Irving park. has prob ahly lost ill the fire his entire family, 1 consisting of his wife. two daughters and two sons. X friend called MT Meaker uD on the telephone at o'clock in the afternoon and asked him ! if any of his family had gone to the ] theater. He answered that so far as | lla knew none of them had left home. | When he reached the house however. 1 he found only his mother-in-law there. | Where are Mabel and the children?" 1 he asked.
 ''They have gone to the Iroquois theater." was the reply.
 1T dropped right down on my knees,' said MT Meeker. land prayed that God might spare them"
 To-day MT Meeker had partially identified the bodies of his wife and two daughters He failed to find any trace of his two sons.
 Among many of the theatrical men in the other Chicago thea ters the responsibility for the fire was ascribed to-day to the careless plac- ing of electric are light apparatus too close to one of the hanging borders of the scenery. The electrician Of a leading Chicago theater expressed great surprise on hearing that tbis was considered a possible cause of the fire.
 There never would have been any fire.n he said. Eff proper care had been exercised in handling the lights. The electric plant of the theater was installed. as I happen to know from personal observation, in accordance with every modern requirement. for safety. The plant was not to blame. If the facts I have been given are correct, the whole blame rests OH the person who placedSor was operating . fight so closely to the curtain"
 The failure of the expected fire pro- .ection is attributed by insurance nen to trouble with the asbestos cur ain The stage always is recog lized as the danger point in thea-