The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1904-01-07
AWFUL HOLOCAUST
IN Chicago. THEATER
The New Iroquois Theater Burns
During Matinee and Over
500 People Killed.
In a Fight for Life at the Exits Men, Wo-
men and Children are Trampled into
U~nrecognizable Mass. Many are Killed
Vainly Fighting for Their Lives Will
Others are Sufrocated.

Others are Sunocated.
Chicago, Dec. 31.-Fire broke out in
the lrlquois theater Wednesday after
noon. The audience fled in panic to the
street during the second act of the play,
.Bluebeard," presumably from a defect
IN the electrical display.
In an instant the draperies and finn
sy stage settings had burst into flames.
The actors and actresses ran wildly
about the stage as the audience fought
and damned its way to the front doors.
In a short time the interior was a mass
OF flames and smoke was issuing in
clouds from the front.
4 dozen women and a number of men
with faces and hands ~fearfully burned
were soon taken into a neighboring drug
store, where the worst injured were
hastily attended to.
Special calls and a general alarm
had summoned an extraordinary num-
Der of fire engines. Chief Fire Mar
shall Musham found the theater bal
comics still occupied by many persons,
and he promptly directed the hremen
in raising ladders to the upper exits in
order to save the persons who were
there imprisoned.
Two little girls about ten years old,
were among the first taken from the
balcony, their hands and faces blistered.
The FIRE was apparently gaining on
the firemen. who were having the great
est difficulty i'll gaining entrance because
of the crowds.
AS the fire proceeded four bodies
were taken out, two men, a boy and a
little girl about five years old; a woman
was also taken out. with her face so bad
ly burned that She could not be recog-
nized.
A man who jumped from the third
story window was taken to the emer-
gency hospital in an unconscious condi-
dition and was believed to be dead.
While the dead bodies were being re-
covered fifteen persons were stretched
on tables in Thompson's restaurant, not
far distant, many of them believed to
be dying.
1t was reported that twenty persona in
the balcony were cut off from relief
and probably persisted in the flames.
Three dead women were carried
across the alley from the rear of the
thcater to the fremont building. Mos,
OF the spectators who escaped from
ner.
Nine injured persons arrived at the
Samaritan hospital within twenty min
utes after the fire first broke out.
At 4:4o p. m, it was estimated thai
at least sixty dead bodies had been res.
cued from the ffe. The bodies were
taken to nearby stores and every possible
available place.
Fire Marshall Musham who has JUS
been UP to the balcony says it looks tc
him as If there were two or three hun.
dred people piled up in the floors of the
two upper balconies. He could not say
whether they were alive or dead. In one
place there seemed to be over one hun
dred. He. is going UP and down in front
OF the theater urging his men for Gods
sake to go up stairs and bring the peo-
pie down.
Firemen are now bringing people
down, most of them unconscious, ano
some crushed. Some of these people
were sufocated by the smoke, but mos
were thrown down during the CRY
"Fire."
About all of the principal actors were
accounted for but a number of choru:
girls were missing.
The school in the fremont building
and other surrounding places were
turned into temporary hospitals.
Chicago, Dec. 3o.-With over sixty
bodies recovered from the burning Iro.
quois .theater, a conservative estimate
was that there were at least 200 more
persons inside, either dead or uncon
scious. Firemen and policemen said tina
inside in the. balconies the bodies were
piled five deep.
At S p. m. the police estimated that soe
persons either lost their lives or were
injured iii the fire. Some of the per.
sons being carried from the building a
chat hour were still alive.
Up to S p. m. forty-three bodies hae
been carried out of one entrance of thu
theater. Only one-a woman, showed
any signs of life. The bodies takcr
from the different entrances accumulate,
so rapidly that they had to be piled III
two or three deep on the sidewalk. Pc
lice ambularlces and other vehicles tool
them to the hospitals and morgues a.
rapidly as possible.
Chicago, Dec 31.-The police say al
midnight that 523 persons were killed
That tells the story of the awful dis
aster.
As soon as the flames first appeared
beyond the curtain a man in the rea;
of the hall shouted 'Fire" and the au-
audience rose as one person and rushed
for the door.
For those in the front seats Their,
was no escape, and for those further
back the CHANCES scarcely were better
All from parquet to gallery were en-
velopod in a mad rush toward, tht
exits and were swept with it to escap.
or to death.
When the fremen entered the build
ing the dead were found stretched in
pile reaching from the head of the
stairway at least eight feet from the
door back to a point about five feet in
rear of the door.
Only a faint idea of its horror could