Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-01-07
PLAYHOUSE
HOLOCAUST.
chicago Visited by the Worst Known to
History
Six Hundred Lives Sacrificed bv
Suffocation
Awful Tragedy at Matinee Performance
Awful Tragedy at Matinee Perform

chief comedian of the company. shout
ed to lower the curtain, and this was
Immediately done. 1t descended about
half way and stuck. The fire thus
was given practically a fiue Though
which strong draft was setting. aid.
ed by the doors which had been
thrown open in the front of the the
alter.
FLAMES LEAP TO AUDIENCE.
With roar and bound, the flames
shot through the opening over the
heads of the people of the first floor
and reaching clear up to those in the
first balcony, caught them and uurn-
ed them to death where they sat-
A FOOL YELLED FIRE!
Immediately following this rush of
the flames there came an explosion
which lifted the entire roof OF the
theater from the walls, SCATTERING the
great sky light into fragments. AS
soon as the flames first appeared be-
yond the curtain a man in the rear of
the hall shouted fire! fire." and the
entire audience rose as one person and
made for the doors. 1t is believed
the explosion was caused by the
flames coming in contact with the gas
reservoirs of the theater, causing
them to burst.
ALL MIGHT HAVE ESCAPED.
Will ]. Davis, manager of the the.
alter, said after the catastrophe, that
if the people had remained in Their
seats and had not been excited by the
cry of fire, not single life would
have been lost.
DIE IN THEIR SEATS.
This, however is contradicted by
the statements of firemth, who found
numbers of people sitting in their
seats, their faces directed toward the
stage as if the performance was still
going on. 1t was the opinion of the
firemen that these people were suffo
Gated at once by the flow of gas which
came from behind the asbestos cur.
tain.
BALCONIES PACKED.
1t is estimated that 1900 people were
in the theater. Only about 800 were
on the first floor, the others being in
the balconies and Railways back OF
them. From the rear of each balcony
are three doors leading to passageways
toward the front of the theater Two
of these doorways are at the end of
the balcony and one in the center.
ALL CHOOSE ONE DOOR.
The audience in it's flight seems to
have chosen the left entrance and at
tempted to make its way down the
eastern staircase into the lobby. Out.
side of the people burned and suffocat-
ed by gas, it was in these two door.
ways on the first and second balconies
that the greatest loss of life occurred
GREAT PILE OF DEAD.
When the firemen entered the build
ing, the dead were stretched in a pile
reaching from the head of the stairway
at least eight feet from the door back
to a point about five feet in the rear
of the door.
This mass of dead bodies in the cen
ter of the doorway reached to within
two feet of the top of the passageway.
Ali the corpses at this point were of
women and children. The fight for
life, which must have taken place at
thocn w. nninfc ic ciy,an1xy I.,
man power to adequately describe.
Only faint idea of its horror could be
derived from the sight of the bodies
as they lay.
HEROIC COMEDIAN.
The members of the theatrical COM
pany, being on the first floor, had COM
paratively little difficulty in reaching
the street. Eddie Foy was the last to
escape, having waited to assist the
women members of the company to
safety. He said the flames readily
obtained access to the main part of
the theater, and were, by the draft car
rying with it gas as well as fire, swept
up to the balconies, where the loss of
life was the greatest.
SAVES FEW, KILLS MANY.
The curtains failure to drop prob
ably, he said, saved the lives of the
company, although it caused such a
horrible catastrophe in the front of
the house
HORROR IN GREAT CITY.
Rarely in the history of Chicago, has
its people been so stirred as by the
calamity of yesterday. 1t is next to
the Chicago fire, the greatest catas-
trophe that 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. Crowds
rushed to the scene and the heavy de-
tails of police massed there found it
for a time almost impossible to hold
back the frenzied people, many of