The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-31
STATE JOURNAL EXTRA.
The Story as Told by the 7 O'clock Edition
Last Night.

The extra edition of the State Jour
nal issued at o'clock last evening
told a full and comprehensive story OF
the terrible disaster at the Iroquois
theater at Chicago late yesterday af-
ternoon.
The Topeka public received its first
information of the dreadful affair
through the bulletins placed on the
front windows of this Office at 5
o'clock and last evening obtained its
first and only printed news in the ex-
ira following.
How this news came and how it was
issued in the form of an extra will
be of interest to our readers. Along
about o'clock came a little item from
Chicago saying that there had been a
IRE in the theater and that a panic
had ensued. This. occasioned no partic-
ular unusual notice
Later came a dispatch indicating that
q number of people had been crushed
and burned to death. Toward 5 o'clock
the story as it came over the Associa-
ted Press wires into the State Journal
office showed that the catastrophe was
q frightful one.
Meanwhile the entire city edition OF
the paper had been printed, given to the
carriers and distributed over a large
portion of Topeka Nearly all of the
staff of the paper and the members of
the various mechanical departments
had left the State Journal building for
the day. The news was quickly bull
letined and messengers and telephone
messages were dispatched at once to
bring the members of the different de-
partments to the office.
While the great crowd was gathering
about the bulletins, the employees of the
paper, hastily summoned some from
their early suppers, from Oakland. Pot
win, South Topeka, and the several
parts of the city, quickly came to their
work in preparing for the extra. The
fires under the linotypes, under the boil
ers and in the stereotype furnaces had
died down. They were quickly rebuild
ed and the matter as it came from the
Associated Press was put into machine
type.
Eager newsboys were in waiting and
a crowd in the business office and
blocking the sidewalk, to get the first
papers. Soon the awful news in its
details was known throughout Topeka.
Some of these newsboys sold over 100
copies each. The sale of the extras
was immense. The frightful accident
was discussed everywhere. The public
deeply appreciated the news enter
prise OF course, the extra was issued
at great expense and loss to the office,
but it simply showed that as usual the
Associated Press gets the news and the
State Journal gives it promptly to the
people.
The following is the story as it ap-
peared in the extra, emitting the head
lines and the extra space between the
lines. merely adding the cast of char
acters in the Blue Beard" play. this
cast having been crowded out of the
extra itself:
THE STORY IN THE EXTRA.
Chicago, Dec. 30-An awful catas-
trophe occurred here late this after
noon resulting in the death of perhaps
500 people. The fire broke out in the
new and handsome theater Iroquois on
the stage during the second act of
blue Beard" The audience became
panic stricken and fought in mad
rush. The theatrical people ran wild
ly about the stage while the audience
fought to reach the front doors. Vari-
GUS fire departments reached the
scene promptly and the Smothered. in
5ured and dead were rescued as rapidly
as possible. Two little girls burned to
q crisp were the first taken out. The
fire continued to gain Roadway and
women and children struggled and
fought out OF front and rear entrances.
AS the fire progressed four more dead
were taken out-two men, boy and a
girl. The fremen were fighting the
flames bravely and the chief was walk
-ng up and down asking the men for
Gods sake tic aid. Most of the actors
are being accounted for Nine dead
arrived at the hospital 20 minutes after
the start.
When the fire broke out in
the IrOQuois theater this afternoon
the audience fed in a panic to the
street. and it is estimated that 500 peo-
pie lost their lives. Many women are
reported to have been crushed and Sc
verely injured in the rush for the
doors.
The Iroquois was only recently opened
being a magnificent structure modelled
after the Opera Comique in Paris.
BLUE BEARD" THE PLAY.
The fire broke out in the second act
of the play BLUE Beard The fire
started in the flies of the stage, pre-
sumably from a defect in the electrical
display. In an instant the draperies
and fiimsy stage settings had burst
into flames. The actors and actresses
ran wildly about the stage as the au-
dience fought and damned it's way to
the front doors. In a short time the
interior of the theater was apparently
mass Of flames, and smoke was is
suing in clouds from the front of the
house. a dozen women and a number
OF men with faces and hands fearfully
burned were soon taken into a neigh
boring drug store where those worst
injured We're hastily attended to.
DEAD TAKEN OUT
AS the fire progressed four dead ere