The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1904-01-07

terday. 1t is, next to the great Chica-
60 fire, the greatest catastrophe that
has ever occurred here, and the speed
with which it came and went seemed
for brief period to appall the bust
ness section of the city. The news
spread with great rapidity, and in a
short time hundreds of men, women
and children were rushing toward the
theater. The building in which the
calamity occurred stands midway be-
tween State and Dearborn streets On
the north side of Randolph street. AL
though every available policeman with
in call of the department was immedi-
ately hurried. to the spot and men
placed in lines from the ends of the
block, allowing nobody to enter Ran
Golph street from either Dearborn or
State streets, it was found Tor time
almost impossible to hold back the
frenzied crowd that pressed forward,
many of them having friends or rela
tives in the theater and being anxious
to learn something of them.
The conduct of the police was beyond
all praise. The officers held their
ground firmly, and gently pushed back
all who sought to gain entrance to the
theater, although in some instances
frantic men, anxious to look for their
loved ones, actually beat the officers
with their fists in their rage at being
prevented. In spite OF the efforts of
the police, however, large number of
people succeeded in breaking through
the lines and entering the theater, and
in many cases did heroic work in res
cuing the injured and carrying out the
dead
Among these was Alderman William
q. Thompson, who, unaided, carried
to the street the bodies of eight women.
The first newspaper men on the ground
also carried out many of the dead and
injured. The building was 80 full of
smoke when the fremen fret arrived
that the full extent of the catastrophe
was not at first grasped, until fire.
man and newspaper man crawled up
the stairway leading to the balcony,
holding handkerchiefs over their
mouths to avoid suffocation.
the door, which was jammed with dead
women piled higher than either of
their heads.
All the lights in the theater we've
necessarily out, and the only illumina-
tion came through the cloud of moke
that hung between the interior of the
theater and the street. The two men
Immediately hurried to the floor below
and informed Chief Musham of the fire
department that bodies were piled high
in the balcony and that prompt assist
ance must be rendered if any of them
were to be saved. The chief immedi.
ately called upon all of his men in the
vicinity to abandon work on the first
floor and come at once to the rescue.
The building was so dark and the
smoke so thick that it was found i'm
possible to accomplish anything until
lights had been secured.
Work of Rescue Commenced.
Lockett hardware company near by and
that firm at once placed it's entire stock
of lanterns at the service of the de-
partment. Over two hundred lights
were soon carried into the building
and the work of rescue commenced.
So rapidly were the bodies brought
down that in an hour there we're two
streams OF men in and out of the door,
one carrying bodies, the other COM
posed of men returning to get more.
Because Of the tremendous throng
which surrounded the block in which
the theater building stood, it was not
possible for the police to carry the dead
an wounded any distance and they were
compelled TO wait for ambulances at
the theater. Although all the patrol
wagons and every ambulance owned by
the city were pressed into service they
were utterly inadequate to carry away
the dead, and in a short time there
was line of corpses fifty feet long
piled two and three high on the side
found necessary in order to convey the
bodies rapidly to the morgue and to the
various undertaking establishments to
press trucks into service. and in these,
upon costly blankets furnished by the
drygoods stores in the vicinity and COW
cred with the same material, the dead
we're hauled away practically like SO
much cordweod The drug stores fur
nished their stock to anybody tina.
asked for 1t in the name of the people
hurt in the fire. Doctors and trained
nurses were on the ground by the score
within halt an hour after the calamity
was known. and every wounded person
who was carried from the building re-
ceived prompt medical aid.