The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1904-01-07

together.
Policemen and firemen worked at the
task with tears running down their
cheeks, and the sobs of other rescuers
could be heard in the street. A number
of men were compelled to abandon the
work and seek the open air, while
others, whose nerves had not as yet
been shaken, proceeded with the UNI
tangling. AS the bodies were dragged
out of the water soaked, blackened
mass Of corpses, more horrifying sights
were disclosed.
There were women, whose clothing
was torn completely from the bodies
above the waist, whose breasts had
been trampled into pulp and whose
faces had been marked beyond identifi-
cation.
In some places corpses were piled up
in the aisles three or four feet deep,
where one had fallen and others tripped
over the PROSTATE forms. These had
tdied as they fell, evidently suffocated
by gas. >.
Others were bent over backs of seats
where they had been thrown by the
rush of the people for the doors and
killed without chance to escape from
their seats. One man was found bent
backwards nearly double, his spinal
column having been fractured by the
1cl, A <,,t ,1y,
in two by the back of the seats over
which she had been forced, face down
ward, before she could enter the aisle.
In the aisles, as they approached the
doors, the bodies became more numer-
Gus. Bodies lay in every attitude.
Some were half naked, with looks Of
agony and terror on their faces.
The faces of dozens of people had
been trampled in by the heels of scores
of others who rushed over them. In
one aisle, the body of a man was found
with not vestige of clothing, flesh,
hair or bone remaining above the hips;
nothing but bones. Even the skull was
gone. The upper portion of the body
had been cut into mince-meat and
carried away by the feet of those who
trampled him.
The, building was so full Of smoke
when the firemen first arrived that the
full extent Of the catastrophe was not
Immediately realized. 1t was not
grasped until a fireman and a reporter
crawled up the stairway to the balcony,
J holding handkerchiefs over their
mouths to avoid suffocation. AS they
reached the doorway, the fireman,
whose vision was better trained in such
emergencies, seized the reporter by the
arm exclaiming "Good God, man,f don't
walk on their faces" The two men
tried vainly to get through the door,
, which was jammed with dead women
I piled higher than either'of their heads
and the only illumination came through
the cloud of smoke that hung between
the interior of the theater and the
{ street.
1 So rapidly were the bodies brought
> down chat for more than an hour there
were streams of men passing in an6
3 out of the doorway, the one carrying
. bodies, the other returning to get more
l They were carried into restaurant
!. which adjoins the theater on the east
4 The dead and injured were placed OF
/ chairs and tables and counters. One
S woman was placed on top of cigar
: case. Because of the tremendous
throng which surrounded the block in
e which the theater building stood, it was
/ not possible for the police to carry the
e dead and wounded any distance, ant
;, they were compelled to wait for the
), ambulance at the theater. Although
nearly ever patrol wagon and ambu
h lance in Chicago was pressed into
n service, they were utterly inadequate t.
: carry away the dead and in shor
e time there was line of corpses fifty
7. feet long, piled two and three high, OF
J. the sidewalk in front of the theater.
/ Congratulations.
: Mr.. John H. Cullom, editor of the Gar
boc, n LOT To